These brave warriors are sticking it right to the man! Going out there and doing the anti-establishment cause proud, and in such fetching masks too! Godspeed them! I hope the government yields to all of their demands! Hoorah!
(seriously though, what is to be done with these fuckers? protest in this country, once a fierce and proud tradition of direct action, has been co-opted by faddism and empty marketing tropes. am i getting old or is this all just achieving nothing except the entrenchment of distrust between generations, which is the last thing we all need?)
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its like a kid pointing out what is wrong with the world but no one listens and they have a tantrum.
the whole thing has become trivialised. these masks (though a symbol) reflect that.
all i can imagine happening tomorrow is thousands of youngsters who went tonight going back to their homes and twetting about the police, the atmosphere, the buzz, being apart of something without one thought of what you were actually trying to achieve but perhaps they never gave it a thought in the first place. football hooligans have probably more idea. then again i doubt the "1%" will stand toe to toe with any of these lot, not when they have an army of officers who can do that.
when we talk about organisation this lot can get the numbers but have no idea what to do with them. that cereal shop that got attacked a few weeks ago is a prime example, who are you actually trying to fight against? same thing here, you just end up fighting the police.
That police car that was set on fire wont be cheap to replace. The other vehicles that were vandalised will also be out of action for a bit. Where do they think that money comes from, or do they not disagree with wasting money? (To quote a mate "Oh, you saw me in a car 3 up the other day? That must've been when we ran out of vehicles for response.")
But that's all right, because these brave young warriors who are apparently societies only hope, will go back home and sleep safely tonight. Then they will go about their daily lives, maybe even exercise those rights to protest again, all safe in the knowledge that their protected by the Government and System that they apparently hate.
All whilst seemingly oblivious to just how lucky they are, as they exercise their numerous rights to protest about being oppressed and living in a state corrupted by business interests. Sadly, thousands of these assholes are oblivious to the irony of this.
The Cereal cafe is another good example; a little shop that was set up by two working class lads from Belfast? Funny how a quick stroll down Brick Lane would actually take you to The City, to all manor of interesting money making buildings belonging to the 1%. It's also funny how a number of those who were 'outed' from that little escapade were precisely the first ones who would be lined up against the wall in a real "Class War"; naturally the irony escaped that bunch too.
I'm not saying the Government is perfect, far from it, but I'm saying these people are deluded. The teenagers I can kinda understand, but if you're over the age of 18 and there then you need to have a good look at yourself and think about where your life went wrong. I know someone in their 30s who will be there at the moment.
I actually read the Occupy Manifesto last year and was shocked when I found I agreed with a great deal of it. I too get equally pissed off by the likes of Amazon and Starbucks, but I also know that the way to achieve a means is doing it in a very particular way, and not throwing a tantrum that will be forgotten about within a couple of days.
(more violent methods of yesteryear are easier to control nowadays *sniff*)
Sadly these people don't understand this concept, they can't seem to grasp that they actually have responsibility over where they spend their money.
Exhibit A: Guy Fawkes mask being mass produced in shitty conditions.
Exhibit B: Occupy Protesters with anti-capitalism banners.. and Coca Cola bottles and Fosters cans outside their tents which were probably produced in a sweatshop somewhere.
Exhibit C: Search Twitter for any of this nonsense and see the amount who are tweeting from iPhones, those magical devices where the staff employed at the factories had a habit of killing themselves until suicide nets were introduced.
Exhibit D: The fact that these things are organised on Facebook (y'know, the place that is worth $billions by harvesting your personal information and selling it to advertising companies to market products?) and Twitter (y'know, the place with the same business model).
I could go on; but you could list these examples off for ages.
These people will spend money on whatever they want, it's not their responsibility where that money goes. They're as plastic as their masks in their beliefs.
There are two perfectly good water cannon sitting gathering dust because society is too soft in dealing with this ill informed trash.
Simply put, any illusion of them "fighting" for absolutely anything is ruined by the sheer hypocrisy of funding those very organisations that they're bitching about, quite bluntly - they are a large component of the problem.
They are the core Apple demographic, the core Twitter demographic too. They've made Amazon a shed load of money tonight too.
Remind me, what are they fighting for again? All I can see is a bunch of shortsighted (and incredibly naive) idiots who can't see how privileged they are, exercising their freedoms and right to protest, whilst uploading videos from their iPhones on to Twitter wearing the masks they bought from Amazon whilst crying foul of those big businesses, and the government which is facilitating their current actions. They are muppets.
They ruin the cause because they don't actually care, if they did they wouldn't act in the manner they do. They ruin it for those who seriously want to force reform by coming out with nonsense that no one in their right mind can take seriously.
I don't know anything about, nor do I have opinions on, the mask-based protest tonight.
If anyone gave a crap about that stuff they'd be using Ubuntu phones, running FOSS software and using FOSS platforms to spread their messages, buying their food from farm stores and shopping at charity shops. Look up a chap called Richard Stallman, a man who makes a living via software but can still stick to his (incredibly strict) ethical stance whilst living in a society like the US. It's possible, as to re-iterate, nobody forces him to buy an iPhone, sip from his Pumpkin Spice Latte whilst doing a bit of shopping on Amazon courtesy of his MacBook. If you have a genuine belief in something then you make those sacrifices.
But no, that would be bad for their image, they want to enjoy their desire for a revolution whilst spending their money on the latest cool trend - and good for them, I like to dress well and have a nice phone and watch - I don't try and hate on the system that gave me those things though.
I can't say I was particularly impressed with yesterdays either, and I'm not sure how it demonstrated any government incompetence. I just saw another example of a false sense of entitlement from people that can't see just how much they've got and how easy a decent path can be in the UK - no one is pushing you down, on the contrary there are so many incentives to push people further.
The mechanism for paying back tuition fees is incredibly well thought out and has been "hailed [this mechanism] as a sustainable model for others to follow"; it's genius when you think about it.
If you have cuts and you also have free education, then generally the quality of that education deteriorates. Under this model the education is still funded, not affected by cuts to such a great extent, and the repayment options mean there's a small amount that is paid back depending upon salary and so on - that is a pretty good deal for everyone involved.
To take to the streets and demand more is not only showing a pretty sickening level of entitlement when you consider everything which these people have that they take for granted, but it's also incredibly selfish. If someone doesn't go to university why should they fund someone to go and study something like dance or drama? They shouldn't. You can't make demands on society like a petulant brat just because you haven't got your way.
I will qualify it by adding that other subjects could become more questionable as to whether they should be state funded, or state supported.
I do sympathise with the point of view that only important/subjects in demand should be heavily subsidised.
When university tution fees were heavily subsidised for everyone, we ended up with everyone going to university and studying all kinds of pointless shit and generally devaluing the degree.
And @LuckyReds you seem to be having an especially bad time over it. Maybe you should give the TV a break or whatever other device you have been on if it gets you so wound up?