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Million Mask March
Leuth
Posts: 23,316
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?)
(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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Bit hopeful that we can get a million people in the West Stand car park.2
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As long as we're not all in sodding V masks0
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Down with capitalism!
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Doubt if many of them will be at work tomorrow.2
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Morons, the lot of them. Privileged and unaware of it, yet unable to see the irony of what they're doing.0
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just them v the police by the looks of it.
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.0 -
Bunch of twats in a mask they can't grasp the concept of complaining about a system they can't grasp the concept of.0
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Against a police force who are already fighting their own battles against the powers that be in regards to brutal cuts.Karim_myBagheri said:just them v the police by the looks of it.
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.2 -
IMO the most effective protest is to exercise consumer power and not buy.2
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(Well, that and a properly massive march, Jarrow style)
(more violent methods of yesteryear are easier to control nowadays *sniff*)1 -
The Guy Fawkes mask is generally associated with protesting against a government that has too much power and not enough accountability, as per V for Vendetta. These protesters seem to want a government that had more power, more money and less accountability. They should be wearing Lenin or Mao masks.2
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Leuth said:
IMO the most effective protest is to exercise consumer power and not buy.
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.10 -
Anyone who honestly believes that any more than 5% of those "protesters " are out there in the name of a cause, needs their head examined!! Just juvenile delinquents using it as an excuse to reap havoc as their idea of fun. Pathetic!
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Generation of infants without an opinion that has not been fed them by the World Wide Web and blind and oblivious to the privilage that they were weened on.
There are two perfectly good water cannon sitting gathering dust because society is too soft in dealing with this ill informed trash.6 -
Yes there is a lot of irony in tonights events, the amount of smart phones, nike clothes etc but what there fighting for is important and neccessary in my opinion. Does this really offend you as much as the current goverment we are under?0
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Pretty much like the animals smashing up cereal cafes or spitting/egging people in Manchester. Infants unable to argue their point so resort to infantile vandalism.soapy_jones said:Generation of infants without an opinion that has not been fed them by the World Wide Web and blind and oblivious to the privilage that they were weened on.
There are two perfectly good water cannon sitting gathering dust because society is too soft in dealing with this ill informed trash.1 -
Kick the shit out of the lot of the scum bags and give the old bill a night off, police our own streets on nights like this they won't want to do it again with a busted skull1
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Yes, in fact it offends me more to be honest.cafcsinger said:Yes there is a lot of irony in tonights events, the amount of smart phones, nike clothes etc but what there fighting for is important and neccessary in my opinion. Does this really offend you as much as the current goverment we are under?
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.2 -
Generally speaking the fight for anti capatalism is incredibly tough in a system like the U.K where there is always going to be hyprocrisy in looking for events in order to reform. Tonight attracted a lot of people who just wanted to vandalise and cause trouble etc, but yesterdays march on Free Education was a better example of how to highlight the goverments incompetance.LuckyReds said:
Yes, in fact it offends me more to be honest.cafcsinger said:Yes there is a lot of irony in tonights events, the amount of smart phones, nike clothes etc but what there fighting for is important and neccessary in my opinion. Does this really offend you as much as the current goverment we are under?
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.2 - Sponsored links:
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I'm not sure I want to live in a world where "cereal cafes" exist.
I don't know anything about, nor do I have opinions on, the mask-based protest tonight.0 -
Do these people understand that in non-capitalist countries, every man and his dog does not own an iPhone?0
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Generally speaking, no one forces you to order a mask from amazon and buy an iPhone.cafcsinger said:
Generally speaking the fight for anti capatalism is incredibly tough in a system like the U.K where there is always going to be hyprocrisy in looking for events in order to reform. Tonight attracted a lot of people who just wanted to vandalise and cause trouble etc, but yesterdays march on Free Education was a better example of how to highlight the goverments incompetance.LuckyReds said:
Yes, in fact it offends me more to be honest.cafcsinger said:Yes there is a lot of irony in tonights events, the amount of smart phones, nike clothes etc but what there fighting for is important and neccessary in my opinion. Does this really offend you as much as the current goverment we are under?
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.
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.5 -
What's wrong with studying Dance and Drama?1
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I didn't say there was anything wrong with them! I merely questioned why someone who didn't go to University should be funding someone to study either of those two things, as an example. Is it right to expect them to do so?seth plum said:What's wrong with studying Dance and Drama?
I will qualify it by adding that other subjects could become more questionable as to whether they should be state funded, or state supported.0 -
The creative industries are the worth 71.4 billion pounds to the UK economy. We should fund more Dance and Drama students. Also Music, Art, Performing Arts, Media and Film Studies, related technologies and so on. It is not a clear cut argument to say we should fund students of, say, Politics Philosophy and Economics at Oxford before funding a student of Music Technology at the University of Bournemouth.11
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To be fair on Saturday we're (well some of us) are going to be protesting against how someone runs their own private business. And how many of those protesting will still buy programmes, jackpot tickets, food, drink etc or still be paying VG every month?12
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Bravo Luckyreds, great post.
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.
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The majority of the people in attendance are either rich kids who are trying to find "a calling in life" or people who have moved to the UK from Europe.0
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You lot seem to a know a lot about the protestors, why they're protesting and why they shouldn't bother. All based on what you saw on TV reports and ideas about what people are like and what they should do and think, or did any of you actually go along this evening?
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?9
