h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oddly enough...I read it on a piece of dead trea. One of those daily RSS feed thingies we used to read before The Golden Age.

swl, here is why yon preacher's rantings are wrong:
1) That website is based on global statistics. The various Occupy movements are using the statistics for their own countries and have never claimed to represent the whole world.
2) At no point has the Occupy movement said it's trying to end world poverty (that I know of, I'll happily accept any reliable links saying it does).
3) The whole point is fixing capitalism so it stops affecting 'them' (by 'them' I mean the 99%, many of whom are unfortunately too apathetic to realise how much they're being shafted and why they need to do something about it so as with any movement it's up to those who actually care to speak for the sheeple).
4) The 99% actually refers to the statistics in the US, I don't think any of the global Occupy camps are actually using those specific figures except as maybe a recognisable slogan.
5) What KB said about basic mathematics.

Ah - so selective statistics and meaningless slogans

Meaningless? Like your last comment? Nyah Nyah.

Of course deliberately misleading statistics are *much* better.

Apparently there's a name for when someone tries to rubbish a particular issue by diverting onto a perfectly reasonable but presently unrelated topic. It's called 'Whataboutery'.

I only came across the term very recently, but I can't quite recall where.










Oh yeah...

'Whataboutery'... I like it...

And thus, to pull a totally random example out of thin air , people rubbish the Occupy movement by saying "what about the starving peasants in Foreignistan?"

Oh, I can't claim credit for it.

Would its originator care to step forward?

So pointing out that the main slogan used by occupy protesters (http://voxrox.co/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Occupy-LSX-Revolution-in-the-Making-300x200.jpghttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cq1fcvrfD80/Tq1X1J5sxVI/AAAAAAAABcQ/iMs5a6HLRAU/s1600/99%2525.jpghttp://www.demotix.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/preview_180x125_resized/photos/we-are-99-percent-occupy-auckland_874420.jpghttp://media.roarmag.org/2011/11/We-are-the-99-percent.jpg) is misleading, selective and wrong is deflection is it?

Gee - is there any aspect of what they're saying able to be discussed without cries of "whataboutery"? Or is it only permissable to agree with them?

Oh noes! A global protest movement uses the highly visible slogan of the local protest movement that spawned it in an effort to be immediately recognisable! What terrible, lying blackguards they all must be!

Pull the other one, swl, it's got 40% of the wealth on it.

Do you also complain about people who aren't Polish trade unionists talking about 'solidarity'?

And yes, it is deflection, because it's splitting hairs to divert attention from the actual issues.

What *are* the actual issues? It seems there's as many *issues* as there are protesters. The 99% claim is balls. Next?

Is the main whinge "Boo hoo, somebody gets paid more than me"?

Mr.D :
Yes, there are always some who say to any endeavor that they should do this, that, or the other thing. Then they should 'go to it and do it'! ..
Love that word 'Foreignistan'. I am adding it to my memory bank .. ............. . . . .. ...

No, the main 'whinge' is that capitalism is broken and needs fixing.

The wealth gap is but a part of that and simplifying it to "boo hoo, someone gets paid more than me" is wilful misinterpretation and you know it.

Here we go - the occupylsx demands

http://brightgreenscotland.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/olsx_day2_1__031-450x337.jpg

"1 The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.

2 We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.

3 We refuse to pay for the banks’ crisis.

4 We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.

5 We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.

6 We support the strike on the 30th November and the student action on the 9th November, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment and to stop wars and arms dealing.

7 We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world’s resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.

8 We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.

9 This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us!"

Sounds like the Socialist Worker manifesto to me.

swl:

>>Is the main whinge "Boo hoo, somebody gets paid more than me"?

Possibly not because not everyone is disfigured by your own cynical mentality.

Riiiiight. So when you think there are no unified demands you complain, and when you *do* find the unified demands... you complain.

>>Sounds like the Socialist Worker manifesto to me.

Oh, Jesus H. That's almost as laughable as when the South African government legally defined Donald Wood as a Communist because...well, obviously...anyone who opposed us must be a Communist.

swl - you don't like their list. Fine. You don't like the SWP. Fine. But it is the most inane and dull, dull, dull form of bar room politics to claim that Occupy and the SWP are equivalent.

Did I complain? I said it sounded like the Socialist Worker manifesto, with no positive/negative qualifiers.

The pair of you would do well to address the post, not the poster

Why? There is nothing to address. You are being inane and dull.