# G20 Protesters - They're Clueless, Right
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [April 2, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778 "2009-04-02T23:06:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/21 "2009-04-03T06:04:47Z")
> [@ajb867](#):
>
> Does peaceful protest ever really change anything? A bunch of people show up and just “stand” there holding their “peaceful please do this instead” signs.
> Whats the incentive for anyone to care?
Every soldier who died fighting for that right just did a 360.
---
### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/22 "2009-04-03T06:31:33Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> Look [here](http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/612291) for example. These people are extremely ill-informed, unepmloyed, and probably uneducated idiots.
>
> It boggles my mind why a group of people would protest a meeting of the leaders of the most prosperous countries, who in fact are trying desperately to mitigate the current global financial situation.
>
> GET A LIFE!
Is this the Pit or GD?
The debate is whether among thousands of people, some/many/most/all are “extremely ill-informed, unemployed, and probably uneducated idiots”?
The debate is whether your mind is or is not boggled? Is or is not deservedly boggled? Whether leaders’ proposed actions are likely to mitigate the situation? The merits of making gross generalizations about the motives and background of a large, diverse group of people? Did you want to debate the merits of different protest tactics? The appropriate police response?
Or did you just want to put on your Cartman hat and rant about the dirty hippies?
---
### Author:  [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/23 "2009-04-03T06:42:57Z")
> [@ajb867](#):
>
> Does peaceful protest ever really change anything? A bunch of people show up and just “stand” there holding their “peaceful please do this instead” signs.
> Whats the incentive for anyone to care?
ITT:people amazingly ignorant of the American civil rights movement.
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/24 "2009-04-03T06:43:24Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> And after the dead and injured from the stampede of agonized people are cleaned up, the disaster will roll on for years. Cops killed by bombs, or dragged into alleys and hacked to pieces with an axe, for example. The next G20 summit not being worried about protesters, but assassins and bombs. That’s the kind of reaction I’d expect to the use of a mass torture weapon; the transformation of a bunch of economic protesters to a revenge driven terrorist movement. One with more public sympathy than it has now.
If tear gas hasn’t done that already, I think it laughable that a zap gun will.
---
### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/25 "2009-04-03T08:06:58Z")
Sometimes I don’t know if they’re clueless or the rest of us are.
---
### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/26 "2009-04-03T08:11:37Z")
> [@Askance](#):
>
> You don’t have a clue what hippies thought and believed, do you?
> Peace, man.
> [@thefreedictionary.com](#):
>
> hip·pie also hip·py (hp)
> n. pl. hip·pies
> A person who opposes and rejects many of the conventional standards and customs of society, especially one who advocates extreme liberalism in sociopolitical attitudes and lifestyles.
I concede that what you believe it to be, and the definition provided, may be different. But that is what I’m going by.
---
### Author:  [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/27 "2009-04-03T08:56:22Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#):
>
> Sometimes I don’t know if they’re clueless or the rest of us are.
Probably less clueless than the people they are protesting against. They weren’t the architect of a New World Order that turned out to be one giant Ponzi con and they are not the ones refusing to take any effective action on climate change and they are not the ones refusing to seriously regulate international finance.
They are the ones who have been calling things right for 10 years.
---
### Author:  [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/28 "2009-04-03T13:42:40Z")
> [@tagos](#):
>
> …and they are not the ones refusing to take any effective action on climate change…
Curious, just what is it that you feel finance ministers and central bank governors should do in regards to “effective action” on climate change? Kinda like asking a whore house to take effective action on oil prices, isn’t it?
---
### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/29 "2009-04-03T15:06:14Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> Protestors : “You’re all evil !”
>
> Cops : “Let’s show you our new pain beam !”
>
> Yeah, using a device out of a supervillain’s arsenal is going to really hurt the protestors’ claims that the guys they are protesting are evil.
😃
---
### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/30 "2009-04-03T15:13:18Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> And after the dead and injured from the stampede of agonized people are cleaned up, the disaster will roll on for years. Cops killed by bombs, or dragged into alleys and hacked to pieces with an axe, for example. The next G20 summit not being worried about protesters, but assassins and bombs. That’s the kind of reaction I’d expect to the use of a mass torture weapon; the transformation of a bunch of economic protesters to a revenge driven terrorist movement. One with more public sympathy than it has now.
>
> Personally, I think that anyone who has ever used one should be hunted down and executed.
:rolleyes:
Because use of teargas results in violent revolution every time.
---
### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/31 "2009-04-03T15:18:03Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> This would be the part where I don’t give a rats fucking ass what they think. If someone picks up a brick or so much as presses against an officer they get get their hide tanned. Call it a modern day hickory stick for modern day children of the corn.
You’ve never been to an actual protest before have you?
Like when I was at a war protest and the intersection was jam packed with people, so what did the cops do? They rode their horses and drove a big van in the middle of the intersection. The crush of people pushed me up to fence and lifted my feet up off of the ground. I pointed out to the officer that I was pressed up against that my feet weren’t even on the ground. He nodded that he understood that I wasn’t trying to push him over as he tried to vainly hold the lines in place.
He probably had the wrong reaction. He should have blasted me with the pain beam instead. :rolleyes:
---
### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/32 "2009-04-03T15:19:13Z")
> [@billfish678](#):
>
> You know what?
>
> This shit doesnt happen in the suburbs 🙂
>
> Sorry, couldnt resist.
If I ever get back into protest circles I am going to bring this up. About how pointless protesting in the city is, that it would be much more effective if brought to the suburbs.
---
### Author:  [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/33 "2009-04-03T15:22:06Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> To start with, it doesn’t matter what nihilists think, they’re nihilists.
God this is one of the most moronic things I’ve ever seen on this forum. I mean I’ve seen this ridiculous idea on other forums, but not this one.
Someone who disagrees with you is a nihilist, riiiight…
I don’t think that word means what you think it means. Any person at a protest for a reason is by definition not a nihilist.
---
### Author:  [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/34 "2009-04-03T15:25:49Z")
> [@ParentalAdvisory](#):
>
> Curious, just what is it that you feel finance ministers and central bank governors should do in regards to “effective action” on climate change? Kinda like asking a whore house to take effective action on oil prices, isn’t it?
They could set up the world economy based on smoking dope and crashing on your friends’ sofa.
---
### Author:  [@QuercusMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuercusMax)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/35 "2009-04-03T16:00:33Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> Every soldier who died fighting for that right just did a 360.
Was this a whoosh?
---
### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/36 "2009-04-03T16:55:56Z")
> [@QuercusMax](#):
>
> Was this a whoosh?
Freedom of speech is a joke to you?
---
### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/37 "2009-04-03T16:59:03Z")
> [@mswas](#):
>
> God this is one of the most moronic things I’ve ever seen on this forum. I mean I’ve seen this ridiculous idea on other forums, but not this one.
>
> Someone who disagrees with you is a nihilist, riiiight…
>
> I don’t think that word means what you think it means. Any person at a protest for a reason is by definition not a nihilist.
As I stated before, there were 2 groups of people there. One group was peaceful and the other was not.
Nihilists are assholes who do not respect authority, and never will. They deserve the same respect they give the police which is none.
---
### Author:  [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/38 "2009-04-03T17:15:33Z")
> [@mswas](#):
>
> You’ve never been to an actual protest before have you?
If you read post 18 you would know that I’ve been to a number of protests before so your comment is misplaced.
> [@mswas](#):
>
> Like when I was at a war protest and the intersection was jam packed with people, so what did the cops do? They rode their horses and drove a big van in the middle of the intersection. The crush of people pushed me up to fence and lifted my feet up off of the ground. I pointed out to the officer that I was pressed up against that my feet weren’t even on the ground. He nodded that he understood that I wasn’t trying to push him over as he tried to vainly hold the lines in place.
>
> He probably had the wrong reaction. He should have blasted me with the pain beam instead. :rolleyes:
Actually, that was specifically what the pain beam was designed for. It’s designed to drive people back and in your case could have saved your life if you were being crushed.
---
### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/39 "2009-04-03T17:25:24Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> Actually, that was specifically what the pain beam was designed for. It’s designed to drive people back and in your case could have saved your life if you were being crushed.
But if you’re at the front of a crowd, and there are people several metres back pushing you towards the police line, how is the police officer going to direct the pain beam to the people at the back causing the problem?
---
### Author:  [@tds1273](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tds1273)
#### Post date: [April 3, 2009, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/g20-protesters-theyre-clueless-right/491778/40 "2009-04-03T17:32:43Z")
I’d wager that **ParentalAdvisory** , **Leaffan** , and who ever else that is just ranting against “hippies” as a sport, were also the same people who were protesting the protesters in 2003. “WMD lies? War for oil? Those clueless, dirty hippies, why do they hate America?” Well as it turns out they were the ones who actually had a clue all along. Had more of us(myself included) actually listened to them then we might not be in the god-awful mess we are today.
And you know what at least they are trying to do something, and that, whether you agree with them or not, deserves at least some respect. They might not all have the best ideas of how to fix our problems, but what they are doing is showing the G20 leaders and, in spite of the near blackout coverage on the news, the rest of the world that ‘the people’ are seriously pissed off at the injustices that have been forced upon them. If nothing else, the protesters are a reminder that “we”, the little people out side of the bubble, are still here.
I’m not above rolling my eyes at some of the picket signs, but as a whole I’m appreciative and feel better that those people are there. I think it would be a much more ominous and depressing feeling if those streets were completely empty.
Oh and **ParentalAdvisory** , you should be aware that it is not always the real protesters who are pushing people, brandishing rocks, and causing trouble…
[Union Leader stops Provocateurs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow)(youtube of actual incident)
After initially denying that they even were [police officers](http://www.thestar.com/News/article/248608)(Toronto Star), the RCMP and Quebec PF finally [admited it](http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/08/23/police-montebello.html?ref=rss)(CBC), but claim they were not there [to start trouble](http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070822/montebello_cops_070822/20070822?hub=TopStories)(CTV).
Really? The cops weren’t there to start trouble? Then why are they masked, carrying rocks, and pushing the older, peaceful protesters?
Here in Washington at the Port of Tacoma the police launched tear gas at protesters who were doing nothing more than, irony of all burning ironies, sitting on the ground singing ‘Give Peace a Chance’. Videos here.If need be I’ll dig up better videos when I get home, however, and this also is/was on youtube, if you watched the nightly news they claimed that the protesters were throwing saw horses at officers immediately before the teargassing; home video proves this was a complete fabrication.
Hate to spoil your little hippy-bashfest, but those “extremely ill-informed, unepmloyed[SIC], and probably uneducated idiots” often have a hell of a lot better track record than the police, news, and OP would try and lead one to believe.
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