# Protests happening around the world **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 4, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554 "2011-10-04T14:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554/41 "2011-10-05T14:29:45Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Please tell us what witch doctors have to do with cargo cults? It’s reverse-justification because the picture of Obama used on that charming poster is actually of a Papua New Guinea tribesman. Because of course, we were supposed to infer from the poster that the Tea Party fellows were commenting on the _cargo cult_ mentality of the left. They would never be so crass as to use an image that compared a black guy’s health care plan to a bone-through-the-nose cartoon depiction of a witch doctor because that might seem obviously racist to, I don’t know, anyone who doesn’t have a copy of the poster. That said, the post was sort of threadshitting and this is turning into a hijack. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554/42 "2011-10-05T14:32:28Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Please tell us what witch doctors have to do with cargo cults? Not much, but when it comes to love, ooh boy, lemme tell ya! Oo, ee, oo ah ah, ting, tang, walla-walla bing-bang! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554/43 "2011-10-05T14:54:46Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I admire your conviction in seeing this absurdity through to the bitter end. What is it that makes the left’s mentality like a _cargo_ cult specifically? Well, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about cargo cults: > [@](#): > > The primary association in cargo cults is between the divine nature of “cargo” (manufactured goods) and the advanced, non-native behavior, clothing and equipment of the recipients of the “cargo”. Since the modern manufacturing process is unknown to them, members, leaders, and prophets of the cults maintain that the manufactured goods of the non-native culture have been created by spiritual means, such as through their deities and ancestors, and are intended for the local indigenous people, but that the foreigners have unfairly gained control of these objects through malice or mistake.[3] Thus, a characteristic feature of cargo cults is the belief that spiritual agents will, at some future time, give much valuable cargo and desirable manufactured products to the cult members.[3] > > Given their relative isolation, the cult participants generally have little knowledge of modern manufacturing and are liable to be skeptical about modern explanations.[3] Instead, symbols associated with Christianity and modern Western society tend to be incorporated into their rituals as magical artifacts, for example the use of cross-shaped grave markers. That description has a strong and disturbing resemblance to the progressive mentality. To the average lefty, wealth is something the state can conjure out of nothingness by decree. The state can place any number of restrictions and burdens on production without consequences, the economy will always be able to bear new taxes, there will always be money for new state bureaucracies and programs, the magic of Keynesian economics will always save us from disaster, capital will never flee to more business friendly parts of the globe, and the people who are expected to produce the wealth to support all of this will never just say, “Aw, fuck it,” and walk away. It’s utterly impossible that we could end up like Greece or Spain, let alone North Korea or Zimbabwe, 'cuz this is America and things like that just don’t happen in America. God is protecting us or something. And if any of this goes wrong, it’s the fault of hate-filled white people who won’t go along with the plan working their mysterious evil juju against you. That’s pretty much the mentality of the Occupy Wall Street wankers and not a few people here on the SDMB. It’s entirely fair and reasonable to point out the strong resemblance between cargo cultists and a huge number of progressives. Of course, Wall Street does have an awful lot to answer for, and crony capitalism is a major cause of the mess we’re in. But Occupy Wall Street has no answers and never will. They’re as irrational and potentially as dangerous as the mobs that so recently roamed the streets of Athens. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554/44 "2011-10-05T15:01:49Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > That description has a strong and disturbing resemblance to the progressive mentality. I think I might agree if I closed my eyes, reread the description, and then spun around until I got very dizzy. Since I’m not going to do that, I see no resemblance. With that, I should stop indulging this silliness. **rozzybear** , I think it’s somewhat ironic that your comments about pharma and Dr. Burzynski would not be particularly popular among the Wall Street demonstrators - this is the kind of commentary people are talking about when they say the demonstrators have no focus. Pharma is way, way down the list of concerns, and there’s no particular link between the pharmaceutical industry (or, say, the energy industry) and Wall Street. Wall Street is associated with the _financial_ industry. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554/45 "2011-10-05T15:03:01Z")
You’re right **Marley23** -poor hijack, more suitable for a Pitting than a serious discussion. Back to the topic at hand: > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Dr. Burzynski actually is a good example of [capitalist success at the expense of the masses](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=612109&highlight=burzynski). > > This is a guy who for decades has been trumpeting his “antineoplaston” cure for cancer, running a clinic that charges $7500-9000 per month for treatment that has never been demonstrated effective against cancer. He also got a million bucks from the National Cancer Institute to run a research trial (which he pulled out of after problems including some patients developing serious side effects). The Evil F.D.A. even granted him orphan drug status to aid his research, which to this day has failed to prove his theories valid. So I don’t see how the Corporate Overlords have blocked him. He’s gamed the system quite effectively. > > Drug companies, rather than “hid(ing) the truth about alternatives”, have jumped on the bandwagon to sell unproven supplements. It’s a multibillion dollar a year business in this country, from small fly-by-night firms to large corporations. Quackery is not being hidden. It’s flourishing. How _dare_ Big Pharma repress our right to be cheated by snake oil salesmen! ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554/46 "2011-10-05T15:53:21Z")
> [@rozzybear](#): > > They never asked us if they could build nuclear power plants, and even when thousands of people protested each one being constructed, they hid that fact. Our media has helped them hide what they are doing for decades. This seems ridiculously naive. Google “nuclear power plant public hearings”. Did they ask whether they could build them? Yes. Did a bunch of people say “No”? Yes. Did a bunch of other people say “Yes”? Also yes. Did the protests get a metric shit ton of publicity? Very much yes. As a result of this horrible mockery of democracy and capitalism in action, we now eke out our miserable existences in a blasted landscape populated only by mutants and hot women in fur bikinis. No, wait, sorry, I misspelled "[get 19% of our electricity supplied by nuclear plants"](http://205.254.135.24/electricity/monthly/). Number of fatalities directly attributed to the nuclear nature of the plants: [0.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor_accidents_in_the_United_States) ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554/47 "2011-10-05T16:14:51Z")
[quote=“John\_Mace, post:11, topic:598554”] This was already linked to and quoted in the Pit thread, but let’s look at what these people are saying: snip **They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.** Probably. But that’s what unions are for. QUOTE] Except…not everyone has a union to protect them, or a good union, for that matter. And unions in general are under attack in this country while more workers are told to work harder and longer, for no additional pay, and they don’t dare complain for fear of being labeled with a “bad attitude” or fired. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/protests-happening-around-the-world/598554.md?page=2)