Like ‘Vote Kerry so Osama can kill your kids?’
I’m glad to see you champion the fight against ignorance.
Someone doesn’t understand ‘hyperbole’. Still, it’s funny that some here (dare I say, the birchenstock crowd?) get all flipped out over the dozen or so from Protestwarrior. If you were as interested in fighting ignorance as you claim to be, you would be bitching up a storm about the 100,000 morons at these events with the ‘BUSH IS TEH HITLER!@!!’ and (of course) ‘FREE MUMIA!’ signs. Rather hypocritical of you, to say the least.
Maybe if you cared to pay attention, you would see that many people are concerned about the lack of a coherent message in protests.
But are you saying that if 1,000 people are carrying ‘Free Mumia’ signs, that makes the other 99,000 people morons by association? That’s like me saying that all Americans must be stupid just because you are. And how do you suggest that protest organizers decide who the so-called morons are and keep them away?
I know someone who’s a ‘BUSH IS HITLER’ type of person, and I argue with him frequently on the topic. Rather shortsighted of you to judge me like that based on a single pit post, to say the least.
Heh. Of the two signs – “Sure, he killed a cop, but there were some things about the sentencing phase of the trial I don’t like and therefore he should walk the streets” and “Turns out, Saddam was a bad guy and overthrowing him was a good thing,” which do you think would get more crap in the midst of a leftie march?
The answer to that question is the essential genius of protestwarrior. Exposing the difference between what people say they’re concerned about and what they actually take action against during their bongofests. When the lefties tell the communists and pro-terrorists like the people who superimpose swastikas over the Star of David to get the hell out of their protests, protestwarrior will cease to have a reason to exist. Until then, they’re fucking heroes.
Since it was my post, I’ll take a swing at this one…
- Because they didn’t even bother to drag out the History for Dummies who Don’t Like to Read Sentences More than Five Words Long. In the “War never solved anything” sign, anyone who has ever stood within a five-mile radius of a history classroom knows that war didn’t end fascim, communism, or nazism. In some cases, war meant that the fascist/ communist/ nazis were defeated, but it has never resolved the problem, and certainly didn’t prevent the further festering of such ideology. And, goodness, wasn’t there a war right in the 20th century wherein the fascists won? Anybody, anybody?
- Because it conflates politcal involvement and ideological conviction with rancid stupidity. Even if you buy our lovely friend Brutus’ idea that all of this idiotic reductionism is a liberal brainchild, their appropriation doesn’t elevate it - it’s still crap that does nothing but further entrench both sides. I would much sooner talk with a conservative that knows their facts, and can tell me why they believe in Bush’s SS plan, than have some idiot blathering on about how poor black welfare queens are stealing their money. (The rational sensate conservatives on this board would say the same, I daresay.)
- There’s a difference between me, as a liberal (bwa ha ha, and I teach at the university! Horowitz was right!) thinking that Bush’s SS plan is dumb, and me saying, “Yes, Bush’s SS plan would cause all cute wide-eyed kittens to die! It’s awful!!” “It is dumb” is my opinion, and I would think to think it’s alterable, and that I am open to actually learning (more) about said plan. “Death to kittens” is just spewing some vitriol I pulled out of Punditland and proclaiming it truth. I’m am sincerely not arguing their right to say what they please, whether I dis/ agree with it; I’m kevetching about them saying things that are factually incorrect.
ps. Oh, and Brutus, let me get you a ladder and you can kiss my ass.
So you’re just as opposed to factually incorrect leftist blowhards who make threads on this forum about Bush being the end to all freedom in the United States?
I can’t tell if you’re asking me, but yes, yes I am.
Fighting Ignorance since 1973. It’s taking longer than we thought.
Protestwarrior is simply a new vector of ignorance. Self-satisfied smug ignorance. Not that the people they claim to oppose are often any better.
Sure, because the activists who are fighting for some kind of decency in the U.S. are just as bad as the cryptofascist neocons who don’t care about anyone but themselves and their rich friends. :rolleyes:
WhatwhatWHAT? I’ve seen dozens of protests in person, and even hung out at a couple, and while it was mainly to gawk at the protesters, even though I was on the lookout for outrageous goings-on I never saw anything like that.
I’d say that that’s a pretty good sign that the groups do not condone outrageous displays like the ones you accuse them of. If one or two do get by, well, while the groups are better organized than in past decades, what are they gonna do, make people sign loyalty oaths before taking to the streets?
It’s about soundbite, soundbite, soundbite. An argument longer than five syllables is nowadays way too long.
Actually, manny, protest organizers generally do try to keep placards on message. There are designated folks who try to explain why problematic signs are unwanted to people who are carrying them. If they can’t be reasoned with, people coordinate to try to keep larger placards in between morons and conspicuous cameras, as damage control. I’ve seen this up close several times. (Of course, I’m talking about garden-variety counter-productive crap, like the loser who couldn’t be persuaded that his “SMOKE DOPE, NOT IRAQ” placard really wasn’t helping.)
I think in most large crowds, any nazi creeps that show up are liable to end up minus some teeth.
I have a hard time conceptualizing how you can think the Protestwarrior kids are “heroes.” I mean, if you’re waging a war of ideas, you want people on your side to represent well, right? The basic concept that these kids have could be used to good advantage, if they weren’t as dumb as a bag of hammers. They are out there, representing themselves as conservatives, while broadcasting that they’re blindingly stupid. Message sent: Conservatives are either mind-numbingly stupid, or intellectually dishonest. How does putting that (false) impression out there help?
Ah, so theyre college kids. Why didnt you just say so?
As long as you’re fair.
You deny that there are rabid zealot idiots on the left who attend protests and look like assholes?
It helps just as much as the message that liberals are pot-smoking peacenik bunny hugging socialists. There are idiots on both sides, but we can’t exactly stop idiots from gathering in public.
Read it again. Those people are “activists who are fighting for some kind of decency in the U.S.”. :rolleyes:
I must’ve missed the part where they don’t have the right to do that. If PETA and such can carry their stupid ass signs, why can’t the righties?
Catsix. nobody is arguing against freedom of speech or freedom to assemble. Why do you persist in trying to refute statements nobody is making?
I don’t know much about Vancouver or Orlando, so I admit it’s entirely possible that protests there are characterized primarily by people who chant “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Globalism, unaccompanied by careful capital controls to prevent small economies from being overwhelmed and a commitment by developed countries to nudge less-developed countries toward higher wages and stricter environmental regulations, particularly if the less-developed country is not a democracy, has got to go!” and carry signs which said “We would have supported liberating Iraq if Resolution 1441 had been followed by an even sterner resolution and if France, Russia and maybe China had been on board, in part because we think the phrase ‘serious consequences’ is so overused by the UN that Saddam was reasonable to think it didn’t mean getting overthrown!” or “Commute Mumia’s sentence to life without parole!” and that these same people convince the anarchists to throw their Starbucks into the garbage can instead of vice versa. All I can say is that does not comport with protests I have seen, either in person or photographically.
That’s fair – I’ll give you that “heroes” was something of an overstatement. 
What they are is performance art. Good, funny performance art. What can I say? To win the Stanley Cup, you need good offense, good defense, a good goalie and yeah, a goon helps to fight the other team’s goon. Protestwarrior, much like Ann Coulter, exists to a) defend against the goons from the other side and b) harass first-line players and maybe pull some of them into getting some penalty minutes.
Just out of curiosity catsix, you do realize that I’m a libertarian and that I’ve criticized Michael Moore on this board for similar behavior, right?