# What happened to the Occupy Movement? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 30, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189 "2012-08-30T21:00:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/1 "2012-08-30T21:00:22Z")
This time last year, Occupy (insert your city’s name here) was all over the place. They were getting news nationally and locally. Almost every large city had their own occupy movement. Then things seemed to settle down when winter hit. This made sense, as no one wants to camp in a park in the snow. But then spring came and then summer came, and now we are close to fall and the occupiers are still nowhere to be found. What happened? ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/2 "2012-08-30T21:07:08Z")
They had no leaders, around here anyway. And they refused to police their camps in anyway to keep out drug addicts and other street dwellers. The whole thing was destined to break down pretty quick under those conditions. I think, in my city, they were a little relieved when the city finally shut them down. It gets cold here and electric heaters, tents and dodgey wiring are a deadly combo. The camp had attracted too many street people. No one could/would do anything to drive out drunken high school kids and heavy drug users. By the time it happened, at least here, everyone was somewhat resigned to it, and, I think, a little relieved. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/3 "2012-08-30T21:13:07Z")
They lacked the cohesion required to remain a going concern. Political movements take a lot of work, and part of that is coalition building and uniting people along common themes. OWS was generally upset about a bunch of stuff, but they really rejected the sort of compromise and representative leadership required to actually state goals and follow through. Every person involved seemed to be a solo crusader who happened to align with the others for a while. It’s hard to maintain outrage over a long period of time. Particularly if you can see that nothing is really being accomplished. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/4 "2012-08-30T21:22:00Z")
Occupy Oakland seems to be the main attraction these days. Or at least it was a few months ago. But no Democrat of any significance wanted anything to do with them. Contrast that to the Tea Party, which was quickly absorbed into the Republican Party (at least the vast majority of it was). If they could have cleaned up their act and gotten Democrats involved, it might have been a going concern. ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/5 "2012-08-30T22:48:26Z")
The Tallahassee guys are still there, still camping out in a downtown parking lot. It’s just that no one cares at all. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/6 "2012-08-30T23:07:27Z")
Apparently it’s still going on in Los Angeles. I heard on the radio a while ago that they were fucking up the Art Walk. (For the record, I think the Occupy movement could have been something great. Except it seems to have turned into pretentious twaddle and destruction. And unfortunately, I’m not surprised) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/7 "2012-08-31T00:43:47Z")
A lot of it seemed to have the look-and-feel of a yuppie recreational outrage festival. They didn’t give off the sense of being a truly impoverished group of protesters who where done out of all they owned by the big Wall Street baddies. They lacked the gravitas. Contrast with, for example, the Arab Spring movements, serious protests which were driven by truly abject poverty and repression. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/8 "2012-08-31T00:50:06Z")
Ours got thrown off the State House grounds by Nikki Haley. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/9 "2012-08-31T01:38:43Z")
They were grounded by their parents for not taking out the rubbish. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/10 "2012-08-31T03:10:55Z")
SWMBO and I were in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. We happened to walk past the Occupy location. It’s a hobo jungle now. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/11 "2012-08-31T03:53:38Z")
They actually squandered their political capital by not asking for something,\* anything. \* What a waste!☹ ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/12 "2012-08-31T04:39:00Z")
[QUOTE=OP] This time last year, Occupy (insert your city’s name here) was all over the place. They were getting news nationally and locally. [/QUOTE] That’s the point–it was almost entirely hype from the media. And lots of people bought it. Eventually no one could deny that it really was mostly hype. The reality was they were really very disorganized and disunited and were pretty much doomed to fail. Anyone could see that on YouTube, and when that happened, their high-profile supporters quickly distanced themselves from it. Tom Wolfe wrote that the hippies, who claimed to be building a new society, had lots of problems older societies were already managing, like crabs, STDs, crime, waste removal and so forth. Almost exactly the same can be said of Occupy. > [@John\_Mace](#): > > But no Democrat of any significance wanted anything to do with them. Contrast that to the Tea Party, which was quickly absorbed into the Republican Party (at least the vast majority of it was). The Tea Party has not been absorbed. It was never an independent party to be absorbed. They are working towards gaining power within the Republican Party to re-direct it more toward Tea Party values. ---
**Author:** ![Jormungandr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@Jormungandr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jormungandr)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/13 "2012-08-31T05:12:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > They actually squandered their political capital by not asking for something,\* anything. \* > > What a waste!☹ Did they ever get around to that one request? ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/14 "2012-08-31T09:23:20Z")
It’s still going on, but it’s run underground. A girl I loved was involved in the movement, and she and her sister are now involved in some really extreme leftie terrorism stuff…like think Earth First. It’s still active, but mostly in very left wing circles. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/15 "2012-08-31T09:24:28Z")
and the Occupy movement didn’t get going until Sept 17th. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/16 "2012-08-31T14:27:59Z")
Maybe someone told them that drum circles don’t accomplish a god damn thing, and they actually listened for once? I believe in the ideals of the Occupy Movement. Financial reform, transparency in government, a restructuring of higher education… but it got co-opted by the drum circle loons who scream and yell and don’t actually want to DO anything about it, just make noise until someone ELSE fixes it. Between that, and the “nobody on our side is ever wrong” mindset that I saw demonstrated (really, if you have a dude doing hard drugs in your camp, he needs to go, period.) and it was doomed to fail, and in some cases fail spectacularly. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2012, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/17 "2012-08-31T14:47:56Z")
It quickly morphed into a hippie gathering with no concise message other than “We hate rich people and we’re entitled to their wealth.” As the months dragged on the political compass became pegged to the far left. Near the end it simply became a pro-Marxist/anti-capitalist/anti-Christian thing, to the point that even the Democratic Party wisely chose to distance itself from it. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/18 "2012-09-04T14:38:06Z")
Anti-Christian? Can I get a cite on that one? ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/19 "2012-09-04T15:10:23Z")
Agreeing mostly with what others have said here. The whole movement never got behind a unified message. Add to the mix that a lot of kids hanging out and using the Occupy camp as their own personal rave/spirit quest/smoke-out/what have you, and it completely destroyed whatever gravitas the movement had worked to gain. By the end of Occupy Baltimore, the camp was nothing but homeless people and drug addicts. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189/20 "2012-09-04T16:58:16Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > Anti-Christian? Can I get a cite on that one? It’s implied by the strong Marxist and hippie-drum-circle elements. Both have a reputation for being rather hostile to Christianity. By the end, it seemed clear to me that communist/marxist groups seemed to be dominating the message. To the degree they had a message, at least. I was reading the Wikipedia article on OWS the other day, and it surprised me at how bad conditions in the camp were. OWS was literally nothing more than a hobo camp with better PR. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-the-occupy-movement/633189.md?page=2)