Occupy Movement Links To Communism?

[vjohn82]

@Seth

Socialism harmful?

Earlier on you were saying that religion was simply misused in the wrong hands; the same is not true of Socialism I take it? Socialism is simply evil "because, because, because"?

[Seth]

@Seth

Socialism harmful?

Fucking evil incarnate, actually.

Earlier on you were saying that religion was simply misused in the wrong hands; the same is not true of Socialism I take it? Socialism is simply evil "because, because, because"?

Socialism (and it's end-state condition Communism) are inherently evil, therefore they are irredeemably evil under all circumstances, primarily because they are based on theft, oppression and denial of individual liberty as fundamental precepts of the social system.

Religion may be bad or good, and may be used for bad or good, depending on the religion, who practices it, and how they practice it.

The same cannot be said for Socialism.

[vjohn82]

Socialism is based on theft? Socialism, by definition, holds that theft is non-existent. No such thing as oppression under a secular socialist agenda; working to remove oppression is the goal of all. Individuals can learn to thrive under socialism for the good of the collective.

[Schneibster]

Is Seth doing the "commies are teh evul bekuz they are teh athiest" bit again?

"Again?"

Yep.

[Drewish]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGL-Ex1CD1c#![/youtube]

[Schneibster]

Occupy isn't against capitalism.

[Drewish]

Occupy isn't against capitalism.

Did you watch the video? I know it's kind of long, but it's worth seeing all the way through.

[Schneibster]

I got 30 seconds in where he claimed Occupy is against capitalism and stopped paying attention, like I always do when someone I think is trolling lies.

They're not socialists. They're not against capitalism. They don't want to destroy the banks.

They just want the ultra-rich, who have had the bulk of the gravy since 1979, to pay their share.

[Drewish]

I can't have a conversation with you if you assume my position for me

[Schneibster]

You should probably make your own arguments rather than counting on someone else to do it for you.

[Drewish]

But we're talking about what the movement is about and this is a series of events that took place at an Occupy Wall Street gathering. I was submitting it as evidence, not to rely on it to make my arguments for me.

[Schneibster]

But we're talking about what the movement is about

We are. And it's not about communism, nor is it about destroying capitalism.

We'll start with the truth. Otherwise there's no point in talking. Do you need links to articles that show it's not about communism, it's not about smashing anything, and it's not about destroying capitalism, or are we going to be able to move on from this point?

[Drewish]

Since you seemed convinced that I am attempting to say it is about destroying capitalism, and are assuming my position for me, I am sad to say that I do not think that we can discuss this topic

[maiforpeace]

But we're talking about what the movement is about and this is a series of events that took place at an Occupy Wall Street gathering. I was submitting it as evidence, not to rely on it to make my arguments for me.

Evidence, of what?

My impression was he picked the mosted stoned, uninformed protester(s) he could find to interview, and it was about making them look like idiots.

I could only watch about four minutes, could you summarize the events, maybe I'll take a look again.

[Drewish]

The guy is a pretty hard core libertarian going in assuming that the movement is about opposing capitalism. He gets into a series of discussions with various people. It certainly starts out looking like a, "make fun of the stupid commies," video, but over the course of it, a gathering of pro-capitalist supports start to engage him and tell him and the video takes quite a shift, and ends on some libertarian leaning protesters telling him that rather than attacking the movement for its perceived anti-capitalist members, he should be lending his support to it.

I am very wary of movements being pigeon holed or co-opted (I attended a few Tea Party rallies when things were starting out.) I was posting a video that I thought would speak to people of a pro-capitalist nature, to show them that while the Occupy movement does certainly have socialist elements within it, they are not the entirety of the movement and that there is a larger agreement regarding injustice involved, even if the solutions to that injustice can not be agreed on by the movement. One could argue that this makes the movement ineffective (and it might) but it is not accurate to say that it's a purely socialist beast.

Of course when I post that video here and it's automatically assumed that I'm pushing the notion that the Occupy movement is all a bunch of commies, then it really doesn't bode well for having a reasonable discussion on the subject :/