[Aeolus]

The left wing tea party: clueless, aimless and has inevitably become fuel for the opposing sides fear-mongering.

If people really want to change things, they are going to have to be far smarter about it, and be prepared to put alot more effort in. Change doesn't come as easily in our society as turning up to a protest and sitting down. The power structures are far stronger and the foundations sunk far deeper than those of despot regimes which have fallen in such a way. Change can only come through the accumulation and exercise of that same type of power which these inidviduals claim to be railing against. What a massive waste of time this protest is, it is vain, self-indulgent narcissism.

[Organ]

(Original post by Aeolus)
The left wing tea party: clueless, aimless and has inevitably become fuel for the opposing sides fear-mongering.

If people really want to change things, they are going to have to be far smarter about it, and be prepared to put alot more effort in. Change doesn't come as easily in our society as turning up to a protest and sitting down. The power structures are far stronger and the foundations sunk far deeper than those of despot regimes which have fallen in such a way. Change can only come through the accumulation and exercise of that same type of power which these inidviduals claim to be railing against. What a massive waste of time this protest is, it is vain, self-indulgent narcissism.

I would say it is more an expression of anger, often incoherent, but people are angry about what is happening - debt slavery, the genocide of the middle classes and so on.

[Oswy]

(Original post by Organ)
I would say it is more an expression of anger, often incoherent, but people are angry about what is happening - debt slavery, the genocide of the middle classes and so on.

Yeah. The problem for Americans in this crisis is that they are subject to a pervasive and deeply embedded capitalist ideology (not least through corporate media). They increasingly know that something is deeply wrong with capitalism, they're losing their jobs and their homes, their wages are standing still or going backwards and financers, bankers, and the rich more generally, continue to get richer. But for all that is obvious, the decades of anti-left propaganda which has dominated the US still prevents them from coming to what for many of us elsewhere in the world would be obvious conclusions - capitalism is on a long trajectory in which it will increasingly screw the masses for the spectacular, and spectacularly immoral, benefit of the few.

[Aeolus]

(Original post by Organ)
I would say it is more an expression of anger, often incoherent, but people are angry about what is happening - debt slavery, the genocide of the middle classes and so on.

Anger is a self evident driving factor in these protests, as with all such things. My point is that the protests themselves are a lazy and for the most part vain undertaking which, lets be honest, given the rhetorical pre-eminence of the right wing media in the US will ultimately harm the wounded masses these individuals seek to protest for.

My original point was that the kind of action which will really make a difference will require a lifetime of effort utilising the means by which, as Oswy points out the few benefit massively from the many. Capitalism as a vauge concept may be on some kind of destructive trajectory, however, a system by which the few benefit from the many has for most of our history been in place, and will continue to dominate if that force which opposes it keeps overestimating itself.

[Organ]

(Original post by Oswy)
Yeah. The problem for Americans in this crisis is that they are subject to a pervasive and deeply embedded capitalist ideology (not least through corporate media). They increasingly know that something is deeply wrong with capitalism, they're losing their jobs and their homes, their wages are standing still or going backwards and financers, bankers, and the rich more generally, continue to get richer. But for all that is obvious, the decades of anti-left propaganda which has dominated the US still prevents them from coming to what for many of us elsewhere in the world would be obvious conclusions - capitalism is on a long trajectory in which it will increasingly screw the masses for the spectacular, and spectacularly immoral, benefit of the few.

I would say that the tea party is a voice for middle class fears (albeit a voice that ironically will only worsen the fate of the middle classes). In the USA the incomes of middle class Americans have been stagnant or falling since the 1970's whilst those of the capitalist class have been growing. Americans are confused, angry and frustrated at the recent crash and the fact they aren't getting richer anymore. But the tea party are directing their anger against the wrong enemy. The people who caused the crash - the financial capitalists and corporations of Wall Street aren't being blamed. Instead, the anger is being directed at the government and the poorest Americans (or scroungers - or whatever names the tea party give them). Indeed, tea party candidates elected to office usually just behave as stooges for big business and the richest 1%. in the USA, a bizzare merging of right wing Christainity and unfettered capitalism/corporatism is really very common (as we saw with GWB) - if you see the tea party rallies and candidates - they just descend into bible thimping, McCarthy-esque prejudices mixed with patriotism and a doctored version of American history. A depressing mix indeed.

[Llamageddon]

The problem I have with these movements is that there isn't a coherent alternative motivating them. It can quite easily be painted as envy because of this even though (I suspect) for most there is far more to it than that.

[Aphotic Cosmos]

(Original post by adamrules247)
So they hate captialism, do they

Er, they aren't protesting against the existence of corporations, they're protesting against a government that doesn't listen to the needs of the people, that is massively in the pocket of corporations (it's amazing how much money US congressmen and senators get paid by corporations and then conveniently support that exact policy issue - you can buy votes FFS!) and that is now intent on punishing the middle and working classes in a very serious way (we're talking about the extinction of the middle class in most of the West, at least as we know it) to fund the lifestyles of billionaires. Rick Perry wants to give tax breaks to the rich in the order of seven trillion dollars, and scrap "Obamacare" - talk about out of touch.

[blueray]

(Original post by Aphotic Cosmos)
Er, they aren't protesting against the existence of corporations, they're protesting against a government that doesn't listen to the needs of the people, that is massively in the pocket of corporations (it's amazing how much money US congressmen and senators get paid by corporations and then conveniently support that exact policy issue - you can buy votes FFS!) and that is now intent on punishing the middle and working classes in a very serious way (we're talking about the extinction of the middle class in most of the West, at least as we know it) to fund the lifestyles of billionaires. Rick Perry wants to give tax breaks to the rich in the order of seven trillion dollars, and scrap "Obamacare" - talk about out of touch.

Yes thank you for that point.
At least someone recognised the point.

All of you who pos reped the above post by adamrules247 with this picture fail to see the point.

Wow the tsr ignorance amazes me sometimes.

[ajp100688]

Have any of you actually read their demands? They want a $20 p/h minimum wage, to abolish all national debt - including mortgage payments and credit card debts (ignoring this would destroy the American economy), to abolish the national bank and to spend a trillion (...yes a trillion) on the environment. Basically they're a bunch of idiots who don't know what they're talking about. The usual anarchist/hippy crowd that does this kind of thing and certainly not a mass movement of disaffected well educated Americans. They're essentially the left wing version of the Tea Party and even more retarded when it comes to understanding government and economics.

[burpleronnie]

(Original post by soup)
I don't get why they just don't join the more legitimate Tea Party.

Serious?

The Tea Party gets the majority of its funding - particularly during its opening phase - from a corporation called Koch Industries. Koch industries are well known for their pro-business and anti-environmentalist lobbying practises and funding climate skeptic 'scientists'.

Having examined the evidence for climate change myself and the majority of the worlds scientists and governing bodies agreeing with me, it seems fairly obvious that Koch industries are not the seekers of truth they espouse to be, but croocks in it for the money.

Fact check me and i'm sure you will come to the same conclusions.

The tea party are not the answer and are in fact part of the problem.

[blueray]

It spreads to London....