Pundits suggest arcane inside the Beltway BS to purist anti-capitalist protesters, and comedy ensues.
What Do We Want? Basel III!
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
20 Comments. Leave new
Kristof doesn’t share our “antimarket sentiment.” So why does he weigh in?
That is exactly how I feel about a lot of people who post comments to your site.
This is class war. When you’re fighting someone, why in hell would you consider their suggestions helpful?
The reason I let class enemies post here is that we need to see their arguments so we can learn to counter them.
Some think the revolution should be deodorized, see below.
Make them “smelly” protestors an offer they can’t refuse: a 10-year supply of personal deodorant in their choice of spray, stick, roll-on or, the brand new(!), time-release suppository!!!
http://tinyurl.com/6e3lbma
A suggestion: perhaps instead of merely camping out, the Occupy Wall Streeters should start just walking up and down the streets of the financial district.
All of them.
It might make the protest more effective if the Wall Street workers are finding it difficult to get to and from work. Also, it would tend to avoid police attention; you can’t arrest people for legally walking down the street…even if there’s several thousand of them, and it’s making motion difficult.
“The reason I let class enemies post here is that we need to see their arguments so we can learn to counter them.”
That’s a good reason!
Those making over $250k are afraid of tax hikes. They should be fearing things of a more Robespierreian nature. We need to make this clear to them.
“The reason I let class enemies…
My, “class enemies”, indeed! The reason I visit the site, other than the occasional ant-war cartoon or essay (anti-war out of political expediency, probably, not principle) is to see such vintage Bolshevist lingo in current usage, as if it’s stlll the 1930’s and Uncle Joe is still looking out for the vanguard of the Proletariat.
According to Think Progress
“Solidarity hero Lech Walesa is flying to New York to show his support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.”
“Wałęsa was instrumental in organizing the Solidarity union that helped mobilize to overthrow the Soviet Union’s control over Poland.”
Edit: “tax hikes” should be “repeal of historically low tax rates.”
Congratulations on getting the phrase “Moving ahead with the Basel III capital requirements, etc” 3 times in a 4-panel cartoon. Hilarious!
Bucephalus: does it bother you when the Republicans scream “class-warfare!,” because they are ones always shrilly bringing the phrase up.
Of course they’re coming from a supremely disingenuous place. But it’s funny that after generations of “free-market,” pro-capitol brain-washing, no one bats an eye when the right returns to the rhetoric that they spent so many years stamping out.
Terry Gross, hardly-a-Marxist, recently discussed the terminology:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/04/140874613/unlike-most-marxist-jargon-class-warfare-persists
My favorite bit is how they’ll use “class-warfare,” but they’re scared to death of “class-war.”
I’m still surprised that no seems to be making comparisons to the Bonus Army of the 1930’s.
This is excellent.
I am considering using “It’s an intellectual exercise and it helps fill my deadline” as a quote in various sigs for some time to come. Truly I have never seen such a simple statement that so perfectly yet concisely captures the apathetic quasi-pathos and self interest of the 21st century’s version of intelligentsia-class pundits, awesome.
Also I totally applaud you for letting people with different view points, even those who have nothing to offer but right wing talking points. Beyond just being the right thing to do we all learn more from it. Echo chambers are bad even when they are right. Diversity of opinion is key to learning and understanding. The best way to learn not to be a moron is to see one in action.
@bucephalus, sorry, the “moron” statement wasn’t directed at you, but some little dimwitted gadflies that pass through on occasion. My take is that you have a very intelligent and well reasoned world philosophy and ethos and I am actually saddened you don’t post here more often. I do understand why you don’t, however, as some people here do have a most unfortunate tendency to be a bit nasty towards you just for expressing your views. Sorry about that.
If there’s any one thing these protests prove is that the idea that the MSM has a liberal bias. Compare the virtual blackout with the saturation coverage the tea party protests were given. And before you say that the media was mocking them remember the old business adage: “Any publicity is good publicity”
@Grouchy: most everything the Republicans do and say annoys me. That said, it’s not me that’s ascribing an “anti-market” orientation to the OWS protesters, and it’s not me claiming that as a good thing. To be anti-market really means to be anti-freedom, ostensibly for egalitarian reasons, but most often just for control issues, by people who are control freaks and want to exert control over their neighbor’s lives.
@someon: I take no offense at your remarks. I do think the OWS protests are a breath of fresh air, if a bit misguided politically. I also think that old-time, unreconstructed Commies like Ted or Stephanie are in for a big disappointment when the movement is co-opted by the Democratic establishment (just like the Tea Party was, by the Repugnant establishment) and Revolution doesn’t ensue. I also think Lech Wałęsa will not receive a warm welcome from Ted Rall, if past comments are any indication.
“To be anti-market really means to be anti-freedom, ostensibly for egalitarian reasons, but most often just for control issues, by people who are control freaks and want to exert control over their neighbor’s lives.”
This is often true. But most of those wanting a “free-market,” claim it for ostensible reasons of “personal freedom,” but most often they just want to control the economy for the wealthy and fuck us all behind their unaccountable limited liability corporations (the corp. is a creation of the government.)
You hate the government; I hate corporations. Why don’t we meet in the middle and smash the whole damn system?
Copied below is the declaration prepared by the OWSers. I offer it for direct explanation the motives of the occupiers rather than that of Kristoff and other “free” market worshippers (there aren’t enough quotation marks in the universe to put around the “”free”” of “””free””” market.)
————————
Declaration of the Occupation of New York City
http://tinyurl.com/3h856wg
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.
They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.
They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.
They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.
They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. *
To the people of the world,
We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
Brilliant, Ted ! But what, after all, can one expect of a Nicholas Donabet Kristof ? He knows very well on which side his bread is buttered….
Henri
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
Not quite. In most cases, we have volunteered the information. We tweet, facebook, etc., completely of our own volition. We do it on our iPhones so that we can be cool.
In a just society, Mark Zuckerberg would have been thrown out of Harvard for stealing personal information on his classmates. He would not be held up and envied as an example of exceptional anything. And in a just society, we would not all be racing to see how much personal data we can provide for the government.
Remember, there’s no constitutional right to privacy. What, exactly, besides Mr. Zuckerberg promising that he won’t, is to keep him from selling the whole database to the FBI? Or the CIA? Or them from forcing him to release all the information under court order? And remember, two words, are you ready? “Nine.” and “Eleven.”
[…] I wrote this comic I saw Ted Rall did one on a very similar theme. Ted actually found a better quote in the N.Y. Times to exemplify “Juke-Think”. But you […]