My post was actually meant to dissuade anyone from attempting to argue with you. You obviously are unwilling to play by the standard rules of debate and throw out wild assumptions based off opinion rather than facts.

Made the same observation myself. I hate it when trolls kill good threads.

I don't see Docrate as trolling, he is expressing a reasoned opinion. All opinions are valid as long as there is reasoning behind them. I have heard the statement "I am a democrat because my father was and my grandfather was a strong democrat." THAT is NOT a well reasoned opinion.

Doc points out some good reasons for his beliefs, however, referring to the president as "Barry" instead of his real name drops into the Rush Limbaugh frame. When in doubt call a name.

The one thing I noticed about this whole thing is when the right do it, i.e. the TEA party, Nancy Pelosi screamed "NAZI, Trying to destroy th U.S." Now that it is a left organization it is, according to Nancy, "a good thing for the country." HMMM if you believes that the individual is responsible, that's bad but, if one believes that the government is responsible that's good. I thought the government was made up of individuals.

No one has called anyone a troll. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to share it publicly without a good way of showing how you got there people won't take it very seriously.

You see the same thing from Fox reporters. The TEA Party was some revolutionary movement, but OWS are all anti-American. Both have the same sediment (Fed up with the way the government does what it does), just different ideas on how to get there (Shrink down govt and regulations vs update the tax code). However, the TEA Party is recognized, imo, as more "successful" due to it having more sponsors more quickly and a clear agenda. Yet OWS is still a newer movement. Too early to get a good idea of where this is going.

And though government is made up of individuals, it hardly works if there isn't a certain level of cooperation.

I did call him a troll. We could argue about the exact definition of a troll so I'll drop the term. I however did not see him provide any evidence. I saw him make claims. There is a big difference. Either way the objection came to the way he delivered it. It also seems to me unfair to judge a movement by who supports it and who doesn't. While I disagreed with a lot of what the Tea Party were saying I never called them un-American. In fact in terms of this conversation the only mention before that was saying the two movements were the same only reversed. So I don't see how that is relevant.

As for what dockarate has said, I will assume most of it is due to confirmation bias. He points out that some protesters call themselves Marxist while ignoring that some protesters call themselves libertarians, some call themselves, anarcho-capitalist for that matter. I have not heard the interviews with protesters who don't know why they are there but I will assume it is true. Those people should not be there, however most of them do know why they are there, and I have seen plenty of interviews with them.

I originally started this post because I wanted to share the information. Whether you agree with the protests or not what is happening is important, just has the Tea party rallies were important, and I felt it was being under reported in the national news. I think if we want to debate the content of the protest that is excellent. However, people should approach it with an open mind not just assume that any disagreement with our own opinions make others "ignorant or idiots." I have also always found it useful to try to ask myself the question "What would it take for me to change my mind?" Whenever I find the answer to this question being nothing I feel great shame for my closed mindedness.

Something interesting to point out. Gathering together to express grievances about the state and direction of the nation is not anti-American, it's the furthest thing from it. This counts for both the TEA Party AND OWS.

Paddy,

One thing I learned during a twenty year military career is this: You respect the rank and position, you DON'T have to respect the holder thereof...."Barry" is the best I can do for the current crook, it IS his "original" name....

I would support these protests if the actual protestors weren't raging lefty socialists.

The whole concept of capitalism is not to have massive corporations that control everything, but have many small businesses that compete with each other. What we have now in the West is not capitalism, but a distorted communist version of it.

I do suport the small minority of protestors who want to bring back a form of gold standard and rid of the power of central banks.

£1 = 1 pound of gold.

It's simple.

I haven't replied to this thread until now, because I feel like I at least have a basic understanding of what's going on.

Here's my opinion.

I feel like protests rarely amount to anything actually changing. In the case of Occupy Wallstreet, I feel like what they are doing is definitely getting the message across that they want things to change. However, I feel like because they are unorganized and their opinions on what they are protesting varies amongst each protestor. (They don't all want exactly the same thing, so it's hard to say what they'll actually get out of all this, if anything.) I don't disagree with their message (although I don't really know if I agree with it either), but I do disagree with the way they express it (as I stated before, I don't feel like protests amount to much.)

I think if they did have a bit more leadership guiding the whole thing, it would be a little more organized.

Having said all this, I feel the corruption of the police system in the US really shines through here in some ways. While these people are protesting in an area that they have every right to, they are still experiencing police brutality (not all, but some) unjustly. I also feel like very little will come out of all this as a whole. The only part I see really making a change (whether it's for good or bad) is the "I am the 99%" campaign. Regardless of how accurate it is, it really seems like the most organized part of this whole thing.

That's what I make of it. And again, keep in mind, I haven't been following this thread. I don't know what has already been said, and I only have a basic understanding of the goings-on. So if some of my information is incorrect or inaccurate, please let me know.

I think, more than anything, Occupy Wallstreet is exposing the unjust police system. It's ridiculous. People being arrested, tear-gasses, etc.