I had been deceived - My visit to an OWS protest

This morning I decided to take some of my free time and went down to the ‘Occupy’ in my town. There I was skepticism in hand and pessimism of the people participating. For weeks the Occupy Wall Street movement has been growing, now it is not only in New York City but all across America and spreading across the world. Can you believe that Americans started protesting then people around the world took notice?

Anyway as I ventured into the crowd of differing faces something struck me immediately. There were no drum circle hippies, tie dye pot hits, barefoot guitarists, face painting stands, orgies, or even any real hostility between participants. As I wandered through the crowd I listened to the chatter of college kids about the high cost of tuition or to my satisfaction, Ron Paul and ending the Fed, to talk of the two party duopoly and its control over us all. I did not see these numerous hippies that were told to me on the news, there were no people waving socialist flags/banners, none of this was there. Sure there were a few people talking about bringing down capitalism but it was not like they dominated the crowd.

There was a nice older man there in a wheel chair that asked what brought me to the protest, I told him that I was skeptical of OWS and just wanted to see exactly what goes on at one of the protests. He told me that there was nothing left for him just sitting at home, the government has repeatedly denied him Social Security Disability even after the documentation by his doctor of his serious seizure problems (forgot the name of the disease/disorder). At the same time he said that his neighbor is receiving government assistance but is perfectly healthy, the man just complains about his knee, anxiety, and anger issues.

A few other people talked briefly to me but I left the protest about two hours after visiting. I left embarrassed and rather ashamed, to be honest. All this time I had been calling them welfare-addicts, hand-out lovers, lazy bums, socialist/communists, and all the names under the rainbow. But when I left it gave me an entirely new opinion of them. Sure there are a few nuts there, aren’t there nuts everywhere? Point is the crowd was overwhelmingly civil and while most were left-oriented there was still a large segment who was End the Fed types.

My conservative friends do not listen to what they say on TV or in conservative online media both mainstream and alternative. The protesters, at least the ones in my city, were very much different from what I had expected and what the conservative news outlets had said. Just as you would tell a liberal to visit a Tea Party rally to understand who they are and what they believe, you should do the same with OWS.

This does not mean that I am entirely a OWS backer, rather now I do not have a negative view of the movement, but am still very conservative and not exactly a protest type of person. Some in the crowd still deserve criticism because they are a bit excessive but the media intentionally picks these people and pretends like they represent everyone there. It reminds me of how the media jumped on any ignorant Tea Party protesters waving a sign with misspelled letters and tried to act like that is what the Tea Party was made up of. Neither is true, do not trust that media. If they show an interview of a OWS’er turn off the TV, it is not worth rotting your brain with.

Glad you figured out ( or saw I suppose) that we are ALL part of the 99%. There's no such thing as liberal or conservative within the OWS movement.

The media has been lying to you, just like they always have been. The anti OWS movement was born of fear and uncertainty.

Let's hope they continue to gain momentum and this leads to real change. I hope that NY and other major US cities begin having General Assemblies and we can have some real democracy.

~Keeper

It's amazing how getting off one's rear and seeing something for oneself can give you a different perspective than hearing and seeing it 2nd hand. Good story.

...At the same time he said that his neighbor is receiving government assistance but is perfectly healthy, the man just complains about his knee, anxiety, and anger issues.

You'll have to excuse me I have to run down to Social Security and put in my claim asap!

Good for you on venturing out and making your decisions based on you own experience. Sadly TV zombies let the media frame the agenda for them and they never really find out what is really going on. My city had an OWS protest and my experience was much like yours.

There is a battle of perception right now going on in the media. Each side of the spectrum is using edited video to arouse their political base. Meanwhile what is really happening on the ground is an entirely different thing. Wake up America, this is really happening and its not a joke.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower

Let's hope they continue to gain momentum and this leads to real change.

Careful what you wish for... You may not like it.

Everyone who voted for "change" can tell you how well that has worked out for them.

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade

Careful what you wish for... You may not like it.

Everyone who voted for "change" can tell you how well that has worked out for them.

I agree with you here. I had a horrific thought this morning, since these demonstrations are happening all over the world, and people do not seem to have a set plan for what sort of changes they want to see as an outcome of these protests. It's a varying laundry list of demands, some reasonable and some ridiculous.

I see this heading us all towards a one world currency. If people don't like the fact that there is some overloard to the situation as it is, just wait until that happens.

Odd really, considering all the anti "New World Order," threads there are on ATS....that people are outright screaming for it to happen, right here on ATS, it's own members!

Originally posted by Fractured.Facade

Originally posted by tothetenthpower

Let's hope they continue to gain momentum and this leads to real change.

Careful what you wish for... You may not like it.

Everyone who voted for "change" can tell you how well that has worked out for them.

Im as disgusted with Obama as everyone else...
But you do remember the other choice.. McCain/Palin.
RP didn't have enough exposure to carry himself into office back then.

Writing RP in last time would have assured a McCain-Palin presidency.

Was THAT the change you expected?


This time RP has a solid chance of getting to the whitehouse and with the public's support he will have an oppertunity to effect some change.

reply to post by Misoir


I am all for protesting or trying to make yourself heard or whatever it is they think they need to do. My question is, it is the middle of a school year....who the hell is watching your kids, helping them with homework, eating dinner with them, making sure they are doing well in school, spending time with them while you are out there prancing around with your little sign for a month or two? Not you. Is it more important to teach your children to stand up for what they believe even if you neglect them in the process or teach them that a good parent is always there for their children no matter what situation they are in? Me, I choose to sit and talk with my daughter about her day, help her with her homework, tuck her into bed at night, be there for her.....instead of running off half cocked waving a little sign and leaving those things for someone else to do.

I am too far away from all of this to be informed by actually being there. However I generally think exactly the opposite is true when I hear a MSM report. If they say the sky is falling, I will never look to see. It will be there tomorrow. If they say that OWS is a nut movement, I know for a fact it is not. One way to handle the media is to understand that the truth is not in them, and that means of course that in most cases the exact opposite of what they are saying is actually the truth. If they say OWS is a bunch of misguided hippies I then know it is a bunch of very well guided non-hippies. Go ahead and watch the CBS evening news tonight. Then defer to the fact that the exact opposite of what they have said is actually true. Then you will find the truth in these things.
That is what we should do. Believe only the opposite of their words. The truth is not in them.
In the end. OWS will grow, and will result in some kind of action. Let us hope it is not the same type of action we are seeing in Syria.
cool: Hippies come and hippies go but one thing remains the same
and that would be Us. We will have the last laugh

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
The anti OWS movement was born of fear and uncertainty.

Agree I even sense that some ATS members indeed fear this movement. It's too big for them to handle, they become fearful.

I'll say to the OWS, let them bring change, it's time.

reply to post by BadNinja68

Im as disgusted with Obama as everyone else...
But you do remember the other choice.. McCain/Palin.
RP didn't have enough exposure to carry himself into office back then.

Writing RP in last time would have assured a McCain-Palin presidency.

Was THAT the change you expected?


This time RP has a solid chance of getting to the whitehouse and with the public's support he will have an oppertunity to effect some change.

You rolled the dice and voted for Obama instead of writing in RP. You got exactly what you voted for; you have no basis to complain. And since it is reasonable to assume we make choices based upon what we want, you actually got what you wanted.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
Glad you figured out ( or saw I suppose) that we are ALL part of the 99%. There's no such thing as liberal or conservative within the OWS movement.

The media has been lying to you, just like they always have been. The anti OWS movement was born of fear and uncertainty.

Let's hope they continue to gain momentum and this leads to real change. I hope that NY and other major US cities begin having General Assemblies and we can have some real democracy.

~Keeper

I'm curious, what do you think about the Tea party movement?

I'm reading through the OWS organizer e-mails right now.

People quoting Che and telling others not to denounce any violence or property damage that may occur. People advocating lying to the media or simply being obtuse. They were setting up training courses for civil disobedience.

If anything this whole movement looks completely engineered from the top.

And everyone is eating it up like the good little sheep they are.

No go ahead and protest Wall St.

If you wanted Glass Steagall passed you would protest Washington.

But go ahead, protest Wall St.

If you wanted debt based derivatives banned you should be protesting Washington.

But go ahead and protest Wall St.

If you wanted to end the wars you should be protesting Washington.

But go ahead and protest Wall St.

If you wanted a fair tax structure representative of everyone you would be advocating a flat tax and you would have to do that in Washington.

The source of class warfare in this country isn't Wall St. It isn't capitalism. It isn't money. And it isn't even the banks. Its WASHINGTON.

Here is the link to the OWS e-mails. I haven't read them all yet. But I've read enough of them.

owsmail.dc406.com...

This whole protest stinks of leftist ideology and I will have nothing to do with it.

reply to post by billy197300


The Majority of the people involved in the OWS movement seem to be either college students or adults (45-60). So they either have young children (which I have actually seen they have taken with them to the rallies), no children, or their kids are all grown up. I don't think that it's really your place to assume that they must be neglecting their children because they are participating in this movement. I mean it would be one thing if you were to say you've witnessed it or you're taking care of someone else's children while they are off "prancing around with [their] little sign for a month or two"....as you so eloquently put it. You shouldn't assume that because these people aren't raising their children the way you think they should that they are bad parents. In fact, most of these people are doing this for the sake of the future generations!

Once again, I think that if anyone is in doubt of the problems these "Occupy Wall Streeters" are facing they should be A) witnessing it for themselves and talking to The People, as the person who started this thread did, or B) looking at some of the stories of the 99% posted on the following website:

wearethe99percent.tumblr.com...

reply to post by projectvxn


They are. You sully ones hand then you sully the hand that shakes it. Right?

reply to post by projectvxn


Sounds an aweful like what a certain tv personality said top down bottom up seems to me the dude knew what he was talking about.

What does it matter what sort of clothes the protestors are wearing? What does it matter if all the guitar player at the protest are wearing shoes, and the face painters didn't bother to come? How does this legitimize pouty petulance?

I cannot say this often enough: Protest is really just a limp wristed way of admitting helplessness. The most annoying thing about this protest is the large number of people (claiming to represent 99% of the population) insisting they are really mad as hell with the 1% and then expecting...nay, demanding, the 1% do something about it. Pffffffft. What childishness is this?

"Oh the powers that be (not us damn it) are really evil meanies! You evil meanies need to stop being evil meanies and do something good for us, damn it! Where are my milk and cookies, damn it? Where is my free "health care", damn it? Where is my free stuff? I want free stuff, damn it! Where's my job? Job's, job's job's! That's our mantra, jobs! You evil meanie powers that be need to understand that you need us and that labor is the means of production, so get off yer arses and give us jobs, damn it!"

"What? Start my own business? Pfffffft! And become another one of the evil meanie powers that be? I don't think so. I don't want to be rich, just middle class, so let's get rid of the rich so we can get rid of the poor, and only have a middle class!"

"What? What do you mean eliminating the rich and poor will also eliminate the middle class? What are you, a fascist pig?"

Why act in meaningful ways when you can just protest, right? Why act responsibly and do what is necessary to reign in out of control government when you can just protest, right? Why do anything when all we have to do is demand the 1% do it for us?

Misoir, your local group probably is full of nice decent people. That does not mean that the protest itself is organized by all these nice people. Are you now telling us that the drumming and all that stuff is NOT really happening on Wall Street? Anyone can be fooled by a Soros wolf in sheep's clothing. The original organizers are on the ground in NY not in Florida. The protesters in my home town St. Louis also look like nice, intelligent people. Many are college kids from at least middle class. I think the homeless did come out for free food in NY...things like that happen.

Also, I've just seen footage of rioting protesters in Rome, and I am certain it is on it's way here in the States too.

reply to post by Misoir


Great OP Misior. I think it takes alot to admit you were wrong or you were being mislead. I think we've all been down that road at some point. I supported the bailouts at one point on this forum among other issues, and I've admitted I was wrong on them. We're all learning on this forum at the end of the day, we can never be 100% correct on everything we see or believe.

I could not say I fully support the OWS movement, I'd like to wait and see how it progresses. That being said, I can feel the anger and frustrations of many of the protesters. I think that for many of them they are angry, frustrated, but they can't at this moment pinpoint exactly where that anger needs to go. Yes, wallstreet has a part in this, but so does the government (BOTH republicans and democrats) and so do the voters for voting in these idiots and allowing this government to be lobbied. Real change is yet to happen in this country, and I really feel that if that is to occur at some time, it will need to be decisive, and some people will need to resign. I don't think Obama deserves a second presidency, definately not. But to the other GOP candidates, hell no, none of them I believe deserve it either, they'd be worse.... but that's my view.

I don't know misoir, something needs to happen. We need to make a stand as a people of all sides, but just how, is the question....

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux


People even in the ATS forum are starting to call people fascist when they don't support the OWS protest. I asked for a definition of fascism and provided one myself but all I got in response was whining about how much I protest socialism. I guess more people read my stuff than I thought.