Anger Turns to Violence
November 8, 2011 12 Comments
Megan McArdle covers the recent escalation in tactics from the Occupy crowd.
As you may have heard by now, this weekend, at the Americans for Prosperity dinner (a group with which the . . . sigh . . . Kochs are affiliated), Occupy DC decided that it would be a good idea to blockade the attendees into the DC convention center. The video is pretty disturbing to me:
I wish I could say this is unsurprising but it isn’t. The Occupy movement coalesced around anger as the primary motivating emotion…and this is never a healthy organizing force. It also seems that as media coverage has declined they have abandoned their peaceful park sit-ins and are becoming much more aggressive. The video Megan links to is telling. Physically blocking people’s movement is ridiculous. Then of course they also play the victim if the people they are harassing lash out. Classic bullying tactic.
On a completely partisan note I will also note that we never saw anything like this from the Tea Party which is why they have had the longevity that Occupy will certainly not enjoy. McArdle makes an equally partisan note about the hypocrisy of those that ignore these latest actions:
I have no doubt that support for these tactics is a minority sentiment on the left. But where are the condemnations that our left-wing commentariat were so eagerly demanding from the right a year ago every time Michelle Bachmann or another tea party figure said something stupid?
Bringing guns to political rallies is pretty stupid and was condemned accordingly (although I will note that to my knowledge no one has ever been physically assaulted at a Tea Party rally). I really don’t see the actions of Occupy as any different.
What was the Tea Party’s motivating emotion, if not anger?
And for the record, I’m with you on the danger (and idiocy) of political violence like this. But I think they’re the outliers, and I wouldn’t count Occupy Wall Street out so early.
I would say the Tea Party was/is motivated by disappointment.
I counted Occupy out weeks ago. This just confirms that decision.
Sure. Definitely not anger.
See! They’re all nice, calm, collected guys. Who pay their child support.
I thought we were discussing the group as a whole – not specific incidents. If the latter I would like to submit this as a representative sample of the Occupy folks.
Let’s talk about the group as a whole. Like their calm, collected, un-angry interactions with elected representatives.
What’s interesting is that neither one of those links actually makes the claim that Tea Party folks were the ones acting out. Also, in the first link it appears the liberals in the crowd were at least 50% of the problem:
“A forum with Democratic Rep. John Dingell in Romulus, Mich., also got rowdy as foes and supporters of health care reform argued with each other and one man, with his son in a wheelchair, shouted at the congressman.”
Stopped reading after that, huh?
I read both pieces. I also did a search of both pages for the word ‘Tea’.
Not specifically a Tea Party act of violence, according to both articles.
Oops.
And you should probably watch the videos.
Watched those too. I didn’t see anyone wearing a TP shirt or with a specifically-TP poster.
What typical left winger…Change the arguemnet when losing or pick at details but cant stand the same examination.Hypocrites.Occupy is a fringe group and bordering violent.Much like the Nazi party was.Then it rose to power.They demanded more from the government and their equal handout.
Marius, your just mental comparing the TP to occupy and not seeing occupy is the problem. The are a group of elitist racists and expect wealth distribution yet dont wish to give up their cushy lifestyle.Id swear some of these people get on the net just to spin people up.You have no arguement.Go home back to mom and dad and let them take car of you before the sit in started.