Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
Back to Occupy MN after lunch. Why? Because I had to go to the bank to do evil banky things, and then pick up a book for my daughter and the Barnes and Noble Mind-Control Center (they only stock what the corporate media wants to you know.) As soon as I approached the plaza I knew today would be extra fun:
TeaPartiers crashing the joint? Of course not. LaRouchies, the Westboro Church of political gatherings. They’d steamed everyone up, but they were trying to find a common ground. You want Glass-Steagall? We want Glass-Steagall! You want an end to the Patriot Act? So do we! But everyone had a problem with the Hitler mustache. I think reductio ad adolpho is the stupidest type of political placard, and just because the other side did it for eight years doesn’t mean it’s time for them to get a taste of their own medicine. (But still. Snort.)
A few people in the crowd got heated, because the Obama-Hitler poster was harshing the general mellow, and a facilitator quickly entered to defuse the situation. Behold: the kindergarten approach to quietening a crowd. I’ll give them this: it works. If embed doesn’t show up, watch here. It's short - in fact I suggest that you hit the link.
But it only works on the people who want it to work. The angry guy - whose placard said he wanted to tax millionares, end the wars, legalize weed and abolish the Patriot Act - continued to talk. Other things I learned "Mike Check" is what you say when you don't have a microphone. Also, you can't vote anyone off the grounds if you outnumber them. Very nice, but that works right up until the moment when they outnumber you, and then the rules change quite swiftly.
The angry fellow had a sign with four demands: tax millionaires, end the wars, legalize weed, and revoke the Patriot Act. Priorities, priorities.
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Comments :
Aug '11
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
Wow. That's almost spooky.
Jul '10
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
Hey, at least he didn't use the phrase "criss-cross-applesauce".
Jan '11
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
James: "But still. Snort." I simply must praise such genius. Concise has a new definition.
Aug '10
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
"Mic check" is what the General Assembly uses to activate the human microphone: one person in the middle speaks a few words, and everyone in earshot yells out the words repeated, so that those near the edge of the crowd can hear. It's what you use when you plan for an occupation, but not communication.
Is anyone really surprised that kindergarten level tactics work on this crowd? Do they get rewarded for good behavior with free snacks and pizza as well? Oh, wait.... bad example.
Oct '11
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
The LaRouchies where inevitable participants this bizarre menagerie. They're like the methheads showing up at the house party. Yeah, they're awful and destructive but they sure do liven things up.
I couldn't pinpoint before why I found this kind of crowd control so grating but you nailed it. I work with multiple local elementary schools on on a weekly basis and these kinds of obnoxious in unison group acts are all the rage with the younger teachers. Call and response, finger wiggles, chants, in group terminology that only makes sense to the collective. So, are the activists being treated like children by their leadership? Or are the kids being trained to behave like activists?
Also, am I the only one that can't help but giggle through these videos? Why do they dress like angry whos from whoville?
Nov '10
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
Those LaRouchies are a strange bunch.
About six months ago, out of a clear blue sky, one of them called me at work. No idea how she got my number, but she launched into a sales pitch for a nationwide bullet train project to create employment and unify the country, paid for by the rich.
She kept telling me how great FDR was. I explained to her that it wasn't possible to convince me of that, and we ended up squabbling about FDR for the better part of 40 minutes. When the call ended, my officemates informed me that I'd been making a scene.
You ask why I didn't just hang up. Fair enough, but let me ask you this: if a total stranger called you on your business phone in the middle of a work day and tried to convince you that FDR was a great president, could you just hang up?
Edited on Oct 11, 2011 at 11:02pmMay '11
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
Starve the Beast: ...........You ask why I didn't just hang up. Fair enough, but let me ask you this: if a total stranger called you on your business phone in the middle of a work day and tried to convince you that FDR was a great president, could you just hang up? · Oct 11 at 10:25pm
Edited on Oct 11 at 11:02 pm
Yeah, I would, I have a business to run, and tying up the phone doesn't help :)
I cannot believe how child like these groups are, "Everyone who wants to diffuse the situation sit down" what the heck? Games like "Simon says" come to mind.....
Mar '11
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
FDR was a great president, but I would argue that he was not a good president. Stalin was a great man in the historical sense. There is a difference.
Apr '11
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
I find FDR pretty difficult to evaluate in black and white terms. He freed trade, defeated Hitler, and defeated Tojo. He provided union elections with a secret ballot, which gradually moved organised crime from representing 90% of the union movement to a minority and allowed unions to be democratic and hence patriotic so that when Warsaw Pact unions needed allies, they had someone to turn to despite Euro-unions being allied to their oppressors. A lot of the SEC set-up seems like it worked pretty well. He achieved an impressive degree of unity and avoided commie/ fascist revolts. Some good things came out of the UN. He so exhausted the country that he more or less ended the Progressive movement (although obviously lots of leftism would continue). After WWII, Germany, Japan, and the US all change their constitutions to prevent another similar leader from taking and keeping the reins.
Set against that, he worked with Stalin to create the UN, achieved the greatest assault on the Constitution since ratification, socially engineered, and impoverished America in a thousand ways.
Occupy seems like part of the civil strife he saved us from, though, so I feel grateful to him right now.
May '10
Re: Occupy MN: LaRouchies!
Starve the Beast:
You ask why I didn't just hang up. Fair enough, but let me ask you this: if a total stranger called you on your business phone in the middle of a work day and tried to convince you that FDR was a great president, could you just hang up? · Oct 11 at 10:25pm
Edited on Oct 11 at 11:02 pm
I am soooooo glad I've never been so tested.