Is there an "Occupy" movement in your city and, if so, have you participated?

I live in protland Oregon, and we have had one for a long time now. I have been vocally supportive, but now everyone is getting a little tired of it because they are not really doing anything productive, they are just smoking pot, and having sex. If they were rallying infront of bank buildings, passing petitions, or emailing congress, it would be different. To many there for the free food, and party scene.

There is an “Occupy” movement. While I support them in spirit I haven’t participated. I am happy to see some movement on the political left. The right is so well organized that sometimes it seems like there is no liberal voice. They get drowned out by birthers, truthers, deathers, 9/11 conspiracy nuts, torture enthusiasts, etc. Any right wing nut can can get airtime but the left are all but ignored by our corporate media.

Wow, really? associated press, huffington, koz, moveon, alomost all of hollywood, public broadcasting, most universities and community colleges, dont try to deny the last one because i am currently a student. It is a level playing field.

Free, when did daily kos (I assume that’s what you mean by koz), moveon, universities, and community colleges become “corporate media”? And when did AP, hollywood, and public broadcasting (which I’m happy to see identified as corporate media) become “left”? (Unless you consider Fox News the political “center.”) I think we’re pretty much down to Huff Post, which confirms Fillet’s complaint re pre-Occupy corporate media.

I’ve been down to the Occupy Boston camp a few times for a total of just several hours, but I hope to spend a lot more time there. My wife and I have donated equipment to them, and she just started to volunteer in the medical tent as a psychological counselor for people in crisis there (mostly, but not exclusively, for homeless street people).

Fillet, I’m not sure yet that the Occupy movement is so clearly “left.” Certainly at the beginning of the movement there was a very broad political spectrum of people who want to remove Wall Street from the political and economic driver’s seat in the USA. The camp here - a few hundred people - seems mostly left-leaning to me now, but I don’t know if that’s true elsewhere, and I don’t know if it’s true of the thousands of people who have participated in their occasional larger actions. (I also don’t know if they still intend to, or can, pull off actions of that size.)

Even in the Boston camp, there are people whose politics is not clearly left, sometimes not at all left. The longest substantive conversation I heard about political economy was led by an advocate of “Social Credit,” which from a progressive viewpoint has some appeal as an economic system, but is politically antidemocratic and saddled with a history of social and religious conservatism and antisemitism. I’m sorry to say I am not nearly so confident as you that conspiracism is a strictly right-wing phenomenon. It has made great inroads into the left in recent decades, unfortunately, though I agree it remains essentially reactionary in its political essence and implications.

Anyway, what’s most intriguing about this question for me (of whether the OWS movement is left or not) is that on the one hand, my own politics are generally progressive (though I am often disgusted with much of the left’s spiritual oblivion), and I am used to arguing for a spiritual-progressive perspective, but on the other hand I would rather see the OWS movement grow to be as broad as the majoritarian sentiment in the country that favors its primary objective of dethroning Wall Street to achieve a level of democracy that reaches more deeply into the economic structure than has previously been the case in this country (with the possible exception of the New Deal). That preference further strengthens my inclination of recent years to stress the spiritual aspect more than the political. I realize that is a hopelessly vague statement, but really, how deep do we want to go in a “FunAdvice” forum?

Yes, and no I have not. It got out of hand in my city so I chose not to participate with a bunch of kids who just wanted to cause trouble.

Wow, i am not left or right, but I am not in denial either. in fact I have come over from the right on alot of things, and I can clearly see media without the lenses of bias. You dont have to try to sell me on what is liberal or conservative media, It is easy to decipher if you have half a brain. The view, wolf blitzer, NPR, come on man, the left has plenty of outlet. You want to start talking about the percentage of reporters that work for papers like “The Oregonian” who vote Democrat? 70%.

Fillet, when you say “any right wing nut can get airtime” - can you clarify? Do you mean all right wing people are nuts, or do you mean a subset of the right wingers, the nuts, are the ones who get airtime?

The Daily Kos’ Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the CIA dropout… is funded by the Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Andrew and Deborah Rappaport… who also sponsor The Huffington Post. George Soros… currency speculator and venture capitalist… is the money man behind Moveon.org. To suggest that these two media outlets are cottage level is laughable… but I suppose suggesting otherwise may be conspiratorial… and that’s anathema to the priggish set who only allow for ulterior agendas when it fits their narrow world view. MSNBC… The Daily Show… Real Time with Bill Maher… there is a plethora of corporate leftist media to be consumed. Unlike the populist Tea Party movement that was later co-opted by the Koch Brothers to the delight of leftists everywhere who are more partisan than principled… who joined the statists in quashing a populist uprising… Many on the right refuse to be drawn into the divide and conquer ruse the statist are attempting with Occupy Wall Street. Moveon.org may be trying to co-opt the movement… Neocon statists may be denigrating the movement… it isn’t working. Crony capitalism is just the facade for fascism. Whomever it is that brings about its downfall is okay by me. The faster we shutter central banking the better. That domino will fall in time.

There are both right wing and left wing nuts but the difference is right wing nuts have gone professional while left wing nuts are ignored. While MSNBC has taken the left position in the media it is mainstream compared to most of the world or even by our standards a few decades ago. If Lyndon LaRouche had a show on MSNBC you might have a point. Currently any position even one tick to the left of some imagined Libertarian ideal is labeled Socialist by half of the media and the other half would be happy to get back to where we were under Reagan. Both sides play divide and conquer. Liberals play the middle against the rich while conservatives play the middle against the poor. 53%ers? People mad because people who live in poverty don’t pay income tax? What next? The poor people are biodegradable party? Rick Santelli started the Tea Party movement and Kalle Lasn started the Occupy movement. Personally I’d like to see both movements grow into political parties because I think conservatives deserve a better party than the Republican party and liberals deserve a better party than the Democratic party. We live in interesting times.

Jesus Spam, I have been saying this for a while now. The dems and reps are the same damn party. they keep us fighting against ourselves, “divide and conquer”, so that they can keep taking our money, keep shrinking the middle class. Both movements, I believe want to strengthen tthe middle class, it just seems that the Tea party movement got taken over by the republicans. When they started out they had a good message. hey were against corporations. I think it all begins with capaign finance reform. Get money out of politics.

Rick Santelli didn’t start the Tea Party movement… he was a usurper of the movement which began with ‘truthers’ and “end the fed’ers” in 2006 and was bolstered by disconcerted Ron Paul supprters following his failed bid for nomination. You’re citing a declaration of the Tea Party Patriots… the co-opted splinter group headed by D!ck Army and Sarah Palin. The group funded by the statist Koch Brothers… given all of the media attention… intending to lend a Republican quality to the movement so that any self respecting leftist should lambaste it with their full ire. http://funadvice.com/r/15hpap765ee You’ll notice the dates on this page predate your assertion of a February 2009 beginning for the movement. You’re adhering to the statist narrative that is easily disproven. You’re wrong… one side plays divide and conquer… the statist elite. The rest of us… unfortunately… fall for their machinations.

No my town does not. However, Chicago does. As for the rest posted something tells me Andy Rooney is up there getting a good chuckle out of it.

No my town does not. However, Chicago does. As for the rest posted something tells me Andy Rooney is up there getting a good chuckle out of it.