Occupy Wall Street Protests not working? What do you think?

[richardhutnik]

HappySqurriel said:

badgenome said:

Kasz216 said:

badgenome said:

richardhutnik said:

As far as getting "ethical consumerism" whatever that is (does it mean that you wait politely in line as you max out your credit card to buy made in China junk you don't need?)

No.

The only problem with ethical consumerism is that it costs you money and status, because well for one, an ethical consumer would never buy anything from Apple.

Very true, and the fact that Apple is so beloved in OWS circles speaks volumes.

The reason that the Nanny State is such a popular idea is that it gives people the ability to believe that they're making a difference without ever having to know, think about, understand or do anything ... No matter how much more effective it will be, spending the minimal amount of effort to look into the products they're buying to see if the companies that produce them share their values is beyond most of the OWS crowd.

Their support from Apple isn't even the thing that bothers me most about protestors like the OWS crowd ...

Brand name designer clothing tends to be produced in sweat-shops where people work in deplorable conditions for abysmal wages, and these sweat-shops (often) have some of the worst environmental practices, all to make the manufacturing costs as low as possible. These clothes are then sold with some of the largest mark-ups of any consumer good and the profits are then used to support a modern form of aristocracy that has a membership based on the most shallow of values and nepotism; and the sale of these clothes are driven by blind consumerism that is fed based on the opinions of corrupt insiders.

Or to put it another way, designer clothing is the purest symbol of everything anti-capitalists hate and you would expect them to reject the industry on principle. What you actually see in most of the protests are a bunch of spoiled rich kids dressed up in the "Young Radical" line of many big designer labels.

Today, youth are not challenged to go and make a brighter future.  They have been fed a line about being good consumers, and getting a good job, settling down, having the house and evermore (just play by the rules and things will work themselves out).  Find peace in owning the best brands.  Get religious devotion to corporate logos.  That is the life fed, but now it is backfiring and the youth are now feeling they had been played by promises not delivered.  Occupy does offer a chance at the big picture, even if on personal level it is missing, and they don't even know what Ad Busters is into.

I am reminded of this music video when discussing this: