dirteyes asked: What are your views on the whole occupy wall street thing?
I’m kind of in a “we’ll see” mode. It’s a pretty recent phenomenon and they say they’re in it for the long haul, so let’s see if they are. It’s also hard to tell what information we’re receiving about the protests and their goals is accurate, given the pro-establishment, pro-sensationalism bias I’d argue exists in the media.
From everything I’ve read, it sounds like Occupy Wall St is not really a unified movement with a clear set of demands. Some of what they’re asking for I support (the anti-war, anti-Fed, anti-corruption, anti-corporatism stuff), and some of it I don’t (the pro-additional regulations, anti-free market stuff).
I do think there’s a significant amount of confusion among the protesters over the source of the problems they’re protesting and solutions they’re seeking: In many cases, the line seems to be “We object to the government giving corporations all these special privileges and basically becoming the enforcement wing for criminal corporate activity; so let’s have the government get more involved in the financial sector.” The problems are being diagnosed well, but the solutions aren’t so great or logical.
