It is interesting to look back on those few years now. One thing I’ll add that doesn’t help any emerging movement get a foothold, is our exactly-two-sides political arena in the US and how religiously tied to their side people get. I remember hearing my Democrat mom ripping on “those loony tea-baggers” basically as soon as the first news story about their early demonstrations came out and before she could have really known what their demands were, but she DID know they seemed to be on Red Side so she knew they were no good. A lot of Blue Side people dismissed the Tea Party movement out of hand, and a lot of Red Side people would soon do the same with Occupy. It doesn’t even matter if the two sides would say the same thing, once people join a Side, part of the religion of it all is that you knee-jerk dismiss even the good points the other Side makes, just because of who made the point. Those Twitter accounts that post side-by-side screen caps of political activist types contradicting themselves from one tweet to another point this out well.

I visited an Occupy camp one day just to see what it was like. There were a lot of hangers-on who didn’t seem like they were there for any reason but that it was trendy, but I also didn’t see any of the wild progressive stack shit. But within the month of my visit I started seeing that in news stories, asking why isn’t Occupy speaking to the specific needs of Ethiopian transgender lesbian dragon-people in wheelchairs, and shortly after the movement lost all steam. Then the state forces moved in to clear the camps and there was no resistance.

It is interesting to look back on those few years now. One thing I’ll add that doesn’t help any emerging movement get a foothold, is our exactly-two-sides political arena in the US and how religiously tied to their side people get. I remember hearing my Democrat mom ripping on “those loony tea-baggers” basically as soon as the first news story about their early demonstrations came out and before she could have really known what their demands were, but she DID know they seemed to be on Red Side so she knew they were no good. A lot of Blue Side people dismissed the Tea Party movement out of hand, and a lot of Red Side people would soon do the same with Occupy. It doesn’t even matter if the two sides would say the same thing, once people join a Side, part of the religion of it all is that you knee-jerk dismiss even the good points the other Side makes, just because of who made the point. Those Twitter accounts that post side-by-side screen caps of political activist types contradicting themselves from one tweet to another point this out well.

I visited an Occupy camp one day just to see what it was like. There were a lot of hangers-on who didn’t seem like they were there for any reason but that it was trendy, but I also didn’t see any of the wild progressive stack shit. But within the month of my visit I started seeing that in news stories, asking why isn’t Occupy speaking to the specific needs of Ethiopian transgender lesbian dragon-people in wheelchairs, and shortly after the movement lost all steam. Then the state forces moved in to clear the camps and their was no resistance.