What she said.
A lot of concern trolling blowing across OWS like a foul, hot, fetid wind: from the NYTimes's "angry" meme from this morning to our own Kossacks' concerns--many valid, some waspishly so, some meh-tastically, some, unfortunately rankly trollish--over "problems," a whole lot of concern seems to be coming our way. Here's a few reasons why I don't share your . . . concerns.
1. What she said.
Complexity /
chaos. Just like an iPad would seem like magic to a caveman, so OWS might seem all crazy-scary if you're not down with consensus-based decisionmaking, or sleeping outside, or drum circles, or whatever. People wearing masks at a protest, yipes! Human microphones! Lengthy decisionmaking without coercion or anger! So it's new, complex, unprocessed, a bit raw, nothing wrong with that, even if you don't like it.
2. These folks:
Somehow I value the simple humanity, the diversity, the self-reliance, and resilience of the folks above--above all, our power to come together and share these things together, building something that's even greater than ourselves alone--than all of the words a REDACTED like David Brooks has ever committed to print. I mean, duh. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck vs the WWII veteran? R U serious?
3. In a month, we've done a few things.
Like: seized, held, and shaped the national and international discourse. Held territory, and turned it into liveable space. Made the NYPD back down twice (and made ourselves stronger in the process). Made converts across the globe. Inspired hundreds of similar protests. Had a blast. Made music. Made love. Just made. Indeed, y'all trolls might be asking what our playbook is, and what you might learn from it.
4. We're rich!
$300,000 in a month ain't chump change, chumps. Care to tell me how much you're raking in at #Concerntrollsareconcerned? Yeah, thought so. You do have lovely signs, though, but I am so worried about your lack of a demand platform and those goddamn drum circles, you godless hippie scum.
What are our demands? REDACTED if I know. And I doubt this kid does
or this gentleman
or this lovely lady
or this patriotic young man
or these two men
and none of us are all that worried about it. We're too busy thinking, talking, doing, making, being, Occupying for those tiresome . . . concerns.
We might be troubling to you, but that doesn't make us a problem.
12:44 PM PT: Holy carp, the Rec List!!! On my second diary!!! AWWW YEAH
Thanks to the DKos community for your continued support of OWS. I am proud to call myself a progressive, proud to be numbered among your august company. Let's. Do. This.
1:33 PM PT: Hello Kossacks, again, I'm honored by your recs and comments. I have do go run and do that NYC commuter thing, will check back in soon!
I really appreciate the legitimate, nuanced concerns folks have over the possible divisiveness of what I've written here. So I'll chew that over on the subway home. Lemme say right off that, obviously, I'm not trying to curtail debate, or to silence honest criticism and valid worries about OWS. Some of the title was meant humorously, which I'm not sure is clear to those of you who are worried-offended. But I would say that we do need to look Concern Trolls and Concern Trollishness squarely in the face and say, "Step, REDACTED," and that's sort of what I'm trying here. I rather doubt this diary will either save or damn OWS, but thanks so much for all of your comments. More later.
3:17 PM PT: Have to run again, Kossacks. That whole Koch Theater thing nyceve mentions below. Should be fun, hope to be back later with pictures.
I sort of regret some of the intemperate cuss words, and I'm thinking of REDACTING those. So you can just see the word REDACTED and imagine your own cuss words.
9:45 PM PT: Perhaps everyone has gone to bed, but so much to think about in your comments, really, it's overwhelming, thanks for the feedback.
Here are some photographs from the Granny Peace Brigade protest at Lincoln Center
More tomorrow, with some thoughts on the whole troll thing. Many of you have expressed a feeling that this was unnecessarily divisive, and that seems like a good thing to talk about. So more soon, I hope!