So earlier today my Dad forwarded me the following email from his friend with the message, "MARSHALL: Here is one you can answer for me ! LYTP DAD". Considering that this appears not to be an actual article by Thomas Sowell its even more fun to dissect the nuttiness.
So I did, with what ability I have assisted by the Internets Machine. I've decided to post it up here so that I can refer back to it later and, hopefully, someone out there gets as annoyed with these types of misrepresentations of the Occupy Movement as I do. Funny how the people putting out this type of rhetoric often seem to be the same folks who cheered on deregulation and record CEO profits during pre-recession days...
It gets ugly below the squiggle.
The email from my Father's friend citing a story supposedly written by Sowell (which I am having a hard time finding in any form other than email repostings on blog sites like this one here).
Subj: Fwd: Occupy Wall Street - Sowell
This very well sums up the current situation.
Thomas Sowell is brilliant, at one time he guest hosted Rush's radio show several times.
This is a letter to the editor in last Mondays Knoxville News-Sentinel. It is correct and true, and on the newspaper's website. The author,Thomas Sowell, is black, and a highly respected writer. He is at Stanford University.
The current Occupy Wall Street movement is the best illustration to date of what President Barack Obama's America looks like. It is an America where the lawless, unaccomplished, ignorant and incompetent rule. It is an America where those who have sacrificed nothing pillage and destroy the lives of those who have sacrificed greatly.
It is an America where history is rewritten to honor dictators, murderers and thieves. It is an America where violence, racism, hatred, class warfare and murder are all promoted as acceptable means of overturning the American civil society.
It is an America where humans have been degraded to the level of animals: defecating in public, having sex in public, devoid of basic hygiene. It is an America where the basic tenets of a civil society, including faith, family, a free press and individual rights, have been rejected. It is an America where our founding documents have been shredded and, with them, every person's guaranteed liberties.
It is an America where, ultimately, great suffering will come to the American people, but the rulers like Obama, Michelle Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy
Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, liberal college professors, union bosses and other loyal liberal/Communist Party members will live in opulent splendor.
It is the America that Obama and the Democratic Party have created with the willing assistance of the American media, Hollywood , unions, universities, the Communist Party of America, the Black Panthers and numerous anti-American foreign entities.
Barack Obama has brought more destruction upon this country in four years than any other event in the history of our nation, but it is just the beginning of what he and his comrades are capable of.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is just another step in their plan for the annihilation of America .
"Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it."
Thomas Sowell
“If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.”
Samuel Adams, 1780
If not now, when? If not us, who?
My Response
Dad, Gary, et al,
Thomas Sowell is a conservative economist who probably hasn't even visited an Occupation. In my humble opinion, to think that the people in hundreds of public squares across the world are just there because of Barack Obama is to ignore over 30 years of systemic deregulation to favor transnational corporations and the financial sector. Thomas Sowell himself has argued several times for the exact type of financial sector deregulation that dragged our economy into recession, (here is Thomas defending high executive salaries in 2007). If people want to still listen to the pied pipers who helped orchestrate this mess (i.e. Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers, Hank Paulson, etc.) then more power to them. If people want to fix the mess then I believe that they/we should get into the public square and redress their/our grievances with the government instead of throwing stones at the patriots who are.
Analysis:
"It is an America where history is rewritten to honor dictators, murderers, and thieves." Actually, history is being rewritten by corporations.
Also, I love how people try to paint the Occupy Movement as racist....have you seen how white Tea Party rallies are? Compare that to Occupations that regularly have bi-lingual events in the Southwest states and generally have an incredible amount of diversity when side-by-side with essentially any other movement.
"It is an America where humans have been degraded to the level animals: defecating in public, having sex in public, devoid of basic hygiene." First off, this is totally over-hyped and not true in general besides like two different video clips (and considering that there are tens of thousands of occupiers around the country that really isn't a bad ratio). Secondly, so, when people without homes were doing all these things in an alleyway everything was just hunky dory but now that you can actually see someone doing said things (usually because they have mental health issues) suddenly its a problem? I wonder why people, who are supposedly pro-life, don't seem to care about their fellow human beings. W.W.J.D.? He would definitely befriend homeless people instead of demonizing them. Thirdly, do you have any idea how much more often these things happen at regularly scheduled music festivals/concerts?
"It is an America where the basic tenets of a civil society, including faith, family, a free press and individual rights, have been rejected." This is just blatantly untrue. There are multi-faith services at quite a few of the Occupy sites that I've seen. PBS did a good piece on this (which I'm sure our friend will write off as liberal media clap-trap when, in fact, its just a report that there are several denominations and religious leaders who have come out in support). Here's an AP article, basically with the same point.
And citizen journalism is an instrumental part to the story being told on the ground. Decentralizing the corporate grip on our media is of utmost importance, in my humble opinion. That is where you find amazing interviews and video like Scott Olsen getting shot in the temple while literally standing and peacefully doing nothing (and the reports get picked up by the mainstream media who consistently fails to have people on the ground to document what is going on).
Also, we regularly have whole families attend our occupy events and this same thing appears to be true of other occupations based on watching live streams (a list of some of the live streams for various occupations can be found here)
"It is an America where our founding documents have been shredded and, with them, every person's guaranteed liberties." This is again blatantly untrue. The only "liberties" we are trying to shred is corporate person-hood, which is undeserved, unjustifiable, and destroying our political system. There are multiple quotes from the founders, and various other great Americans, warning us about corporations becoming too powerful:
• "The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing." John Adams
• "We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war [civil war] is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood ... It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." President Abraham Lincoln
• "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson
"It is an America where, ultimately, great suffering will come to the American people, but the rulers like Obama, Michelle Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, liberal college professors, union bosses and other loyal liberal/Communist Party members will live in opulent splendor."
This is not a political movement, in my opinion. It is a human social movement that has political consequences. I believe the Occupy Movement is larger than partisan politics, which, (thanks in great part to the corporate monopoly of old media) has become a emotionally manipulative tool used to divide Americans. Conservatives and liberals are communicating and addressing issues together in the public square. That scares the heck out of corporate media, most of whom have secured their financial futures by sequestering themselves behind reporting desks in Washington DC and NYC and attempting to speak for people whose economic realities they do not share.
"It is the America that Obama and the Democratic Party have created with the willing assistance of the American media, Hollywood , unions, universities, the Communist Party of America, the Black Panthers and numerous anti-American foreign entities."
Please realize how paranoid that statement reads. I have been asked if I am getting paid by everyone from George Soros to the Muslim Brotherhood. it is ridiculous to think there is some grand conspiracy other than the out-in-the-open one of a bought government. Question your media sources and fact check everything, because this is just the kind of insane divisive echo chamber lunacy I would like to see us leave behind that keeps us from coming together to find real solutions.
"Barack Obama has brought more destruction upon this country in four years than any other event in the history of our nation, but it is just the beginning of what he and his comrades are capable of. The Occupy Wall Street movement is just another step in their plan the annihilation of America"
Barack Obama's biggest contributor last election: Goldman Sachs. One of the top RNC financial sector contributors as of the 2010 midterms? Goldman Sachs.
We are being gamed by both parties who have created an unsustainable system that is only working for corporate and monied interests.
"Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." Thomas Sowell
First, an actual definition of socialism, since it is commonly misused. Secondly, in this phrase Thomas manages to ignore the fact that our current system does have elements of socialism in it (which apparently scares the bejeesus out of people like Mr. Sowell). Exhibit "A" regarding socialist systems that we currently utilize would include a list something like this: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, requirement of automobile insurance, enforced seat belt use, fire departments, public libraries, public works, parks, eco preservations, roads, bridges, sidewalks, bike paths, armed forces, NASA, welfare, subways, port authority, Electric Cooperatives, public transit, the VA, SCHIP, etc. There is a reason we have these programs, departments, and services. The collective efforts made in these programs keep millions of Americans from living in total abject poverty, and instead millions live in barely livable poverty, (According to the U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday September 13th, 2011, the nation's poverty rate rose to 15.1% (46.2 million) in 2010). These programs may not all be perfect, but very little that we do as a species ever is.
In parting I'll trade one of my favorite Samuel Adams quotes as well: "All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another."
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
I would advise anyone who cares to liberate their mind to step away from our emotionally manipulative corporate owned media and try independent researching of all news articles. I advise sourcing each story on at least three independent sites.
Hopefully we all end up at a new Constitutional Convention soon and can put some serious checks to power in place to address the modern threats to democracy that we've seen develop over the last few decades.
Sincerely hoping you have a great day!
Marshall Getto
http://occupysb.org/