Saw this a few days ago on Twitter and thought it was interesting.
When the Tea Party movement broke out, there was a big hullabaloo. Everybody was talking about it. It was all over Fox News. But strangely, there was no real substantive resistance to it. People said some uncomplimentary things about it, but the only real attention it got from “the powers that be” was when major media sent reporters to publicize (and hype) their gatherings. Even when people started bringing guns to Tea Party rallies, it only raised eyebrows and sparked a few discussions about the Second Amendment.
Occupy Wall Street, on the other hand, shows up with tents (and in some cases with brooms and shovels to clean up the “occupation” site)—and the police are all over them, tear gas is being used in Oakland, leading politicians are uniting to denounce them and major media outlets seem either to ignore them or to paint them as some kind of irrational rabble.
Who’s the real threat here? More importantly, who do the powers-that-be see as being a real challenge to the status quo? If I were a Tea Party member, I’d be feeling pretty used right now.
The Teabaggers: not even good enough for a bad example.
I think the difference is that the Tea Party protesters went home at night, and then the next day found some other place to play. The Occupy Wall Street types came to stay.
If you were a teabagger, you’d be feeling rather smug and self-satisfied that you picked the winning team. The idea that you were a tool wouldn’t even have considered the possibility of crossing your little* mind.
*if you were a teabagger.
What i have gathered, from the few teabaggers i know personally, is that they are convinced OWS is being funded by the left wing media and labor unions. They see OWS as shills and tag-alongs.
I had one, last night, tell me he might have supported the movement if he hadn’t seen an extremely long anti-semitic rant on the “news”. He then got very angry when i pointed out how pissed he was when anyone pointed out all the ignoramuses at tea bagger rallies with signs majestically misspelled and used those very vocal few to color the whole tea party.
No, his irony meter hasn’t functioned in at least 15 years.
“What i have gathered, from the few teabaggers i know personally, is that they are convinced OWS is being funded by the left wing media and labor unions. They see OWS as shills and tag-alongs.”
Without of course realizing that the tea party are nothing more than shills for the Koch brothers and their ilk, who fund them. Which of course explains the difference in how OWS is teated. The teabaggers are a tool of the far right overlords. OWS is a threat to them. So call in those other shills for the rich, the police.
sorry – “treated”…..