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Tea Party Envy: On the media & the Wall Street Protests

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In an e-mail, one of our regular readers wondered why I hadn’t commented on the Wall Street protests.  And my reply was basically this, these rallies aren’t as interesting a phenomenon as they are a meta-phenomenon, interesting only because the media is bending over backwards to find them significant, hoping to find in them some non-right-of-center grassroots movement, that is, an alternative to the Tea Party.  (They’ve been looking for such phenomena for some time in coffeehouses without labels.)

“The numbers,” as Roger Simon writes at Pajamas, “aren’t very big, especially for New York, and every generation has its ‘useful idiots.’ I’ve been one myself. The demonstrations appear to be just another float passing by in the grand media parade.”

The protesters — as well as the media covering them — wish they were part of a broader epoch-defining phenomenon when they’re merely a bunch of folks in late adolescence doing what idealistic and unhappy folks in that period of life do: blow off steam in a very public (and presumptuous) manner.

“‘Tahrir Envy,’ indeed,” Roger quips, referencing the recent protests in Egypt which brought down a tyrant:

Everyone wants to be part of the show and the insatiable media needs a subject. Factor in too something that might be called “Tea Party Envy.” The left, historically the ones making the noise, were shocked, appalled and, yes, envious of the Tea Party being the prime focus of attention over the last couple of years. They yelled and screamed imbecilically of racism and now they have a demonstration of their own. (That won’t stop them from screaming racism, of course.)

Read the whole thing.

Comments

  5. Typical liberal symbolism over substance. I wonder what would happen if these folks with nothing to do and nowhere to go actually tried to accomplish something instead of trying to get on the nightly news. I’d love it if someone would ask these people if they voted in the last election (they didn’t) or decided to back a candidate who agrees with them even if he or she doesn’t know what they’re doing. So much for democracy; give us mob rule instead!

  8. Heh…bunch of spineless wimps by international standards. One of the less-bright brokerages taped in their windows above the demonstration, “We’re the one-percent.” In most countries, the mob would have just burned them, AFTER defenestrating a few as an example to the rest.

    Here, the Unwashed just waved to Dad and their younger brother in the windows.

  9. The MSM, Obama, & the Obama unions believe they have found their answer to the Tea Party. They couldn’t be more wrong; it is already a lethargic blob of din signifying nothing. Why? They come from the Obama White House.

  10. Today, here in the other boroughs, protestors interrupted student testing at community colleges, to whine about increased tuition by blowing whistles.

    If I were a student paying my own way, I’d be really annoyed.

  13. I find it ironic that the MSM and the Dhimmicrats did everything they could to minimize the importance and impact of the Tea Party, but are now calling these losers in Manhattan the libtard equivalent of the Tea Party!

    I thought we were, oh, I don’t know – irrelevant? Racist sexist bigoted homophobes? Not to be taken seriously?

    And now the Dhimmicrats and their willing allies in the media are creating an aura around the communist equivalent?

    Hypocrisy, thy name is liberalism.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  14. Hi Dan,

    And my reply was basically this, these rallies aren’t as interesting a phenomenon as they are a meta-phenomenon, interesting only because the media is bending over backwards to find them significant, hoping to find in them some non-right-of-center grassroots movement, that is, an alternative to the Tea Party.

    I am uncertain why what you say here could not be said about The Tea Party when it first started. It had a champion in Fox Media (part of the MSM when I last saw it), from the start. Other MSM folks came on board very quickly as well. The MSM basically ignored these Wal Street folks until the police got heavy handed with pepper spray. Getting arrested also plays well on TV. The interesting thing that you don’t say is that the MSM tends to look at these folks in a condescending manner, mainly because they do not fit the script of a hierarchically organized group (Tea Party parallels…), with a polished uniform message. They do not have a “vision” that fits nicely on a postage stamp for easy consumption. Partly because it is disorganized and fits the ad hoc manner in which these folks came together. But their rallying cry of the “other 99%” will gather steam, I think, whether they continue on or not. Catchy, though the echoes back to the French Revolution and the “Third Estate” bear some scrutiny! It is an open question whether or not these protests will develop into something more, but saying that they are merely bout “late adolescents letting off steam,” well, that also sounds a little, … condescending?

    Out of curiosity, at what point would you consider that they were about more than “letting off steam…” and were in fact a movement, epochal or otherwise, having an affect on society and its discourse?

  16. Out of curiosity, at what point would you consider that they were about more than “letting off steam…” and were in fact a movement, epochal or otherwise, having an affect on society and its discourse?

    Probably now that the fisters have violent union thugs joining in. BTW, have you seen the Worker’s World (Communist) Party website today? They’re in cahoots as well.

    So what happens now? More Jews harassed, more blacks get the everlovin’ shit kicked out of ’em, more Seasoned Citizens smacked and shoved around. Same song, different verse. I imagine they’ll probably get really original and engage in some vandalism of personal property (looting?). Meanwhile, these poor, ignorant bastards will be egged on by the Old Liberal Media and from the floor of Congress by morons who aren’t fit to lead a johnny detail. These would be the same pathetic morons who’ve legislated all that the ignorant bastards are bitching about.

    And suddenly all the ignorant bastards will go home to daddy’s basement, when their money runs out, to download flicks of Maddow, O’Donnell & Grossanne ménage à trois. The TEA Party will still be hear and the stupid pussies will be soundly defeated next November in the worst ass whoopin’ they ever saw.

  17. The liberals must be proud: “Go back to Israel, Jew!”

    If you take anti-Israel sentiment as a proxy for anti-Semitism… and if you notice the increasing numbers of lefties lately who have either hinted or stated that elections should be suspended in the U.S… and if you notice the authoritarianism that has underlain U.S. liberalism/neo-socialism all along… as well as their anti-Christianity… their willingness in some cases to use thuggish violence… and their calls for “patriotic” self-sacrifice… U.S. left-liberals bear an ever-increasing resemblance to Germany’s former National Socialists.

    The only major policy difference they’d still have with the NSDAP, that I can think of, is that the racism of U.S. left-liberals happens to be an anti-white racism, rather than a pro-white/pro-German racism.

  18. As for the OccupyWallStreet dimwits: They’d be smarter to OccupyWashington. (That’ll be the day.) The truly unjust, “profiteering” parts of Wall Street are… the parts that are in bed with Washington, seeking to use the power of the State for an advantage over their fellow citizens. Bundlers/donors who, at this juncture, seem to be chiefly Democrats: George Kaiser (Solyndra), George Soros, Goldman-Sachs, etc. No, they are not good capitalists.

    Just a few months back, people on the right who organized to protest the status quo were labeled “terrorists.” Now, when people on the left do it, they’re the darlings of the MFM.

    Yeah. They *actually* inconvenience, if not injure their fellow Americans to pressure them – that is, terrorize them. So why aren’t they being labeled terrorists?

  20. Occupy Wall Street reminds me of the South Park underpants gnomes, who used the formula:

    Phase 1, collect underpants
    Phase 2, ???
    Phase 3, profit

    Except the formula is:

    Phase 1, Occupy Wall Street
    Phase 2, ???
    Phase 3, ???

  21. As always, good stuff at HotAir. First, Allah figuring out whether OWS helps Obama:

    The[se protests are] helpful insofar as anything that shifts economic blame from The One to anyone else — Wall Street, Eric Cantor, those darned tea-party wingnuts — is helpful. The problem for the White House is that these people very much aren’t ready for their media close-up yet… “Blame the banks, not Obama!” is exactly what O wants to see on TV, but not coming out of the mouth of a hippie so caricaturish that he looks like he might have stepped out of a Weekly Standard cover…

    Heh. Next, Cain gets the protestors:

    What do they want? … Don’t blame the banks… If you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself… It is not a person’s fault because they succeeded. It is a person’s fault if they failed.

    And he has good comments about changing the Fed.

  24. Trolling the “Occupy (Insert City Name)” pages on Facebook has been a blast, though. The Occupy Grand Rapids hippies put up one of those poll-thingies and solicited suggestions for their next “Action.” Me and some of the morons from the AoSHQ FB page began adding suggestions like “Anti-Corporate Drum Circle” and “Veal Eating Contest.”

  25. Better they should be occupying K Street in Washington….that’s the home of the real criminals. But I don’t think their public school education has taught them analytical thinking so they’re incapable of figuring things out for themselves. So, senseless slogans will have to do.

  28. I would suggest that for the time-being that thinking-persons refrain from using the term “fair share”…which is undefinable…and consider instead “tolerable burden” when discussing tax rates and who should pay how-much. Otherwise any discussion of tax-policy eventually devolves to wealth-redistribution versus class struggle and collective guilt.

  29. “Tolerable burden” – can you use it in a sentence?

    As for “fair share”: I think the poor and the unemployed should pay their fair share. Many of them pay no income taxes at all, not even in-kind i.e. volunteering for the benefit of society. (And no, protesting is not for the benefit of society.)

  30. Phase 1, Occupy Wall Street
    Phase 2, ???
    Phase 3, ???

    Heard a story on the radio about Occupy Dallas. They can’t seem to agree what they’re pissed about. They’re protesting against all the usual liberal Enemies of the State.

  32. Someone should put up photos comparing the aftermath of TEA Party protests and those by these folks. I’m willing to bet the difference in property damage and trash left behind is quite stark. Who knew that “racists” picked up after themselves and weren’t prone to smash everything in sight?