Is stopping people from shopping the way to protest unemployment? Is living in your own filth the way to protest inequality?

Let’s say for the sake of discussion that Wall Street has engaged in highly irresponsible practices in recent years that have contributed significantly to the financial crisis. Is the spectacle of protesters erecting stinking camps in the middle of cities, living in their own feces and urine (in the phrase used repeatedly by Rep. Peter King to Anderson Cooper last week), and trying to stop retail stores from functioning on the biggest shopping day of the year, the way to draw the country’s attention to that problem? Some people tell me it is. In my view, the following comments at Lucianne.com offer a more realistic response to Occupy Wall Street’s latest manifestation:

Reply 1—Posted by: Japanorama, 11/26/2011 1:44:33 AM

How dare corporations make products and sell them at prices we can afford.

The effrontery.

The greed.

From now on, I’m going to buy products produced by the Occupy people.

Reply 2—Posted by: 4Justice, 11/26/2011 1:50:17 AM

Yeah, and all those shoppers are just feeding that corporate greed with their unabashed consumerism … how dare they!! What a bunch of sell-outs!! I better write about it on my blog with my iPad, call all my friends on my smartphone and then go relax and listen to some anti-establishment tunes on my iPod….

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 26, 2011 10:20 AM | Send