Do not feed the trolls

Okay, so tonight on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (my television boyfriend) I caught a glimpse of the Wall Street protesters which, I freely admit, I have not been paying much attention to. I mean, I knew there were people down there and they were unhappy (about...something) and there was a bit of a ruckus going on but...I had not really invested a lot of time into understanding it.

Tonight I saw some people wandering around lower Manhattan dressed as zombies, walking as zombies, making weird arm movements like zombies and I think this was part of the protest. Maybe some kind of statement about bankers and...zombies? I don't really know. 

Anyway, my first thought was, "These are a bunch of idiots that just wanted to go dress up like zombies and not do whatever they were supposed to do today." And, yeah, that's a wide-open thought without any research but it was honestly the first thing that popped into my head as I sat on the couch, still savoring the Amanda Knox segment that preceded it. I mean, really. ZOMBIES?

I tweeted something about it and awhile later I got a reply from someone I don't know (he probably found the tweet via search) and ohhhhhh I was ITCHY to respond to him because look how STUPID this is, but, you know, rule number one of the internet is You Don't Feed Trolls.

I think he was trying to say that they were dressed up like zombies and protesting for these specific wants. I can't be sure, as he only gets 140 characters, but I THINK that was his point. Anyway, for the record:

I don't think anyone is entitled to a job in the sense that I think protesting and dressing like a zombie creates meaningful long-term employment opportunities.

I don't think anyone is entitled to free health care and that's totally unrealistic anyway. Even if it was "free"(covered) it wouldn't really be free. You'd pay for it in other ways.

I think "the rich" are taxed quite heavily in this country and there's actually a gigantic segment of our population that pays zero income tax.

I...don't think we have a plutocracy, in the truest sense of the concept.

And if that means I need help then...I suppose he'd be willing to pay for it with his taxes. Which, in that case, we'll probably need to raise. A lot.

Comments

[Jessica]

I agree with you completely.

[HereWeGoAJen]

I don't think you need help, I think he needs punctuation.

Now, this is why I don't watch the news. What zombies? I saw enough on Twitter about Amanda Knox that I looked it up, so I kind of know what is going on there. And yes, I really ought to watch the news, but that would cut into my stare at blogs time.

[melissa]

I saw an article today about suggested demands for the people marching on wll street. Two suggestions were 1. minimum wage of $20 and 2. minimum living wage regardless of employment. So I think you were spot on to say 'stupid'.

[Elsha]

The funny part is that you didn't even say that what they are protesting for is stupid. You said zombies are stupid. And you know what? They could be protesting for anything and being zombies would be stupid.

[Lauren]

Oh, A'Dell, can we please complain about taxes and idiots together in Austin?

A tweet like that would have had me stewing all day. Because that guy is clearly so ignorant that he needs the real world explained to him. And yet, there's approximately zero chance that it would help (especially in 140-character doses). Argh.

[craftyashley]

And dressing up like zombies accomplishes this HOW? I get having a cause (may not be a cause I agree with) but isn't it rule #1 that others should be able to piece together exactly what and why you are protesting?

[meghan]

I don't get the zombie thing at all. If you want to protest, do it in a way that people know what you're saying and what you stand for. Zombies??? that just doesn't make any sense

And I can NOT stand when people have a google alert or search set up in order to seek out topics simply to create controversy. They must have such a boring life that they have nothing else to do with their time.

[Life of a Doctor's Wife]

I love all your points.

Also... It's absurd that zombies are involved at all. How does that get a serious agenda across?

[Roberta]

As you've probably guessed by now, I'm a tree-hugging crunchy liberal elitist tax raiser, or whatever you want to call me. ;-) But the point of a protest like this was lost on me a loooong time ago. Really? This is the best thing you can do with your time? Why don't you go do something REAL if you want to change things? How about coming up with actual solutions instead of..whatever that zombie thing is supposed to be?

[Michael Duffy]

The zombie thing is silly and pointless and not part of the main protest anyway.

The OccupyWallStreet protests however are anything but pointless. There is a real problem in this country with the way that Wall Street and the banking system is set up and how they are being bailed out with taxpayer funds, the way that corporate interests and money have such a strong influence on the political system (plutocracy), and the way these ongoing wars are bleeding our country dry.

No one is entitled to a free job, but Wall Street is no longer investing in America to create American jobs. People want to work, but there are no jobs to be had for the millions of unemployed workers trying to find work.

As a country, we spend double what other countries do on healthcare and our results are well below theirs. For Pete's sake, we rank just below Cuba in overall healthcare rankings, and more Americans die from being uninsured than from wars or terrorism. So maybe our priorities are kinda screwed up in that area.

The top 1% income bracket actually pays a lower effective tax rate than middle class Americans once all the tax rates and loopholes are taken into account. And since the lower class aren't dodging taxes, it is more appropriate to say that half of all of the jobs in America pay so poorly that those workers are deemed too poor to pay federal income tax. Note that they still pay the regressive payroll taxes, state and local taxes, sales taxes, gasoline taxes, property taxes, etc... so their tax burden is still upwards of 20-30% of their income.

And our tax burden as a percentage of GDP is at a 60 year low, so we aren't as over-taxed as some people would like us to believe. And when companies like GE make billions of dollars but pay 0% in taxes, then something is not right.

There is a good reason for the OccupyWallStreet protests, though they aren't articulating their message as well as they should. But if you look beyond the pranksters, you will see that there are some very desperate people fighting to make it possible for the vast majority of Americans to be able to participate in and benefit from the (supposed) wealth of our country.

Cheers,
Mike

[Erin G]

I love that you wrote this. Without feeding the trolls. I can't even tell you how often you so EXACTLY articulate the thoughts in my head, better than I could.

[Flaime]

True, there is no such thing as free health care. But health care in the US costs more than twice what it costs in the rest of the industrialized world (last count, 18% of GDP - most countries spend about 7-8% of GDP - the disparity is caused by a system (private insurers) that has no incentive to ensure quality, affordable care, and politicians who don't understand that more hospitals don't equate to better (or cheaper) health care (more hospitals simply means more empty beds, which drives costs up).

The people in the top tax brackets in the US paid, on average, 15% of income in taxes. The people in the bottom two tax brackets paid, on average, 38% of income in taxes. People want that disparity corrected. And since taxes as a % of GDP has now fallen to it's lowest point since before WWII, and our national priorities have become the most jingoistic since WWII, perhaps it makes sense to raise the effective tax rate of the highest tax bracket to be the same as every one else's? They would still be the lowest income taxes in the G8.

And you're correct. We don't have a plutocracy. We have a republican system of government that has been taken over by a monied oligarchy.