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Occupy Wall Street was started by a group of organized Canadians and they blocked access to NYSE facilities. OWS was obviously an occupation (it’s right there i

Occupy Wall Street was started by a group of organized Canadians and they blocked access to NYSE facilities. OWS was obviously an occupation (it’s right there in the name), but the better question is: was OWS a protest, too? If so, why can’t this be called one as well? There are generally more parallels between OWS and the truckers than people are willing to recognize, because there’s been a hell of an inversion: if you supported OWS 10 years ago you probably don’t like the truckers today and if you like the truckers you probably weren’t for OWS 10 years ago. There are a handful of Tim Pools that like both, and there are elites that disliked both, but the average person has to do some gymnastics. All that I ask is that everyone is consistent: if OWS is a protest, then this is too. If you don’t like that Americans funded the truckers, you have to be willing to call out that OWS took place in NYC but formed from a Canadian nonprofit.

jsnodlin 5y ago
michael1999 5y ago
Good point. If it hadn’t been for the honking and intimidation, I bet the party could still be going on. But the truckers imposed themselves on too many people to tolerate. They seemed to take pleasure in making Ottawa residents miserable. They had limited ability or willingness to police themselves which OWS at least tried to do.
joe_the_user 5y ago
All that I ask is that everyone is consistent: if OWS is a protest, then this is too. I have no idea why whether this event is a protest or not is considered the key question. Both movements could be protests and still be diametrically opposed in aims, approaches and broad political direction. Protests often go beyond the legal bounds of free speech. Yeah. But obviously go far enough beyond legal bounds and you may find yourself in jail. And if you've done that in a fashion that's mostly oriented to harming the average person, then you may well deserve to be in jail by a strong concensus. But sure, you're still protesting. Edit: A simple way to put that occurs to me is, sure, "people on the left support some protests that break some laws for some causes they consider important". But that doesn't mean they would or anyone would support "any protest that breaks any law for anything the protesters consider important"
woodruffw 5y ago
Having been around OWS: I cannot recall a single time when NYC’s municipal functions and/or the activities of ordinary citizens were affected by the protests. The OWS protests were famously contained to a few small blocks, in a non-residential area, and constituted more of a “live-in.”
- randallsquared 5y ago
  Not sure what it was like in 2011, but FiDi is definitely a residential area for at least the last few years.
  - woodruffw 5y ago
    FiDi's residential population is about 60k now, which is triple what it was in the early 2000s (and probably around double what it was around OWS). Notably the US census includes Battery Park City in FiDi, which significantly skews the numbers versus the business streets (where the protest was). By contrast, most of the residential neighborhoods in Manhattan easily clear 100k people, and are not as segregated in terms of business and residential streets.

jsnodlin 5y ago

michael1999 5y ago

Good point. If it hadn’t been for the honking and intimidation, I bet the party could still be going on. But the truckers imposed themselves on too many people to tolerate. They seemed to take pleasure in making Ottawa residents miserable. They had limited ability or willingness to police themselves which OWS at least tried to do.

joe_the_user 5y ago

All that I ask is that everyone is consistent: if OWS is a protest, then this is too. I have no idea why whether this event is a protest or not is considered the key question. Both movements could be protests and still be diametrically opposed in aims, approaches and broad political direction. Protests often go beyond the legal bounds of free speech. Yeah. But obviously go far enough beyond legal bounds and you may find yourself in jail. And if you've done that in a fashion that's mostly oriented to harming the average person, then you may well deserve to be in jail by a strong concensus. But sure, you're still protesting. Edit: A simple way to put that occurs to me is, sure, "people on the left support some protests that break some laws for some causes they consider important". But that doesn't mean they would or anyone would support "any protest that breaks any law for anything the protesters consider important"

woodruffw 5y ago

Having been around OWS: I cannot recall a single time when NYC’s municipal functions and/or the activities of ordinary citizens were affected by the protests. The OWS protests were famously contained to a few small blocks, in a non-residential area, and constituted more of a “live-in.”

randallsquared 5y ago
Not sure what it was like in 2011, but FiDi is definitely a residential area for at least the last few years.
- woodruffw 5y ago
  FiDi's residential population is about 60k now, which is triple what it was in the early 2000s (and probably around double what it was around OWS). Notably the US census includes Battery Park City in FiDi, which significantly skews the numbers versus the business streets (where the protest was). By contrast, most of the residential neighborhoods in Manhattan easily clear 100k people, and are not as segregated in terms of business and residential streets.