I'm so on the fence about this. Just one thing though - regarding the dogs - many squatters have them b/c they provide some sort of alarm should anyone ever try and rob/rape/murder them.

With a face tat, in the busted mag, couldja give my dog a bone?

This trustafar-i drove his land cruiser home.

Clap clap

Well, well, Mr. 99%. You certainly do have the 1% mentality. Roughly 12.7 million people are unemployed. Why is that? Too busy enjoying your hi def flat screen to notice? Maybe we can improve public education or we can save the taxes to purchase your new computer desk from Ikea? Besides, we can import intellectuals anyway. Who needs you?

@#1. You're so lazy you can't even make a profile. So the I/A is right about you. Second, when you say "expect us" I want you to know I do have expectations. I expect people to work if they are physically capable of doing so. Life can be hard. It's not all about hackey sack and crooning over severely out-of-tune guitars. Quit making excuses. Shower, shave and put in some apps. Anyone who doesn't at least try is a fucking bum.

I do agree that the economy is completely off balance, but I also agree that there are too many choosy beggars in this country. It's hard to get a job and make a comfortable living these days, but that doesn't mean that you should just NOT work, even a low paying job.

I know everyone's situation is different, some have a harder time than others, but I also know that there a lot of people who, given a choice of working a McDonalds drive thru or not having a job at all, choose no job. Then ask for handouts. And that's bullshit. You do what you can, even if it's shitty and you feel it's beneath you.

Thanks, YNH!

Yeah, just to ducktail what YNH said, there are plenty of homeless "street" people who work their asses off. And there are plenty of people with f/t jobs who don't do shit.

#6, as long as you want to play "stupid stereotypes" I guess I can imagine you reading Jonah Goldberg columns and fantasizing yourself to be some future conservative goon icon. You can do it, too! It's easy. In fact, it's too easy. It does save you from thinking about what's going on and whether this is a fair society.

I understand that "your type" doesn't understand "fair". It's an alien concept. Like Mitt Romney says, you can make it on your own if you try, and if you have to, borrow $20,000 from your parents.

#11 soo nailed it!

#1. I'd believe you were "coming to get us" if I thought you could put the pipe down long enough to get motivated and organized.
The Occupiers message is now lost in overgrown beards and bong water.

gyser, Great diatribe. I'm far from conservative, but tell me this; what exactly has Occupy accomplished besides being in the news this past year? Exactly?

What Occupy has accomplished will largely be recognized in retrospect; it's harder to debate accomplishments while it's still going on. But for the major achievements so far, I'd mention: Getting economic justice onto the national political agenda in an unprecedented way. Prompting discussions of issues of social class that had been largely invisible or unmentionable in this country previously since the Cold War days of anticommunism. Convincing many people to invest in locally based credit unions rather than banks like Wells Fargo and BOA. Leading a debate about wrongful foreclosures and why many people should have to be evicted while the crimes of the financial elite continue to go unpunished. There have been many smaller victories in specific places around the country. It's really a huge topic of discussion, which all the "LOL drum circles and BO!" type stuff just drowns out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm behind the original intent of Occupy. It's just too bad that the direction faded without real leadership, and the Occupy 'camp in's' became just another place for the riffraff, homeless, and bums to hang out.

First, for the record, my diatribe wasn't directed at you necessarily but a few dozen commenters here who've made a whole trail of very similar types of remarks.
Secondly, the camps in various areas have been makeshift communities, places for different types of people to talk to each other and develop ideas: where, say, college students concerned about rising tuition costs can talk to people in other community organizations or to unemployed folks or those who have lost their housing and try to plan and communicate. The Occupy camps have gotten a bad rap from the beginning, following the lead of the media playing up stories of drug abuse/possession, rape, and various altercations (while ignoring the extent to which these things happen elsewhere in the urban landscape), and the way people look/dress etc. because they can't really confront the substance of what is going on. I see a lot of these comments coming out of that, rather than any sincere and informed disillusionment with what Occupy is now.

it might also be mentioned that street kids are frequently - really frequently - grossly homophobic, and break out this language readily, even - apparently - to those who do give them money. (I can't speak for other -isms, but I'm sure they have those too). Of course, this deviates from the Mercury's campaign to portray the homeless as Jack Kerouac style rogue adventurers on a voyage of self discovery and enlightenment, representing the dispossessed. Seriously, you don't have to be a right winger to want them off the streets. There is plenty of rationale to criticize them from the left.