Adam Carolla Rails Against Occupy Members: "....Self-Entitled Monsters’"

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Reading through this is like watching people have a conversation in completely separate rooms.
Yep.

"The top banks, businesspeople, and politicians are stealing money from everyone using unethical and unfair tactics."

"I have a job, unlike these kids! I'm working for what little I have instead of complaining and feeling entitled!"
 
Yeah, but who sold us that dream for the past two decades? Its the same problem with everyone going to college weather they need it or not: the culture has sold the vast majority of the current young-adult generation on a fantasy that can't exist.

I mean, I agree it has to change, but I think its a bit more complicated then making it all about the "spoiled brats". Or, to quote Willy Wonka

See that's the thing for me, I tried to live beyond my personal means and learned my lesson pretty quick that I couldn't sustain it. The problem I think lies in where a lot of the kids/adults see what their parents have (as they are older) and wanted it now. That was me in my early 20's. I'm now almost 31 and I tell my younger friends not to fall into that trap. Who knows though, I figure the OWS crowd will learn a lesson by this in some fashion that they wouldn't have if they hadn't done what they've done. If they don't... well that's another story.
 
Being a Gen X'er and looking at the Gen Y'er (I'll admit, I missed Gen Y by a year...) group, I can't help but think what the hell are you guys doing? What's ironic (and great) is the generation previous to the X'ers did the same thing though.

I think the singular point that Adam made though was about the guy or gal going to get a job somewhere and then being turned down and then they go throw a brick through the window because they were rejected and therefore, the employer must suck for NOT hiring them.

His point of envy is valid and I think we all need to take a hard look at what and who we are--- not get serious debt that we can't afford and go back to the basics. The basics ain't a 2012 Audi S4 + 4 years of college tuition + a 60" TV w/ 7.1 surround sound and all the game systems and eating out every meal and paying $1000 bucks a month in rent to live in a cool part of town.

I love shit like this. It just really shows the disconnect and why I hardly poke my head in threads such as these. People who just don't want to be taken advantage by criminal exploitation from a select minority of ultra-wealthy are suddenly people who now desire expensive cars, televisions, and expensive meals at the expense of the poor wealthy.
 
The best way to defend an indefensible position is to attack the opposition instead of the idea. Also: Stupid semantics games.

These threads are a colossal waste of energy.

I disagree. I think they do an excellent job of highlighting the ignorant or misinformed.

This thread specifically has been a gold mine.
 
I think the singular point that Adam made though was about the guy or gal going to get a job somewhere and then being turned down and then they go throw a brick through the window because they were rejected and therefore, the employer must suck for NOT hiring them.

His point of envy is valid and I think we all need to take a hard look at what and who we are--- not get serious debt that we can't afford and go back to the basics. The basics ain't a 2012 Audi S4 + 4 years of college tuition + a 60" TV w/ 7.1 surround sound and all the game systems and eating out every meal and paying $1000 bucks a month in rent to live in a cool part of town.

Who are these imaginary people? Who was responsible for raising them? Why am in this thread, nothing but obnoxious strawmen arguments.
 
At this point you just want to deny people who produced money their due credit because they didn't produce a iPad or some physical object.

If I were in charge, I would happily deny people undue monetary credit for profiting off of morally reprehensible actions--the food commodity speculator may deserve no more money than the loan shark. (The difference being that food commodity speculation is generally legal.) Not everyone in finance, of course, operates in a morally reprehensible manner; some indirectly create wealth by offering crucial funding to genuinely valuable companies. None of this invalidates what I said, and your accusation rings as false as it does petulant.
 
See that's the thing for me, I tried to live beyond my personal means and learned my lesson pretty quick that I couldn't sustain it. The problem I think lies in where a lot of the kids/adults see what their parents have (as they are older) and wanted it now. That was me in my early 20's. I'm now almost 31 and I tell my younger friends not to fall into that trap. Who knows though, I figure the OWS crowd will learn a lesson by this in some fashion that they wouldn't have if they hadn't done what they've done. If they don't... well that's another story.
What does this have to do with corrupt banks, businesses, and politicians?
 
I love shit like this. It just really shows the disconnect and why I hardly poke my head in threads such as these. People who just don't want to be taken advantage by criminal exploitation from a select minority of ultra-wealthy are suddenly people who now desire expensive cars, televisions, and expensive meals at the expense of the poor wealthy.

Criminal Exploitation? :lol

What does this have to do with corrupt banks, businesses, and politicians?
Class envy of which I mentioned on my previous post. Course by a certain viewpoint, corrupt bankers, businesses and politicians who are the 1% are the envy of the OWS crowd because it's about what is "fair" right?
 
The best way to defend an indefensible position is to attack the opposition instead of the idea. Also: Stupid semantics games.

These threads are a colossal waste of energy.
I provided evidence from a non Foxsource in the thread. How about you read it.

Manos, still waiting for your answer on this for clarifications sake and potentially more dumfounded bewilderment.

That would only worked if there was massive literal rape being done by Wall St, last I've heard all the sexual assault cases seem to be occurring in Occupy Squats.
 
I provided evidence from a non Foxsource in the thread. How about you read it.



That would only worked if there was massive literal rape being done by Wall St, last I've heard all the sexual assault cases seem to be occurring in Occupy Squats.

Wait...so....are financial crimes "not real" then? They don't involve physical things or people you can touch, so they don't have "repercussions" the way mass rape would?
 
Are you laughing at your own ignorance? Yes, criminal exploitation - literally in some cases and figuratively in all.

No I'm laughing at your apparent definition of it because by that definition, we are all being exploited and are expandable within a capitalistic society right? A company, business man or politician continually abuse us and take our monies because we're so helpless and can't do anything about it thus we are the result of the broken capitalistic exploitation that you're describing.
 
Economic crimes are not the same as sex crimes.

But they are still crimes. You are aware that the reason so many people are pissed at Wall Street is because many large financial workers have gotten away with actions that have had reprehensible repercussions. Or do you literally think that everyone who is upset about the recent events is just a lazy bum who doesn't want to work? Speaking of which:
The_Technomancer said:
You're correct about the proportion of them that can only hold down part time jobs. But your original characterization of them was as a group with a significant proportion of unemployed people. However your own statistics show that both in terms of unemployment and part time employment they are roughly in line with the national statistics.

Ergo: OWS is not skewed towards unemployed/part-time people. It is representative of the national population with respect to employment. Please tell me anywhere I'm wrong.

EDIT: Damn
 
Who are these imaginary people? Who was responsible for raising them? Why am in this thread, nothing but obnoxious strawmen arguments.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2007/09/30/the_new_me_generation/

The New Me Generation

The crop of talented recent graduates coming into today's workforce is widely seen as narcissistic and entitled. And those are their best qualities.

By Jake Halpern
September 30, 2007

All of this would seem to suggest that this generation, which is flooding into the workforce, will create chaotic, unpleasant, and utterly unproductive work environments that will drive many a good business directly into the ground. But there's another very real possibility. It may be that this much-reviled generation will revitalize the economy and ensure the prosperity of America for years to come. Painful as it sounds, in the not-too-distant future, we may owe a debt of gratitude to these narcissists.
The greatest danger, however, is that narcissists are so sure of themselves that they ignore the advice of others – and even the dictates of common sense – and arrogantly blunder their way into serious trouble.

Foster, at the University of South Alabama, has seen this scenario play itself out many times. In one study, subjects were asked to play a game in which they earned points by answering trivia questions correctly. Before answering a question, subjects were allowed to wager a certain number of points. "In the study, we had many highly narcissistic people who would get all these questions wrong, and yet they were still willing to wager that they would get the next one right," says Foster.

"Narcissists have this view of themselves as being so excellent that they say, 'To hell with the data. Things are going to work out for me!'"

Now think of those kids in 2007 and fast forward to 2011 when they realize they are not getting what they envisioned.
 
I provided evidence from a non Foxsource in the thread. How about you read it.

That would only worked if there was massive literal rape being done by Wall St, last I've heard all the sexual assault cases seem to be occurring in Occupy Squats.

Ok, so for further clarifications sake.

Stealing billions, committing financial crime, creating a global recession etc is pardonable because you may have done some useful stuff along the way (may have).

But you can't be pardoned for rape or abuse etc, even if you've done useful things.

Gotcha.

I think this is one of the big problems with much of society today. Small petty crimes of theft, other crimes such as robbery, thievery, abuse, rape etc are all rightfully viewed in disdain (irrespective of whatever good may have been done by the criminals in question), but some how billion dollar fraud, financial crime and general corruption of a much grander and global scale that often affects billions of people is somehow fine or largely ignored. I don't know how this got drummed in to much of the population, but it seriously needs to be amended.
 
I think Carolla is a funny guy, but he has a lot of close-minded and ignorant opinions on a many topics. He's entitled to say whatever he wants on his own podcast, but I stopped listening to it solely because of his dumb rants.



Agreed. I enjoy him more often than not. I usually like his rants on society and pop culture but he thoroughly displays his lack of education when talking about many serious issues, OWS being one of them it seems.
 
I think this is one of the big problems with much of society today. Small petty crimes of theft, other crimes such as robbery, thievery, abuse, rape etc are all rightfully viewed in disdain (irrespective of whatever good may have been done by the criminals in question), but some how billion dollar fraud, financial crime and general corruption of a much grander and global scale that often affects billions is somehow fine. I don't know how this got drummed in to much of the population, but it seriously needs to be amended.

There's actually some neuroscience behind it. Basically humans are really really bad at developing an intuitive understanding of extremely large numbers. We just can't grasp how much "a billion dollars" actually is, not in the same way we would four dollars, or twenty dollars, or a hundred dollars.
 
Manos banned? Good. He's been nothing but a troll/disengenous in these threads.

It amazes me how many people have such strong views on ows and yet are completely uninformed on the protests and issues at hand.

Anyone that says "get a job" or "what do they want?" is self-imposing ignorance at this point.

Class envy?! What in the f?? Lol
 
Holy shit. Banned.

I kind of wonder why. I think he comes across as an idiot but he's consistent enough in his posts that I think he believes what he types. No real harm in someone arguing a different side of the debate, even if it is moronic. If nothing else it gives other people an opportunity to articulate and clarify their own views.

I think this is one of the big problems with much of society today. Small petty crimes of theft, other crimes such as robbery, thievery, abuse, rape etc are all rightfully viewed in disdain (irrespective of whatever good may have been done by the criminals in question), but some how billion dollar fraud, financial crime and general corruption of a much grander and global scale that often affects billions is somehow fine. I don't know how this got drummed in to much of the population, but it seriously needs to be amended.

Yeah, peoples' concept of white collar crime is pretty bizarre. I'm guessing it's just because most people have never had one affect their lives, and many who have are fed the "Get a job, bootstraps, personal responsibility" lines. Plus I think a lot of people just don't fully understand financial crimes, I'm an Econ major and I had several discussions with people a couple years ago in my classes who didn't totally comprehend what Madoff did with his Ponzi scheme and how it affected his victims. I think a lot of people think something along the lines of "So he stole money... can't they just give it back after he's caught?"

There's actually some neuroscience behind it. Basically humans are really really bad at developing an intuitive understanding of extremely large numbers. We just can't grasp how much "a billion dollars" actually is, not in the same way we would four dollars, or twenty dollars, or a hundred dollars.
This too.
 
There's actually some neuroscience behind it. Basically humans are really really bad at developing an intuitive understanding of extremely large numbers. We just can't grasp how much "a billion dollars" actually is, not in the same way we would four dollars, or twenty dollars, or a hundred dollars.

That's actually quite fascinating. Is there an article you could link to on this? Also, is there a way to correct this? Perhaps it has something to do with the way we are educated, or the media we're induced to or something. Still, it is something I feel needs to be corrected as the apathy shown by so many to some of the more globally affecting or wide reaching crimes is often extremely worrying.
 
No I'm laughing at your apparent definition of it because by that definition, we are all being exploited and are expandable within a capitalistic society right? A company, business man or politician continually abuse us and take our monies because we're so helpless and can't do anything about it thus we are the result of the broken capitalistic exploitation that you're describing.

There's capitalism and then there's crony capitalism. I'm referring to the latter.
 
I can't say I didn't see that coming (even by the standards of the past few weeks, he was going hopelessly off the rails), but... don't let the door hit you on the way out, Manos.


I kind of wonder why. I think he comes across as an idiot but he's consistent enough in his posts that I think he believes what he types. No real harm in someone arguing a different side of the debate, even if it is moronic. If nothing else it gives other people an opportunity to articulate and clarify their own views.
Are you serious? Have you been reading his posts at all? He's not interested in intellectually engaging the movement in the slightest; 90% of his posts have boiled down to "LOL dirty hippies."
 
Yeah, peoples' concept of white collar crime is pretty bizarre. I'm guessing it's just because most people have never had one affect their lives, and many who have are fed the "Get a job, bootstraps, personal responsibility" lines. Plus I think a lot of people just don't fully understand financial crimes, I'm an Econ major and I had several discussions with people a couple years ago in my classes who didn't totally comprehend what Madoff did with his Ponzi scheme and how it affected his victims. I think a lot of people think something along the lines of "So he stole money... can't they just give it back after he's caught?"
Dress it up in a suit and crime becomes success. They're indistinguishable.
 
Buckley must weep as his corpse is skull-fucked by what passes as contemporary conservative philosophy.

I don't feel conservatism endemically lacks cogency; only that its present adherents are so far from any coherency or thoughtfulness or fidelity to a grounded conservative philosophy that it feels wrong to beat up on them. It's like Mayweather sucker punching Ortiz. It just doesn't seem fair.

And I say this as a lefty who sees virtue in a clash of strong, but reasonable political posturing.
 
Ok, so for further clarifications sake.

Stealing billions, committing financial crime, creating a global recession etc is pardonable because you may have done some useful stuff along the way (may have).

But you can't be pardoned for rape or abuse etc, even if you've done useful things.

Gotcha.

I think this is one of the big problems with much of society today. Small petty crimes of theft, other crimes such as robbery, thievery, abuse, rape etc are all rightfully viewed in disdain (irrespective of whatever good may have been done by the criminals in question), but some how billion dollar fraud, financial crime and general corruption of a much grander and global scale that often affects billions of people is somehow fine or largely ignored. I don't know how this got drummed in to much of the population, but it seriously needs to be amended.

Agreed.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/roybrown.asp

PAUL-ALLEN-ROY-BROWN.jpg
 
What a crock of shit. Does he have his head buried in the sand, and is he ignoring the fact that a huge number of the protestors ARE successful, have their own businesses, are highly educated or over 30? Honestly these kind of people seem so far removed.

They are so out of touch with reality, essentially making stuff up a huge chunk of the time and ignoring the truth, hell, ignoring the very reasoning the people protesting are actually giving.

Unreal. Can't believe so many people have such an ignorant and misinformed view of such things. But I suppose that's what happens when you have a Fox News generation bred on a constant barrage of agenda filled sensatialist right wing propaganda.

It brings me back to a few blog posts I came across from google employees at the protests and an NPR segment that interviewed a successful business owner who was supporting the movement.

Honestly, anytime I hear a person try and claim they have boiled down a movement that consists of 100s of thousands of people into a paragraph caricature, they are either doing it for laughs or are patently ignorant. If you are a person enjoying the rant for laughs, well, more power to you. If you think such a statement actually has real world value - you're dumber than the caricature your nodding your head in agreement with.
 
It's a good thing those things aren't requirements for being against footing the bill for others poor investments? I am just really confused by this thread, it seems like anybody opposing Occupy Wall Street is on a different page, or really just a different book entirely from what it's trying to communicate. Reading through this is like watching people have a conversation in completely separate rooms.

OK, so they have a specific reason for the purpose of the occupation, but they are doing a horrible job communicating that reason to others, including their own camp.
 
SMH....I think that really drives home the point of many of the protestors, in macro fashion of course.

To be (less un-)fair, robbing the bank carried with it an implied threat of force. Most of the CEO shit just involves skimming and shuffling money into a big pile for yourself over a long period of time.
That said, I'd like to see the lengths of their sentences switched.
 
You can see Occupy people protesting in the streets, but you can't see trillions of dollars get wasted, stolen, or funneled to the wrong people. Out of sight, out of mind.

If you can't see something happening in front of your eyes, it doesn't exist. Simple as that.
 
Honestly, I'm not not going to put into account whatever a guy says who mainly works in the Hollywood entertainment industry has to say. No matter how small he is, his start was in California as an entertainer a good portion of his life and he got his first gigantic break at the age of 31. He was pretty much set when he got that gig on Loveline back in '95. I think popular entertainers are pretty much useless at putting their two cents into this kind of thing. (If you want, blame me for not being skillful enough to get into the entertainment biz and working retail) My main problem is being 3k in debt with overdue medical bills now due to no med insurance in the past that i'm trying to pay off as of now.

I just stared working at a thrift store at near Minimum Wage level around 32 hours a week in the Midwest and will be lucky to break below poverty level. I can barely pay for my own place even at an entry level for an apartment at my area. Sure, blame me for not being ambitious and hardworking enough that I'm not even able to afford that. But this guy hasn't had to worry about that shit for awhile just because he is one of the very, very few to have a TV contract in the past and have had the chance to spit some words on syndicated radio. I wouldn't take his opinion as fuel for an argument no matter what. Oh, and plus he's a fucking inconsiderate asshole when it comes to his comments (for the sake of comedy of course!) on the radio from what I've read. So chalk one up to him I guess.

Also, I'm only 22 and by a very slim chance I might become a wealthy talk show host later in my years who shits on people lesser fortunate than me, disregard this post if this happens.

Remember people, you're always going to have people with the the rung of the ladder jobs and opportunities. They may be at my age which with hard work and perseverance is easily improvable or in their late 40's-50's which is quite tough. I guess if you're in a much off better status, the ones over their prime should have worked harder. I at least think they should at the minimum if they're working close to full time be able to sustain themselves...
 
Manos banned? Good. He's been nothing but a troll/disengenous in these threads.

It amazes me how many people have such strong views on ows and yet are completely uninformed on the protests and issues at hand.

Anyone that says "get a job" or "what do they want?" is self-imposing ignorance at this point.

Class envy?! What in the f?? Lol

I think self-imposed ignorance may be a bit strong. While people should exercise some diligence and educate themselves about issues, the OWS movement has done a very poor job of putting forth a unified message.

I am around people everyday who honestly have no idea what the protests are about, and are more then happy to fill in the blanks with whatever they want. Much of the protests come off as unfocused rage and entitlement run amok to those unfamiliar with the core complaints of the occupy movement. It's too bad the message put forth has been so unfocused, because it does a great disservice to an important cause.
 
We've been through this ridiculous article before. That guy is has been convicted of like a dozen crimes, including beating his wife. That's why he got 15 years. How much time do you think a guy should spend in prison for beating his wife? Why do people keep posting that?

Certainly not 15 years. I think we Americans have become entirely desensitized to the lengths of prison sentences, just as we have the enormous sums involved in white collar crimes.

The image is relevant to the discussion and in particular to what nib95 posted. It perfectly illustrates the massive costs but puny consequences of white collar crime.
 
Honestly, I'm not not going to put into account whatever a guy says who mainly works in the Hollywood entertainment industry has to say. No matter how small he is, his start was in California as an entertainer a good portion of his life and he got his first gigantic break at the age of 31. He was pretty much set when he got that gig on Loveline back in '95. I think popular entertainers are pretty much useless at putting their two cents into this kind of thing. (If you want, blame me for not being skillful enough to get into the entertainment biz and working retail) My main problem is being 3k in debt with overdue medical bills now due to no med insurance in the past that i'm trying to pay off as of now.

I just stared working at a thrift store at near Minimum Wage level around 32 hours a week in the Midwest and will be lucky to break below poverty level. I can barely pay for my own place even at an entry level for an apartment at my area. Sure, blame me for not being ambitious and hardworking enough that I'm not even able to afford that. But this guy hasn't had to worry about that shit for awhile just because he is one of the very, very few to have a TV contract in the past and have had the chance to spit some words on syndicated radio. I wouldn't take his opinion as fuel for an argument no matter what. Oh, and plus he's a fucking inconsiderate asshole when it comes to his comments (for the sake of comedy of course!) on the radio from what I've read. So chalk one up to him I guess.

Also, I'm only 22 and by a very slim chance I might become a wealthy talk show host later in my years who shits on people lesser fortunate than me, disregard this post if this happens.

Remember people, you're always going to have people with the the rung of the ladder jobs and opportunities. They may be at my age which with hard work and perseverance is easily improvable or in their late 40's-50's which is quite tough. I guess if you're in a much off better status, the ones over their prime should have worked harder. I at least think they should at the minimum if they're working close to full time be able to sustain themselves...

He worked to become good at being an entertainer though. He also pitched himself to multiple projects. He wasn't exactly at the top of every call list. He worked to get noticed.

I'm not making money like him, but I'm well enough off because I worked for it and I'm not that much older than you. Some people are dealt a crappy hand, doesn't mean you can't do anything about it. There are plenty of government programs you can use to get back on your feet, but people don't do the research or the work.

Carolla has had worse jobs than you have and I've been in the same boat as you too. There is always a way out though. Nothing is stopping you from making a decent living. It's not all about lucky breaks. No pity.
 
I think self-imposed ignorance may be a bit strong. While people should exercise some diligence and educate themselves about issues, the OWS movement has done a very poor job of putting forth a unified message.

I am around people everyday who honestly have no idea what the protests are about, and are more then happy to fill in the blanks with whatever they want. Much of the protests come off as unfocused rage and entitlement run amok to those unfamiliar with the core complaints of the occupy movement. It's too bad the message put forth has been so unfocused, because it does a great disservice to an important cause.

To be fair, I think it's an impossible task to unify a problem when there are so many with the current government or political/financial system. Unifying it to just might even be a disservice to the cause which is actually much more over-arching than people realise. It's an amalgamation of general negative discourse and disagreement of numerous flawed elements of the system. In-fact, since the movement started, I feel it's helped to highlight even more. Especially on the subject of freedoms, rights and liberties of people, the press etc.
 
Love it.

No, Zuzu, not every angel gets his wings. Sometimes, luck really does play a part and no amount of bootstrapping will overcome that.
 
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