What did the Occupy movement accomplish?

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gutshot

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So yeah, the whole Occupy Wall Street protests have kind of fizzled out. What exactly did they accomplish? Anything?
 
They ruined St. James park.. and that frustrated me while I was going downtown to college.
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I know they got at least one person to run for office in New York in a congressional district. I have no idea how it turned out or is going to turn out.

Any movement that is going to make an impact needs to fight for years.
 
They accomplished to create a lot of garbage, alot of graffiti and I had to endure the stench and sight of a few hundred dirty lazy hippies on the way to work.
 
reggieandTFE said:
Completely changed the narrative in the mainstream media away from austerity and debt ceilings towards inequality.
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Probably this. I heard on the radio yesterday there is a debt clock at the Republican convention this week and I thought how that is the first time I've heard about the national debt in months

I wonder if renewed focus on income inequality will lead to any real changes though
 
The Occupy movements achieved what V for Vendetta seeded into the collective consciousness of the world:

The appearance that you can do something to alter the monolithic system we find ourselves ensconced in.
 
I'd say they have not just highlighted the 1% in the states but it was amazing seeing it spread worldwide with people were asking the same thing of their greedy bankers and moneyed elite.

I think it will be interesting as we enter the main meat of the US election cycle whether it will inevitably pop up again.

I think it will.
 
Squirrel Killer said:
It introduced the term 1% to political discourse.
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I think that's significant enough tbh. Its a break from people believing that they and rich business men are "in it together" - when clearly, they're not.

People already had a healthy scepticism regarding the government, now they have a scepticism of the corporate world -- which is probably just as important.
 
I don't feel like it accomplished very much. A very small portion of the population that had loose goals. It wasn't nearly as effective as the Tea Party movement.
 
It got the mainstream media and Washington at least TALKING about income inequality, which I'd personally consider a major success.
 
Income equality on the eve of the political election where one wealthiest man to ever running for president. Yeah its had a pretty big impact. Their continued existence is not necessary but very welcome to continually push the issue.
 
It's kinda still going. And it continues in giving the gift of class consciousness to workers of the world. And that's all it really needs to do.
 
nothing.

at least the teabaggers got something out of their movement. But only because they're stupid and received backing from the 1%.
 
Nothing.

The rich will always be rich, the poor always poor. This is the way the world has always been, and will always be. If you want to believe that sitting around in a park drinking Starbucks is going to change the world be my guest, but it's laughable if you actually think anything is ever going to change.
 
More people acknowledge the wealth gap now. Or at least how large it is. Where it goes from there is largely unchanged.
 
Brought to fore the ideas of the two Americas. Some liberals learned how to mobilize. I expect things to get worse next time around though.
 
x-Lundz-x said:
Nothing.

The rich will always be rich, the poor always poor. This is the way the world has always been, and will always be. If you want to believe that sitting around in a park drinking Starbucks is going to change the world be my guest, but it's laughable if you actually think anything is ever going to change.
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Kings will always be kings. Slaves will always be slaves. Nothing ever changes? Yeah okay. Also: The rich and poor dichotomy has not always existed.
 
reggieandTFE said:
Completely changed the narrative in the mainstream media away from austerity and debt ceilings towards inequality.
Click to expand...

Yep. It frustrates me when people say it accomplished nothing because managing to do this alone is an amazing feat that Democrats and liberals had failed to accomplish since at least the Reagan years, if not longer.
And we're still centering the political discourse in this country around those themes which, so far, is making it look like Obama will be reelected and Democrats will hold the Senate and MAYBE even take back the House.

It is a shame (and incredibly stupid) that the Occupy movement refused to get involved electorally, though. It never seemed to have any real long term goals.
 
1. Brought income equality in the the public discourse
2. Taught us that people forgot how to protest. You know you don't need to literally move into the place where you're protesting, right?
 
x-Lundz-x said:
Nothing.

The rich will always be rich, the poor always poor. This is the way the world has always been, and will always be. If you want to believe that sitting around in a park drinking Starbucks is going to change the world be my guest, but it's laughable if you actually think anything is ever going to change.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much true.


Despite what some people seem to believe, you're always going to have rich people, and poor people. No amount of effort, be it from private citizens or the government, is ever going to change that.
 
HamPster PamPster said:
Probably this. I heard on the radio yesterday there is a debt clock at the Republican convention this week and I thought how that is the first time I've heard about the national debt in months

I wonder if renewed focus on income inequality will lead to any real changes though
Click to expand...

Nnnope.
 
BruiserBear said:
This is pretty much true.


Despite what some people seem to believe, you're always going to have rich people, and poor people. No amount of effort, be it from private citizens or the government, is ever going to change that.
Click to expand...
And we're probably always going to have racism, doesn't mean we can't improve the current situation.
 
demon said:
1. Brought income equality in the the public discourse
2. Taught us that people forgot how to protest. You know you don't need to literally move into the place where you're protesting, right?
Click to expand...

I think we learned from the Iraq war protests, among others during the Bush years, that the media will quite gladly completely ignore left wing protests if they can. The only way to effectively protest in the age of Twitter is to do something that continually dominates the news cycle, too.
 
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