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[A Human Becoming]

I still don't really know what they were trying to do.

Terrible structure, no leadership, no unified message. Biggest waste of passion and energy of my lifetime.

They had no clear goals or objectives and didn't endorse anything really.

Yep. I didn't dig into it too much, but the message seemed to be "I don't like Wall Street." Captivating.

It never had an objective or defined purpose, that or the message was never clear.

This pretty much explains why they failed. There was no coherent platform or demands. Interviews with occupiers always showed a wide range of grievances (or lack thereof), with no real unifying theme.

Ya'll must not have been paying attention then. I mean for starters, it was called Occupy Wall Street. Wall Street had been bailed out in 2008 without any accountability for fraud. The phrase "We are the 99%" is in regards to wealth inequality, where the top 1% have such a huge accumulation of wealth. It's really even a smaller percentage if you want to heavily scrutinize wealth inequality, which has come to focus since then, especially with presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Greed, corruption and the influence of corporations on government tie into all of it.

Occupy Wall Street's biggest, and maybe only success, was bringing the issue into the limelight. I know activists from Occupy who are still politically involved on the same issues, just not under the Occupy label

because angry rich kids throwing a tantrum don't make a compelling argument regarding the corruption of capitalism

I never met anyone in Occupy who was rich.

 

[Jackpot]

Like in the past, the media decided to skew the issue into a debate about the protesters instead of what they were protesting. Just repackaging "look how long/short their hair/skirt is!"

 

[TheSeks]

Was it because of lack of organization? Unclear goals?

These two are one and the same. There was no goals that were clear because there was no leadership. You had each "Occupy" location trying to do very different things instead of ONE or two clear goals.

 

[Kill3r7]

No leader and no clear message. Why even try?

 

[Furyous]

Occupy Wall Street did not fail as it completely altered the tone of the political climate. Occupy's ideal was genius anyway. They generate awareness for an issue until politicians pay attention to them.

Occupy changed the dialogue from a push towards austerity towards a push to create actual jobs.

 

[JaeCryo]

Now that I've discovered that its a myth that voting means you'll be in the pool for jury duty. You're up for jury duty one way or another. This coming election, I'm voting.

Failed since they didn't have any power and a lot people gave up pretty fast. All the wealth had to do was simply wait for those people to need to go back to work or look for a job. Eh, I dunno.

Let's vote, kids. Get the mailed ballot, so then you don't have to go anywhere. Vote from home!

Jury duty isn't a big deal

I got it 3 months after I turned 18.

Lasted like 5 hours then I went home in time for lunch.

 

[Lesath]

I think a narrative that they were unfocused was a self-fulfilling prophecy, without which, given time, OWS might have given rise to something more concrete. I don't think the Tea Party at its infancy (which had a message that I ashamedly bought into) caught as flak the Occupiers did, and their ideas were no more substantial.

 

[CloudyTuba]

Unclear goals, I'd say. It mostly accomplished expressing dissatisfaction, not so much what to do about it. A bunch of ideas floated around but not really any one thing that became the rally point.

Jury duty isn't a big deal

I got it 3 months after I turned 18.

Lasted like 5 hours then I went home in time for lunch.

Easy for you to say when you got home in time for lunch! Mine spent three entire days just on jury selection before even getting to the case. My work doesnt pay me for that time and the few dollars I got from the court was more of an insult than anything else. Hundreds of dollars lost and a shit ton of work to catch up on when I got back.

If it isn't a big deal, write me a check and do all that extra work for me.

Now that I've discovered that its a myth that voting means you'll be in the pool for jury duty. You're up for jury duty one way or another. This coming election, I'm voting.

I believe it used to work that way, but in recent years they caught on to people like this and started using DMV records and other sources. So yes, that is now a myth, and not registering to vote will not keep anyone out of the pool.

 

[superdeluxe]

Was it because of lack of organization? Unclear goals? Bad publicity? A mix of all three? It feels odd how the Tea Party not only lasted six years but took over congress as well, while OWS fizzled out in just less than a year.

No real leadership at the top, no real goal. I mean they were mad, but there wasn't ever any concrete goal that the whole movement had.

 

[Bronx-Man]

Like in the past, the media decided to skew the issue into a debate about the protesters instead of what they were protesting. Just repackaging "look how long/short their hair/skirt is!"

This is true. Modern society is obsessed with cosmetic appeal over all else.

 

[PeskyToaster]

Sometimes you just need to break shit for a revolution to happen.

 

[Infinite]

The city of New York and the NYPD essentially ended the movement when they forcibly evicted the protestors from the park, defied a court order to let them return, and arrested reporters trying to cover it.

 

[Dennis]

Because winter arrived.

And their bloodline was not strong enough to survive.

 

[Jayof9s]

Did it fail? I feel like income inequality is being talked about more than ever and I think occupy wall st at least started the conversation, I guess it failed as it didn't completely change the issue of campaign finance/income inequality in a short amount of time?

From time to time I see articles outlining how bad income disparity is and how much worse it is getting. So, if the point was so that people could know about that disparity, then it was successful. However, if the point was to convince those in power to start enacting laws that might slow or reverse that disparity, I don't see anything on the horizon that suggests they were successful.

It doesn't help that a large majority of people are opposed to the measures it would take to reduce the amount of income the super wealthy could make / retain and are equally opposed to measures for improving worker pay, benefits, and protections. And politicians don't have much incentive for either, as most of the efforts would curb their personal wealth and that of their major contributors.

 

[RiccochetJ]

There was no real leadership and because of that the message was all over the map instead of being focused. Having no leadership was on purpose, but I think it hurt them in the long run.

 

[BigDug13]

I think ultimately, modern protestors don't want to be without the comforts of home, ipad, iphone, bathrooms, etc for too many weeks before giving up the fight.

 

[dehydratedbabies]

From time to time I see articles outlining how bad income disparity is and how much worse it is getting. So, if the point was so that people could know about that disparity, then it was successful. However, if the point was to convince those in power to start enacting laws that might slow or reverse that disparity, I don't see anything on the horizon that suggests they were successful.

It doesn't help that a large majority of people are opposed to the measures it would take to reduce the amount of income the super wealthy could make / retain and are equally opposed to measures for improving worker pay, benefits, and protections. And politicians don't have much incentive for either, as most of the efforts would curb their personal wealth and that of their major contributors.

 

[akira28]

the Tea Party is taken seriously by someone, at least.

Occupy got it from both sides. who would they turn to for support? More students?

 

[MajinSweet4]

The city of New York and the NYPD essentially ended the movement when they forcibly evicted the protestors from the park, defied a court order to let them return, and arrested reporters trying to cover it.

This. The movement failing had nothing to do with unclear goals, or leadership, which is all the media wanted to talk about. Corruption from authority was the main factor.

 

[Guy.brush]

With 14 they are not allowed to vote.
With 18 they can't be arsed to vote.
With 22 they still can't be arsed to vote.
With 26 they do their first election.
With 30 they do their second election and it dawns on them that the whole thing is like 2 sides of the same coin with emphasis on coin.
With 34 they have become disillusioned, they don't even know what to vote for anymore.
With 38 they have become so invested in the system, kids, car, house that they follow the party line and any revolutionary youthful energy they had has evaporated. They will vote against the 22 and 26 year olds.

 

[Makai]

Despite stagnant wages, quality of life is improving for most Americans.

Posted from My iPad

 

[Infinite]

I think ultimately, modern protestors don't want to be without the comforts of home, ipad, iphone, bathrooms, etc for too many weeks before giving up the fight.

Wrong. They were wrongfully evicted by the city

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Was it because of lack of organization? Unclear goals? Bad publicity? A mix of all three? It feels odd how the Tea Party not only lasted six years but took over congress as well, while OWS fizzled out in just less than a year.

I don't think there's a direct comparison to be made to the Tea Party.

OWS didn't stay as an active movement for the reason of unclear goals, IMHO. But I'd say it was a success in that income inequality and the cost of college are now mainstream political topics that weren't before OWS made them a center of attention.

 

[soco]

Calling it a failure is a bit strange. I'm not sure anyone ever expected it to have been as huge as it was, and still be so present in minds around the world. The fact that you're writing about it now, suggests that the movement was successful in continuing to surface their issues.

 

[NimbusD]

It won imho. If it wasnt for them the discussion if the 1% and income equality wouldn't be big tentpole issues both sides are tackling this electionyear.

Yeah seriously. How exactly did it fail? It wasn't ever really an organized movement in the sense that it was attempting to get certain people elected or specific policies they wanted implemented like, say, the tea party. It was a protest that was spurred by general angst towards the economic and political climate and the government's pretty much complete willingness to acknowledge it. I'd say, while no organization named 'occupy wall street' specifically implemented changes themselves, can you really say there haven't been and aren't currently movements by people with real political power working towards rectifying the things that were being protested against as a result of those protests?

These kind of things don't work like sports where you just get a certain amount of goals then yay you won and your opponents have been defeated.

 

[A Human Becoming]

All these "no real goal" posts depict one issue of the Occupy Movement, which was how the media depicted it. The dismissive attitude and generalizations of people involved did not help, with Obama for one. The goals were clearly stated by the organization that called for the occupation of Wall Street and if you took the time to talk to multiple protesters, instead of giving up because one or two couldn't explain. Saying they were not clear enough I can agree with: the group I was involved in wasn't able to cement consensus and solutions into writing. The grievances were always there, regardless.

 

[Fenderputty]

A lack of leadership meant there was no clearly-identified goal or endgame. So eventually it just kinda petered out. The Tea Party was engineered by the Koch Brothers, so they had leadership and goals in spades.

This. Thought it's not an outright failure in that much of today's current economic policy and discussion onl wealth is framed in a way that OWS framed it for us.

 

[Acerac]

The media sure didn't help.

 

[Bronx-Man]

I think ultimately, modern protestors don't want to be without the comforts of home, ipad, iphone, bathrooms, etc for too many weeks before giving up the fight.

So is that just it, we're doomed to roll over and give up entirely? I refuse to be that cynical about the future.

 

[Sanjuro]

My only experiences with the Occupy group just lead me to believe they smell like urine and enjoyed throwing objects / hate speech at you.

 

[zeemumu]

No one knew what they were protesting for.

 

[IdreamofHIME]

We don't vote because it doesn't change anything. Nothing changes cause we don't vote.

What do!?

Bullshit. Voting does matter, the fact is not enough have ever voted for it to matter because they'd rather spew this crap.

 

[Strangelove77]

I still don't know what they were trying to do. Maybe they succeeded and I just can't see it.

 

[Into]

Initially there was a very simply and clear message, they were against corruption.

The thing went off the rails once it was invaded by all sorts of groups who brought their own ideologies and wanted to dictate how it was going to be done. These muddled the message, distroted it and badly reflected on the actual movement. The original OWS community lost interest then and without the original community it disintegrated.

In a way OWS was too cool and trendy for its own good. In stark contrast to other movements that endured and even prospered.

 

[FartOfWar]

I was feeling it until the lunatics took over and it became a grab bag of extreme leftist agendas.

 

[Chmpocalypse]

Change requires work and those college kids were just in it to look cool and be a part of something, not to actually change anything.

Aren't you the one who called for black-bagging Snowden? Not sure your geopolitical analysis is worth considering tbh.

 

[Dude Abides]

The Tea Party has a simple message that is easy to mobilize action around: We Hate Obama. So they could accomplish their goals simply by electing people who would pledge to oppose whatever he does, which is exactly what they did.

The OWS argument that the wealthy and business have too much power and influence is much less specific and accordingly less actionable.

 

[FriedConsole]

Don't you need clear achievable goals to succeed at something? "Getting rid of greed" is something fuzzy that you can't exactly legislate. It was a blown opportunity to propose legislation that was lost. They kept preventing people stating goals because that would have fractured the support. It was clear the organizers just wanted a public showing for their own ego.

 

[Subpar Spatula]

I think a lot believed change would happen quickly like in a month so they felt the burden of skipping their responsibilities.

 

[RedToad64]

If you had asked the majority of Occupy Wall Street supporters what their goal was then most of them struggled to find an answer.
Basically people did it to look cool and rebellious.

 

[The Elite]

No real leadership. The movement actually needed someone legitimate looking, in a suit, who can go on TV and speak for the group and state their goals. Someone who is functional in a debate against opposition. There was never a clear united voice. A lot of the occupiers I saw being interviewed were terrible at conveying a message and generally lacked any sort of proper presentation.

If you want to beat Wall Street you are going to have to beat them at their game. That starts with getting on TV, wearing a good suit and delivering a clear message. It was really easy to dismiss a movement that looked like a congregation of unemployed deadbeats. I am not saying they were all unemployed deadbeats but if that's what people saw, that hurt the message and it made it easy for any opposing voice to diminish the entire movement.

It's unfortunate because the goals of the group are important. The execution was terribly flawed.

 

[A Human Becoming]

The Republican party thanks you greatly for your support.

This happens with both parties. However, I do think more so with Republicans.

 

[The Albatross]

Expressed lack of leadership, lack of goals, lack of messaging made it difficult for people not part of the "movement" to grasp what it was about. It made it very easy to substitute in another goal or messaging, and because the movement desired to have no leaders and no coherent message, it was difficult to combat these things.

I remember asking, at the time, what the point was... and being told things like if I was asking what the point was, then I didn't get it. And so, well, I'd just shrug my shoulders and think it was stupid.

 

[tanod]

1) Can't stage protests on private property
2) Unclear goal

 

[FriedConsole]

This happens with both parties. However, I do think more so with Republicans.

Good call on saying Republicans do it more. You will trigger the ARE YOU SAYING BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME contingent.

 

[Infinite]

1) Can't stage protests on private property
2) Unclear goal

A judge ruled in their favor to return to the grounds the protest was on but the city defied it.

 

[Greddleok]

Only 1% of the 99% cared enough.

 

[RevengeOfDoh]

Between the media characterizing them as stoner hippies, Democrats being too conservative to co-opt the movement, and no plutocrats using their political and economic capital to push the message, what hope was there?

Beyond spreading awareness through the shear number of people and spectacle, there was never going to be any transformation of the movement into an actual political action organization in the conventional sense.

You had Teabaggers saying openly racist and treasonous bullshit, but hey, at least they aren't hippies!

 

[RustyNails]

Zero leadership. Mostly bunch of college kids smoking pot, playing drums and fucking in camps and harassing people going to work. There were legit people that could have driven change, but the thing fell apart because screaming at wall street people does fuck all. You need to march to Washington DC, camp there for days and overflow the fax and voicemail of congressmen and senators in order to get any meaningful change. But no, lets eat pizzas in a garden and wax poetic about how politics suxx and they're all corrupt.

But most of them were too poor for a bus ride to DC anyway.

 

[tanod]

A judge ruled in their favor to return to the grounds the protest was on but the city defied it.

I'm talking about the dummies that were staging protests in the banks.