Teaparties.

[irmerk]

No one else seemed to be doing it, so I guess I have to.

I would like to know your opinion of these tea parties, if they are effective, what they are trying to do, if the people at them know what they are trying to do, if it was a grassroots phenomenon, how the media covered it, the actual tax programs and spending of the government, and so on.

My opinion:

A few high head republicans decided this was a great idea for some reason and Fox News got wind. They proceeded to promote it like they were JFK in respect to the space race, and sponsored and hosted events. They then turned around and denied other media's claims of this fact and said it was completely a grassroots organization of the angry masses of which they had absolutely nothing to do with save for coverage. Criticism of those attending caused Fox to hypocritically whine and say they are the only fair and balanced network and have the most ratings. However, they actually do attack the character and validity of liberal movements and only have the most ratings due to the large population of mindless religious drones - not because they are right, fair, balanced or anything similar.

The protesters found this concept hyped by idiotic lying and context skewing Fox News hosts and decided, "Well, Bill O'Reilly said, and that's good enough for me." (Courtesy of David Cross) They do not realize taxes are no higher than in the Bush leadership and that the whole concept of the tea party is ridiculous in the circumstances. Debt has been raised most, as far as I know, by the recent wars and the economic collapse; both are the result of Amercian's decisions. The tea party was protesting taxes not agreed upon by Americans and as a result of a war by Britain which was not endorsed by Americans. Get the difference? Liberals were saying the exact same thing about this whole debt concept back close to the beginning of the wars, yet Fox and other right-wing people ignored it as just an anti-American liberal spewage. I wonder what they call themselves right now... Probably not anti-American. Moreover, the people of the rally do not understand even enough basic economic, financial, governmental, legislative, tax, and other concepts to have a legitimate opinion. Again, "Bill O'Reilly said, and that's good enough for me." Some might say such a rationalization is just fine. The problem resides in these very people hating the liberals like New York Times and that nasty Paul Krugman and refuse to take other facets of information into consideration. Who would you listen to, the literally under-non-educated Fox News pundits or the Nobel Prize in Economics winning Paul Krugman, especially when it comes to economics? It reminds me of the man of the single book: The Bible. It (Fox News or other right media) is absolute and nothing else matters. Other people take many facets into consideration: Education!

I think the problem with the economy was started in the past by people and the government. However, the best way to get out of it is apparently being taken. So, if anyone is to blame for the economy, it is the American people and their overspending greedy habits; credit fuckers. Why be mad at ourselves, then? Well, we should rather be mad at something constructive. Something we can still do a little about. That would be the huge expenditures on the wars Bush made for us.

Anyone else?


--If you have yet to hear about them, or hear enough about them, here are some links:
MSNBC
MSNBC again
I cannot find any more on YouTube at the moment. I know I saw last night on Colbert Report and the Daily Show, if you want to check their websites.

 

[Aught3]

Well I agree the teabagging is obviously stupid, and don't really have anything else to add.

 

[felixthecoach]

I agree with the Joker guy.

 

[Moky]

Moreover, the people of the rally do not understand even enough basic economic, financial, governmental, legislative, tax, and other concepts to have a legitimate opinion.

That's the bit that annoyed me the most. They protest the govt. for using money to get out of the recession, but that's what they are supposed to do. If it was inflation, then they cut spending.

 

[irmerk]

I agree with the Joker guy.

Haha, hell yeah.

That's the bit that annoyed me the most. They protest the govt. for using money to get out of the recession, but that's what they are supposed to do. If it was inflation, then they cut spending.

Yeah, I find it odd people are so upset and worked up. So many people think this is the worst time period ever. Like all of the signs which read, "I have never been ashamed of my country until now!" Or whatever else. It is just a bunch of dipshits who have never paid attention to anything political or in the news - save for Brad and Angelina - until now and think Fox is the place to go for information on it all.

 

[RestrictedAccess]

Here's the history of the tea parties. Three days after the passage of the stimulis bill, and an outraged blogger organized a "tea party" protest. A few more protests occurred up until the point that Rick Santelli had that little outburst. After the outburst, online groups all over the net created web sites dedicated to Tea party protests. The Tax Day tea party protest began as a grass roots effort, but as soon as Fox caught wind it prostituted the event and completely ruined it's grassroots value.

Now, the protest was meant to protest bad spending and taxing policies of the current administration, and the former administration. Some protesters incorporated their anti-Obama dislike into the protest, but that WAS NOT the main aim of the protest, as some MSNBC correspondents have been so shamefully spewing.

The media coverage was all wrong, and I blame Fox for starting it. Had they not have hyped it like they did, it would've unquestionably maintained it's grass roots value, and it would not have been so vehemently spoken against by the boneheads at CNN and MSNBC. I am of the opinion people would have been less confused about them if the news stations did their jobs correctly and just reported on them, instead of putting their two cents in. That's too much to ask for these days, however.

As for the programs and spending issues, here's a small list of them: TARP (2008), the Omnibus spending plan (2009), the stimulis bill passed in Feb. 2009, the bailouts (the particular bailout vary).

As for who is responsible for the economic damage, I say the responsibility falls on the government and the consumers. However, an increasing deficit is entirely the fault of the government.

 

[irmerk]

Now, the protest was meant to protest bad spending and taxing policies of the current administration, and the former administration. Some protesters incorporated their anti-Obama dislike into the protest, but that WAS NOT the main aim of the protest, as some MSNBC correspondents have been so shamefully spewing.

Sure, media coverage all over the board was terrible. However, Fox ruined it in more ways than one. As you said, they put their two cents in and prostituted it. After this involvement, there were an overwhelming number of anti-Obama protesters with as much skewed and misinformed propaganda as possible: Racist, anti-abortion, blah blah blah.

 

[RestrictedAccess]

Sure, media coverage all over the board was terrible. However, Fox ruined it in more ways than one. As you said, they put their two cents in and prostituted it. After this involvement, there were an overwhelming number of anti-Obama protesters with as much skewed and misinformed propaganda as possible: Racist, anti-abortion, blah blah blah.

Exactly, and that ruined it for me. Some people saw this as an avenue to protest Obama, and that's not what it was about. I feel angry every time I see an anti-Obama poster, because I KNOW that participant isn't as outraged about unnecessary spending by the government so much as they're outraged that it's now Obama's administration doing the unnecessary spending. I know quite a few people who went to the tea parties who happened to dislike Bush as much as Obama, but because of that foolish, Fox news loving minority that brought their anti-Obama sentiment with them, the message was perverted.

 

[XC(A)libur]

I'd say Irmerk understands the situation pretty clearly. The conservatives view the media coverage as somehow an attack on their beliefs and a censorship on the conservative movement. The media is coming out with these cute little video clips with the old retired war veterans and college conservative type holding up signs that resembles a movement of true stupidity.

"DON'T TAX ME"
"DON'T BAILOUT CORPORATIONS, BAILOUT THE PEOPLE!"

It's all the same. Conservative rhetoric and propaganda in the form of a paradoxial majority. The propaganda actually refutes itself in most cases.

As an anarchist communist, I'd now like to bring up the part of this which actually pertains to class issue, the stuff that actually matters. The goal of the conservative tea party still is unclear, but they have stated they would like to be taxed less, and not to be taxed by a president they didn't vote for in such large incremental processions. If you were to dissect their actual motives and statements it only propounds to be nonsense. The tax rates as they are now are almost the same under president Obama as they were during Bush II, the only difference would be their uses. With the conservative extremist adversary towards communism or anything fresh and different from the left side has always transpired into such fear mongering from the conservatives, but only if the media tells them to. Sure enough, the media did tell them to fear Obama and the rise of socialism. This would mean Obama's new "socialist implementations" are now part of the evil, and any procession of such implementation is an evil plot against capitalism and the bible.

Obama has chose to fund many new social programs and has actually made a small effort to increase to repare the drastic, almost dystopian social structure. Something Bush has never attempted at doing. So the war in Afghanistan and Palestine still go on, but Obama showing some signs of leftism has made at least made a diminutive effort at restoring the possible reparations at restoration of all social stability a capitalist society can offer. This is not a move toward socialism, this is just a fund for social programs and a small cut on US taxes funding war. Which is again also an infringement on the conservative movement, as they have shown clearly in the past they favor a large military-industrial complex, 1984 style.

The tea party is no attempt at decreasing taxation nor does it apply to social and class isue. It's all about restoring the Bush II military funds the Obama administration seeks to eradicate. So here the poor will get more poor, and the rich will get richer, all in the name of civil disobedience. Let me remind you this is not civil disobedience, as the teap party does not coincide with real class issue and struggle that the lower classes face on a daily basis, it is just a protest on the government funding of social programs and some recent cuts from the military-industrial complex. Government funding social stability over war? How dare they!

 

[Jug Pilot]

Let's see. Report about dangerous right wing groups causing trouble comes out. FBI needs new photos of dangerous right wing nutters and needs them fast. Ah-ha! Tea parties will bring out all the right wing nutters to central locations. FBI updates files with fresh photo's and begins wire tapping them.

Now all we have to do is figure out how to work in the UFO's and a we've nailed it. :lol:

 

[ImprobableJoe]

Let's see. Report about dangerous right wing groups causing trouble comes out. FBI needs new photos of dangerous right wing nutters and needs them fast. Ah-ha! Tea parties will bring out all the right wing nutters to central locations. FBI updates files with fresh photo's and begins wire tapping them.

Now all we have to do is figure out how to work in the UFO's and a we've nailed it. :lol:

LOL, conspiracy theory!

 

[shanedk]

You shouldn't judge the tea parties by how the media's reporting them, as this video shows:

 

[ImprobableJoe]

You shouldn't judge the tea parties by how the media's reporting them, as this video shows:

You mean we should mock these anti-American protests even more?

 

[irmerk]

Awesome, shanedk. It comforts me to know that instead of everyone at these rallies and supporters thereof being completely retarded and just not knowing what they are protesting or trying to stand for, they are actually just that in addition to still not getting the point about why the republic is corrupted, unjustified and spiraling downwards. Get rid of the Fed and everything will go back to normal!

 

[Mapp]

I think much of the tea-parties are intentional plays at wish fulfillment by the far right. Obama has not lived up to their fears. He's not a Marxist/Leninist, he hasn't nationalized the economy, and he's cut taxes. There plan seems to be to pretend that none of that is happening however and go with the original plan. Thus they play faux-patriot, invoking the past and hijacking American history for their uses. They're working on the assumption that if they get enough crackpots to shout in unison, the same gullible idiots that supported them for the last 8 years will start believing the lie. And if they don't get the attention they want, they'll scream media bias and play up their martyr complex.

 

[ImprobableJoe]

You shouldn't judge the tea parties by how the media's reporting them, as this video shows:

We can judge them by the stupid and anti-American things they say, can't we?

 

[ImprobableJoe]

I think much of the tea-parties are intentional plays at wish fulfillment by the far right. Obama has not lived up to their fears. He's not a Marxist/Leninist, he hasn't nationalized the economy, and he's cut taxes. There plan seems to be to pretend that none of that is happening however and go with the original plan. Thus they play faux-patriot, invoking the past and hijacking American history for their uses. They're working on the assumption that if they get enough crackpots to shout in unison, the same gullible idiots that supported them for the last 8 years will start believing the lie. And if they don't get the attention they want, they'll scream media bias and play up their martyr complex.

It is kind of similar to the way that they also have no new ideas about governing, and their plans never change no matter how much facts on the ground change. Basically, their governing strategy is "lower taxes on billionaires, relax regulations, attack minorities and homosexuals, and say no to anything Democrats suggest." They really have ZERO ability or interest in effective governing. They just want power for the sake of having power, and satisfying their nutball base and millionaire contributors is the only thing that interests them.

In the same way, their "protests" don't have anything to do with reality. Obama isn't even particularly liberal, he's cut taxes on most people, and his "tax increase" seems to be to let the TEMPORARY tax cuts for the top 5% expire. There's zero Marxism, socialism, or anything else... it is called "governing" which is something right-whiners seem to hate more than about anything else.

Besides Mexicans and gays, of course. :lol:

 

[felixthecoach]

Besides Mexicans and gays, of course.

You make me laugh.

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So i like how the teaparties kinda just fell out of media coverage. Everyone seems to know they were bunk and gave up covering them.