I've Figured it Out
By matersfish
@matersfish (6306)
United States
October 12, 2011 4:22am CST
Okay, I'm not the first one. It might have even already been said here before. But I know now why these folks are protesting instead of working.
This is what they know how to do.
Before, Americans used to learn trades. Carpentry, electricity, engineering, auto mechanics, plumbing, etc - we used to match our education to an eventual career.
Now you'll find this happening mostly in business, but being a businessperson is considered to be evil.
These protestors in the streets would be electricians if that's what they studied. But they didn't.
They thought the way to become "educated" in the world was to hit up a poly sci class or to become some type of sociology major.
Now they have zero skills for practical, meaningful, productive work. Zero.
What they're skilled at is protesting.
It's what they were trained to do.
Don't blame them, blame their parents for not explaining the world to them, or the schools that have been influenced by the left for years and pressured to start imbedding social causes in people's minds instead of useful things to help progressive a productive society (like a f'n work ethic).
I used to think a lot of these bozos--I know they're not all bozos, and I respect some of them--were just reliving an era in which they never existed, but I retract that.
They're being exactly who and what they learned to be: low-skilled complainers who are incredibly long on stating problems but pitifully short on finding solutions.
It's the culmination of our blind eye turned to the infiltration of America's education coming home to roost, baby. And just wait until another 10 years when even more of these low-skilled people hit the streets thinking they have it all figured out. Oofah.
Or are they really just the average, everyday 99%?
2 people like this
8 responses
@TheMetallion (1834)
• United States
12 Oct 11
Actually, all the PoliSci majors I know are gainfully employed.
This retired WWII vet and school teacher also seems to refute your hypothesis by breathing: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=291550507522022&set=a.159192064091201.35906.150259918317749&type=1&ref=nf
Can I also take a moment to savor the irony of someone whose grasp of math is so poor that they refer to the "average everyday 99%" complaining about the state of American education? (Math hint: 99% is a portion of the normal curve that includes 4 standard deviations below and 3 standard deviations above the average.)
I do understand the right-wing need to try to discredit them, though. Keep trying!
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
12 Oct 11
I thought the "99%" was one of the many names they called themselves. I'm not entirely sure why. Just one of the many names I've heard dropped - so I'm not using it as a "number." I tied it in with the context which is presented to me by supporters of this group, like using the few good elements or a retired WWII vet and school teacher to paint the entire movement as legitimate.
Exact same thing I'm doing, only in reverse.
Congratulations for anyone who can find sanity in this jumbled mess of opinions and through the pure filth. And I really mean that. It's hard to a "movement" seriously when there's pretty much no movement. 
As I've said, but some people choose to blatantly ignore it, I have the upmost respect for the serious people out there. I really do.
It's just hard to see them through the muddied body of Loser Lake.
Thanks for the response.
Congratulations for anyone who can find sanity in this jumbled mess of opinions and through the pure filth. And I really mean that. It's hard to a "movement" seriously when there's pretty much no movement.
As I've said, but some people choose to blatantly ignore it, I have the upmost respect for the serious people out there. I really do.
It's just hard to see them through the muddied body of Loser Lake.
Thanks for the response.@matersfish (6306)
• United States
13 Oct 11
I admit I'm not sure why they call themselves the "99%," because they seem to me to be more like the 5% of people you'd better avoid if you want to protect against hep C and lice.
@TheMetallion (1834)
• United States
12 Oct 11
So... you either confess or boast (I'm not entirely sure which) that you understand so little about who is protesting or why that you don't even understand that the term "the 99%" refers to the portion of the United States that doesn't control the 42% of the nation's wealth controlled by the most wealthy 1%. (That's a nifty trick, by the way, the amount of effort it must take to avoid Googling the term in order to learn something must be earth shattering)
Yet you go to all this effort to cherrypick individuals you think will discredit this entire movement about which you confess or boast you know nothing.
Fascinating hobby, this random attempt to discredit people about whom you know nothing and with whom you can't possibly have a quarrel.
As I've said, but some people choose to blatantly ignore it, I have the upmost respect for the serious people out there. I really do.
Perhaps if your actions more closely matched your words there be some confusion about whether your assertions of admiration were disingenuous.
@bounce58 (17380)
• Canada
12 Oct 11
This is a very interesting view!
I graduated from university, and although I didn't take up a business course, or pol sci (I took engineering), I've also realized that I don't have most of these skills that you mentioned. Now if I want something done, all I know is to call somebody to have it fixed.
It's frustrating. But I think you're on to something when you say parents should've explained it to their kids. Maybe I should explain it to mine.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
13 Oct 11
I think I was really lucky to be unlucky. I grew up incredibly poor and had to start working at 16 in order to help my family keep our home. As time went on, juggling work and school, I learned a few skills.
These types of skills aren't the skills that will get me hired on Wall Street or by a community activist group needing someone with a grip on social science. But in a tough economy, the more skills you have, the better off you are.
If I didn't have problems growing up and was a child of privilege, I wouldn't have learned any of this and would probably be unemployed.
I'd also like to learn engineering, but I'm not sure I have the mind for it. 
Thanks for the response.
Thanks for the response.@matersfish (6306)
• United States
13 Oct 11
I totally agree. Being a problem-solver instead of a problem-pointer is the way to go.
There seems to be too much of a sense of satisfaction in our society today for simply speaking up to say something's wrong.
Yes. We are not blind. It is obvious that something's wrong. Something's always wrong. And it's usually wrong a lot closer to home. That's why most people spend their lives forming and enacting solutions to problems instead of literally retiring to the streets in order to martyr themselves for a cause while hoping someone else fixes the problem.
I couldn't agree with you more about more satisfaction in solving the issue.
Speak up about injustice if you see it, most definitely. But become a problem-solving person... or else you might just be a problem.
@bounce58 (17380)
• Canada
13 Oct 11
To make matters worst, the university that I was enrolled in, was known for having an activist student body. In fact, I was even a member of a fraternity that constantly voiced it's opinion against the government.
But what I learned in engineering, and not in the streets, was that if there was a problem, and I can do something about it, I'd think of a solution. Voicing out against an injustice is good, but it can only get you so far. Doing something to resolve it is more satisfying.
@GardenGerty (169474)
• United States
12 Oct 11
They're being exactly who and what they learned to be: low-skilled complainers who are incredibly long on stating problems but pitifully short on finding solutions. I think this hits the nail on the head. Critical thinking involves more than seeing the problem, it involves finding new ways to deal with it. I do not think it is happening at the protests. Hopefully someone will start coming up with the solutions but it is not most of these protesters.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
12 Oct 11
Exactly. Even a lot of the people there I'd consider to be legitimate do not really have a legitimate solution. They're crying for change, stating that it's for the people of America. But it's not the people of America they want to change it. They seem to want government intervention.
Of course, there are some people up there who probably have good ideas that don't involve whining for someone else to do something about it. But other than the very sporadic--and very spun--examples, I haven't seen it on any meaningful level given the scale of this movement.
Glance over at other movements like the tea party, and they're basically saying, "Hey, we don't want the government intervention. Get out of the way and we'll find the solutions."
Similar beefs with the bailouts and whatnot, but polar opposites on solutions.
I agree wholeheartedly. These aren't the people to come up with the solutions. There are some intelligent people among them. Odds suggest that. But the vast majority of these people aren't the innovators or job creators of America, and I doubt they ever will be.
That doesn't mean they don't matter. Everyone does. (Well, I'm not so sure about those idiots who piss in the streets. That's another debate though.) But I think it does mean that it's hard to take the movement seriously at large when the freebie crowd is speaking up the loudest and becoming the face.
Thanks for the response.
@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
12 Oct 11
This is one consequence of the dumbing down of America. But I see other possibilities here, and you can call me paranoid if you like..these protests will keep growing and gathering steam. They may taper off during the winter but by next November they will be a real problem, so much so that there may be martial law declared and the 2012 elections will be called off. That will insure that this prez's administration can hang on at least one more year to grind this country down to financial ruin.
People will get more and more frustrated. The economy will get much worse before it gets better and this type of protest will become more and more common. Plus, we now have increased racial tension to deal with which will probably come to a head around September-November 2012. It's all deliberate, taking advantage of opportunities to roil up discontent and manipulate emotions to further political agendas.
And yes, you're right in saying parents have not prepared their children. Most of us have lived in a fantasy world for the past 40 years.
@peavey (16936)
• United States
12 Oct 11
"November they will be a real problem, so much so that there may be martial law declared and the 2012 elections will be called off." Call me paranoid, but I suspect that's exactly what someone has planned. Add to these people's poor education, the inability to discern when they're being played for fools and I feel a little sorry for them.
Be careful throwing out those numbers, matersfish. They'll be coming after you next. 
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (169474)
• United States
12 Oct 11
Dragon, you scare me in a way. I had thought of something similar, but not so extreme. I do think it may be the only way to save Obama's bacon is to deal with the mess.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
12 Oct 11
It's funny, but it's true in a sense. Because if a lot of the protestors up there had their way, they'd simply drain the wealth in general. And once those Wall Street types were tapped out, they'd be draining the middle-class Americans to fund their creepy utopia.
How pissed off would those unions--who all seem to oddly support them--be when they started protesting them?
@thegreatdebater (7316)
• United States
14 Oct 11
I have said on here MANY TIMES, if you look at the REAL pictures of people in these protest you will see MANY professionals, who have skills, and some with HUGE bank accounts as proof of their intelligence. You can generalize all you want, but like I showed you in another post, the truth is that the protesters are NOT all bozos that have sociology degrees.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
14 Oct 11
I don't disagree with that at all.
They're not all bozos with sociology degrees.
Thanks for the response.
@WakeUpKitty (8691)
• Netherlands
12 Oct 11
What are you talking about or about whom are you talking about? Something is missing in your story about what you figured out.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
13 Oct 11
There is currently a quasi-movement in America, people literally living on the streets to somehow "change" the fact that Wall Street makes a lot of money and some other people do not.
My theory is that most of these people--not all of them, as the spinners and the gripers seem to just ignore to quibble--are more upset because they don't know how to do anything except be upset.
It seems as if a lot of Americans are too busy working to pay their bills and can't quite live on the side of the road.
Thanks for the response.
@peavey (16936)
• United States
12 Oct 11
"Or are they really just the average, everyday 99%?" You're joking, right?
Surely public schools teach better math than that? I mean, even if these people don't know how to do anything useful, they should at least know that 99% of the people in this nation are at home, most of them working. Most of us don't have the time or the money to go protest something so vague and if we did, we wouldn't.
I won't blame their parents or even the schools, although government schools teach this sort of thing. Sooner or later, one becomes responsible for being oneself. This is what they choose to be, sadly.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
12 Oct 11
Yes. I agree. But I just find it ironic that the system they're trying so hard to change is the system that has allowed them to be so utterly useless yet still able to have a voice and a place in this society.
Go figure.
If they think working for $7/hour is too low of a wage for them, wait and see what happens if they ever do get the communism some of them want. They'll be begging for $7/hour.
I work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. I'll probably never be rich, and I don't feel as if I'm owed someone else's money because of it. When I started working, I made $5/hour. Now, depending on which job I'm doing, I can pull in around $30/hour.
I think they want the $30 without ever having the $5. But they don't know how to do anything but say they want things.
I don't "blame" parents and society in the sense that it forced people to go out there, but I do in the sense that it fooled these people into believing you didn't need to know anything of value to make it in life.
The way I look at it, these young people were children not so long ago. Who the heck was teaching them that they had to work to make it? From the looks of it, nobody was.
As far as sh1tting in the streets and willingly being worthless, that's all them.
But, of course, I say this only about the morons, not about the good, hard-working people out there who just feel strongly we need change.
Thanks for the response.
But, of course, I say this only about the morons, not about the good, hard-working people out there who just feel strongly we need change.
Thanks for the response.
@sierras236 (2739)
• United States
12 Oct 11
Yelling at Wall Street is just like yelling at a teen to pick up their clothes with their headphones on.
I guess I am in the minority but I think that the protests will end as soon as the snow starts falling and the amount of freebies that companies are handing out dries up.
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
12 Oct 11
I also think they'll eventually fizzle out, but I wouldn't throw out a date. I'd have to hedge my bets if I did, and that's no fun for a blowhard like me.
I just see something different than the supporters do, obviously. Yes, I know there are some serious people in attendance. And I honestly do respect them. But it's all mostly a bit hippish (hippieish? lol) and a bit commisocialcollectivistish, and a bit unionthuggish. So I believe it will die out, because those people never seen to be passionate after people stop paying for their passion or inciting it for them.
So I agree with you there.
Thanks for the response.
I just see something different than the supporters do, obviously. Yes, I know there are some serious people in attendance. And I honestly do respect them. But it's all mostly a bit hippish (hippieish? lol) and a bit commisocialcollectivistish, and a bit unionthuggish. So I believe it will die out, because those people never seen to be passionate after people stop paying for their passion or inciting it for them.
So I agree with you there.
Thanks for the response.