Chris Hedges Slaps Down Kevin O'leary on OWS

[Grassy Knoll]

Run time: 07:01 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv1MVF7fqoM   Posted on YouTube: October 11, 2011 By YouTube Member: AntiSchiff Views on YouTube: 215   Posted on DU: October 12, 2011 By DU Member: Grassy Knoll Views on DU: 8300

 

[20score]

1. Chris Hedges is brilliant.

I would love to see more people handle the propagandists like he did.

[lsewpershad]

28. Agreed

[Supply Side Jesus]

2. "you sound like a nut bar"

what kind of way is that to treat a guest? Hedges put that tool back in the box.

[tblue37]

19. Which one called the other a nut bar? (I am deaf, so I can't listen to videos.)

I wish people who post videos would remember to include a brief summary for us deafies.

[cui bono]

38. Here you go... I transcribed that section for you:

It's pretty great!



2:24 - 5:37 (responding to "they don't seem to know what they want")


Hedges:

They know exactly what they want. They want to reverse the corporate coup that's taken place in the Untied States and rendered the citizenry impotent. And they won't stop until that happens. And frankly, if we don't break the back of corporations we're all doomed anyway since they're rapidly trashing the ecosysytem on which the human species depends on for survival. This is literally a fight for life. It's that grave, it's that serious. Corporations' unfettered capitalism, as Karl Marx understood, is a revolutionary force that modifies everything, human beings, the natural world which it exploits for profit until exhaustion and collapse. The bottom line is we don't have much time left, we're on the cusp of perhaps another major banking crisis in Europe... the defaults of Greece, followed by Spain, Portugal, uh, there's been no restrictions, no regulations on Wall Street. They've looted the treasury, they've played al the games that they were playing before and we're about to pay for it all over again.


Host:

Don't take this the wrong way, but you sound like a left wing nutbar. You want to shut down every corporation and every bank... where are you going to get a job? Where are you gonna work? Where's the economy going to go?


Hedges:

Corporations don't produce anything. And uh...


Host:

Oh really?


Hedges:

No-


Host:

Are you driving a car to the protest?


Hedges:

They are speculatives. I'm talking about financial institutions like Goldman Sachs. They don't manufacture, they don't make anything. They gamble... they use money. And they believe falsely that money is real as we dismantle our manufacturing base and send jobs over the border to Mexico and finally into the embrace of China.


Female Host:

Well I see that you and Kevin could get into a HUGE argument here.


Hedges:

Well I don't usually go on shows where people descend into character assassinations. I mean if you want to discuss issues, that's fine. But, I mean this sounds like Fox News and I don't go on Fox News. I mean either you discuss the issues... look, you have had very eloquent writers, people like John Ralstensal (?) in Canada who have laid this out with incredible lucidity and to somehow attack this critique by calling someone a nutcase engages in the kind of trash talk that's polluted the corporate airwaves.


Host:

Excuse me. Let's debate the issues then.


Hedges:

Well you were the one who started it.


Host:

I did not call you a nutcase... I said bar

<crosstalk>


Hedges:

You said you sounded like a left wing nutcase.


Host:

Yes. Bar. Nutbar.



Hedges:

Okay, that's an insult.


Host:

Are you left wing in leaning at least? Would you say?


Hedges:

No. I would say that-


Host:

You're a centrist?


Hedges:

Can I finish?


Host:

Please.


Hedges:

I would say that those who are protesting the rise of the corporate state are in fact, on the political spectrum, the true conservatives because they're calling for the restoration of the rule of law. The radicals have seized power and they have trashed all regulations and legal impediments to a corporate... a reconfiguration of
American society into a form of neo-feudalism. And that's what we're really asking for, is the restoration of the rule of law.

:hi:

[pacalo]

48. Very much appreciated, cui bono!

[cui bono]

53. You're welcome! See post below by chervilant for a correction.

It's in the first paragraph, I put "it modifies" where it should have been "it commodifies".

[chervilant]

50. Actually,

At 2:49:

Corporations' unfettered capitalism, as Karl Marx understood, is a revolutionary force. It commodifies everything--human beings, the natural world, which it exploits for profit until exhaustion or collapse.

I think it's important to understand how astute was the great philosopher, Karl Marx. He did predict almost exactly what we're witnessing.

Another of my favorite authors, Marshall Sahlins, gave us this:

The market-industrial system institutes scarcity, in a manner completely unparalleled and to a degree nowhere else approximated. Where production and distribution are arranged through the behavior of prices, and all livelihoods depend on getting and spending, insufficiency of material means becomes the explicit, calculable starting point of all economic activity. ... Consumption is a double tragedy: what begins in inadequacy will end in deprivation.

(emphasis mine...)

[cui bono]

52. Thank you for the correction. I can no longer edit to fix it...

had trouble hearing it on my laptop at work but of course that makes sense being that it was about Marx.

[Darth_Kitten]

56. You should hear him on "Dragon's Den"

His schtick is to come across as an insulting tool. I actually feel sorry for the other Dragons sometimes. ;)

[Iwillnevergiveup]

3. Good for Chris Hedges!

We can learn something every time he utters a sentence, and this cretin tried to dis him by attacking him. Every thinking person in the pubic sector should avoid appearing on shows like this, and I believe there's also a lesson in it for Thom Hartmann. Don't waste our time with uninformed, agenda-drive right wing liars.

[Hulk]

4. EXCELLENT slap down!!

Very proud of the way Chris Hedges dealt with the stuffed shirt shill on the program. I'm encouraged that the reich wingers are running into to very cool headed and articulate individuals that have a great sense of what is going on with the OWS crowds. I know that fox propaganda would like nothing better than to make it look like a bunch of bongo beating, pot smoking, jobless freaks making trouble.

I tip my hat to this fine gentleman, and the others who have done a wonderful job of explaining to this nimnuts just exactly what is going on.....as if they didn't already know. (I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here.....they can't be that f*cking stupid!)

[Kalidurga]

5. So did O'Leary at any point add anything to the "debate"?

I put debate in quotes because O'Leary seems to have forgotten the meaning of debate, he seems to think the term means calling the opposition names or attempting to label or perhaps libel them. I didn't hear a single debate point from him. He did manage to try to put out a few inflammatory questions that seemed to come from some kind of ill informed place like I dunno maybe Fox or the Tea Party. So, maybe I missed if he did have a point in there somewhere.

I hope I am able to grow up someday and be able to be as composed as Chris Hedges was in the exchange. I think I would have probably forgotten what I was going to say and let him have it and the message would have been lost, maybe not I have had some good moments where I remain calm enough to get out what I meant to say without blasting the O'Leary types who are really just bullies in suits.

[hootinholler]

24. At every point he added

Ad Hominem attacks and obfuscation.

Other than that, not much.

[chervilant]

49. Bullies in suits...

GREAT description--and an appropriate one for all the vile, hedonistic criminal corporatists who've tanked the global economy and are now whining because the Hoi Polloi (all 99% of us) are saying, "NO MORE!"

[Cali_Democrat]

6. Beautiful

[stockholmer]

7. good for Chris Hedges, bad for Canada, segments if their media are every bit as thuggish as Faux

[knightmaar]

13. CBC has been accused of having a liberal bias

So now that we have a conservative government, they had to hire some right wing pundits.
The contrast, as you can see, is quite clear.
I've never heard any of the "liberal" hosts or pundits on the show refer to the Tea Party or Ontario's "Rural Revolution" extreme right wingers as "nutbars" or anything similar.

[Enthusiast]

27. I fear for your nation.

All it takes is for them to compromise your media. Look at the effect that Fox News and the rest of the U.S. right wing media has had. Guard your media.

[pacalo]

47. Fear for ALL nations. This is a GLOBAL undertaking; governments are working in sync, imo.

[cui bono]

40. That's because those on the right are called "wingnuts".

If you lived in the US you would know that by now. ;)

[florida08]

8. Chris is such a class act.

Never yielding to the bloodsucker's attempt to get in the mud, which he wallows in. Just strangled him with his own cojones. BEA-Utiful. Rock on sir :patriot:

[FlyByNight]

9. Well done Chris

That's quite the "interview" "method" the questioners have there. Chris kept his composure and calmly, factually shot down the interviewer's "argument" (shameless posturing, really).

:thumbsup:

[spicegal]

10. Good job Chris. The contempt seething from O'Leary

was palpable and Hedges did a great job of smacking him down. I realize that was Canadian media, but apparently in the "free world" we can't even count on a free press to do an adequate job of covering important stories. When average Americans finally decide they've had enough and take to the streets, they're called left wing lunatics. I hope this movement gains momentum.

[civilisation]

11. Great work Chris,. O'Leary is an asshat.

That show is structured around the concept that O'Leary is "on the right" and the female host is "on the left" of course watching it make clear O'Leary is a radical right wing nut-bar,. and the other host is only slightly right of centre,. providing no view from the left at all,.

O'Leary is rude and obnoxious his "opinions" as expressed on that show amount to hate speech. (illegal in Canada, if it was a religious group or ethnic group, he get away with it because the hate speech laws do not cover class hatred) He attacks organised labour, workers in general, the poor, the middle class anyone that is not a hedge fund manager, bankster or just mega-wealthy. He speaks for class hatred,. and champions money having all right over people. A truly despicable character. He should be removed from the national airwaves.

[MarinCoUSA]

12. Oh Snap! Bring on the bitch slap Pastor Chris,

His parting shot was brilliant.

[txlibdem]

14. Chris Hedges: my new hero for the week

The commentator from Toronto was a complete moron.

[KansDem]

15. "It'll be the last time!"

:rofl:

Spot on, Mr. Hedges!

[ellenfl]

22. good on him!! love his parting statement. eom

[pam4water]

16. Great Job Hedges! I've never heard of this show. Is it a Canadian show? K&R

[ejbr]

17. SLAP!!!!

:rofl:

[vanbean]

18. "I didn't call you a nutcase, I called you a nutbar." I had to watch this twice.

[Enthusiast]

29. I wish Chris had said. "Why would you call me anything?"

The first thing the right wing does when they don't agree is call names. Just like in 1920s/1930s Germany. Scapegoat and bully those you disagree with.

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. O'Leary is outmatched by at least 100 IQ points.

[wxgeek7]

21. O'leary and O'reilly

Sounds like O'leary went to the same school of thuggery/bullying/name-calling, that O'reilly went to.

VERY nice slap to O'leary and CBC!

You the man, Chris!

[peasantsarerevolting]

23. Good Response Chris

As a Canadian I've never paid any attention to this self-styled business guru's utterances.
O'Leary appears on a two-bit TV show up here. IMHO he fancies himself a northern version of D. Trump
minus the bad haircut. His obnoxious behaviour is typical of his type. Best ignored.

[Agony]

25. Double Plus Good!

[Enthusiast]

26. Way to go, Chris!

We are the real conservatives. That is a fact. We want to conserve American democracy. We aren't doing too well in that endeavor so far. But we are working on it.

[Jim_Shorts]

30. Its music to my ears when the corporatist trash talk OWS

Thank you, thank you to the politicians and corporate media for giving me the feedback I need to know that OWS is starting to work. When Kevin O'Leary says "looks like a pretty nothing burger" , "very weak, low budget" or Peter King says "its a ragtag mob basically" then I know we are starting to have an effect.

Until we change this corrupt "big money rules everything system" we will continue down the drain.

Video's like this make my day. Here's another from Tracy Chapman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rZbvi6Tj6E

[sasha031]

31. Good for you Chris,

Handled them beautifully.:headbang:

[RVN VET]

32. His parting shot was wonderful but

they would never invite back a speaker so intelligent and eloquent. Chris raised the level of discourse (on his side, anyway) and showed the "Canadian-Trump" to be a fool. I admire the hell out of Chris Hedges. He's a valuable human being who speaks truth to power eloquently and shows up mouthy nincompoops for what they are.

I remember the commencement address he tried to give at Rockford College, a school that used to have a good reputation. He came, he said, to speak of war and the evils of war -- he spoke as Bush launched his PNAC approved assault on Iraq. And the audience booed, hissed, and actually cut the cables to his microphone and threatened him physically. I almost cried when I heard the whole miserable mess on the internet. How could students at a school known for Jane Addams, for chrissakes, turn out to be such pathetic neanderthals?


I'm glad to see Hedges still staring down the baboons and howling monkeys of the establishment. I loved -- really loved -- his very deliberate and positive reference to Karl Marx at the beginning of the piece. It must have caused Canadian Trump's bowels to loosen!

[livingonearth]

33. I just created a new folder in my "favorites".

I call it "Chris Hedges".

[KoKo]

34. Good "Slap Down" by Chris Hedges...don't MESS WITH CHRIS! n/t

[jimlup]

35. I have a new hero

I had not heard of Chris Hedges before the OWS movement began. He is softly spoken absolutely razor sharp and patient in explaining the truth for the sane. The insane - such as O'leary - are quite incapable of listening to these truths which he speaks.

[truth2power]

41. If you search 'Chris Hedges" on Google video, you'll find

dozens of videos of talks he's given at various venues around the country.

[pezDispenser]

45. agreed

[Chakab]

36. I find it distressing that this RW propaganda is

spreading to the Canadian media. I have Canadian citizenship because my mother grew up there, and I've been seriously considering moving there because I don't think that I can deal with the situation the U.S. anymore. There doesn't seem to be any safe haven left from these people.

[FreeBillClinton]

37. K&R

[bluecoat_fan]

39. KR

[crim son]

42. You have to admit that at least one good thing has been happening

these last couple years, that being, shitty talking heads are being called on their non-productive, derogatory, partisan comments and "questions." It's a pleasure to watch/hear.

[JBoy]

43. O'Leary is one of Canada's biggest douchebags.

I take pride in the fact we don't have too many, but he's a dick.

[myrna minx]

44. Excellent. K&R n/t

[chervilant]

46. "It'll be the last time!"

Who knew these Canadians are FOX sycophants! I think we all know who sounded like a 'nutbar'!

[orbitalman]

51. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ! ...

to Chris Hedges.:yourock:

[AmandaMae]

54. Good job on Hedges' part. I really admire him.

[davidthegnome]

55. O'leary isn't worth the time

it requires to slap him down. Nor the (miniscule) effort.

With people like that, there is no winning or losing because there is no honest debate. It's attempted character assassination, mud flinging and a general waste of time. It would be similar to attempting to argue with Ann Coulter or Hannity or any number of so called "conservatives" who simply don't know how to have an honest debate and make up for it by throwing insults, slander.

I like Hedges, but I don't think he should even bother with the likes of O'leary. Then again, I think the best method in dealing with such people is to simply ignore them, they certainly don't use what little intellect they have to contribute anything of value to humanity.

[democracy1st]

57. classic