My Capitalism Protest

[LuvNewcastle]

Let's say that some friends and I decide to protest capitalism in front of a store downtown. Before we go, we make some signs with pictures of dead people who were victims of capitalism -- people killed in the blood diamond trade, homeless people, that sort of thing. When we get to the store we harass the customers as they walk in, calling them murderers and all sorts of filthy names, doing our best to intimidate people from going inside. Our cause becomes a movement and there are protests at stores across the country, some of the protests are violent and there are even bombings and shootings of store clerks. My question is: how long would our government allow this to continue?

[elias49]

1. Good luck

[Buzz Clik]

2. I'm not sure it would matter what your cause is, that kind of behavior is a pain in the ass.

Hopefully, you'd be cut off after a brief period.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. I think the police would probably arrest

me and my little group on the first day.

[sufrommich]

12. If those people you're screaming "murderers" at don't get to you

first.

[Buzz Clik]

14. If your objective is to be arrested, that won't be a problem.

If a cop says, "Please move along" and you call him a fucking pig and spit on him, you'll go to jail. It's all pretty simple.

[LuvNewcastle]

17. I agree. If I did something like that, I would

deserve to be arrested.

[kctim]

3. Government would be the least of your worries

[sufrommich]

4. "we harass the customers as they walk in, calling them murderers

and all sorts of filthy names"

Somehow I doubt your cause would become a movement.:eyes:

[LuvNewcastle]

8. We have such a movement in this country.

Try to get into an abortion clinic in Kansas these days.

[ClassWarrior]

10. That's called a "cult," not a "movement."

NGU.

[pampango]

13. And to the best of my knowledge it has stated a small "cult" rather than a large "movement".

They will never admit it, I'm sure, but their tactics do not help their cause because it furthers the perception of them as "wackos".

[LuvNewcastle]

16. Whether it's a cult or a movement,

why do we allow people to conduct themselves in such a manner? If we can't allow people to shut down stores, why do we allow people to shut down abortion clinics? Why is one a free speech issue and the other isn't?

[sufrommich]

18. So who is stopping you from standing in front of a store and

yelling "murderers"? Hey, give it a shot,let us know how that works out for you.

[LuvNewcastle]

19. Okay, I'm not going to do such a thing.

It wouldn't be right. It's also not right to allow abortion protesters to do such things. Why do we allow it?

[sufrommich]

20. We don't allow abortion protesters to cause violence without

care for the law. Bombers get arrested. Also,abortion protesters are required to keep a certain distance from the clinics,which is the most the government is allowed to do. We have this thing called the constitution which allows protest,regardless of the theme of the protest,as it should be.

[LuvNewcastle]

22. They cause violence all over the country.

Not only do clinics get bombed and doctors shot, but they get to harass women as they go in the clinics so much so that they need escorts. You can't tell me the govt. would accept such behavior from anti-capitalists.

[sufrommich]

24. They get arrested for those thing too. Why leave that part out?

Have you ever seen Fred Phelps in action? It would be hard to imagine a more despicable group of people right now, yet they are not stopped by the government when they protest funerals. Freedom of speech is messy.I would certainly expect the government would not accept murders and bombing by any protest group,why would anti-capitalist be treated any differently?

[LuvNewcastle]

26. The Phelps Klan, awful as they are, don't

have a history of killing people. Abortion protesters do. I agree that anti-capitalists shouldn't be allowed to do the things I described. I just wonder why we allow some protesters to endanger the lives of some while not allowing protesters to inconvenience others.

[sufrommich]

29. Please link to any proof you have that the government looks

the other way when anti choice nuts kill people. As long as protesters are not endangering lives, there is nothing the can do.

[LuvNewcastle]

31. The government doesn't look the other way,

but they don't really go as far as they're needed in protecting people who go to clinics. I'm saying that the govt. would be much more active if there were people disrupting the shopping experience of some than if there were people threatening to kill others.

[ClassWarrior]

21. Why do we allow it? Ever hear of a little concept called "freedom of speech?"

NGU.

[LuvNewcastle]

25. So we should continue to allow radicals

to threaten women and abortion providers? Free speech isn't absolute. It's against the law to stalk and/or threaten people.

[ClassWarrior]

28. I don't know what sort of twisted point you're trying to make here, but I never said...

...that we should "allow" any such thing.

NGU.

[LuvNewcastle]

30. In your previous post you said that

we allow such things because of freedom of speech, or did I misunderstand you?

[ClassWarrior]

32. Scroll back. Your question referred to yelling the word "murderers." I said that we allow such...

...SPEECH because of freedom of speech.

As sufrommich keeps pointing out, you seem to want to conflate confrontational language with physical violence.

NGU.

[LuvNewcastle]

33. All right -- here goes.

This post is about abortion, not capitalism. The things I described in the OP are all common things that abortion protesters do -- they carry signs with gory pictures, they harass and intimidate people, etc. The point I'm making is that I would be arrested pretty quickly (and possibly involuntarily committed) if I staged an anti-capitalist rally in front of a store. Why are abortion protesters given more latitude than certain other protesters? Does America care more about the right to shop than the right of women to make reproductive healthcare choices?

[ClassWarrior]

34. You're probably right. So why all the confusing of speech with violence?

You'd make your point better without it.

NGU.

[LuvNewcastle]

35. Yes, I see in retrospect that you are right.

I had a feeling that others might not see my point at first, so I drew as many parallels as I could between abortion protesters and my fictional protesters. Instead of clarifying my point, I muddied the waters. Oh well, what am I going to do?

[ClassWarrior]

36. 'Scool.

:fistbump:

NGU.

[sufrommich]

11. Yeah, those people are assholes too.

[Buzz Clik]

15. And these people spend a lot of time in court defending their so-called free speech.

[ClassWarrior]

9. +1

NGU.

[xchrom]

5. ...

:eyes:

[pampango]

7. Sounds like the era of civil rights protests. Large demonstrations, bombing of Black churches,

deaths of civil rights workers, etc. I'd say those protest went on for quite a while. Violence as almost all directed against the protesters and their supporters, but there were a few organizations that believed that violence against racists was justified. They were prosecuted while the demonstrations continued.

[lame54]

23. about 20 minutes

[LuvNewcastle]

27. Damn skippy. n/t