OWS: Return of the Useful Idiots

It was a little rocky last night (November 4th) here in DC. The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) people were out in force, surrounding the convention center where Americans for Prosperity (AFP) held their two-day summit. There was some excitement in the building, as well.

In the opening moments of Judge Andrew Napolitano’s speech during the Reagan Dinner, one of the OWS protesters who had paid admission, stood up and began to scream something unintelligible about Jefferson. I’ll be kind and assume he meant Thomas and not George. Besides, I’m fairly certain he doesn’t believe in the concept of “movin’ on up”.

As the protester was peacefully escorted from the room, Judge Napolitano loudly quoted Voltaire, “I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.” It’s too bad the protester didn’t stick around for the entire speech; he might have learned something. Except that he could have not learned a thing because he wasn’t there to learn.

The OWS people, as a whole, are not interested in understanding. They are interested in transforming our current system, which they do not understand to a system they cannot describe for reasons they cannot properly communicate through demands they cannot enumerate. Do you see the beginnings of a problem here? - Ken Carroll, Below the Gnat Line

OWS can claim that it’s spontaneous and grassroots, but it’s not. The movement can claim that it is protesting cronyism, but it’s not. It can also claim that it represents the 99%, but the more information that is presented about OWS, the smaller that percentage becomes. At the current rate, we will be down to 2% by Christmas and 1% by the time the NBA plays a regular season game.

The presence of professional protesters such as Lisa Fithian have been documented at OWS from the first day. If the OWS people were really protesting crony capitalism, wouldn’t they also protest the elected guardians of public interest? It takes two sides to produce cronyism, after all.

When I look at OWS, an old cold war term comes to mind. It was a term the Soviets used regarding their clueless followers in the West. Some of these dupes who pushed the wishes of the Soviet Union still write for the New York Times, and still with no idea of what they were helping create. The term for them was “Useful Idiots”.

So, blatantly standing in our public places, incredibly arrogant in their ignorance, we see the newest version of the Useful Idiots. The people whose knowledge is without fact, whose assumptions are asinine and whose very existence raises questions about the validity of the theory of survival of the fittest.

As I made my way to my hotel last night, I watched the inglorious hippie-crits jealously clutching their electronic toys while decrying capitalism, the very source of their web-based joy. The irony was both cold and instructive – to me. To the hippie-crits, who have no desire to learn from reality, the only chilling moments came from a bitter breeze.

by Ken Carroll

Additional notes: Compared to the violence of the OWS-Washington group at the AFP Summit, the Atlanta OWS group was a much more reasonable and reasoning group. Check out the video link below. There is a language warning, so if you’re at work, kill the volume or mute. Did any of what you see in the video make the national news at all?

For video of the protesters at the AFP summit, visit the Daily Caller video. Check in at about 1:12 into the video for the violent stuff.

Disclaimer: AFP provided my lodging and a 12-hour AFP bus ride from Kennesaw to the summit in D.C. It didn’t change a word of what I wrote and there was no pressure, but to be fair, you should know this.

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