53%ers are 100% Full of Bull$h*t

When a criminal commits a crime we don't expect random spectators to say, "Suck it up, you whiners" or "You're just jealous of the criminal because he got away with it" or even "If you weren't so lazy then you could be a criminal too" and "you probably just want some of his loot".  We would be even more surprised if someone said to a crime victim, "It was YOUR fault that the crime happened to you and if you failed to stop it then you deserve whatever you get."  Yet this is exactly the sort of "logic" employed by right-wing apologists for Wall Street.  They insist that anyone criticizing Wall Street must be a lazy, unemployed, "whiner" who is "jealous" and "looking for a handout".

Right-wing shills have now formed an organization called 53%, in response to the Occupy Wall Street who say they are part of the 99% of people who are not ultra-rich.  The 53% allegedly refers to the amount of people who pay taxes in the US, since poor people end up getting a refund.  However, this is based on the unevidenced assumption that nobody in the Occupy Wall Street movement pays any taxes.  Where is their evidence for this claim?  They have none.  It is demonstrably false.  They also assume that OWS protesters are all unemployed and receiving an unemployment check.  This too is false.  Many OWS protesters work part-time or low wage jobs to survive, but are still complaining about the criminal behavior of big banks and Wall Street investment firms who crashed our economy and created this recession.  

Another typical canard of the 53% astroturf movement is to say that anyone complaining about the behavior of Wall Street lacks, "personal responsibility".  They thump their chests about how they are "self-made" people, and that they are in 100% complete control of every facet of their lives.  However, the reality is that this is usually a complete bluff.  If most of these individuals were to lose his or her job then it would not be so easy for these people to find a job again, in the present economic circumstances.  They believe that it would be easy, but that is based on how the job market was ten years ago, the last time they had to look.  We all tend to over-estimate our abilities, but unless these people have actually gotten a job in the last six months to a year then they don't know what the hell they are talking about.  Personal responsibility is an important component in life, but as we noted in the above example, an extremist over-emphasis on "personal responsibility" ends up with ridiculous results like saying that the rape victim was "asking for it" by wearing makeup and looking attractive.

The bottom line is that so-called 53%ers are full of misinformation, among other things.  Many 99%ers are also part of the 53% who pay taxes.  Many 99%ers are not collecting unemployment.  Therefore these conservative blowhards have absolutely no right to attempt to censor the speech of the 99%ers.  In fact they would not have this right even if all the 99%ers were unemployed and collecting government checks, which is not the case anyway.  So don't buy their latest attempt to whitewash the actions of Wall Street and the ultra-wealthy.  Many of the 53%ers are nowhere near rich themselves, anyway, and are therefore suffering from a form of cognitive dissonance commonly called "false consciousness", where people are conditioned, through propaganda, to not advocate for the very things that it would be in their interests to demand.  They say that they don't want to see some long-haired hippie type getting  "government handout", but they have no problem with rich people paying lobbyists to write special laws that give tax breaks and loophole deductions to wealthy corporations or people.  They say they are "self-made" but they fail to realize that, without roads, bridges, public schools, state universities, libraries, post-offices, and fire departments that any of them would not have the resources to operate businesses, educate their children, or go to college themselves.  And if they think taxes are too high, that's far more likely because the rich are gaming the system than because some poor person is getting a minimal payout from something like unemployment.  That they are blind to the excesses of Wall Street shows how skewed their view of reality truly is.

Was Jesus a Jealous Hater? Herman Cain Thinks So.

Republican presidential candidate and cheerleader for corporate corruption (but I repeat myself) Herman Cain thinks that the Occupy Wall Street protesters are just "jealous" and "envious" of those hard working banksters and stockbrokers who helped engineer the financial collapse of 2008 and the current, on-going recession -- the worst one since the Great Depression (also caused by Wall Street).  To wit, he is quoted as saying, of the protesters, "I'm not sure I know why they're there. If they're there because they are jealous of Wall Street and bankers and people who have succeeded, then they're there for the wrong reasons. This country is based on people who achieve their dreams and work."  Of course, if Cain is not sure why the protesters are there, he could ask them or do five minutes of research.  Instead, he chooses to answer his own question instantly and speculate that they must just be "jealous" haters who don't want to "work" or "achieve their dreams".

There was a person that most Republicans claim to admire named Jesus (No, not that dude from Mexico) who also preached against excessive monetary greed and materialism.  He spoke hundreds of times, in the Gospels, about helping the poor and/or of the spiritual dangers of excess materialism and the greed that often comes with it.   Of the Seven Deadly Sins, GREED (or avaritia) is often listed as the second one.  Yes, it's called a sin, not a virtue, contrary to the mantra of false prophet Ronald Reagan who thought "Greed is Good".  The ridiculous revisionism of the Prosperity Gospels to one side, Jesus did not speak very approvingly of the Rich.  I know that Cain and Romney would label it "class warfare" today, but Jesus was quoted by Matthew as saying, " I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Mt 19:24).  He said, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."  (Mt 6:19-20).  He said, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Lk 18:22).

Jesus didn't say that he's not sure why the poor are here but that they are probably just "jealous" and "lazy".  I know that Herman Cain claims to be a Christian, so the idea that he cannot understand why other people would be critical of the excesses of the wealthy is hard to reconcile.  I know you're probably not sure why Jesus drove the money changers out of the Temple, Herman.  However, I am pretty sure that it wasn't because Jesus was JEALOUS of their success or wanted to penalize them for "working hard" or that he wanted to redistribute their profits to the poor.

To take a page out of his playbook, I'm not sure why Cain dislikes these protesters and favors the plutocrats of Wallstreet.  If it's because he hates Jesus and is in league with Satan, having sold his soul to serve Mammon and corporate greed, betraying the interests of the people, then that sounds pretty anti-American and anti-Christian to me.