Occupy CPAC is incredibly dumb and might be fake (Occupy Wall Street, OWS)

The latest plan from the Occupy Wall Street folks is called "Occupy CPAC" (CPAC is the annual "Conservative Political Action Conference"). OccupyCPAC will consist of, per this, "[creating] as much non-violent resistance as possible, and make this a conference the attendees will never forget".

Based on how OWS has done things in the past, that translates into shouting down speakers, throwing glitter on people, street theater, and so on.

Some points:

1. This new effort shows yet again that OWS is an incredibly dumb group that in effect helps those they claim to oppose. If someone had wanted to discredit OWS or their partners in this effort, coming up with a plan like theirs would be a great way to do it.

2. If you're an OWS supporter, compare OccupyDC's plan to my Question Authority plan. I want political leaders to be asked tough questions about their policies so we can finally have in-depth debates about important issues. OWS has no interest in debate: they're totalitarians who just want to silence their opponents. If you support OWS, ask yourself which would better serve your goals:

A) glitterbombing a politician, or
B) asking that same politician a series of tough questions designed to show the flaws in that politician's policies?

All OWS leaders can come up with is A, despite the fact that it won't do anything and B would be actually effective at changing how politicians act.

3. As they have in the past, OWS shows little or no knowledge of or interest in fundamental American concepts. It's fundamentally un-American to try to shout others down rather than engaging them in debate. And, OWS seems to think that the U.S. political system is democracy when it isn't and by design: the founders of the U.S. realized the dangers inherent in the democracy that OWS supports.

4. The OccupyDC plan is not something that 99% of Americans or probably even 5% would sign on to:

this event is another gathering of bigots, media mouthpieces, corrupt politicians, and their 1 percent elite puppet masters... CPAC will parade and attempt to perpetuate the radical right wing’s imperialist ideologies with keynote speakers, movies and banquets dedicated to pursuing its racist, sexist, patriarchal and exploitative agenda... Spectacles will include imperialist topics such as "From Fidel to Chavez: How Do We Stop the Resurgence of Socialism in Latin America?", "Is the ‘Arab Spring’ Good or Bad for America?" and frequent bloviation on "American exceptionalism." Openly racist discourses will be given on "The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American Identity" and "Islamic Law in America: How the Obama Justice Department Is Selling Us Out." The conference will also glorify the role of money in politics in talks such as "How to Raise Money… the Easy Way," "Citizens United Productions Hosts Blogger Briefing" and "Fundraising Secrets from the Billion $ Man."

That reads like a satire of an ANSWER screed, but stripped of any knowledge of what it's discussing and any self-awareness. The possibility exists that OWS was either designed to be a fake opposition to the elites or has been infiltrated by those seeking to make it a fake opposition. Few Americans would sign on to their tactics or their sub-Noam Chomsky ideas, which might be the whole point: create a fake opposition to the elites in order to discredit the idea of opposing the elites.

5. Real or fake, OccupyDC is doing their co-conspirators in this effort no favors:

We will be joining in solidarity with the AFL-CIO, SEIU, National Nurses United, Metro Labor Council, OurDC, and more to make our voices heard in our increasingly top-down, money-corrupted democracy.

See Service Employees International Union and AFL CIO for past coverage of those groups, both of which are fairly mainstream and not given to discussing "imperialist ideologies". If OWS is fake, they're taking groups like those along for the ride.

6. OccupyDC closes on this note:

WE WANT YOUR PRESENCE. WE WANT YOUR ENTHUSIASM. WE WANT YOUR VOICE. TELL YOUR FRIENDS, YOUR FRIENDS’ FRIENDS, AND ANYONE WHO HAS EVER BEEN SUPPORTIVE OF REAL DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY AND POSITIVE DISCOURSE.

We are the 99%. We are unstoppable. Another world is possible.

My first impression of that was, "that has got to be a joke". They're going to try to silence others and block debate, and they call that "positive discourse"? They think we have or want "real democracy", when a core tenet of the U.S. is to avoid "real democracy" (i.e., mob rule)? And, they close with a line reminiscent of the catchphrase of criminal computer hackers, those very same hackers who are enabling future internet crackdowns by creating a problem for those like John Poindexter to "solve"? Either OWS are all completely dumb and completely unaware, or something else is going on here.

7. Finally, let me reiterate what I said above: if you support OWS, compare their plan to my Question Authority plan. If you want to keep the elites in check, pursue my plan. Don't follow borderline fascists who think that glitterbombing and silencing others is "positive discourse".

UPDATE: The AFL-CIO admits they're just as dumb as OWS (blog.aflcio.org/2012/02/09/occupy-cpac-summit-of-the-1)

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will get a warm labor union, progressive welcome tomorrow at its annual conference in Washington. D.C., and we will keep you updated with a live Twitter feed ( hashtag #OccupyCPAC ) courtesy of Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council AFL-CIO... The Who’s Who of the 1 percent - like Mitt Romney, Scott Walker, Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, Ann Coulter, Grover Norquist and other stars of the extremist rogue's gallery - will be on hand. But so will representatives of the rest of us, the 99 percent, with big puppets, inflatables, chants, songs and of course tents to Occupy CPAC.

Puppets are for children. The AFL-CIO simply lacks the ability to take the otherwise easy step of showing how some of those they pretend to oppose are wrong about some things.