Rebellion or something.

[Salty]

Part of the reason that is that way is because there are no alternatives.

Kids don't want to burn down Starbucks or turn over police cars, they want to go to college, live in a house, and eat food. Go to the movies have a drink.

The only way yo dismantle all of that is to burn it all to the ground, and nobody is willing to do that because they just want the world to be a nice place to.live.

Right, they don't want to burn it down. That might get in the way of enjoying all the benefits of this evil system they hate so much. Nobody wants Asian sweatshops or blood for oil but let's not be hasty. Everybody wants an equitable world where justice is the rule instead of the exception, you know, as long as it doesn't cost too much.

At some point, you have to make the decision to fix something or scrap it.

Where are you in that process?

I help fix people who are broken from a sedentary life of bland servitude be as free from pain as possible. I breaka my body down to do so,and end up strong for it.

I can't speak for others, but that still doesn't help me.sleep at night.

Meanwhile, if you folks bring the kerosene, I've got the matches.

I'm all for it burning, I'm growing BUGS for FOOD.

I am PREPPING.

[Salty]

I'd rather get in their cute.little faces RE: their gross lack of human nature so one more.person is less satisfied with the shitshow they is their lives. I like to employ a personal touch.

[Doktor Howl]

All I know is that if painless dentistry goes, I'm going with it.

[Freeky]

I feel like most people can't afford to burn it all down.  It seems like you'd need to be self sufficient in a "I will eat bugs and hunt for my meals, I know where to find water and how to make it safe to drink, I know how to make a shelter or can defend my shelter well enough that I won't die of exposure" sort of way, or at least have a lot of money and food stocked up, in order to survive such a major overhaul of society, and I am not sure even fifty percent of the population of anywhere that has these sort of problems can say that they can do that.

[LMNO]

Hi. I'm part of the problem. Deal with it.

[The Johnny]

I wonder what they would say to each other if they ever met.

"Sorry bro, no refunds."

[The Johnny]

Hi. I'm part of the problem. Deal with it.

We all are, but at least i try not to be so cavalier and cynical about it.

[Doktor Howl]

I wonder what they would say to each other if they ever met.

"Sorry bro, no refunds."

INTERBUTTS OVER.  JOHNNY WINS.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

What's to fix? Everything works just fine, or at least better than it does in a lot of places. We have elections. More votes get counted than thrown out. The problem isn't that we're thoroughly fucked by powers too big to overcome, it's that we consistently choose to keep being fucked. I'm less disgusted by the fat cats and useless politicians than by the masses who let them keep calling the shots. And that robs me of my motivation to shake things up, because what am I going to do, declare myself Emperor? Whatever happens, you eventually have to hand the keys over to 300 million ignorant monkeys and hope for the best. The way things are now, at least I have a house and food to eat. So, obviously, I'm not even one to preach at Anonymous for being a toothless subculture based on the superficial appearance of revolutionaries. I'm in the same boat.

So where I am in the process is, I guess, the "more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed" phase.

[Doktor Howl]

Hi. I'm part of the problem. Deal with it.

We all are, but at least i try not to be so cavalier and cynical about it.

That's one way to put it.

"Honest" would also work.  I have real motivations for trying to fix the system.  I have no motivation to destroy it, because I benefit from it.  I would prefer that more people benefited and less people got pooped on.

If we burn it down, everyone gets pooped on.

[Doktor Howl]

What's to fix? Everything works just fine, or at least better than it does in a lot of places. We have elections. More votes get counted than thrown out. The problem isn't that we're thoroughly fucked by powers too big to overcome, it's that we consistently choose to keep being fucked. I'm less disgusted by the fat cats and useless politicians than by the masses who let them keep calling the shots. And that robs me of my motivation to shake things up, because what am I going to do, declare myself Emperor? Whatever happens, you eventually have to hand the keys over to 300 million ignorant monkeys and hope for the best. The way things are now, at least I have a house and food to eat. So, obviously, I'm not even one to preach at Anonymous for being a toothless subculture based on the superficial appearance of revolutionaries. I'm in the same boat.

So where I am in the process is, I guess, the "more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed" phase.

Okay, I can buy that.

[The Johnny]

Hi. I'm part of the problem. Deal with it.

We all are, but at least i try not to be so cavalier and cynical about it.

That's one way to put it.

"Honest" would also work.  I have real motivations for trying to fix the system.  I have no motivation to destroy it, because I benefit from it.  I would prefer that more people benefited and less people got pooped on.

If we burn it down, everyone gets pooped on.

The devil is in the details.

If 50% of the population had a spine and basic human empathy, everything would be different within the same system that we use.

this video came to mind: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ5WPXxNzPU

in which the singer can be interpreted as the plutocracy speaking... macabrely calm while the rioting goes on, for they kmow that all the petty directionless squabbling will end at any given moment, and since nobody has a spine will just proceed to buy everyone out.

there you go, a. Mona Lisa for the 1% 

[Bu🤠ns]

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

The problem isn't that we're thoroughly fucked by powers too big to overcome, it's that we consistently choose to keep being fucked.

Tell me more about how the people getting fucked over choose it.

I'm less disgusted by the fat cats and useless politicians than by the masses who let them keep calling the shots. And that robs me of my motivation to shake things up, because what am I going to do, declare myself Emperor?

On one hand the masses "let them keep calling the shots", as though there is a workable alternative. On the other hand, you let yourself off the hook because you can't articulate an alternative either—and it's the masses fault for not coming up with one to inspire you.

The way things are now, at least I have a house and food to eat. So, obviously, I'm not even one to preach at Anonymous for being a toothless subculture based on the superficial appearance of revolutionaries. I'm in the same boat.

You're not one to preach at Anonymous... even though that's exactly what you did?

And who exactly are you in the same boat with?

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

they just want the world to be a nice place to.live.

This.

Regardless of the rhetoric involved, all protest damage is intended as symbolic (whether or not it really is purely symbolic), because in the end the point of protest is to make the world a better place, rather than to fuck things up out of spite against a world that isn't equitable enough. A protest says "we could fuck up your shit, but we don't want to", and a riot proves it, but neither one does or should actually cause major economic damage because that isn't the point.

People who don't want to work within the system, and who would rather replace it with some other system, don't buy masks and shout in the streets. They form independent communes and fuck off into the woods. Protests and riots are tools of incremental improvements of existing societies through displays of strength and popular opinion. They achieve fuck-all, but they aren't intended to ever be quite as revolutionary as their rhetoric claims, because otherwise they wouldn't be protests -- they'd be revolutions.