What are your feelings towards the Occupy Movement and why?

I think their target is not clear enough in their sights yet to make their efforts worth anything.

Not being a part of it, my views are only based upon perception, and not necessarily reality.

But it seems to me, even though the fundamental essence of the Occupy movement is sound, the lack of structure becomes an incubator for extremist conspiracy theorists voices to be believed where they otherwise would not have been. This guilt by association will be the undoing of Occupy.

I’ve said more than I should considering that I don’t really know what I’m talking about here.

I’m generally in favor of what they stand for: stopping the corporate confiscation of all the wealth in the name of “free enterprise”. But still, I really am in favor of real free enterprise where there’s few restrictions on the buying and selling of goods (the corporate version of “free enterprise” is that corporations have the right to sell goods, but small businesses don’t).

I’m in Washington and all for them because in their individualistic, pluralistic, organized, and disorganized way, they are making a point and they are very visible.

Except when they really act stupid. This town is used to protestors and had actually been both tolerant of and helpful to them in many ways, but when protestors get involved in things like pissing on the police such as happened during that business about erecting a structure at McPherson Square, they really wear out their welcome.

The pissed on can get pissed off.

They are the only political group in the US with significant numbers and varied demographic that has addressed our foremost political problem, which, if it isn’t solved, no other problems can be addressed by democratic means:It is the undue influence corporations have on our electoral process, the decisions made by our law makers through lobbying, and even the decisions made by our Supreme Court justices such as the recent Citizens United v. FEC (2010) and going back as far as Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886). All their other complaints stem from this one overwhelming defect in our democracy—the off-the-leash libidinous tactics of corporations as they ride roughshod over rights US citizens. I’m all for OWS.

Yes, they do sometimes do stupid things and I am cautiously tolerant of most of it. But they have yet to bring automatic weapons to town hall meetings like the Tea Party did during the health care debates. They have done nothing nearly so insane.

The protest movement is completely understandable and has my full support. If you want to know why get hold of the film for which this is the trail.

@Espiritus_Corvus Wish I could give you 100 “Great Answers”.

“True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within” -Saul Alinsky

Agree with their general views about wealth inequality and the need to reform the financial system.

I think their methods are stupid, unproductive, completely unpragmatic, and self-aggrandizing, and I think most of the active people in the movement are pretty clueless.

Just like the tea party did with debt, OWS has accomplished a shift in the “national conversation” to inequality. That’s good. But the tea party also managed to elect a bunch of people with their views. OWS seems more interested in complaining about how rotten the system is than trying to change the system through the democratic process, and that’s a tragedy.

I support the goals. I am not supportive of their tactics. Here in Oakland they have been violent. Friday, their actions in San Francisco were disruptive to regular people.

The OWS people in New York were well disciplined, Zuccotti Park was clean and worked well. Here in the Bay Area the encampments were little more than garbage dumps filled with feces.

I think their efforts to educate people, many of whom don’t understand how their own lives have been manipulated by corporations, is important and helped the movement grow.

I do like their philosophy that a stated agenda would give the powers that be a lever to end the movement. It makes sense: don’t give the enemy the power to shut you down.

I just like the fact that people are getting together and protesting. Trying to provoke change and make a difference in the world. Sure some of these guys rock up not really knowing what they’re protesting, but who cares? The fact that they are there shows they at least care or give a shit that we’re being screwed all over by uh… who or what was it again?

I like them and approve of them. I can’t believe how successful they have been. I though everyone would ignore them and think they were street scum. Instead they have placed the issue of income inequality squarely on the national agenda and they have made it much more difficult for the Tea Party to have their way. In the process, they are training our Congressional Reps in 15–20 years. Way to go!

Lack of focus has lead them to protest inappropriate targets, like the ports.
This has hurt their cause, which has legitmate issues.

Even so, the 99% need the voice of the Occupy Movement to counter the voice of the 1% through the Teabaggers.

I think that the Occupy movement had good intentions, but htey fell apart under their own weight. See, the elite are few and thus it is easy for them to unify, especially since their goal is far simpler. Take a far larger group trying to fight a battle on more fronts though, and things devolve quickly. Also bear in mind that a larger group has more people that qualify as “fringe elements”, so you also increase the odds of extremist action like violence.

And as @Qingu points out, they really didn’t do much as far as invoking real change. Who got into office as a result of their protests? Their tactics showed that they were more interested in fighting the system than in actually changing it. @Michael_Huntington is exactly right on that one, and that is why the Tea Party has been far more successful.

I fully endorse many of the things for which they protest, but I differ with them sometimes on the methods they use to do so.