The teenage moralism of the Occupy Wall Street hipsters almost makes me ashamed to be Left-wing. Occupy Wall Street, the gathering of angry actors, graphic designers and various other hipsters in the financial districts of New York City , might just be the most degenerate Left-wing movement of recent times. Its weird demands, plastered across tongue-in-cheek placards and on super-cool, self-pressed t- shirts, capture the descent of the modern Left into the cesspool of victimology, conspiracy-mongering and disdain for mass society and its allegedly dumb inhabitants.
Far from representing anything that I, a Leftie, would recognise as progressive and humane, this gaggle of rich kids spouts little more than snobbery and fear, seemingly incapable of deciding whom they loathe the most: greedy fat bankers or the dumb fat public. Occupy Wall Street claims to be a mass workers’ movement, but it’s nothing of the sort.
Once upon a time, being Left-wing meant exposing the structural problems with capitalism and putting forward some solutions for fixing or overhauling them. ‘Buffett Rule’ Debate Blocked by Republicans. Overheard on the Goldman Sachs Elevator. An anonymous career banker inside Goldman Sachs opened a twitter account (@GSElevator) with the intention of revealing the hilarious banter that takes place in the privacy of the GS elevators. Since then, the account has evolved to include things overheard on trading floors, bullpens, lobbies and bars. Some of the conversations involve more than one person, and the participants are distinguishable by their number (#1, #2, #3). Here are some of my favorites from the past several months… #1: She’s only about 3 weeks of anorexia away from looking hot. #2: Maybe 4. #1: Hey fat fuck, I already know what your resolution is. #1: Can we please stop calling them ‘hipsters’ and go back to calling them ‘pussies?’
#1: Groupon… Food stamps for the middle class. #1: A guy came up to me at the gym and asked me what event I was training so hard for. . #1: If you can only be good at one thing, be good at lying… because if you’re good at lying, you’re good at everything. #1: Age is just a number. . #1: Fact. Occupy George. Occupy News Bins, UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident Recreated in LEGOs.