Occupiers being occupied
Occupy Wall St has a pledge page where people are encouraged to “fight back” and have a choice to pledge to do one of a number of things. Choices include starting an occupation, organize their workplace, got to a meeting, show up for an action. You get the idea.
Someone apparently tried to troll the OccupyWallSt.org site yesterday.
Occupy Wall Street has a national gathering that they are planning in Philadelphia this week. It is planned as a 5 day sleep in.
July 4th weekend is a very busy time in Philadelphia and the city will be prepared for a mass convergence on their amenities. Our “People’s Map” will direct people to restrooms, encampments, and banks for #banksleep.
For the occasion, they have a twitter hashtag, #natgat. Today, conservatives and others appear to have hijacked the hashtag and are having lots of fun posting.
A selection of the tweets can be seen at Twitchy here.
Samples:
TwitchyTeamHey, the Occupy National Gathering has a hashtag: #NatGat. Be a shame if something happened to it. 
-jt
Developing: Occupiers upset at conservatives taking over #NatGat, a hashtag dedicated to Occupiers…who take over things that aren’t theirs
OccupyNG-Safety@OccupyNGSafety
Any hijacking of the #natgat thread by conservatives from “Team Twitchy” (?????) will *NOT* be tolerated #OWS #occupywallstreet
You are so precious! Just want to hug you…but no
#BecauseScabies MT@OccupyNGSafety The conservative hijackers will be DEFEATED! #natgat
Defend Wall Street@DefendWallSt
#natgat WHOSE HASHTAG?! OUR HASHTAG
It appears that @OccupyNGSafety has surrendered to #TeamTwitchy:twitter.com/OccupyNGSafety… #NatGat #Cowards
Heh Occupiers – there are better discussions at the @jessehadden livestream. No conservative hijackers there. #natgat #ows
Will Antonin@Will_Antonin
Stoo@stoo11Bill Maher: OWS, stop camping, get involved in political process, we need you to be our Tea Party
Some on the left are finally getting around to picking over the corpse of the Occupy movement and asking what went wrong.
Last night, Bill Maher chastised OWS to stop camping and start participating in the political process.
Mediaite picks up on Maher’s comment and asks, ”Whatever happened to Occupy Wall Street? It was a big thing last year, it was going to be the left’s answer to the Tea Party, now no one really knows where it’s going.”
Mediaite notes:
Maher mocked the movement for its many grandiose ideas and lack of realism, and while he admitted he enjoyed going out to Occupy DC last year, “having a sleepover in the park for four months didn’t cause Wall Street to crumble.” He acknowledged Occupy has “the right message,” but its execution and public awareness campaign are not exactly the sort to make substantive change.
Occupy’s big event this summer is on July 4th, and according to Maher, their goal is “to facilitate a visioning process designed to allow all voices to be heard while allowing repeat visions to organically rise to the top.” And while “visioning process” makes me think of kaleidoscopes, it’s apparently what they’re planning on doing next month. And the next day, Occupy is hosting a “guitarmy.” Yes, a “guitarmy.”
Maher grudgingly compliments the Tea Party- recognizing that they moblized, they got involved in the political process and now have candidates in Congress to follow up on their agenda. He said, “We need Occupy to be our Tea Party-an unwavering block that will force things to the left as relentlessly as a new pair of jeans with a tight inseam”.
Maher, Mediaite and others, of course, miss the point when they express their desire to turn Occupy into the Tea Party. They’ve been taking this tack since Occupy appeared.
But Occupy doesn’t want to be the Tea Party of the left. It doesn’t want to be a part of the political process. It wants to bring that process down. Maher mocks the Occupy motto, “The only solution is world revolution”, but that is what they desire.
Additionally, any numbers that Occupy may have had have precipitously declined exactly because of that intractable stance. So there isn’t much of an “army” left.
So Maher ends up talking to the wind.
