[jamiewilson]

It’s no wonder that the protests over the last 20 years haven’t worked to garner more support considering that those who do participate are treated with violent retaliation. Maybe if those of us begging to be heard were allowed to speak, and scream and chant, it would inspire more people to unite, organize and vote.

[cpursley]

> Maybe if those of us begging to be heard were allowed to speak, and scream and chant, it would inspire more people to unite, organize and vote.

You can. As far as I know, the US is still a democratic country with elections.

[untog]

Is it even worth going through the ways in which US democracy is broken? From the electoral system itself all the way down to extremely obvious voter suppression efforts (often specifically targeting black people), you really can't be too surprised that people do not feel that their voices are being heard.

[cpursley]

It's not perfect so the solution is to just burn it all down?

[untog]

Why do you think the people protesting want to burn down the entirety of US democracy? Nothing I have seen would suggest that.

[kortilla]

Occupy Wall Street was not meant with violence and it was huge headline grabbing protests that went on for weeks. It didn’t do anything meaningful.

[jpster]

IMO the media was not talking about income & wealth inequality before OWS. OWS forced it on the agenda and changed the very language we use to describe it: “the 99% vs the 1%”. That’s a big deal.

[mcv]

I'd say it raised a lot of awareness, which is exactly what protests are for. Protests don't create laws, they raise awareness. Based on that awareness, people vote and change laws.

[virgil_disgr4ce]

> It didn’t do anything meaningful

How do you know? Do you have an alternate timeline of history to compare it to?

[kortilla]

Well none of the things the protesters wanted (broken up banks, more taxes for the rich, arrested bank execs, more social entitlements, etc) came to fruition.