More Thoughts On The "Occupy" Protests

First off, what is their moral basis?

This theory, which is based on ideas from the anthropologist Richard Shweder, outlines six clusters of moral concerns—care/harm, fairness/cheating, liberty/oppression, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, and sanctity/degradation—upon which, we argue, all political cultures and movements base their moral appeals...

So what’s the mix of moral foundations at Occupy Wall Street (OWS)? In my visit to Zuccotti Park, it was clear that the main moral foundation of OWS is fairness, followed by care and liberty. Loyalty, authority, and sanctity, by contrast, are very little in evidence.

If corporations are "bad", aren't people who benefit from them equally bad?

Despite frosty relations with the titans of Wall Street, President Obama has still managed to raise far more money this year from the financial and banking sector than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate, according to new fundraising data.

How many of the protesters are making that link?

Kevin Zeese observed to WMAL.com that "President Obama, with his one billion dollar campaign, is holding fundraisers that cost $38,500 to get into." Zeese noted that the fundraiser cost is "higher than the median individual income for Americans, which is $1,000 less." He added that such a fundraiser "puts Obama out of touch with the people and very much in touch with the money elite."

Wonder who he voted for in 2008, and who he'll vote for in 12 1/2 months.

If you've concluded that I mostly have contempt for these particular protesters, you win the prize.

Update, 10/21/11:
From Politico, hardly right-leaning:

“First, the White House signaled it would make anger toward Wall Street central to President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign. But then, Obama warned against demonizing all of Wall Street — only a few days before he sympathized with the Occupy Wall Street protesters who do exactly that. And that’s just what the president and his team have said since Saturday.”

The Occupy Baltimore folks would prefer you not to involve the police in your unfortunate little rape:

Efforts by the Occupy Baltimore protest group to evolve into a self-contained, self-governing community have erupted into controversy with the distribution of a pamphlet that victim advocates and health workers fear discourages victims of sexual assaults from contacting police.

The pamphlet says that members of the protest group who believe they are victims or who suspect sexual abuse "are encouraged to immediately report the incident to the Security Committee," which will investigate and "supply the abuser with counseling resources."

As the folks at Hot Air said:

The news here isn’t really that they’d rather have a “Security Committee” deal with alleged rapists than the local P.D. The whole point of starting a utopian commune is that it’s as insular as possible.

No, the news here is that there’s apparently enough of a problem that they felt obliged to publish a pamphlet dealing with the subject at all. I confess, I haven’t been to any tea-party rallies so you’ll have to tell me: Are there a lot of “here’s what to do if you’re raped today” fliers circulating at those too?

Nice folks, those "occupy" types.