{"id":802,"date":"2009-11-15T17:23:03","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T01:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citizented.com\/?p=802"},"modified":"2013-07-20T11:49:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T19:49:00","slug":"to-beat-em-join-em","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/?p=802","title":{"rendered":"To Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"obama_jews\"<\/span>

Protester hyperbole: can it be fun?<\/p><\/div>\n

I’m not much of a protester. It’s not that I don’t have passionate feelings about some policies; I do.\u00a0 It’s just that I don’t like protesters Left, Right, or Center. Yeah, I may agree with you on points A, B and C; it’s just that I think you’re an irritating person and I hate you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Comic artist Peter Bagge confirms my suspicions in this hilarious comic from reason.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike Peter, I’m not a Libertarian. I won’t get into politics here, because that’s not why I’m writing today.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m writing today to encourage those of you with a political passion to make yourselves heard via absurdity. Unlike the fellow above, I’m not interested in folks who are too stupid to realize their opinions are absurd. Instead, I think there is a more effective form of protest: monkey-wrenching the entire format.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"iron_shirt\"<\/span>

I can't recommend this. <\/p><\/div>\n

It’s easy enough to come up with a counter-protest that is cruel, snarky and amusing. But it’s difficult to get your troll picked up by the news media. Ask anyone who has held amusing signs in front of the Westboro Baptist Church people:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"god_hates\"<\/span>

I approve of this, but it's not effective. <\/p><\/div>\n

I have an alternative solution. If you want to submarine the opposition AND get your protest sign on nationwide TV, you’ve got to join the protesters and make your sign a bit too hyperbolic. Since I have a special loathing for the Teabaggers, I’ll use them as a case study, but this concept can be applied to any protest situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"angry_negro\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"harem\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\"end_CDC\"<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the kind of protest movement I can get behind! Why dilly-dally about with FOX News talking points when you can really go for the jugular?<\/span><\/p>\n

Best of all, your covert counter-protest will be welcomed by all in attendance! Hell, you may become spokesman for the mob! And if you play your cards right, you may even become a paid expert for a broadcast “news” organization! Wow!<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not much of a protester. It’s not that I don’t have passionate feelings about some policies; I do.\u00a0 It’s just that I don’t like protesters Left, Right, or Center. Yeah, I may agree with you on points A, B … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political_whingings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=802"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2453,"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions\/2453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizented.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}