Canadian G20 Protestors

[AZRedhawk44]

Are these protestors all just hippie pinko commies, going after capitalists?

Or are they libertarian troofer basement dwellers, going after the Build-a-burgers?

I'm not hearing much about them on the nooz like they normally get, and the YouTube videos are all very short and make the police out to be JBTstormtrupenNazis. 

[Jamisjockey]

Are these protestors all just hippie pinko commies, going after capitalists?

Or are they libertarian troofer basement dwellers, going after the Build-a-burgers?

I'm not hearing much about them on the nooz like they normally get, and the YouTube videos are all very short and make the police out to be JBTstormtrupenNazis. 

Alex, I'll take Pinko Commies for a thousand. 

libertarians, at least true believers, are fine with big business.

[AZRedhawk44]

Real libertarians, yes.

But the troofer basement dwelling types (there IS a separate subclass of these, kind of like retarded Morlocks without any teeth) can pick odd causes.  Just wondering if they are here in any sizable numbers.

[Jamisjockey]

Real libertarians, yes.

But the troofer basement dwelling types (there IS a separate subclass of these, kind of like retarded Morlocks without any teeth) can pick odd causes.  Just wondering if they are here in any sizable numbers.

I don't see the troofer basement types trading WoW time for protesting, though.

[freakazoid]

I would believe it's more of the evil anarchist type, but I haven't heard much about it.

[Balog]

Apparently Canadian cops have found a bunch of caches of bricks (rocks, chunks of concrete etc) on building tops along routes likely to be taken by cops. Protestors getting ready. :( Bastard anarchist/communist rioters, destroying property and hurting people for no damn reason.

[MicroBalrog]

libertarians, at least true believers, are fine with big business.]

Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, and Ludwig von Mises would be very surprised to hear this.

Big Business =/= free markets.

[makattak]

Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, and Ludwig von Mises would be very surprised to hear this.

Big Business =/= free markets.

True, but neither is it an exclusionary trait.

Big business may be a result of free markets, though. Standard Oil became "big business" because it delievered the best and cheapest product (yes, both) to the market. As a result, it outcompeted all other business.

[Jamisjockey]

Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, and Ludwig von Mises would be very surprised to hear this.

Big Business =/= free markets.

Free markets can and do spawn big business.  I am of course not referring to big business spawned as a result of crony capitalisim. 
Why would any libertarian be opposed to a business growing big as a result of competition??

[MicroBalrog]

Big companies asking for (and) receiving privileges and laws that benefit them against their competitors is a common fact of life in a modern state. When I met MEP Hannan, he explained that this goes on all the time in the European Union as well.

The Bilderberg Hotel conferences are interesting in this case. Obviously there's no conspiracy in the sense to which the less-bright refer to it, but the fact is that there is a... socially-interconnected elite to which people such as those who attend these conferences belong. Some of these people are CEOs of well-placed companies, others are government leaders or intellectuals. I do not mean to say that they are conspiring in the common sense, of course.

[Balog]

Big companies asking for (and) receiving privileges and laws that benefit them against their competitors is a common fact of life in a modern state.

So is welfare. Doesn't mean either are inevitable.

[MicroBalrog]

So is welfare. Doesn't mean either are inevitable.

It's a consequence of how big modern government is.

[makattak]

It's a consequence of how big modern government is.

DING DING DING DING DING

All the so called problems with big business aren't business problems. They are governance problems.

The rules of the game are SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the players in this case.

[Jamisjockey]

It's a consequence of how big modern government is.

Big modern government and being cosy with corporations isn't a free market.  That is crony capitalisim. 
Government being able to willy nilly write rules, regulations and restrictions that favor large established corporations does not mean that without those favoritisims that large corporations wouldn't still exisit.

[MillCreek]

I was in the 'Battle of Seattle' during the 1999 WTO meeting.  My office building was right downtown in the middle of the riots.  Most of the protestors who dress like ninjas and break things seemed to style themselves as anarchists.  From what I remember reading in the paper for some of their interviews, they seemed to have a weak grasp on the true meaning of anarchy. 

I did, however, love the women dressed up in the sea turtle costumes!  They could entangle themselves in my drift net any day.

[lee n. field]

   
Canadian G20 Protestors

Am I the only one to think?:

[MicroBalrog]

DING DING DING DING DING

All the so called problems with big business aren't business problems. They are governance problems.

The rules of the game are SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than the players in this case.

So why wouldn't one protest the biggest global conference of big govermnents, big-government politicians, and their pals? Or do you genuinely think the issues they're discussing are how to make us all freer?

[Jamisjockey]

So why wouldn't one protest the biggest global conference of big govermnents, big-government politicians, and their pals? Or do you genuinely think the issues they're discussing are how to make us all freer?

Yeah! Let's all protest by breaking other people's stuff!  Smash some windows!  Torch some privately owned vehicles!! Yeah, that's showing the man!!

[tyme]

Yeah! Let's all protest by breaking other people's stuff!  Smash some windows!  Torch some privately owned vehicles!! Yeah, that's showing the man!!

So the people who get gassed and beaten and shot with rubber bullets and subjected to hearing-damaging devices at these protests are all, or even mostly, black-clad ninjas who are doing the vandalizing and molotov-cocktail-throwing?  Not so, and in a few cases in past protests, there has been reasonably convincing evidence of police planting agent provocateurs who then participate in the illegal activities.

The cost of security in Toronto for the G-8 and G-20 was roughly $1 billion.  Windows still got smashed, cars still got burned, but not to worry I guess... the conference itself went on undisturbed.

If that's option A, I think just about any option B would be preferable, regardless of who's at fault for causing the damage or making the government think it needs that much security.  It's not like these sorts of protests are unforeseen.  How about teleconferencing?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

reasonably convincing

lol

[freakazoid]

One big reason for the rioting and breaking of windows is to draw most of the police presence away from the conference so the other protesters can do there thing. Also for the most part they attack the "big business".

reasonably convincing

lol 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbgnyUCC7M
Took me a while to find it since most of the stuff is now about the G20 but here it is.

[Balog]

You show up at a riot, you deserve what you get.

[freakazoid]

Yeah, damn Founding Fathers should of been put in shackles and beaten. 

[Balog]

Founding Fathers spend a lot of time destroying the property of other colonists?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

One big reason for the rioting and breaking of windows is to draw most of the police presence away from the conference so the other protesters can do there thing. Also for the most part they attack the "big business".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbgnyUCC7M
Took me a while to find it since most of the stuff is now about the G20 but here it is.

so where werre these guys inciting violence? surely someone has it on a cellphone cam
bueller?  anyone?