“This is a test” Would u feel safer if you were“CAUGHT IN”a conservative or liberal protest?

Hypothetical Story….

Ready…

Just imagine you are a 31 year old walking down the street in a new city…you, your spouse and 3 year old are visiting…

And all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a political protest with a few thousand protestors…

3 Questions…

1) If you had to pick, in order to be safer…would you rather it be a conservative or a liberal protest?


2) Why?


3) What are the implications of your choice?


= = = = = = =


This should be fun to watch…no silliness ok?

OT

reply to post by OldThinker


To be honest I'd rather be stuck in a conservative protest. A liberal protest would be filled with a lot of college kids worried about global warming while on the other hand a conservative protest would be filled with old white guys who want low taxes. Old guys are usually easier to fight off then college kids so..................

IDK, liberal protest will bring out the young anarchists, wouldn't want to be around when they start stomping out windows.

A conservative protest would be gun toting rednecks wearing sh!tkickers, wouldn't want to be there either.

I'd rather be somewhere else if a riot or protest were to break out.

reply to post by Jeanius


Stars for the both of you for being quick to the reply....

Thx!

Others?

OT

PS: Please don't forget questions 2 and 3 ok?

I found this...www.examiner.com... -of-the-left

Comparing the Tea Parties to the G20 protests - the violence, destruction and hypocrisy of the Left
September 25th, 2009 9:12 pm ET.For months now anyone who has attended a Tea Party or has spoken out against Obama’s plans has been subject to accusations of inciting violence by the Left. Nancy Pelosi went so far as to feign tears while talking about the murder of a Democrat in the 70s by another Democrat – trying to associate that murder with the Right Wing. Is the Left calling the G20 protesters racist Nazis who incite violence? They are obviously protesting Obama as well as the rest of the G20 members. The ACLU actually had the gall to say the protest was peaceful. You can see in the video below that it was anything but. The video does not show the destruction of businesses that are in the area. I’m sure as the days go by there will be more videos appearing.

The 912 Tea Party had a guestimated 75,000 people (there are many other numbers out there so I’ll just low ball this one so it doesn’t make the Left look AS bad), the G20 protest numbers have been in the hundreds to 3,000. There were no arrests at the Tea Party; the final number of arrests at the G20 protest is not in yet. There was no vandalism at the Tea Party; there has been a lot of vandalism of businesses at the G20 protest. There were no riot police at the Tea Party; they had riot police ready and waiting at the G20 protest. Apparently these G20 protesters are known for violence. Even the Right Wing extremists that may have attended the Tea Party were not violent or destructive!

Is this typical in your eyes? Orno?

OT

I'd probably prefer to be caught in the middle of a rightwing protest. Them folks is easier to anticipate, since they all march in lockstep and copy each other for the most part. Also, they're more the believing types, and I could just bullsh*t them with any old foolishness if things got dicey. I could tell 'em that God just told me that they have to do [insert command here] and before much convincing there'd be asses and elbows pitching right into it.

I like simple folks. Fewer moving parts and less maintenance.

Originally posted by OldThinker
I found this...www.examiner.com... -of-the-left

Comparing the Tea Parties to the G20 protests - the violence, destruction and hypocrisy of the Left
September 25th, 2009 9:12 pm ET.For months now anyone who has attended a Tea Party or has spoken out against Obama’s plans has been subject to accusations of inciting violence by the Left. Nancy Pelosi went so far as to feign tears while talking about the murder of a Democrat in the 70s by another Democrat – trying to associate that murder with the Right Wing. Is the Left calling the G20 protesters racist Nazis who incite violence? They are obviously protesting Obama as well as the rest of the G20 members. The ACLU actually had the gall to say the protest was peaceful. You can see in the video below that it was anything but. The video does not show the destruction of businesses that are in the area. I’m sure as the days go by there will be more videos appearing.

The 912 Tea Party had a guestimated 75,000 people (there are many other numbers out there so I’ll just low ball this one so it doesn’t make the Left look AS bad), the G20 protest numbers have been in the hundreds to 3,000. There were no arrests at the Tea Party; the final number of arrests at the G20 protest is not in yet. There was no vandalism at the Tea Party; there has been a lot of vandalism of businesses at the G20 protest. There were no riot police at the Tea Party; they had riot police ready and waiting at the G20 protest. Apparently these G20 protesters are known for violence. Even the Right Wing extremists that may have attended the Tea Party were not violent or destructive!

Is this typical in your eyes? Orno?

OT

This is comparing international professional disruptors that came specifically to start a world-class street fight for the global press cameras with fat, old men and ther fat, old wives on a weekend afternoon with picnic lunches listening to Fox News people talk about how wonderful they are. Hardly a reasonable juxtaposition.

Definitely a "liberal" protest - it's more familiar to me as there have been more than a few "liberal" protests turned riots in this town... the implication? don't know, I suppose that it means I feel more familiar with this type of protest and know how to anticipate approx. when things may start to get out of hand ... yes, there are always those who protest in the hopes that it will turn to a riot and there are those who come to instigate that, but it tends to be pretty easy to pick up on when and where that may start and have a better shot at avoiding getting caught between vandalizing punks and the riot cops, who are, quite intimidating, up close I might add...

However, in a new or unfamiliar city? I'd prefer to be in the protest that I appear to be the most "like" in appearance to better blend and not draw attention. The goal would obviously be to get off the streets where the largest protest is... I'd still have to go with Liberals though, just for the familiarity factor, I guess.

reply to post by OldThinker


for safety reasons, the conservative protest. how many tea parties have you seen broken up with tear gas?

What a totally BS thread.

Conservatives protest at the ballot box.

I will do you one better.

Find me one,just one video of a conservative that has stooped to name calling of a liberal.

And do not even put up any of those rednecks.

They are most likely liberal plants.

I was caught in a Communist election march by college students in Italy in 1976.

I had no idea it was even taking place and would have walked right in to it if a old shop keeper had not grabbed me and pulled me in to his store.

Only the old people remembered that Americans died on their land to remove the Nazis and Fascists from their country.

Just like today.

You young people are being led down a path that you'll remember and regret someday.

If the leftists convince you all to let them take power,even this forum will be shut down to prevent dissent.

If i had wife and kid/s with me then i would probably just watch for a few mins then leave the area.
How quickly I would leave would depend heavily on exactly what the protest was about, how the crowd mood felt, police prescence and other factors.

As an Independent voter, I would feel safer if we CAUGHT all the conservatives and liberals.

Adherence to "party lines" has prevented our nation from walking the middle ground for decades now.

Anyone who votes "the party" is a criminal.

reply to post by OldThinker


I think the common denominator in a great many (not necessarily most- don't want to characterize you all that way) would be that people are most likely to feel uncomfortable in the midst of a crowd that they have obvious differences from.

I'd like to think I could move comfortably through most kinds of protests or rallies because there aren't too many classes of people that I consider my enemies- basically any hostile mindset I have is in relation to certain corporate and governmental organizations which I find fundamentally unreasonable in their function- that doesn't offer me a lot of opportunity to tick people off. When you're a young white male who can speak to both conservative Christians and liberals and humanists in their own ideological dialect fluently enough to propose compromise as if you were a moderate within their own group, you get a little more say than some others in how tricky social situations are going to play out.

But where I would be most nervous, though I'd like to think that I'd keep my cool, try to live in a world where nobody harms me if I harm nobody, and hope to god that everybody else was interested in living there too, is among any group that I do not understand well enough to feel like I could avoid their attention if they started to get agitated into a mob mentality, or any group with whom I have a communications barrier that would negate my usual diplomatic approach to ideological conflict in person (not only by reason of language, but for reason of having serious grievances that I honestly don't understand enough to speak intelligently about [ie: where i feel like I could end up offending them even if I were trying to express that I don't have a problem with them], or because something I can't change about myself sends an unintended message [ie, the hair thing discussed below]). When you cut me off from "my element" where I always feel like I know how to treat people and how to develop an understanding with them, that in and of itself raises tensions a lot, because I've got less control over my own well being than I'm used to.

I'd be particularly nervous for example in any crowd that was getting ready to bash nazis, because I went bald at 20 and have been shaving my head since. That rarely causes me problems, but I have had some experiences stemming from that. I had a minor role in a college film as a skinhead vigilante who kills an illegal immigrant- apparently somebody really liked my performance and decided to be sure I was really acting. So one day I was in front of the student center hanging out, when a well dressed middle-aged black man who I didn't know come up on me very directly, stopped just outside of what you would call, "my space", and stared me down.
I stayed sitting down and mustered a calm "can I help you, sir?" (the sir being a product of the age gap- which I considered the one promising sign about the situation) and he burst out laughing and told me he liked the movie.
It was a really cool and enlightening experience in the end, because I realized that what I felt at that moment is probably the same thing that guy would feel if some idiot yelled a slur at him, whether in the same joking context or seriously. It's probably the feeling on both sides of a clash between protesters and an outsider as well. I was really glad I'd played it as cool as I did, because for all of my knowledge about how people ought to deal with one another, there was a part of me screaming, "dude, to hell with what it looks like, if you don't stand up you're gonna get knocked out"- and who knows what would have happened if I'd let fear push me too far. That's the kind of delicate situations you can end up in over perception. But I was lucky really- I was on my own turf- if you did want a piece of me, you could only get so many licks in before one of my hundred or so friends on campus took notice and got my back. So I had the luxury of not getting defensive. Drop me down at somebody else's protest, on their turf, and who is to know?

So long story short, my theory is that it's not the crowd that makes you feel less safe in and of itself, but your confidence in your ability to share something in common with them. And the point of failure I think tends not to be reaching a point where there is nothing in common, but reaching a point where there is little enough in common that somebody gets scared and makes the wrong move.

Which brings us back to what I'd like to think I'd do if I was caught in a conservative/liberal/ethnic/alternative/whatever kind of crowd: which is try my best not to be the one who crosses that line and manifests his own fears into reality by anticipation. But it's not a cure-all, because even though the crowd should have nothing to fear from an individual, I can't count on somebody who is for some reason just not feeling well at ease not to decide that I would be something to fear if they didn't have the safety of the crowd, and that the advantage needs to be pressed while he has it.

I've been to quite a few anti war marches and things when I was younger and more of an idealist and I was always surprised at how quickly the general "Peace and Love" message put about by a lot of the people could turn into "Lets throw things at the police"

Theres nothing more dangerous then an enraged hippy!

In this hypothetical situation am I black or hispanic? Because quite honestly, I would feel equally safe at either a left or right protest if I am a white/european but would not feel safe at a conservative protest if I was black, hispanic or asian.

add: or muslim. definitely not muslim.

Originally posted by Oneolddude
What a totally BS thread.

Conservatives protest at the ballot box.

Your first line is lazy friend...

Your second line is very true...

Ah, life is a paradox...appreciate yout thoughts

Originally posted by davespanners

Theres nothing more dangerous then an enraged hippy!

Good line...

But why?

Do they grow more conservative as the grow older...generally?

Originally posted by The Vagabond
reply to post by OldThinker

 

I think the common denominator in a great many (not necessarily most- don't want to characterize you all that way) would be that people are most likely to feel uncomfortable in the midst of a crowd that they have obvious differences from.

V, lotta wisdom there friend, appreciate the time

OT

Originally posted by Oneolddude
What a totally BS thread.

Conservatives protest at the ballot box.

I will do you one better.

Find me one,just one video of a conservative that has stooped to name calling of a liberal.

And do not even put up any of those rednecks.

They are most likely liberal plants.

I was caught in a Communist election march by college students in Italy in 1976.

I had no idea it was even taking place and would have walked right in to it if a old shop keeper had not grabbed me and pulled me in to his store.

Only the old people remembered that Americans died on their land to remove the Nazis and Fascists from their country.

Just like today.

You young people are being led down a path that you'll remember and regret someday.

If the leftists convince you all to let them take power,even this forum will be shut down to prevent dissent.

Wow! You really are One Old Dude.

You people are so frightened of so much stuff. It boggles the mind as to how you get the nerve up to go to the grocery store. This nation was founded on people being in charge of things. Not companies or business groups. You call fighting back against their societal takeover "leftistism" and socialism and nazism and communism and satanism and whatever "ism" is being tossed at you by Glenn Beck between commercials selling survivalist gear and stockpile gold. Well, we're going to continue to knock off those goddamn corporate bloodsuckers whether you can sleep through it all or not.

Try thinking about people instead of corporations, and maybe you won't be so terrified. People can learn to care about you. Companies can't. All they can learn to do is function without the likes of you.

OOH! Both! I would be be egging both side on trying to induce complete and utter anarchy.