Something Vague

No. But, have a great Thanksgiving break.

Those of you who aren’t reading on a Tumblr dashboard will see my previous entry as nothing but a terrifying wall of text. I’m too lazy to remedy this. Maybe you should just get a Tumblr account. Or see if you can read all of that out loud in one breath.

So, I spent the weekend down at Occupy Denver, watching the police brutalize protesters. I’m not even a regular protester. I was there to help a group of my friends move their things before the police could throw it all away. I was shoved and screamed at. When I arrived home, my face and eyes hurt from pepper spray. And I was there to help people move out of the park. After the riot police had removed everyone’s things and systematically pepper-sprayed, pushed and screamed everyone out of the park, they followed the protesters down the 16th Street Mall. They shot rubber bullets into the crowd. They followed the protesters around for hours after they’d completed the only task they were lawfully entitled to use force in. The next day, they were there to tackle, pepper-spray, shoot and harass the protesters again. The police were still there under the pretense that the protesters were camping, illegally. But protesters were no longer camping illegally, as all of their camping equipment had been disposed of. Somebody had made the mistake of setting up a meal table for the protesters in the middle of the day. So, the police tackled, beat and arrested four people in the park. It looked very much like there was a group of riot police bullying protesters who bothered trying to stick to their (metaphorical) guns. People who were protesting peacefully were pepper-sprayed, harassed and herded around a public park for simply holding signs and chanting. Then, when the protesters marched back down the 16th Street Mall, the riot police followed them to continue arresting, shooting and spraying them down. The Denver Post and several of the local stations gave the whole ordeal the kind of slant that you’d expect. The police can do no harm. “Protesters were chanting anti-police slogans.” It was fucking ridiculous. It’s gotten to the point where you can be fined if the police see you donating items to the Occupy movement. One of my friends was arrested for crossing the motherfucking street during the conflict. Honestly, there are things that I like and dislike very much about the Occupy movement. But after witnessing what I consider to be excessive police brutality, I’m convinced that there is a gaping hole in our system. Some of you might be rolling your eyes. I’ll be honest. I think that’s because you believe everything you read. I’ve decided that I just can’t trust the media anymore. Newspapers are almost entirely funded by advertisements purchased by corporations. Television news is filled with so much divisive, partisan network bias that you would have to be completely retarded to not notice it. The worst part about this is that it can mean the difference between “nudged with batons” and “beaten into a bloody pulp with batons”. The news media is a decaying corporation-funded circle jerk. It’s become so disgustingly corrupt and convoluted, that it no longer serves its purpose to inform, but rather spoon-feeds the masses a calculated mixture of fear-mongering bullshit and cold-hearted apathy. It’s nothing but another tool to keep you buying nonsense, hating blindly and voting for dipshits. It has become a detriment to free thinking. I know the difference between what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard on the news. I know the difference between a dangerous situation and a situation that the government just wants to disappear. I’m a fucking journalism student and I think this. This is no longer a question of whether or not you agree with the movement. It’s a question of First Amendment rights. It’s a question of who actually runs the show in this country. I don’t care if this sounds like I’m some kind of a crazy, extremist asshole. I’m just sick of this bullshit.

And this year, I’m going to finish something by the end of the month.

But, I decided to make a tumblr specifically for my obsessive little lists. Feel free to ignore this link.  spookylists. 

adamroan: but can they love it when they’re actually fucking to it? // Yes. Also, what made you ask this question? (via adamroan-deactivated20111101)