The Necropolitan Sentinel

For a group trying to garner support from the public, this is the grand-daddy of all bad ideas:

Some demonstrators are planning to occupy retailers on Black Friday to protest “the business that are in the pockets of Wall Street.”

Organizers are encouraging consumers to either occupy or boycott retailers that are publicly traded, according to the Stop Black Friday website.

The goal of the movement is to impact the profits of major corporations this holiday season.

It’s one of those “it sounded good on paper” ideas that fall flat upon execution and, in fact, ends up being detrimental to the group trying to pull it off.

How many stores have Black Friday Sales? A lot more than there are protesters. And what are these stores? Private property. So what do the stores have every right to do? Eject those from their property who are being disruptive. That, of course, will result in a cacophony of unfounded claims that the protesters “rights” have been violated.

Meanwhile, who do you suppose will not be impressed? Any potential supporters who also enjoy Black Friday deals and are inconvenienced by these boobs.

As for impacting corporate profits this holiday, seriously? They couldn’t if they tried. They don’t have the numbers and besides there are literally millions of outlets and ways to do shopping on Black Friday to include on-line.

This is simply another in a long line of tantrums by those who Billy Hollis told us about in his post the other day.

We have two generations that have been raised to believe that, ultimately, someone else is responsible for the essentials of their lives. They believe they are supposed to retire in their fifties or early sixties, with a pension followed by Social Security. They believe they are supposed to relinquish concern for healthcare costs when they turn 65. They believe that if things get bad enough in their lives, unemployment, and later welfare, will keep a roof over their head and food on the table. They’ve been trained to believe this by a ruling class that has been assuring them since the 1930s that they have the fundamental right to a soft life.

They’re the folks who think money simply exists (or grows on trees), belongs to the government and should be doled out according to need and that it is the evil corporations who run the world.

So they come up with brilliant ideas like this.

Here’s a partial list of those companies these yahoos want to see occupied or boycotted (parenthetical remarks theirs):

- Abercrombie & Fitch

- Amazon.com (yes, we have to stay away from Amazon, too!

- AT&T Wireless

- Burlington Coat Factory

- Dick’s Sporting Goods (I was surprised, too!)

- Dollar Tree

- The Home Depot

- Neiman Marcus

- OfficeMax

- Toys R’Us

- Verizon Wireless

- Wal-Mart

I wonder if this means they can’t use their AT&T and Verizon phones that day to communicate and coordinate? Of course, only some of those companies will have Black Friday sales (yeah, Home Depot is a hot spot for shoppers on the Friday following Turkey Day). The list is only an example with the group calling on OWS to hit all publicly traded companies.

They toss in this little disclaimer too:

“Keep in mind that we are not occupying small businesses or hardworking people—we must make a distinction between the businesses that are in the pockets of Wall Street and the businesses that serve our local communities.

We are NOT anti-capitalist. Just anti-crapitalist.

Ye gods … save us from the economically challenged and politically unhinged. Clever, no?

No.

Enjoy Black Friday and be sure to hit some of the stores mentioned above.

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