A search of the email cache that BigGovernment released last week reveals that the #Occupy movement is largely driven by s socialists and anarchists who realize they need to conceal their actual message and goals in order to appeal to more mainstream elements. Their goal is to build large enough numbers where a ‘mob mentality’ takes over so they achieve their real aim of overthrow.
This “Trojan Horse” agenda of deceiving the public about the real nature of the #Occupy movement is discussed in chillingly casual terms by John McGloin, a New Yorker who is one of the early organizers of #Occupy.
In this article from early September about the lead-up to what would become #Occupy, McGloin is clearly involved in the event planning and acts as a sort of unofficial spokesman in the comments section, where he fields questions and invites people to come out to the open ended #Occupy event.
In the email cache, McGloin describes himself on October 8th and says he’s been working with the General Assembly a month and a half before #Occupy launched..
I have been working with the GA on OWS since August 2, and I have been working with many of the occupiers since before that. We are the most fiercely inclusive group I have ever met. We want to include all of the 99%. We all came together because we are trying to save the world, and we know we need everyone to do it
McGloin goes on to explain that since he isn’t a socialist or anarchist, he’s in the minority at #Occupy.
I am a middle aged white male. I hate saying that. I was raised to interact with people as individuals and to judge their actions and not their identities. I am not a socialist or an anarchist, so I am under represented at OWS, but I am trying to save the world, so I keep putting forth my opinions even though many of my opinions are not popular, and doing outreach to everyone I know, even though many of my friends are not socialists or anarchists.
Of course, since people who aren’t socialists and anarchists are “under represented at #OWS”, this creates something of a recruiting problem for drawing in large numbers of people. In another email exchange from earlier in October, McGloin explains a strategy to overcome this problem – appear reasonable in order to build a big enough “mob”.
The exchange starts with someone named Snafu talking about how he’d heard a OWS spokesman who wasn’t radical sounding enough for him. Sanfu suggests they need spokespeople who are actually radical but who sound reasonable.
Snafu says…
Just heard a guy at the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, who called in as an OWS “spokesperson” and claimed to be “in charge of security at the park.” The radio show was about how Wall Street traders and workers feel about the occupation. He said that he wanted the radio conversation to happen in the square (on which I can agree) and then added that OWS is not about class warfare but about getting things done and bringing about change. The overall tone was that of a reassuring middle-class guy speaking to middle America.
While this communicative style may help expand our ranks, it will also help change the social composition of the movement in such a way that if any reforms are ever passed, they will be probably so watered-down that they will change in fact nothing. I am not sure how spokespersons are selected and whether this guy (who claimed to have appeared on several TV programs as well) has anything to do with the PR firm mentioned in this thread.
But I want to raise the point that this way of communicating can have serious political consequences, some of which may not be that desirable. I think we should try and select spokespersons who are able to express a more radical point of view in a reasonable way.
John McGloin counters…
I actually think your stategy is backward. The way i see it first you get large numbers of people to join by showing how reasonable you are. Then when the numbers are big enough, they will feel their oats, get impatient, and start demanding more than you could have imagined. (Never underestimate mob mentality.) But if you talk about overthrowing governments, capitalism or wholesale changes, most of the 99% will be scared off, and we’ll never have the power we need to affect real change. In order to fight the global coporations I estimate we need a minimum of 15 million Americans on the street. There are not 15 million radical socialist/anarchists in the US. We need people without political agendas, but with anger at coporations.
The #Occupy Wall Street movement is not a spontaneous gathering. It’s a planned, calculated move by socialists, anarchists and associated wannabe radicals to create a larger movement, something that they have been unable to do because their actual goals and values would be so repulsive to most ordinary Americans that they would have no hope of breaking past ‘lunatic fringe’ status. With the help of the press and the President, however, they just might be able to break out this time.
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