Critiquing The Fashion Of Occupy Wall Street

By on July 11, 2012 in News 19

How does the traditional media engage with normalcy-disrupting unrest? Via Thursday Friday, prior to the clearing of New York’s Zuccotti Park, Women’s Wear Daily selected an Occupy protester as their “Man of the Week”, breaking down the rebelliousness and salt of the earth credibility of each element of his ensemble:

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  • Iconography

    Um … I thought it was established months ago, after the Sabu debacle, that Occupy had essentially been started by the FBI to corral the anti-establishment crowd (like they previously did with KKK radio host Hal Turner -
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Turner)?

    Why are we still talking about this? If “rebelliousness and salt of the earth credibility” means “being an unwitting FBI stooge” I’ll pass. 

    • Liam_McGonagle

      Well, spreading paranoia can be a very effective counter-revolutionary strategy in the short-term, too.  Provided your target gives a rat’s *ss about popular opinion.

      • Iconography

        huh?

        • The only thing to get is money

          If your target doesn’t care about expansion and becoming a popular movement, it will be very easy to infiltrate and tarnish their already sullied image. During the Civil Rights movement it was nearly impossible to do this, as any common milquetoast could of joined the movement and felt right at home.

    • 776

      “I thought it was established months ago, after the Sabu debacle, that
      Occupy had essentially been started by the FBI to corral the
      anti-establishment crowd.”

      Source?

      • Amanothotep

         What?  asking for proof of claims?  How unamerican.

        • Temoho

          haha, so true

      • Iconography

        Yeah, so this is basically like me saying “the Earth revolves around the Sun” – and you going “I need a source before proceeding along this line of discussion.”

        This fact was heavily, heavily covered and should be apparent to anyone who is remotely conscious of the world around them and able to retain a thought for more than 8 seconds. The OWS cadre was an outgrowth of activism that grassrooted from the HBGary hack, Anonymous’ only actual “hack” and one which was performed on FBI computers (as was outlined after the Sabu arrest).

        I really hate when people say “just google it” but, in this case, these facts are so painfully well-documented and well-repeated that anyone who actually follows deep politics news should be patently aware of them and anyone else probably shouldn’t be speaking.

        I’m sorry, I know that’s not going to satisfy you and you’re going to go screaming like a gibbon and climbing around on the walls yelling that I’m dodging or whatever; I’ll deal with it. I’m just not very interested in building a back catalog of a dozen links of extremely, extremely basic facts to satisfy someone who has limited current events prescience or intellectual capacity. No offense!

        • DeepCough

          Well, have you a source for this claim, or have you not, sir?!

      • MattG

         What is disinfo a fucking scholarly journal?

        • Andrew

          You’d prefer unsubstantiated allegations go unchallenged?  What if one was about a group you supported?

    • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

      probably wasn’t started by the FBI
      (they’re not that smart)
      probably was infiltrated and co-opted by FBI “informants”

      and being an FBI informant
      is great way to pick-up some extra cash
      while at the same time getting a free pass from the pigs
      and you can actually plan terrorist acts with their help
      just don’t dial the cell phone number to the bomb when they ask you to

  • http://twitter.com/MiGaOh Michael G. O’Hair

    “Women’s Wear”

    Oh, yeah, that lends some weight to the editorial.

    Get it? WEIGHT?

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    yeah, OWS didn’t really work on its media/fashion image thingy
    good thing that bastion of rebellion, WWD was there with helpful hints
    and their fashion critique
    is probably the extent to which their readers have considered the OWS issues

    I’m sure the 1% got a real chuckle out of this

  • David Howe

    At the risk of sounding humor-impaired, it’s impossible to find shoes and socks (not to mention all the other clothing items) that are NOT made by a corporate behemoth that uses pop culture heroes (that it help manufacture in the first place) to sell their wares.  These accusations of hypocrisy is all it takes for an effective character assassination by the media.  The media works VERY hard to avoid the messages of real, authentic movements, especially those who endanger the profits.  You’ll not only see this story posted everywhere, there will be variations by every other unit of the mainstream media.  This is where the deep wells of sympathy for the billionaires and deep disdain for “losers” comes from.  It’s a manufactured desire and one of the symptoms of the corrupt culture.  God help us.

    • Jin The Ninja

      actually it’s definitely possible to source ethical clothing with looking like a total gimp.

      • M.

        I just spin my cats shed fur into yarn and knit sweaters.

        • Jin The Ninja

           you have a store on etsy?

    • Adam’s Shadow

       Thrift stores and hand-me-downs; it sounds ridiculous and probably hypocritical, but there’s always Kohl’s for formal or dress-wear if you have a “legit” job.  If I have to buy a couple pairs of  slacks and a few button-ups to hold down a job, I don’t lose sleep over it; I just tend to use those clothes for years until they’re almost falling apart.