Time's Person of the Year Is "The Protester" 543
Hugh Pickens writes "Time's editor Rick Stengel announced on The Today Show that 'The Protester' is Time Magazine's Person of the Year: From the Arab Spring to Athens, from Occupy Wall Street to Moscow. 'For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century.' The initial gut reaction on Twitter seems to be one of derision, as Time has gone with a faceless human mass instead of picking a single person like Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi who Time mentions in the story and is widely acknowledged as the person who set off the 'Arab Spring.' In 2006, Time chose "You" with a mirrored cover to much disappointment, picked the personal computer as 'Machine of the Year' and Earth as 'Planet of the Year,' proving 'that it should probably just be "Story of the Year" if they aren't going to acknowledge an actual person,' writes Dashiell Bennett. 'By not picking any one individual, they've basically chosen no one.'"
Re:What about the Tea Party Movement? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What about the Tea Party Movement? (Score:2, Informative)
That's what happens when you show up, wave signs, yell and shout, give speeches ... and go home when the park closes. ...leaving it cleaner than when you arrived.
Re:Better double check who you pick (Score:5, Informative)
That's nothing. Look what Stalin did. He won the it twice. Hitler won in 1938.
The funny thing is, the Time "Person of the Year" has been pretty stupid ever since they changed it from "Man of the Year" to "Person of the Year." To me, that represented when they decided to prioritize political correctness over honesty (1999). We had GWB in 2000 (the year he spent mostly on vacation), Rudy Giuliani in 2001 (the year Osama bin Laden was the clear 'winner'), 'The Whistleblowers' in 2002 (inciting this trend of non-persons - it had been done in the past but sparingly), 'The American Soldier' in 2003, GWB again in 2004, 'The Good Samaritans' in 2005, 'You' in 2006 (probably the worst choice ever), Putin in 2007, Obama in 2008, Bernanke in 2009 (first justifiable choice of the decade - the last year of it), Zuckerberg last year (Julian Assange clear 'winner'), and now this protestor bullshit.
Basically, Time Person of a Year is a joke.
Also, the chart you cite is full of inaccuracies, bias, and lies.
Re:What about the Tea Party Movement? (Score:1, Informative)
Not really. There's a distinction between rational protesting for and irrational protesting against. 2011 has seen a lot of rational, constructive protesting. The Tea Party was all about irrational, destructive rabble-rousing.
OWS: We want the "rich" (anyone who makes more than we do) to pay more taxes so the government can give us free stuff! Only evil people are rich (except for the rich politicians and other rich political players on *our* side...that's *different*!)! And if we don't get what we demand despite being a voting minority, we'll use violence (*this* is what democracy looks like!!!1!!one) to achieve our goals.
TEA Party: We want government to stop taxing us so much and wasting so much of the taxes they take from us, and to actually start obeying the laws and the limitations on government power that's in the Constitution.
You were saying something about irrationality and destructive rabble-rousing? I must have missed the TEA Party riots, arrests, violence & assaults, drug dealing/use, rapes, property destruction, and the massive clean-ups needed like that which occur/occurred at OWS protests.
Strat
Re:What about the Tea Party Movement? (Score:5, Informative)
...and driving down the tone of political discourse everywhere they show up. And by bringing assault rifles to public political gatherings. Apparently you mostly pay attention to Fox News.
Hardly. I sometimes watch both MSNBC and Fox to be amused by both extremes.
The fact that a rifle was present at a gathering and no police were needed strengthens the idea that everyone conducted themselves in a lawful manner. Somehow I don't think that was the message you were hoping to convey, but it is none the less.
Re:What about the Tea Party Movement? (Score:3, Informative)
1st: No h isn't. There re dozens and dozens of reports showing tea party crashing town hall meeting and disrupting them. Literally the definition of rabble rousing. You are stupid to think otherwise.
2nd: NO he isn't.
You are a typical tea bagger. Provable lying, and relying on Ad Homs and deflection instead of owning up to facts.
" TP members are polite in comparison to the OWS members. "
uh, no. Again, the disrupted town hall meeting, threatened people, and tried to stop people from voting.
" OWS leave a wake of filth and destruction in their path."
no really. The police come in, trash all there stuff, hall them off, and then blame the resulting trash heap on OWS.
It's like going into a restaurant, forcing everyone out, and then complaining about dirty dishes on the table. well, no shit.
"OWS had the most arrests"
so? they where arrested for not leaving the park BFD. At least that had the courage to suffer for their beliefs. Instead of screaming nonsense at town halls and then going home to whine about Obama's birth certificate.
"Oh, and rapes have been documented too. I could go on and on."
it's easy to go on and on when you are making shit up.
Of course, deflected Tea Bagger complaint onto OWS is simply a cheap debate tactic that any 11 year old could do.
OTOH, your sig clearly indicates you lack any actual thinking ability.