Tthere is always a sense of orthodoxy among groups – even in those that proclaim they are anti-orthodox.  In this case, the local instantiation of Occupy Wall Street -> Occupy NH. who, pretty much, have decided that the current American orthodoxy of individual freedom, liberty, and free markets is to be protested, hated, and torn down.  As posted earlier this month, I’ve been spending time defending the Founders philosophy.  For that, and along with the others (like a number of Libertarians – Conservatives have run away from the fight), discussions other than "OWS approved topics and speech" were labeled "divisive" (me, an ordinary schlub, divisive?  Moi?) (lightly edited and emphasized):

…It is frequently found on OWS sites and chats. It is what keeps the Occupy movements going. "In this room we support OWS, but we don’t discuss the politics. Folks just to be clear, mods have opinions too, so we are not trying to stop you from having opinions and people you admire or don’t. I often agree with you, but we have rules to avoid conflict and division. And we leave politics out of our conversation. There are many irc channels where you can show your support of politics or candidates. But please not here. Thanks"

Leave politics out of it?  This whole movement, along with the TEA Party, is ALL about politics!  When I did the videos of Occupy Manchester, there was nothing BUT talk about politics.  Politics should not just be considered what happens when candidates try to get elected.  Or when difficult legislation spills over to the public and the call goes out to "leave the politics out of it" – at that point you KNOW politics IS what it is all about: differing views of how solutions are to be arrived at and what those solutions should be.  Politics is the grease that allow different groups to do things (as manners are to the interactions between individuals).

At Manchester there have been many who have demanded that their divisive talks be embraced. When posts were deleted, as is done consistently at OWS, for containing political and potentially divisive dialogue, the accusation was strong, CENSORSHIP. It has been stated at many of the GA’s and in online forums that NH is different, that the GA that meets in Manchester is free to do as they wish. This is not consistent with OWS.

"demanded that their divisive talks be embraced".  Yet, in the beginning, they advertised themselves as being open, inclusive, and welcoming to all comers.  Yet, these words from Sherry Gould showed that the marketing and the actual reality she wanted (being one of the "leaderless movements leaders") were two different things (one reason why folks who describe themselves as "mere facilitators" are never just such).

Well of course, I just had to ask (twinkle in my eyes):

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At the beginning of the month, Occupy Oakland had its shutdown of the Port of Oakland AFTER a small riot had damaged small a number of retail establishments, companies, and banks (previous post).  One of the Occupy NH folks put up a link with my response being gently:

Non-violence?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRij-_SnIMM&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra5ks-Ei9o0&feature=player_embedded

where the YouTubes showed the marauding Occupiers willfully destroying things, well, for the heck of it.  One respondent said the expected "agent provocateurs" and claimed "There was no rioting. There was and still is only a peaceful protest."

Yeah, and TV wrestling is real and not staged.  

I was challenged, however, by another in a wee bit more serious way than just a "sweep it under the rug":

Just curious about what your thoughts are of blockading the Port of Oakland, where business was shutdown for several hours?

BTW -the Boston Tea Party was an act of property destruction. How do you feel about that?

My answer:

There were many at the time of the TEA Party that were aghast that someone else’s private property was destroyed and there was more than a little controversy concerning it. After all, when you read the Declaration, 10 of the Articles concerned how the Crown was appropriating the private property of others because :

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Well, I first got notified that things were afoot from some of my Samsphere blogger buds who were attending the FreedomWorks’s BlogCon11 that some things were afoot – that the Occupy Denver folks had decided that they had the horsepower to go up against what they thought were just some run-of-the-mill paid-by-the-Kochs bloggers – as in "hey, the Old Media seems to have succumbed to their <insert appropriate words here> and these bloggers can’t be better than, say, the NYT, the LAT, or ABC/CBS/NBC and the like, right?  What they didn’t understand is that 1) The Koch Brothers don’t fund FreedomWorks and 2) they were the quintessential 98 LBers going up against SEALs in this war of ideas and political philosophy (or as Stacy McCain called them "the charge of the Intellectual Lightweight Brigade").  I know many of the bloggers there personally – the bloggers were licking their chops (silly Occupiers- these bloggers LIVE on the ‘Net!) at the opportunity. Did you really think that none of the 300 wouldn’t be watching your Twitter feed??  And they started to practice:

Rob and Warner are the rightmost folks – already, practicing "Occupy-eze".  And Maggie reported that they had already bought the Milk Bones for their leader, Shelby!  Heck, even Glen from Instapundit warned them: " There are some sections of the blogosphere I would not advise you to occupy. . . ."

So much for not listening.  They did, however, try to show up early, but as the DaTechGuy notes, the bloggers were ready for them with their own recon squad out:

Sometime around 2:30 or so we noticed by sign and scent some people who looked very “occupyish” and started snapping pictures…One couple didn’t like pictures being taken the women covered her face and they ran in the Elevator, I found it very funny as they pushed button after button without knowing that the elevator needed a key card.

And once they arrived, Stephen Kruiser climbed into his Gandalf alter ego ("You shall not pass") when the Occupiers simply assumed that they would be allowed to go into the conference rooms.

More after the jump

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