I'm not sure what to make of this

Nihilistic cancer eating away at the heart of society?

Hey, I lived in Germany for a year. This seems very honest and upfront to me.
I will protest your particular X Y or Z but I may not be 100% in favour.
Seems fair for a lousy 145 Euros, better than paying the PR whores a shit-load more for faking that particular "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**** darling I love you so much etc., etc., "
At least you know where you stand, ?

I thought the article was going to be about Melanie. I got a brand new pair of roller skates. You got a brand new key - Melanie. Heh - showing my age...

Nihilistic cancer eating away at the heart of society?
vs. public masturbation? What's worse? At least I can have some respect for people who are professionals, just there doing their job.

I agree with pi. Greed > Attention-Whoriness in my scale of values.

But I guess for the riot-troops beating and tasering and gassing them, it's all the same. FUN!

Well, demonstrations are harmless. Or at least, less likely to influence actual politics and law than a ballot measure.

I can't imagine a nation so craven and debased that people would pay third parties for signatures to push through a ballot measure.

pay third parties for signatures to push through a ballot measure
LOL, Oregon!

I get $10 an hour (cash) for sitting on the Carpenters Local pickets here in Vegas.

For 5 dollars I'll say you're cool on consumating.

For 10 dollars I'll favorite one comment in MeFi

And for 20 I'll pile up on your MeTa callout.

This reminds me of hired mourners. Kind of smacks of... something.

Specklet, will you smack me? Pretty please?

*smacks the squirrel around a little*

refreshing!

It's a shame that people are so poorly educated about the history of protest that they think protest is public masturbation. Just a few decades ago, street protests made an essential difference in changing public policy.

What BtGoG said. Yeah, the "mercenaries" are crass, but I don't get the public masturbation thing. At least protesters aren't typing on the internet all day.

Just a few decades ago
My point exactly. A lot has changed since the 70s. I've attended a number of protests here in Portland and been utterly disgusted with what I've seen. Most of the people there are borderline delusional. Moreover, they tend to make me angry for discrediting what I believe are legitimate causes. Not only do they look like a bunch of raving idiots, they usually have a bunch of extra causes thrown in for good measure, diluting the signal and giving the impression that they're just there to bitch for the hell of it. They accomplish nothing, make the rest of us look bad, and mainly just want to feel like they're "building a community" whatever the fuck that means. I sure as hell don't want these assholes in my "community". It's all about these peoples' feelings. To me, they are pretty much indistinguishable from the street preachers who admonish us for our "sins" as we try to walk down the sidewalk. Fuck them.

I was going to post the standard "Yeah, but is she hot?" comment but then I read the article and realized that the writer had basically done it for me.