A discussion about the #occupy protests

I had an interesting discussion with some people last night regarding what could ultimately come of the #occupy protests.

One of the questions asked was, what will happen if the protesters finally start to snap due to mistreatment by police? I don't think they'll become violent. But it's pretty damn scary to think what could happen if they did. I mean, we have military folk out there on the protesters' side, both vets and active. Not every protester is a member of the military, but there are quite a few, from what I've heard. This isn't just "a bunch of hippies."

We're talking about people trained for war, most of whom have actually seen action. And they're getting beaten and pepper sprayed, and man, I don't know about you, but I would be getting pretty pissed. It's remarkable they've stuck to the non-violent protest path for the most part as they have. (Yes, I know there have been a few incidents, but those are pretty few and far between at the moment.)

So, y'know what? If I were those cops, I'd be showing a bit more respect, and a lot less willingness to spray people with painful, burning chemicals and beating on them with sticks, and throwing them around, when all they're doing is sitting or standing there, and chanting. Because just sitting or standing there and chanting is a damn site better than the alternative.

"Why won't you follow back?"

 I've noticed that this post is getting a lot of attention lately, and I've come to realise that, it was far too unwieldy - I wouldn't blame anyone who didn't bother making it through the original rambled, disjointed explanation. So I've (hopefully) made it more concise.
 
- Mousey (October 4th, 2013)



I'm under no illusions that my twitter is even remotely popular, comparatively. And that's fine by me; I've got no reason to want to be that well known.

I've heard people on twitter talking about how they unfollow someone if they don't get a follow back. While I don't really get the point of following someone just to get a follow back, I figure I should address this anyway regarding my account, so I can have something to link people back to if I get asked about it.

My twitter account used to be private. I opened it for 1b1t, and I ended up meeting some pretty cool people, and found it was easier to connect with some really cool people if I left it public, so I did. And then I was fairly surprised when I started gaining a modest amount of followers, where previously I'd only been followed by friends I had some offline contact with.

Most of my new non-bot followers were really interesting and fun people, and I started following people left and right... and then couldn't keep up. So, I started getting really picky about following back, and would mostly only do so if they were someone I felt I had a decent back and forth going with.

This is not meant as a slight against the majority of you - for the most part, you're all great people, it's just that I don't have the time or spoons to wade through a million posts on my twitter feed. I can barely keep up with the people I do follow, and that's with having multiple lists to separate a good chunk of the people out so I can catch up in smaller chunks.

There are two things that will keep me from /ever/ following you. (And in a lot of cases, will mean I block you.)

1) You're actually a spambot.
2) You don't follow Wheaton's Law.

So... that's basically it. Thanks for reading, and (hopefully,) understanding.