If you were watching Bill Maher last night, you probably saw the bits where guests Van Jones and Seth McFarlane discussed the Occupy Wall Street protests- demonstrations that have spread to other cities across America as mostly young people express their dissatisfaction with a faltering and some say predatory economy.
Jones lent articulation to the movement many have criticized for being amorphous, or for not having a clear set of “demands” to come out of the large-scale protests occurring in many American cities right now.
In the clip, Jones and Maher talked about the group that often identify themselves as the 99%:
You know what is so impressive… you were talking about an Arab Spring. We could be on the verge of American Autumn. These young people are so impressive. They are out there. They are speaking for millions of people. These banksters are some of the worst people in the world. They’re horrible people, because they would be homeless if they were treated based on their performance. The American people stood up and bailed them out. We stood up. Taxpayers and homeowners gave them money to keep them in business.
They won’t even return the phone calls of American homeowners now trying to get their mortgages redone, students with student loans who need help. Give me a break, I can’t get a job. I got a two year unpaid internship. They won’t even return their phone calls so these people have gone to the scene of the crime against our future, Wall Street. So now you’ve got this face off between some of the most selfish people in American politics and some of the most selfless, and I think we should stand with them. I’m so proud of them. I don’t know what to do with myself.
