I can't say I know anything Adam Carolla has ever done; I've seen his mug on the tube for years but I don't know where he started or what he's doing now. He was in some "Man" show a while ago, maybe he still is. But apparently he's taking the Dennis Miller comedian detour to the right side these days in his analysis of OWS.
In the clip below, from a podcast rant, Carolla explains that OWS protestors are just a bunch of selfish, spoiled, "me generation" nitwits who've never worked hard, yet feel entitled to all the goodies because they've been told their entire lives by coddling parents and institutions that they're special. His analysis of American society is basically Darwinian: we're not all equal and some people just deserve more than others. He says at one point, in fact, that one reason he has more toys than others is "Maybe I'm just genetically better than you, so shut the fuck up!" Check it out, if you can stand a minute or two, then join me over the squiggle:
Yeah, I know, he's "just a comedian," but in the comments you'll see a lot of people agree with him. Carolla believes the driving force behind the 99ers is shame and envy. At various times he calls the protestors "ass douches," "fucking assholes," and "self-entitled pricks." It used to be, in Carolla's world, that we looked up to wealthy people because they accomplished something, and we wanted to be like them. Most of us worked hard so we could also drive a Rolls Royce. Today, he says, the "self-entitled monsters" would rather throw bricks at the man in the expensive car, rather than apply themselves like he did.
His description of OWS is not far from what you hear on Bill O'Reilly: they're all dirty college-age kids who, when faced with the "real world," realize they're not as wonderful as their parents told them they are. They should suck it up, "get back to work," and accomplish something, like the rich man in the fancy car.
I wonder if Mr. Carolla has been to an Occupy event. At the ones I've attended and at the others I've followed online I've seen teachers, police, and firefighters who've contributed a lot more to this country than a smart-ass who makes sexist and sometimes racist "jokes" for a living. Sure, many OWS protestors are young and they should be there, because they are the generation that will pay most for the fuck-ups of the last 30 years. I have also met professionals and retirees, whose pensions have disappeared, as well as veterans who continue to get shafted. Many of them do work, they work two or three fucking jobs and they still can't send their kids to college or afford minimal healthcare.
I am considerably older than this "comedian," and I feel pretty good about my accomplishments, Adam, thank you very much. I'll stack them up against yours any day (go read his Wiki entry). I feel no "shame" because I have not committed Wall Street fraud that stole the savings of millions of people. I feel no shame in not throwing people out of their homes because of the crimes my bank committed. I feel no shame because I have not made an obscene amount of money while the percentage of American children living in poverty rises exponentially. I feel no shame for not acting like my dad's rapacious healthcare company, that wants every dollar from an aging man who spent the first four years of my life in combat.
You say OWS protestors don't think the rules pertain to them. Bullshit, we'd love to play by the rules, but the rules are rigged to keep a certain class in power as they grow even richer, while another group, the 99 percent, are kept under the heel of the "accomplished" people you admire so much.
And then you have the nerve to equate Wall Street protestors with terrorists! "This is what the terrorists do with us," you say. You compare the peaceful protests to blowing up the World Trade Center. I can't speak for the other veterans at Occupy events, Carolla, but I think many would join me in extending a big "Fuck you" for making that comparison. I would love to see you say this to Scott Olsen.