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Comment by kmasters | Hacker News Reader

Im confused by the use of the occupy lingo. Is occupy just a meme now for any protest?

What's confusing about it? They were calling for protestors to "occupy" the park to prevent it being bulldozed.

Or at least that's how it started.

What's confusing is: in the USA, the term "occupy" has been taken as a practical trademark for a series of organized political protests. Look up "Occupy Wall Street" as the first and primary instance.

Still, AFAIR it started as an Internet thing, not entirely unrelated to 4chan. It was a meme at its birth, it has spreaded this way through the US, and now - like all internet memes - it is evolving.

The name's very important as a link to the fight against neo-liberal capitalism, these protests are not just about state power.

Hard to ignore the stereotype of the American who knows little of what happens beyond their borders :(

The Occupy Movement was a global one, with protests in over 80 countries. It started there, but it wasn't just a Wall St. thing.

'scuze me for not keeping up on the happenings in each of ~200 countries, and assuming not everyone everywhere is keeping up on the latest in my sphere of awareness.

Yes, Occupy was global. I don't know who from where knows how much about it. I was answering a question about why someone might be confused by usage of the term "occupy" when it was unclear whether it was an "Occupy"-brand event vs "hey let's go occupy this space to save it". I referenced the Wall St. thing precisely because that's where Occupy started.

Besides, http://xkcd.com/1053/

Technically, physical presence is what matters. That's why you don't only send bombing planes but also land forces to take over the control.

It's not a meme. As long as the people are protesting there, the idiots in the government can't claim they have no problem.

> Is occupy just a meme now for any protest?

Well, it never has been anything else.

Actually, I was surprised that some movements decided to use that word to describe themselves. I believe that 'occupy' is very unfortunate word, especially in Europe. For example I live in a country that was occupied by the Nazis in 1939 and by Russians in 1968 (that occupation lasted 20 years). The meaning of the word occupier basically equals to 'the one who takes freedom of others by force' here. If you use that word to describe yourself or your movement you can be sure that most people will automatically be against you from the beginning. Not the best PR move.

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