Video & Multimedia
Related: About this forumLibrary defeats Tea Party!
When the tea party attacked a small tax increase to fund a struggling
library, the library got even.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,021 posts)Psychological jiu-jitsu at its finest.
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)you pay to live in a free country. Teabaggers forget that. Good for the library. Treat them like children and they will do what you want them to do.
tabatha
(18,795 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Brilliant.
Courtesy Flush
(4,558 posts)northoftheborder
(7,575 posts)SoutherDem
(2,307 posts)I wish the DNC would do something like this.
I have often challenged the Tea-baggers to go 1 day without the benefit of something paid for by taxes. They are stuck at home because the roads are paid for by taxes. They usually change the subject. Facts and logic will be there undoing.
malthaussen
(17,241 posts)Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)That was awesome!
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)Just wondering.
gejohnston
(17,502 posts)He'll get around to it.
TahitiNut
(71,611 posts)Troy is just north of me. I used to live in Troy. It's a VERY polarized 'community.'
Paka
(2,760 posts)I love libraries. There are wonderful worlds to be found in libraries.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)donquijoterocket
(488 posts)indeed,although I'm hard-pressed to believe to average T-pottier would care if you burnt all the books in the world with the exception of Ayn Rand titles and the buybull.Actual learning and knowledge doesn't seem to be their preferred milieu.
It's sort of dismaying that the originators of this campaign had to actually tell everyone book burning was not intended to be a factual statement. It sort of goes to show how irony deficient this country has become, and how extreme you need to get to counter the extremists. There had to be some embarrassment when the actual intent of the video was revealed, although probably not on the part of the T-pottiers who started the whole thing. They probably still don't get anything except the part about them losing the referendum and they're likely already thinking about the next target. Whoever masterminded this campaign needs to create an instructional video.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
Ishoutandscream2
(6,664 posts)Luckily, many outraged citizens came to its defense. What in the fuck is wrong with teabaggers?
ThomThom
(1,486 posts)nice job
thanks
KansDem
(28,498 posts)One hopes the proponents of other progressive causes take note...
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)Awesome story.
Kablooie
(18,648 posts)Smilo
(1,944 posts)The way this was carried out was nothing short of genius.
Now could whomever came up with that - please go work for Obama - we need your creative genius to defeat the lies that will be coming prior to November.
erpowers
(9,350 posts)Great way to change the topic from taxes back to the library.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)jk... That was a cool story and neat video.
DiverDave
(4,895 posts)Bravo, Troy Library, BRAVO!
jillan
(39,451 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)calimary
(81,611 posts)Use the following phrase to preface EVERYTHING that involves a disaster that federal, state, or local taxes would help avert, or recover from:
"Well, because nobody wants to pay taxes..."
"...Colorado's burning up because there aren't enough firefighters being hired and many districts have been unfunded."
"...there's no one left to advocate for revising mortgages and help prevent your losing your home..."
"...we can't really do a thorough search for that missing child, emergency services have been cut back."
"...had to close another hospital because we couldn't afford to staff it anymore. Better hope you don't need an ambulance - the closest hospital is now 150 miles away."
"...can't offer disaster assistance since the tornado blew away your home..."
"...you're surrounded by all them damn furnurs takin' yer jobs because we can't afford any further job training programs for our own unemployed."
"...no way you're gonna have any signal strength while driving cross-country. We didn't have the money to improve the communications grid. Hope your car doesn't break down or anything, 'cause you won't be able to call for road service..."
"...crime's gone up because we had to lay off most of the town's police force. And we don't have anybody on staff anymore to come take a report about the burglary in your house last night."
"...your kid still can't read at grade level because there's no money to keep the schools open or staffed anymore, much less offer after-school tutoring programs."
"...we only have enough resources to fight one house fire every two weeks. Had to lay off 50% of our city's firefighters."
"...expect brown-outs all summer, especially when it's hottest, because there isn't enough money to upgrade the power grid."
"...it's gonna take you five hours to commute each way to work from now on because we couldn't afford the upkeep on that old dilapidated bridge - that just collapsed."
"Well, since nobody wants to pay taxes..."
I even put it to one CONservative in this panel discussion in which I took part:
"Okay, friend - you don't like paying taxes. Well, how's your car holding up these days? How many times have you had to have the wheels realigned, or replaced, or buy new tires, or had to have your whole front axle replaced because the roads are so shitty that we're all driving over potholes all the time now and damaging our cars? How much have you REALLY "saved," in not paying taxes, that you're now forced to shell out through the nose, again and again, for car repairs - repairs that wouldn't have even been necessary if we'd been able to afford just the standard upkeep on our roads? A few more dollars from each of us in taxes would keep all of us from paying HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS more, just on car repairs. Priced a decent new tire lately?"
You could tell from the expression on his face that he just hadn't quite considered that. Hey, in a city like L.A. where we're all literally hostages to our cars, something as menial and seemingly insignificant as shitty pavement and potholes can be a BIG issue.
PatSeg
(47,774 posts)luv_mykatz
(441 posts)The tea bag idiots are brain washed or brain dead, or both. They goose-step along to whatever the 1% tell them to believe.
Their masters know that if they destroy sources of knowledge, like libraries and schools, it will be much easier for them to achieve the total tyranny over the 99% which is their wet dream.
The 1% have been attacking everything which supports democracy since at least the early 1970's. Taxes tend to be universally unpopular, so they use their anti-tax propaganda as a ready-made battering ram to force their agenda through.
I hope the people in your town wake up, and are successful in defending their library.
Knowledge really can lead to power.
calimary
(81,611 posts)Are you listening, DEBBIE?
annabanana
(52,791 posts)Brilliant
WinstonSmith4740
(3,060 posts)And used a page from the Rove playbook...I hope it made his head explode to have his own tactics turned on him. The Democrats need to learn from this!
Swede Atlanta
(3,596 posts)This type of tactic, being local in terms of getting attention with signs, ads in the newspaper, etc. and then national by leveraging social media is something the Democrats need to consider. They are going to be outspent by the billionaires that are spending our money. This may be the only thing left.
I don't hold out much hope for the Montana case before the Supreme Court in providing much, if any, relief from CU.
avebury
(10,953 posts)Overseas
(12,121 posts)secondvariety
(1,245 posts)Suck it, teabaggers.
Kablooie
(18,648 posts)---
Step 1: Disrupt the conversation
We began by posing as a clandestine political group, Safeguarding American Families (SAFe), and brought a whole new point of view to the library issue. We said we wanted the vote to fail, but not because of the tax increase. We wanted the library to close so we could have a party. A book burning party.
We waged a political campaign which began by planting yard signs around the city that said, Vote to close Troy library Aug. 2nd, Book burning party Aug 5th.
The reaction was immediate. People hated the idea and took our signs down. In the dark of night, we put up more. They took them down, we secretly put up more. Our cloak-and-dagger approach fueled the conversations on our Facebook page and on Twitter.
---
From the effie awards website:
http://www.effie.org/winners/showcase/2012/5940
Iris
(15,679 posts)proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)The Jungle 1
(4,552 posts)These people have no brain
The Velveteen Ocelot
(116,021 posts)progressoid
(50,024 posts)stanleyyelnatsdotCOM
(65 posts)Can you imagine for one moment a tBagging Republican present when Jesus was giving his Sermon On the Mount?
President Obama can!
Snarkoleptic
(6,002 posts)A wonderful exercise in contrast.
Well done!!
HopeHoops
(47,675 posts)Great strategy.
wxgeek7
(321 posts)...also sounds like an award winning tactic! Nice job