Adbuster's Lasn Laments Occupy Toronto Lassidute

One of the self-righteous anti-capitalists who inspired the "youts" of the Occupy "movement" laments (in the pages of the Toronto Star) that Occupy Toronto didn't have the same get up and go as, say, Occupy Wall Street. And Kalle Lasn thinks he knows who's to blame for the lack of pep (and, good news, this time it isn't the Jews):

Lasn is quick to lay much of the blame on mainstream media, which he accuses of depicting the protesters as lawless rebels and their camp sites as dens of iniquity.

By zeroing in on incidents of drug use and crime — which take place in staggering numbers every day — Canada’s news outlets failed to communicate the key message of the movement, he said.

“The Canadian media really dropped the ball on this one,” Lasn said. “Instead of seeing it as a movement of young people fighting for a different kind of future, which is so beautiful and so valid, they basically saw it as a pesky irritation that had to be got rid of.”

That negative coverage may have motivated authorities to crack down on occupation sites in recent weeks and forced protesters themselves to lose focus as they fretted about when eviction notices would be handed down, he said.

Nah. I'm pretty sure that the Toronto movement, such as it was, didn't need the media to make it "lose focus." Given that the government of Canada didn't bail out any banks or Wall Street firms, it hadn't much focus to being with. In fact, the only thing that ever seemed to provide focus was when one or another of the "youts" called for "Mic check," and, lickety split, all the drones focused on repeating the words yelled out at 'em verbatim.

Now, that's what I call focus. (I also call it creepy and cult-like, but that's another story.)

Anyhoo, one of the Occupy Toronto campers is scads more hopeful about the future than Adbusters' Debbie Downer:

Protesters themselves concede that putting an end to the urban occupations may revitalize the dialogue at the heart of the movement.

[Nikos] Kapetaneas, who split his time between St. James Park and his job at an environmental non-profit, said the next phase of the movement will allow Occupy protestors to focus on ideas.

“We still have a lot of energy. This is not an end to occupy,” he said.

Well, I guess if you despise capitalism and the inequities it breeds, working part-time for a "non-profit" environmental outfit is pretty much your ideal job.