5 Symbols of Free Speech You Won't Believe Are Mass-Produced

[Gingersnap]

LOL! No surprise to me. In college I was "recruited" to write for a well known bodice-buster publisher. I went to the interview more out of curiosity than anything else and found that it was a formula operation where "writers" worked off detailed outlines with tight deadlines. The publisher had many spin-off labels so I might find that I had a real talent for medical romance, woman-in-peril, wallflower transformation, "naughty" virgin, or whatever.

I skipped it (no real ambition in that area) but a friend signed up and she churned out about 5 books before hanging it up.

A perennial "job" out here when I worked multiple part-time jobs was "environmental activist". You could work to sign poor people up for energy programs, shill for solar water-heating companies, or sell energy rebate schemes.

About 15 fake protesters infiltrated a protest I was involved in a few years ago. They were paid to pretend to be us but to hold inflammatory or demeaning signs. We knew about it so we created signs ourselves that said, "Fake Tea Party Member Paid By Democrats" with and arrow and then we stood next to the shills.

It made the news - very satisfying.

[Billy Jingo]

5 Symbols of Free Speech You Won't Believe Are Mass-Produced

Every now and then an actor or acclaimed folk music icon from the '60s "sells out" and the whole world loses its mind, as if we'd never seen a human work for money before. As sad as those moments are, it's even sadder knowing that there are marketing guys in suits behind EVERYTHING ELSE around us. For example ...

#5. Some Public Protests Are by Hired Hands (and Breasts)


If there's one thing the media love, it's the chance to make pictures of boobs politically relevant. That may or may not be why the Ukrainian feminist protest group FEMEN hit a nerve, since their members are known for spontaneously ripping off their clothes in response to oppression, burqas, Islam, churches, and anything that doesn't have boobs on it. From the media coverage, you could be forgiven for thinking that FEMEN is a grassroots movement of angry women who just happen to hate all forms of fabric. Oh, and that every single member of FEMEN just happens to be young and really attractive.

Why is it that all the topless protesters in FEMEN are nubile, taut-skinned women with symmetrical breasts? Wouldn't most organic protest movements accept a healthy mix of stretch marks and wrinkles, maybe an extra nipple here and there? The answer is that there's nothing "organic" about FEMEN, except maybe its members' hair products. Members are usually salaried, are paid to protest, and audition by flashing their breasts. Because nothing says "feminism" like hiring women based on how perky their boobs are.

Unfortunately, choosing media attention over the purity of one's cause is not unheard of in American protests, either. You might pass a group of people on the street holding signs and yelling about how we have to ban ducks because they poop in our reservoirs and think, "Well, they're misguided, but at least they're doing what they believe in." But that's not necessarily true: Wealthy groups from all over the political spectrum have been caught paying people to protest their causes. One union that picketed work sites demanding better wages and benefits for employees was found to be using homeless people as hired protesters, paying them $8.50 an hour.