Before I go off on this rant, I just want to make it plain: I think there are some pretty screwed up things happening with our society nowadays, but I think one of the biggest issues at hand is this notion that there is a right to protest at the drop of a hat for almost anything.

I also want to make it plain that I’m not out to make enemies with this rant. It’s a rant. RANT. It might be on a sensitive matter, but trust me, I wrote this on not a lot of sleep after work one day and edited it during my lunch break today. I thought about scrapping it entirely, but decided instead to just post it. I’ll get back to esports and technology tomorrow.

I’m not a fan of the 99% and 1% terminology. Yes, I understand that it’s talking about the tax brackets of folks that might be protesting or of wealthy individuals who have moral shortcomings, but assuming that an overwhelming majority of people agree that protests, general strikes and even inciting mobs is the way to get Washington’s attention about anything is a mistake. The following ¹ is the latest example of what I mean:

Now, I know that the caption has really made my point here, but I think it needs to be said—ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? That’s exactly what we need—one of the successful ventures that produced arguably one of the biggest success stories of the past decade are to be pitied when their tax bill comes due?

The article sounds more like a complaint than highlight the difference in proportions of taxable income certain brackets get. So, the author speculates that 99% of Facebook employees are complaining about how much they’re going to have to pay in taxes because they just worked hard for a bunch of money? What is to be done about this? Those under management of the business are to be given tax cuts because of the shock of their recently matured Facebook stock?

You’d think that by working in startups like these that they might realize that success might bring a new set of challenges and issues to deal with. The saying goes: mo’ money, mo’ problems… but you’d think that you’d be able to pay off the problems in short order with the ‘more money’ you made.

Then again, perhaps that why I can’t exactly wrap my head around the need to protest at the drop of the hat for anything. Maybe that’s because I’m considerably a bit selfish when it comes to problems that don’t affect me, or maybe that’s because I consider that my life situation doesn’t warrant a chant towards the government for any misfortune that might happen.

But back to the article for a second—it doesn’t mention Facebook employees that are upset by the prospect of paying taxes for the boon that they’re getting out of this entire deal. Perhaps the article is a bit academic in that case, but I still have a problem placing Facebook and 99% in the same sentence.