Slashdot Mirror
Time's Person of the Year Is "The Protester"
Hugh Pickens writes "Time's editor Rick Stengel announced on The Today Show that 'The Protester' is Time Magazine's Person of the Year: From the Arab Spring to Athens, from Occupy Wall Street to Moscow. 'For capturing and highlighting a global sense of restless promise, for upending governments and conventional wisdom, for combining the oldest of techniques with the newest of technologies to shine a light on human dignity and, finally, for steering the planet on a more democratic though sometimes more dangerous path for the 21st century.' The initial gut reaction on Twitter seems to be one of derision, as Time has gone with a faceless human mass instead of picking a single person like Tunisian fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi who Time mentions in the story and is widely acknowledged as the person who set off the 'Arab Spring.' In 2006, Time chose "You" with a mirrored cover to much disappointment, picked the personal computer as 'Machine of the Year' and Earth as 'Planet of the Year,' proving 'that it should probably just be "Story of the Year" if they aren't going to acknowledge an actual person,' writes Dashiell Bennett. 'By not picking any one individual, they've basically chosen no one.'"
All of the tea party protests were back in 2009 and 2010.
That's nothing. Look what Stalin did. He won the it twice. Hitler won in 1938.
The funny thing is, the Time "Person of the Year" has been pretty stupid ever since they changed it from "Man of the Year" to "Person of the Year." To me, that represented when they decided to prioritize political correctness over honesty (1999). We had GWB in 2000 (the year he spent mostly on vacation), Rudy Giuliani in 2001 (the year Osama bin Laden was the clear 'winner'), 'The Whistleblowers' in 2002 (inciting this trend of non-persons - it had been done in the past but sparingly), 'The American Soldier' in 2003, GWB again in 2004, 'The Good Samaritans' in 2005, 'You' in 2006 (probably the worst choice ever), Putin in 2007, Obama in 2008, Bernanke in 2009 (first justifiable choice of the decade - the last year of it), Zuckerberg last year (Julian Assange clear 'winner'), and now this protestor bullshit.
Basically, Time Person of a Year is a joke.
Also, the chart you cite is full of inaccuracies, bias, and lies.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
...and driving down the tone of political discourse everywhere they show up. And by bringing assault rifles to public political gatherings. Apparently you mostly pay attention to Fox News.
Hardly. I sometimes watch both MSNBC and Fox to be amused by both extremes.
The fact that a rifle was present at a gathering and no police were needed strengthens the idea that everyone conducted themselves in a lawful manner. Somehow I don't think that was the message you were hoping to convey, but it is none the less.