Haymarket Riot vs. Boston Tea Party

[RandomKoolzip]

Chicago vs. Boston, part 6.



Which was a cooler incident in American history?

I'm going with the Haymarket Riot. Those tax protestors were just ruling-class fops with an unhealthy obsession with tax codes (just like today's libertarians) whereas the Haymarketeers were wild-assed anarchists with REAL fire in the belly.

Uh, IMO.

[JohnKleeb]

1. Kleeb getting drunk and calling himself Jewish aka other

[sniffa]

2. tea party

we didn't kiLL anyone... and we're some tea Loving mother fuckers.

[MADem]

4. And the COSTUMES were FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!

All they needed was a cowboy, a cop, and a sailor, and they would have been the Village People!

[Magrittes Pipe]

3. A bunch of rich, white businessmen who didn't want to pay taxes...

vs. a motley crew of union members and socialists who were (mostly) peacefully protesting, only to get their asses kicked by bloodthirsty cops?

Haymarket in a walk.

[sniffa]

5. KABOOOOOOOM!

pLease disregard that bomb.

[RandomKoolzip]

6. Oh, you mean the one the cops threw themselves?

That Parsons got tried for? Ain't buyin' it!

The Haymarketeers was framed while your guys were framing the little guy.

[sniffa]

7. that makes perfect sense

throw a bomb at yourseLf.

[RandomKoolzip]

9. It's the 9/11 MIHOP scenario writ small.

Sacrifice a couple of your own, blame it on the other guy, and bash his head in.

[Xithras]

8. It wasn't about not paying taxes

It was about not paying taxes to a government that treated you like a second class citizen, refused to extend you the same rights as your countrymen, seized your land and homes at will and without compensation, and then began slapping you with all kinds of extra taxes, collected practically at gunpoint, to pay for distant wars that had nothing to do with your colony.

Oh, and only a handful of the founders qualified as "rich". Most were small-time merchants and traders who ran small local businesses with only a handful of employees. There were no corporations back then, no stockholders, and no large business chains. While a few did manage to accrue a large amount of money from their dealings, and a small handful actually came from the monied aristocracy in Europe, most of the founders were poorly educated (by modern standards) middle class-types who simply wanted their own country.

Yes, the Revolution had it's Thomas Jeffersons, the highly educated sons of wealthy plantation owners. But it also had its Ben Franklins, the sons of farmers and blacksmiths who never went to college but built good lives for themselves anyway. As a group, they were as varied and diverse as the country they were trying to create.