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  • Mercenary protesters

    BBC, News, BBC News, news online, world, uk, international, foreign, british, online, service


    Germans put price on protesting

    But in future there may be paid protesters in their ranks
    They refuse to rally for neo-Nazis, but as long as the price is right a new type of German mercenary will take to the streets and protest for you.
    Young, good-looking, and available for around 150 euros (£100), more than 300 would-be protesters are marketing themselves on a German rental website.

    They feature next to cars, DVDs, office furniture and holiday homes.

    For some, these protesters show how soulless life has become. For others, they breathe new life into old causes.

    Staging a protest

    Their descriptions read like those on a dating site.

    I would like to point out that not all protests will tally with my own point of view and I would like to distance myself from these

    Demonstrators' disclaimer

    Next to a black and white posed picture, Melanie lists her details from her jeans size to her shoe size and tells potential protest organisers that she is willing to be deployed up to 100km around Berlin.

    Six hours of Melanie bearing your banner or shouting your slogan will set you back 145 euros.

    A spokesperson for erento.com was unable to say how many demonstrators had been booked since the service was launched earlier this month, but that there had certainly been demand.

    Organisations using the service are unlikely to reveal themselves, keen to pass off their protesters as genuine supporters of the cause. But German media reported a Munich march had hired protesters because its own adherents were too old to stand for hours waving banners.

    Erento.com stresses that no protester needs to offer their services to a cause they object to, and therefore many may genuinely believe in the protest they are joining.

    But the fact they are paid has perturbed a number of commentators in Germany, especially those who remember the passion-fuelled protests of 1968.

    "It seems to confirm the increasingly common assumption," wrote one, "that democracy is for sale".
    "The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists."
    -Joan Robinson

  • #2
    Sounds like no real social actor could afford them. They could be useful for corrupt lobbies though.
    In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

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    • #3
      Well, the Germans used to march for Volkswagens. They come cheap these days
      "post reported"Winston, on the barricades for freedom of speech
      "I don't like laws all over the world. Doesn't mean I am going to do anything but post about it."Jon Miller

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      • #4
        this is capitalism at its finest.
        "The Christian way has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found to be hard and left untried" - GK Chesterton.

        "The most obvious predicition about the future is that it will be mostly like the past" - Alain de Botton

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        • #5
          Protesters for hire? What a novel and utterly reprehensible concept.
          The cake is NOT a lie. It's so delicious and moist.

          The Weighted Companion Cube is cheating on you, that slut.

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          • #6
            now if one was protesting for free markets and less regulation...
            Visit First Cultural Industries
            There are reasons why I believe mankind should live in cities and let nature reclaim all the villages with the exception of a few we keep on display as horrific reminders of rural life.-Starchild
            Meat eating and the dominance and force projected over animals that is acompanies it is a gateway or parallel to other prejudiced beliefs such as classism, misogyny, and even racism. -General Ludd

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            • #7
              So once a protestor goes pro, do they lose their amature status? Or is that only after they hire an agent?
              Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, Chief. We are evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. I'm surprised you didn't know that. --Saul Tigh

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              • #8
                Originally posted by DRoseDARs
                Protesters for hire? What a novel and utterly reprehensible concept.
                They're pretty much the only kinds of protesters you'll find in the Philippines. Protesters are routinely paid in coupons for Jollibees, the Filipino McDonald's.
                "I have as much authority as the pope. I just don't have as many people who believe it." — George Carlin

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                • #9
                  Well, we also have mercenary talkshow guests, who get paid for presenting themselves on talkshow a as guest b with issue c and then later are seen on talkshow d as guest e with issue f and so on
                  And they have no scruples to present themselves as low ranking, uneducated members in society (which doesn´t have to be staged but often seems to be what they are in real life )
                  Tamsin (Lost Girl): "I am the Harbinger of Death. I arrive on winds of blessed air. Air that you no longer deserve."
                  Tamsin (Lost Girl): "He has fallen in battle and I must take him to the Einherjar in Valhalla"

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                  • #10
                    Thats a lot of money to pay for a protester when you could acheive the same effect paying burgers to homeless
                    Safer worlds through superior firepower

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Oncle Boris
                      Sounds like no real social actor could afford them. They could be useful for corrupt lobbies though.
                      It could be excellent for think-tanks backed by the capitalists. They tend to have much more money than manpower. And 300 demonstrators, if located at the right place in the right outfit, can be mediatic enough that it shows how "popular" their ideas are.
                      "I have been reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion that the universe is a good thing." -- Dissident
                      "I never had the need to have a boner." -- Dissident
                      "I have never cut off my penis when I was upset over a girl." -- Dis

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                      • #12
                        BTW, it's the concept of ich-AG at its finest
                        "I have been reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion that the universe is a good thing." -- Dissident
                        "I never had the need to have a boner." -- Dissident
                        "I have never cut off my penis when I was upset over a girl." -- Dis

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Oncle Boris
                          Sounds like no real social actor could afford them. They could be useful for corrupt lobbies though.
                          There was a case a while ago where (IIRC) some lobby group for doctors was accused of using paid protesters....didn't follow that closely, but what I had the impression from the media coverage (it made big news) that they shoot themselves in the foot, since their "protest" came across as pretty ridiculous because of that.

                          I just hope this does not become the rule.
                          Blah

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                          • #14
                            Question: Can the government crack down on demonstrations if the demonstrators are paid? (I mean it could claim that it's not curtailing their right to express their ideas, since they're expressing someone elses.)
                            "The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists."
                            -Joan Robinson

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I dunno. I doubt it though. They could still say (as those in the article) that they are still convinced by the stuff they protesting for, even when paid....
                              Blah

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