The first ponder out of the box today… is why would I even ponder such a thing. I have heard it said and have seen it written… Paid Protester … so I googled it and there was a wealth of information available. The first thing to pop up of course was on Wikipedia and I was astounded to find this was indeed a natural practice in these days. Here is a quick take on this:
Paid protesters or professional protesters are people who participate in public outrage or objection in exchange for payment. The expression may be directed against individuals, organizations and governments or against protests against the government with the aim of breaking up or discrediting a protest.
Wikipedia
There were at least seven full pages devoted to this subject. Now I also know that the internet is fallible so I dug a bit deeper. When I reached the point where I had to think about things and verify…thats when I quit. Pondering is quite a bit different than thinking about something. There are no rules, facts are not necessary and anyone who wants to start a ponder is welcome to. But it does appear to be true, there are folks out there who actually are Professional Protesters! Different organizers pay different wages and provide different services such as transportation, signs and people on the ground to direct the protesters, the paid folks…their how to behavior to get the job done and to disrupt as much as possible. Now…let’s ponder on this a moment. What kind of person has nothing better to do than disrupt other people’s lives? Of course there are those who are serious enough about an issue to protest and many times it is an emotional issue for them… they are not included in this ponder. How real is all this? Well real enough to pay an average of $13 an hour…thats my average figure taken from the assortment of information I read. So the bottom line here is that there are people who do this for money and there are people who are willing to pay these folks…who would have thought that was possible? Ponder This… The engine of Negativity is the Paid Protester.
jk
From The Pew 