Know Your Meme: The Other 53%

In order to either fully appreciate or fully be annoyed by what The Other 53% means, one first has to know what “We Are The 99%” is–a rallying cry for Occupy movements across the country, popularized by a Tumblr account where people hold up handwritten notes about their economic struggles. This week, another Tumblr went up–We Are the 53%–with more handwritten notes held up, telling the story of the estimated 53% of Americans who pay federal individual income taxes. The mission statement is vaguely concise:

“Those of us who pay for those of you who whine about all of that… or that… or whatever.”

The notes held up by the 53%ers (“53s”? “53ers”? We need an official term here) are generally a coupling of mockery of the 99%ers with American success stories. There’s even a dude with a guitar. But the problem here is the math that those of us not jazzed about either movement–or excited for both–have to now do to figure out where we belong.

What if we pay taxes but also want Wall Street change? What if we like Wall Street but don’t pay federal income taxes? Can we be a 99%er and a 53%er at the same time? If we choose neither, does that make us part of the 1%? Or are they already included in the 53% of federal income tax payers, leaving us, somehow, as a member of the 0%? Will the rules of math and physics allow for us to be 152%ers? Because Venn diagrams won’t work here; even tough it’s logically possible for the groups to overlap, the 53% movement participants are obviously not fans of the 99%ers. And many of the 99%ers, once they get around to hearing about the 53%ers, probably won’t like them, either. It’s gotten dangerously fractious and needs to be stopped, as this country cannot take any more fraction-based Tumblrs.

What’s sad about all of this is that these groups are going to end up alienating more citizens than anything else. Most people don’t like Wall Street. Most people want to work hard and earn a fair living. Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party would probably both agree on several key issues. These groups aren’t mutually exclusive. But because of the party-line stances that both are taking, it’s going to take a huge effort to reconcile the two groups.

Until then, get to know the latest percentage-based meme. And good luck figuring out where you stand once the newest one pops up over the next few days.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.