Ben Stein Calls Occupy Protesters ‘Bums’, Says ‘Lighting A Doobie Doesn’t Advance Your Cause’

On CBS’s The Early Show Tuesday, economist and former Nixon advisor Ben Stein lashed out against the Occupy Wall Street protesters, calling them doobie-smoking “bums.” “They’re a bunch of bums, as far as i’m concerned,” Stein observed. “If they had some specific ideas, if they had some specific proposals, if they were doing anything whatsoever besides sleeping in their tents and banging drums, I would say great, God bless them. I spent a large part of my life crusading against fraud on Wall Street — but to just bang a drum and light up a big doobie and go back into your tent, that does not do anything whatsoever to advance the cause of justice.”

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Stein earlier lambasted unemployed people who refused to take low-paying jobs. “There are an awful lot of Americans that will not work at a fast food shop or a clothing shop…say they’re artists. That’s nonsense. A person of good character will take any job rather than take welfare or take handouts. Any job with dignity is a perfectly good job. My old boss, President Nixon, now belonging to the ancient past, used to say emptying a bed pan, if you do it with the right spirit, has as much dignity as being President of the United States.”

In his remarks, Stein seemed to characterize the Occupy Wall Street movement as a bunch of slacker kids who were taking school off just to stick it to the man. Where have we seen that before? Anyone?

Watch Stein assail the Occupy Wall Street movement below, via CBS:

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