Opponents to the Wall Street protests are fighting back against a blog called We Are the 99 Percent, which records the stories of those in support of Occupy Wall Street.
We Are the 53% is the conservative counterblog to the popular 99% blog, copying its style of supporters of the movement posting photographs of themselves holding up a piece of paper with their personal stories written out.
Where the 99% movement has an issue with the top 1% of Americans who control a third of the U.S.’s wealth, the 53% claims that the protesters on Wall Street are part of the 47% who don’t pay federal income taxes. The 53%’s logic: We pay taxes, you don’t. We’re responsible citizens, you’re all dirty hippies. The tagline of the blog proclaims to be written by “Those of us who pay for those of you who whine about all of that.”
“That’s an unusual message coming from conservatives who’ve pushed so mightily for an anti-tax agenda,” writes Ezra Klein over at Wonkblog.
(MORE: Occupy Wall Street Protest: As Movement Spreads, a Message Evolves)
Redstate’s Erick Erickson started the Tumblr, along with Joshua Trevino, co-founder of Redstate and communication director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Mike Wilson, conservative filmmaker responsible for “Michael Moore Hates America.”
Erickson’s own submission sends a loud-and-clear message to his opposition: “I work 3 jobs. I have a house I can’t sell. My family insurances costs are outrageous. But I don’t blame Wall Street. Suck it up you whiners. I am the %3 subsidizing you so you can hang out on Wall Street and complain.”
By and large, the 53% submissions are about personal responsibility and pulling oneself up by their bootstraps, painting the protestors as a group of idealistic and lazy complainers. “America is the land of opportunity—not guarantee! If you want something, you have to earn it!” writes one contributor in a post.
Forbes points out that the Tumblr is turning the whole ordeal into a culture war instead of a class war: “Pitting the 53% against the 99% is not really about class issues or taxes. It’s about a system of values.” And when it becomes about broad “American values,” as we’ve seen in the past, the details are lost and ignored. What about the reality that the reason 23% of Americans don’t pay income taxes is because their income is actually too low in the first place?
A counter to the counterblog (we know, it’s confusing), Actually, You’re the 47%, is now up and running, satirizing and calling out some of the more illogical arguments posted on the 53% blog. One post calls out a submission in which the poster explains they are unemployed and pay “the norm for taxes” for people in their bracket. The 47% blog asks, “How much federal income tax do you pay on your income of nothing? You are a leech on society. So not a 53%er.”
Another post features a 53% contributor who tells the story of her father who immigrated from Croatia to build a better life, and created a small business, putting his five children through school, “still fervently abiding by the regulations, taxes, and fees of the gov’t.” After undergoing a 30-hour operation to treat his thyroid cancer, he returned to his manual labor job against the advice of his doctors, working 12 hour days, six days a week. The 47% blog’s response? “Manual labor for 72 hours a week while you’re dying of cancer. The American dream.”
MORE: Occupy Wall Street: Increased Organization, Looming Challenges
Aylin Zafar is a contributor to TIME. Find her on Twitter at @azafar. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.