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I live in very, very rural France. Country-wide protests are happening because high-school students demand better… Well, better everything.
Yesterday I carpooled with my kid’s teacher to protest in the “biggest” town (pop. 9,000) in the county. 700 people marched. Some drove over 60 miles one way to be there, when gas costs 2,35€ a liter.
In the past week two kids lost an eye, one an arm, one their lower jaw, because of police violence. (The eyes might not be beyond saving, I’m not sure.) Even middle-schoolers fight with their parents to be allowed to protest.Country-wide headcount was 400,000. Our tiny march, every tiny local march did its part.
And that was a weekday, small protest. Saturday after next is a big one.
I’m really proud of the kids.and that is the same country that wanted to ban social media for minors because social media was harming minors? huh, I do think something is indeed harming French minors, but I don’t think it’s social media!
The country didn’t want that. The president and his cronies do, as an excuse to amplify mass surveillance.
The same president we’re protesting against.Yes. I agree. I used “country” as a metonym for the ones in charge of it.
Wish the rest of the world was more like the French. We’d be able to achieve so much change.
I heard from a friend who worked in France for couple of years that people there basically complain and oppose any change. They were supposed to stop sending people their payslips on paper and move to digital ones and people still were mad about it, for example. At this point they riot about everything and the government simply ignores them and waits for the protests to die out. Which they do most of the time. At the same time people in Spain staged couple of peaceful protests and forced the government to pass new housing laws and call early elections. Being good at rioting is not the same as being good at defending your rights.
Spain’s protests did include violence. A great deal of people fought off police and set up barricades to prevent that elderly woman from being evicted. The peaceful protests were also backed by the threat of escalation if nothing was done.
The paper payslips thing was also more than just about a payslip. The protests were about accountability - it’s easier to change a database about how much work you did later than it is to change a physical paper given to you months ago. That’s not a hypothetical, that’s something that happens and not just in France.
Go back to your right wing misinformation chamber and stop spreading bullshit here.
Sure, stopping one eviction by blocking police is the same as burning down schools…
And in France you’re paid once a year? They will change how much you worked months later? After you got paid already? Yes, totally real issue.
Is there something exceptional about english-speaking white people that makes them such effective bootlickers?
no, it’s the French that are the exception, we German-speaking white people aren’t very different from English-speaking ones either
If I was to defend any argument, it would be that Romance peoples (French, Spanith, Portuguese, etc.) are more likely to protest than Germanic people (English, German, Scandinavian)
American government: we’re deporting your friends and neighbors to third countries, burning your crops, poisoning your water supply, and delivering a plague unto your houses
Americans: What?! You can’t do that! I’m going to write angry social media posts and participate in a quickly-forgotten weekend protest that disrupts little to nothing! Not this weekend though, I have work in the morning.
…and also re-elect you because the other guy said he’d make housing more affordable for everyone
For the home of the brave there sure ain’t much wide spread bravery
Because all the braves are gone. That was like, job one.
I think that this is part of the issue.
Protesting doesn’t really work in the US. And these days you’re likely to get shot or end up in an internment camp. The US is setup to get you in jail anyway so you can be slave labour. And the states are really not United. It’s a moot point, everyone likes to have someone else to blame. I mean I’ll get down voted if I say Europe and the rest of the world is also to blame for buying military equipment from the US. I’ll rephrase that; if people didn’t buy arms from the US then we maybe could do something since the military industrial complex partially runs this country.
The only form of protest that works here is anything financial related. Even then. If you’re considered “essential” then straight to jail. Look back at the railway protests; even just glance at the abhorrent work conditions.
https://therealnews.com/railroad-workers-speak-out-after-congress-and-biden-block-rail-strike
You don’t have to read it; this is basically a summary “‘Without freight rail many US industries would literally shut down,’ Mr. Biden said before signing the bill” so get bent and go back to work.
And then there’s also: “Public employees shall not have the right to strike” and this means potential jail time and I wouldn’t be surprised of future instances where you end up in jail and are forced to do your job anyway.
A coal mine strike in the past resulted in the national guard shooting them down.
So basically everyone is fed propaganda, locally and overseas, but the reality is gloom. People are getting learned helplessness. Been trying to make a difference for almost 20 years.
Replace your map with a population map. There’s a lot of Frances there that don’t need to be there.
Place 3 or 4 Frances and you’re good. Really just shut down LA and NYC.
The thing is, the US is so big that even once you account for the few biggest ones, all the rest of the states in the top 10 each have a population as big as something like Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, or Greece.
Those aren’t additional Frances, granted, but still pretty significant.
You’d need about 5 Frances just to cover the population, ignoring the area.
Yeah but Portugal or Greece can’t prevent France from functioning properly or force federal laws unto it, can they.
More the other way round during the last sovereign debt crisis.
Ironically it’s France that’s now drowning in debt.
You make a valid point. I was using the picture to show the size overall. Places like NY and Cali are where the most aggressive capitalists are; these are the people taking advantage of everyone. They are the people that feed off the system.
California, Texas, New York, and Florida are basically the major population of the US. Those white and light pink areas hold as much power as the most densely populated areas. At a glance you can see that 7 states so 14/100 votes are practically… for a handful of people.
And look at it this way, where you see the dark red areas; that’s the capitalistic hubs.
Top left corner, that’s Seattle in Washington state. That’s where Valve is (Steam) whom announced 1.7 billion in sales in September. There’s plenty of people living in those areas that go against the overall welfare of the general public, by voting and by bribing. The rich fucks were really salty about the new additional tax they have to pay.
So what I’m trying to say is these people that are making 250k, 500k, multi millions, billions are going to fight against any change.
The only thing that’s left is to hurt them where it hurts most, finance. That’s why I wrote about the railway strike. Honestly, after reading what the work is like, they should have quit; but then they would likely face a gun to their head and get told to go back to work.
We’re dealing with a new era of bourgeoisie that have armed guards and bunkers and politicians in their pockets. Seems like they learned from historical events.
Those white and light pink areas hold as much power as the most densely populated areas.
Not exactly, in the Senate every state gets 2 votes. The presidential vote and house are weighted to population.
The issue is both of those based on population were capped, so the less populated states get a vote that counts more than the most populated areas. So Wyoming has 1 vote in the house for a population of 580,000 and California has 52 for 39.4 million people.
If these reps were concerned about their home state maybe this would work, but it’s all national party politics now.
“Not exactly, in the Senate every state gets 2 votes. The presidential vote and house are weighted to population.”
I phrased that poorly but that’s roughly what I meant; it was easier to say than look at the states with the low population counts. It doesn’t matter how many candidates are in the house if a fifth can shut down any progress. It seems like often, the unpopular vote is the what we get. And no way to do anything about politicians that say one thing and do another.
“If these reps were concerned about their home state maybe this would work, but it’s all national party politics now.”
This is why all of this sucks. What we’re shown and what the world sees is political theatre. They go behind closed doors and amicably negotiate. A politician that called this out, I haven’t seen another video or anything from him in two years.
People love to shit on the US like we can actually do anything but only base it on what they see on regulated media.
Part of the problem there is the signing of the bill actually prevented the strike… The point of a strike is that can’t fire everyone… And similarly, they can’t send everyone to jail…
As I wrote, a strike or preferably mass quitting might just get you a kick in the ass–back to work with a gun to your head by the national guard.
DW guns will save them from this
Guns could save them from this but the only ones with guns are the ones supporting the policies.
At some point I realised I have no idea how to evaluate protests in other countries. We have protests, and some extremely important, some are dumb as fuckshit, and some are just an excuse to riot. I know this, because I know the issues… but in a foreign country when they protest against bad conditions at school I have no idea how bad their schools are. Are they worse than our schools, or better? Are the problems extremely widespread, or somewhat rare, but amplified by some part of the media to seem widespread? No idea.
My rule of thumb is “are they yelling at the government for not doing stuff they are supposed to?” Yes. Ok then i support it. I’m right 9/10 times with the first impression.
So every protest broadly aligned with your views is justified, basically? That’s exactly the rule of thumb I’m trying to avoid.
The fact that places exist where they protest any incremental regression with extreme prejudice is awesome. Doesn’t matter if their schools are currently “better” then other places. They hold a line that protects their schools and other services from the death of a thousand cuts we experience everywhere else.
I remember hearing about French firefighters getting geared up, setting themselves on fire, and running at riot police lol.
Kids told about thursdays riots here in Bordeaux where the firefighters came and put out the burning trashcans etc, but they also cheered the protesters on!
Same side 😘!
My kid’s teachers: “I can’t help you build barricades in front of the school. I’m legally bound to teach my scheduled classes. It would be such a pity if your barricades were already built tomorrow before 7am, and I physically couldn’t get inside. Or would 7.30 be better for y’all?”
Riot is in our culture ! We learn it at school !
Anyone remember when the French farmers got pissed off at the government and used a manure spray to coat the president house outside and inside?
Oh and they did it again to clear their fields of “travelers”
Ha ha they do that in so many ways, nothings quite like it for a mayor to wade through manure, fish or whatever to get to work!
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I mean, yes the French know how to riot, but they will still blame all their problems on “islamo-gauchisme”…
The venn diagram of French people who protest/riot and French people who say “islamo-gauchisme” unironically is two distinct circles.
The latter tend to despise protesters and cheer when the police beat them up. Except when the protesters are farmers, then it’s legitimate anger towards an incompetent and corrupt government.
Thats false, but the far right love to peddle that lie. You also got it wrong, as it’s supposedly an insult to “woke” people or leftists.
Mon point était plus que c’est pas que les Anglais qui ont des dérives de droites. C’est pas pour rien que notre export Mathieu Bock-Côté a tant de succès chez vous.
J’habite en France mon coco.
