Also in the American sense. i.e. not an out-and-out fascist.
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Yeah, count me in amongst those who feel this video is (understandably) more sensationalist and distracts from the actual movement. Actually, I think the best term for it is “gonzo”, as it does seem to be from the Hunter S. Thompson school. Very personal, not an attempt to show the Gesamtbild as they say, but the reporter as a part of what is going on. With a dramatic soundtrack.
As such, it is interesting but not “unbelievable”. Nor does Paris look like a war zone any more than past protests have, though you rarely see them from the inside.
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Indeed. Or as Laurie Anderson put it a long time ago:
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The French were let down by their leaders at the beginning of the war, who were themselves paralyzed by the trauma of WW1. They constructed an illusion of defence (Maginot Line) and allowed the “last men standing” from 1918 ( Gamelin and Pétain) to stagnate the army and fail to develop strategies to counter fast-paced, mechanised warfare.
The French held the line for the British army to retreat at Dunkirk.
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The people are tired of being the ones to bear the load and Macron is the leader of the government. Are you suggesting that the people go back in time to rally against the person whom you see as the cause of the peoples problems?
Let’s take this gas tax for example. The idea is that if you raise the price of gas then you will have less pollution. This is one of those incredibly disconnected policies that really upset people. Raising the price of gas doesn’t mean you now no longer need to drive to work, get groceries, or take your kids to school. No one is taking optional pleasure drives through the countryside. People drive as a necessity. What they did was to add a tax to a non-optional good that people rely on to survive. This tax doesn’t bother the wealthy as they can afford the gas. All it does is serve to harm the people and line govt coffers and does nothing to address climate impact as intended.
Go after the industrial polluters and let the people of France drive their kids to school.
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Déjà vu.
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The deeply ingrained idea of a “French tradition” seems to me why France is apparently unable to change from an elite-based approach of gouvernment to something more inclusive.
Sad thing is that the current weird assemblage of angry people are looking like the next populism hotbed, and don’t seem to be very constructive.
I’m also sure that the current reforms are fueling those protests, but the discrepancy between anger and the reasons for that seems to be existing. I am under the impression that the banlieus not yet joined in, really.
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there you go, Emmanuel; dont bite the hand that feeds you, right?
ah? but it worked, did it not?
jah, well, everything is kinda subjective.
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