Topic: Why is the violence in France completely legitimate? - page 4. (Read 884 times)

If the situation is as bad as you're describing it doesn't sound as though working from the inside is going to accomplish much.  Also it does not surprise me whatsoever that protesters would be described as 'savage' by the media, because if France is anything like the U.S., media outlets are basically controlled by the government and large corporations and will make real justice look like the work of criminals.

I'd no idea things were this bad over there, and you have my sympathy and support.  Fight the bastards until their legs give out.  The world is in such a chaotic state right now that it's no wonder subterranean concrete bunkers are becoming all the rage.

As a person who doesn't live in France or ever lived there, I FULLY AGREE WITH EVERYTHING SAID

I know many people living there. Some WERE successful entrepreneurs, owning small restaurants in different
areas of France. I can tell you that since 2016 everything went bad for some reasons and all of my friend's restaurants closed. He told me that people in France
seem to have lost the sense of enjoying their life. People are more likely to save money rather than go with their family to a restaurant or enjoy their time.

Either French people have changed their culture and values overnight or something is going on. Do you believe that the economic state of France which
GDP in 2014 decreased by 0.4 TRILLION and hasn't recovered yet is affecting the overall situation? Also why does it look that in all countries, USA, UK, France, etc.
we are going 'backwards' / negatively progressing?
UK going out of the UE, making a situation similar prior to World War II,
France being what you stated in the post,
USA on the edge of leaving NATO like in World War II

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-14/french-riot-police-deploy-semi-automatic-weapons-against-yellow-vests-macron-loses

Just wow. The US police hardly ever brandish rifles against protests/riots, but perhaps this is just because they know we can shoot back

This just goes to show you what results when you let the government hold a monopoly on violence. IMO this was a retarded choice to arm them for 1000 reasons. Whoever decided to do this WANTS France in a civil war. All it is going to take is a few protestors shot by the police before the whole country loses its fucking mind, then those police won't be safe anywhere even if they are carrying RPGs.

You might be not in France but you're fucking right on the spot.

Movement is losing support actively because people can't relate...
There is no strategy because strategy needs leadership, and the main idea of YW is that there is no leader. You have extreme right and extreme left going on the street at the same time, who could be a leader? No one can gather equally communists, anarchists, monarchists, nationalists, fascists...

So the group is large, dangerous, violent, and all asking for one thing: Direct referendum. That's the only thing all those groups have in common, the will to take back the power from the government.

I more-or-less agree with your grievances, but where's the strategy? I echo The Pharmacist's comments in the other thread in saying that this movement is looking mainly like a group of undirected terrorists, which is probably turning off a huge segment of the population who would otherwise agree with you. If people are more worried about having their homes firebombed by an anarchic mob than about abstract concepts like freedom of speech, then your movement is dead.

I suspect that the movement will lose size and popularity over time as Macron both cracks down and gives some concessions, until the remnants can be safely wiped out. To avoid this I think you'd need to create a sort of parallel government which can claim widespread support from the movement as a whole, and then compete with Macron's regime either within the current framework, or compete with the entire old government for legitimacy. Extremely difficult.

(Admittedly, I'm nowhere near France or even Europe, so my ability to accurately perceive the situation is limited.)

Democracy is a unicorn.

Yep, France does not seem to be scoring highly in the democracy ratings.

The "Flaws" of French Democracy

This article is four years old but still relevant today.

Hi everyone.

Tons of people, most of them not from France, are currently pointing out the protests as being horribly too violent and saying the protestors are savages that should be get killed or at least jailed.

This is an understandable point of view from anyone not knowing the country recent history. After all, France has still a quite strong economy and is a free democracy, so violence can seem as people unsatisfied with election results getting violent just because they lost.


So here is the point of view of one of the French violent protestors so you can see why a huge number of people are getting more and more violent.

France is free

This has become completely false. Though it would be crazy to compare France to North Korea, we have seen our rights reduced in a number of ways with the terrorism threat excuses:

-Demonstrations are forbiden unless previously approved by government

-Public gathering are theorically forbidenn unless previously aproved by local authorities (though in practice 90% of local authorities don't apply this rule)

-Free speach has been completely anihilated. We were never the USA in terms of free speach but now anything said directly against government can be punished as "incitation of violence in a crisis context". Not to mention the prosecution of anything seemingly said against any minorities.

-National emergency has been active for... I don't know? 2 or 3 years I think? This means military in the streets, regular check of identity and belongings on a daily basis, and numerous public places forbidden to the public.

-French government has been caught having a shadow militia. People bearing weapons and police uniforms, without being registered anywhere, directly under French president authority and used as political police or to put pressure on elected representants. This is not a joke or an exageration, look for "Benala case" if you want to know more.

France is a democracy

Best lie you can get. Of course France isn't a democracy but a representative democracy, meaning people elect representants and those people have the power. But it got MUCH WORSE in last years:

-There is since 2016 a direct control of justice from French government. President appoints ministry of justice, who appoints the biggest judge in the country. Means that anything that is trouble for French government goes directly in front of this judge who has no choice but to obey the president. That's not an exageration as there is currently a heated trial case that has been transformed in a mocked trial due to presidential influence (just look for "Benala" for more)

-Since 2012, French government has used a dictatorial tool known as "atricle 13" more than 10 times. It means the French government can put any law in action without having to go in front of the chamber first. It's litteraly: the president does this and you can't say anything.

-Numerous of times government has taken decision officialy refused by the people. Referendum on the EU has been simply ignored, laws on economy deregulation refused at 85% by the population has been put through with article 13...


There would be much more to say of course. But I hope you get the general idea that the country has changed a LOT in a short time and NOT in a good way. Every year France is closer to an elective dictatorship and this is really frightening. That's why the protest is mainly about the possibility for the people to directly open a referendum, in order to be able to stop this crazy dictatorial path taken by the various governments.

And there is no way to do it peacefully. How would you force your government to take the people into account if not by force? By election? Impossible as they already rigged the election system after last ones were too close for them... Now we're nearly at a bi party system.

I hope you understand better what the population has gone through and why the hate and wrath are transforming into such a violent protest. This is the only way we have. Unless we bend the knee there is no way they'll stop.