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The majority of Americans are over worked, stressed out and do not have the energy to start a general strike or create another 1789. However, an individual AmeriKan will resort to the quick and easy violence with a firearm to solve a problem. Weird. I respect the French and their ability to organize a general strike better than anyone in Europe and the planet.
The American state-oligarch apparatus is REALLY good at unionbusting, strikebreaking, and general anti-solidarity social engineering
It's also borderline impossible to organize on the scale needed without getting infiltrated by the feds here. The US is fucking enormous, which means we need large scale organization to really do much, but opsec only gets more complicated and more difficult the larger you organize, especially when your resources are limited.
It definetely makes it hard, but just a few state-level ones would still improve everything no?
I like to think this is the real reason the French have been vilified as cowards and weak in the American Zeitgeist.
So we don’t look at our brothers in arms and join with them.
American Liberalism was the basis of the left, and we kicked it right out of the USA after the civil war, The French however took it and ran.
We need to dump some cow shit in front of the White House and set some tires in fire.
I've been thinking this too for a little while now. It fits too perfectly. Throughout my adolescence, I hated the French. Proudly, openly, I thought it was funny and edgy for some reason, because I've always been disgusted by racism and I am a tiny part French. Edgy teenage bullshit. As I aged out of teen years though, there came a point where something caused me to investigate my own bias with honesty. And when I did, I found it to be totally empty and devoid of substance. I had absolutely no real reason to dislike the French, and these days I feel nothing but love for them.
I'm convinced the only reason I ever hated them was because of propaganda. Never had a bad personal experience. And Parisian 'rudeness' is revealed to be, in my opinion, simple straightforward bluntness. The propaganda is incredibly effective. Americans would benefit greatly if we could all take just a few notes from them; they have a cultural understanding that the government works for the people, not against. And if it's not doing it's job, take whatever action needed to restore balance. Seeing footage of their protests starting a few years back really opened my eyes to what could be done.
UK here, no-one pretends to hate the French more than the UK. We have literally hundreds of years worth of war and shared inbred rulers between us.
Personally, I have nothing but mad respect for how fast the French are to whip out a quick reminder of how it starts, with the strong implication that everyone remembers how it ends if left ignored.
Wasnt the the last French protest and riots about the raising of retirement age? And didnt that happen anyway?
Im really asking, I think Im correct.
Yes. But at least they went and protested en masse.
They didn’t go far enough
As an accomplished wizard, I can definitively state that fireball is the first, best solution to all problems.
Also the second, and depending on your level, third. Depends on available spell slots.
They are waiting the elections bro! Mid elections, final elections, 2026 elections and goes on.
In France, the worst they will likely be met with is water cannons, tear gas, and potentially rubber bullets/beanbag rounds.
In America, it's more likely to be automatic assault rifles.
I have breathing issues due to being tear gassed too often, my left shoulder suffers from very painful tendinitis that will probably never go away due to being tossed on the ground / beat up, got an acquaintance who lost an eye to a rubber bullet, that's the life of a regular french demonstrator.
You are severely underestimating the violence of french anti-riot policing methods. Those weapons might sound chill due to being labeled "non-lethal", but they're actually quite lethal (people die regularly) and violate the Geneva protocol (tear gas usage is theoretically banned on civilians).
If you believe it's that relaxed, come demonstrate in France, see what it's like to be charged at by 100 dudes in full body armor swinging at you trying to do maximum damage while you're caught in a cloud of toxic gas with nowhere to run. You thought the press could cover your ass by filming the police violence, or that the government would do something about police brutality? Guess what, they target journalists too, and our govt encourages police brutality.
If you're looking for excuses, don't drag us into it. Protesting in France isn't an easy affair, we genuinely put our lives on the line every time we go out there. It's the police that decides how violent protests are, the reason you hear so much about french "riots" is because our police keeps escalating the violence. We have a peaceful nature.
Americans need to shut the fuck up about the rest of the world I swear. You're not that special.
Rubber bullets banned in many countries, people lose eyes to them in France
Tear gas long term health effects
Casualties from the yellow vest protests
Police violence on journalists
This documentary's trailer should tell you enough about our riot police situation
I'm UK based btw. I had my tangles with the police at protests in my younger days. It's intimidating, even when nominally peaceful. I have a lot of respect for those of you willing to face off against the nastier crowd control methods.
It's worth noting that there is still a huge difference between what you dealt/deal with and shoot-to-kill military weapons fire.
If I thought it would help, I would (unhappily) deal with tear gas etc. I'm too old, with too much to lose to risk rubber bullets etc, but respect those that would. VERY few people would face gunfire without the ability to fire back. The American Left is not at the point where they are willing to escalate to that point.
Well if it's strictly about guns, then the american left has a point to prove about the second amendment.
Is it only there to help school shooters, or is it about well regulated militias opposing tyranny?
Waiting and watching.
Their biggest problem is media capture. With the loss of twitter to Musk, there's no large scale organisation path that hasn't been captured.
As the phrase goes. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
... AND THE HOOOME OF THE BRAAAAAVE
Ba dum tis!
French cops also shoot people who just drive away.
On 27 June 2023, Nahel Merzouk (25 February 2006 – 27 June 2023),[1] a 17-year-old French youth of Moroccan and Algerian descent,[2] was shot at point-blank range and killed by police officer Florian M., when he did not comply with an order to stop and instead attempted to drive away in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, France. Initial reporting on the incident (informed by police statements) was later contradicted by a video posted online, which led to widespread protests and riots. Symbols of the state such as town halls, schools, police stations, and other buildings were attacked.[3] The Interior Ministry reported that more than 5,000 vehicles had been set on fire, along with 10,000 garbage cans; nearly 1,000 buildings had been burnt, damaged or looted; 250 police stations and gendarmeries had been attacked; and more than 700 police officers had been injured.[4][5]
The killing—condemned by President Emmanuel Macron as "inexplicable" and "inexcusable"[6]—became part of a broader public debate regarding aggressive French law enforcement,[7] racial profiling,[8] immigration,[9] and the stakes of naming the subsequent suburban violence "rioting" rather than "revolts".[10] On 28 June, the president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, asked deputies "to respect a minute of silence in Nahel's memory".[11][12]
Police kill someone in France:
Massive violent protests, burning police stations and police cars
Incident condemned by government
Police kill someone in the USA:
Nonviolent protests
Government defends the killer
Sure and that gets a wikipedia page for you to cite. You're not wrong, just heavily downplaying the problem with this whataboutism. It's not about France where this thing is an exception, but about the US where this is becoming the norm.
I don't understand this either. A few protests that aren't even in the news after a single day!?
You want to bet, it won't be any different if trump says there was too much fraud and cancels the midterm results? A week of protests and outrage, but by then he will already do something else outraging to talk about. Americans are neutered.
There's always the excuse that they can't take one single day off from work because they'd lose healthcare coverage yada yada. I used to think it was bullshit, that they're just lazy.
But... remember during covid, when a ton of people became unemployed? Suddenly they were protesting all over the place. Made me reconsider. I think the lack of social security really has them by the balls.
I read many -if not most- live paycheck to paycheck. If so, the problem might go way deeper than that.
A few protests that aren't even in the news
Depending on how much you rely on main steam (especially legacy) news, you're highly unlikely to see one protester on the news for every ten thousand on the street.
Turns out that the billionaires and hectomillionaires that own all of the biggest media outlets don't like to draw attention to people criticizing their golf buddies when they don't have to.
At this point, I can only imagine it’s out of spite. The regime wants violence, and we are certainly capable of it. But denying them the response they are begging for seems to really blue ball them.
We’re going to die probably. But on our terms, not theirs.
There is something to this, though. If people start behaving violently, the administration will label them as some kind of radicalized terrorist and respond with military force, and then probably blame black or indigenous or immigrant or trans/nb people as the reason for the radicalization and come down even harder on these marginalized populations
They are going to do that anyways. Watch the polls this November. They will incite violence, then order people to disperse, denying them their right to vote.
yeah, sure
Mmmmmm that's good rationalization
Thats one way to cope with the situation I guess.
Dictators use instigators to escalate the situation and remove personal freedoms. People are being smart and not falling for instigators, all history books shows how they use infiltrataded people to cause the authoritarian regime to attack protester. So I think people are being smart and they afraid from midterms and trying everything to see if they can have a provocateur before the midterms.
Yeah, because ICE is sure showing respect for laws and norms, don't want to risk that by defending yourself!