Idk, where you are from, but there are a lot more elections. Most levels of government somehow get elected. Then there is Citizens participation, like local hearings, letters etc.

"Just vote" doesn't mean go elect the president and let all other levels and branches of government be decided by others.

They live under an even stricter presidential Republic than the US with no regional rights or autonomy, and with a policing system founded by an actual fucking Nazi collaborator with all the brutality that entails, where using gender neutral language even in your own personal writings gets you accused of being a woke college elitist, where a Holocaust Denier's daughter has nearly become the highest official of the land twice on a coalition with members who call for a French reconquista, and where the existence of Algeria as an independent state is still considered a sore spot with a large voting demographic of the French boomers.

But they got healthcare and stuff so totally a socialist utopia compared to America and clearly everything their people do works perfectly every damn time

Question, if the French style of rioting works so much better than voting? Why do they have to keep doing it over the same damn shit far more often than they vote?

Politicians just ignore protests, especially if they're peaceful, so they don't directly cause change.

The purpose of a protest is to get media coverage for an issue, because that may convince viewers to vote a certain way. Those votes - or at least the threat of voting someone out of office - is what actually causes change.

Revolutions are a different story. They can change things much faster than voting, but they're volatile and can easily end up worse than before. The people leading a revolution are usually not the people you want to lead a revolution (e.g. the Jan 6 insurrection in the US).

"change must come from the barrel of a gun"

Also your right to protest is well protected.

If you try to protest in the US like France you might as well fucking die lol. Either the cops are going to shoot you or you lose your job after day 4 or less of protesting and your kids starve / you can no longer pay for the gas to get to the protest.

Damn, that sounds familiar as a murican.

Sounds like excuses. Voting is pretty basic, even if it's flawed.

My bad, must be a rounding error

sobs in parliamentary democracy advocate

I agree with the part about french workers on strike becoming a meme, but I wanna stress that it didn't happen by itself.

It's the result of voluntary and sound political strategies from our (economically) liberal governments.
Step 1: "let's make a very offensive law proposition"
Step 2: workers go on strike.
Step 3: "okay let's take back the worst point and still applythe rest"
Step 4: workers' lives are worst despite the strike and the unions lose power and credibility
Sprinkle in the fact that most media were bought by billionaires who aren't too fond of workers' rights, a few corrupt union leaders and you get the current situation.

It's interesting that you mention SNCF (state-owned - for now - french railway) because the always make the reason of their strikes clear and (spoiler) it's never for fun. But when strikes occur, most of the media interview people who wanted to go to work/on holiday by train and can't because of the strike, "economists" who rant about the hundreds of k€ losses for businesses because of the strike, some ass***e from the government who stated "we think the right of strike and protest is very important, but not when it bothers other people" and never the union's heads or the sociologists who can explain how the previous laws have made life worse for the rail workers and how the current one is gonna be worst.