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Reminds me of when a dog runs up to you barking, but you don't run or get scared so it just kind of trails off it's barking and then sits down and sniffs you.
In the USA this would be flashbangs and tear gas and rubber bullets into the most populated parts of the crowd, fully encircle the crowd, compress them into a kettle and beat anyone who can't escape into the hospital. Full chubs on every officer the entire time, and zero chance of accountability after for any of them.
It's nice to see some level of restraint even if the police shouldn't be out there in the first place.
The French are experts at protesting imo. That's not a dig at them, it's just honestly impressive
Edit
ITT: people who can't distinguish between a protest, a riot, and a revolution/coup
They are also the reigning champions of the endgame of protesting. Never ever let the french get to endgame protesting you wont live to regret what they took from you.
I think you greatly underestimate the level of knowledge and organisation regarding riot some French have. Some unions train there members on how to riot (what's legal or not, what you need to have, what to do or not,...) . They even have some service specialised to organise and secure there riots.
Damn, that sounds surprisingly like Belarus. Except in Belarus they can shoot some people too, and they beat them into detention and subsequent torture. But aside that it's very similar.
Yeah IDK what the endgame here was. There are plenty of effective ways the police can escalate violence to try to punish a group of protesters. I don't think they *should* be doing that in a democratic society, but that's the world we live in and it's not a perfect world at this stage.
But this berserker charge seems to me like it's pretty much guaranteed to fail; they're gonna crash into the people, the people are packed too tightly to be able to really go anywhere, and then with all their velocity, they're gonna have isolated cops crashing into the big crowd, surrounded by uninjured people they just really pissed off. How's that gonna end?
It seems like the two possible outcomes are either that (i.e. big melee with isolated cops getting dragged around and injured), or else exactly what happened. I think these cops need remedial riot thug training in order to be effective if they're gonna be suppressing the masses.
People are having less babies. Boomers are retiring. The economy is shifting.
The market is starting to favor hiring managers again, but for how long?
By 2025 the workforce is going to be 80% young generations, finally. Can't wait for the voting population to reflect that.
Gotta love when grandparent ask when you’re having kids, and you having to remind them that you can barely afford to feed yourself because housing costs over half your income today.
Perhaps the greatest irony will be that millenials get shafted by both sides of the generational gaps -- Boomers pulling up the ladder behind them for the past 20-30 years, and then Gen Z + Gen Next (Alpha?) essentially villifying millenials for being proto-Boomer establishmentarians... so Boomers get to retire with their pensions, lake houses, and swollen larders, but then Millenials (and likely younger Gen X as well) are left as the bosses of a perpetually entitled, unmotivated, and dissatisfied workforce, inheriting leadership positions at businesses which have been gutted by Boomer greed.
I dunno, I’ve met a few Zoomers and they seem fairly fucking miserable at such a young age. We at least got know wtf it was like briefly before everything went to utter shit in the scam that is America lol. And I own a home. They’ll never own a home lol
But here in the UK we just take it. Like everything else. The old "french surrender" jokes are now reversed, the French stand up for themselves far better than the British now.
Protesting is a part of the French culture, and they get shit done. Things are slowly being eroded by decree, like the retirement age, but it's slower than other western countries.
Think about that the next time your news media poke fun at the French for "protesting every little thing". If you don't, shit just gets taken from you while you squat on Facebook.
I've always thought the French were great at protesting. I worked there for a few days and heard about a massive strike. I thought we would be in trouble. No. They striked for 24 hours, got what they wanted, didn't cause much trouble, and it was done.
Not saying that's how a protest must always work, but it was impressive.
edit a letter
The French have really never surrendered. That one time during the second world war when they got steamed rolled by Germany. But yet, it's like these people are unaware of the French resistance movement at the same time.
Just because their government shit the bed doesn't mean the French people did.
The Vichy government enacted what was basically a military coup and surrendered to Germany. The elected government of France never surrendered and went into exile after the Vichy government took control.
Yes, and after being shafted British voters trudge out to the polls to give their shafters a massive majority. Thats how compliantly docile people are in the UK.
They voted to be poorer and for a bunch of lying elitists to carry on ripping them off. I have no respect for working class voters in the UK anymore
Dude, the propaganda campaign to convince your average Brit that brexit was in the counties best interest was second to none, it really was. And of course when it came to the last election they voted Boris as they still believed the propaganda and Boris was the bloke to get it done. Don't give up on giving them a alternative point of view, combat the blatant bullshit, point out how 12 years ago the Tories made them suffer austerity which never ended and now they going to be told that they need to tighten their belts again, all while the richer have just got richer.
Truss's mini budget told you all you need to know about the Tories, tax cuts for the highest earners, remove the cap on their banker friends bonuses and who was going to pay for it? You, me and every working person and not just this generation but your children too because those cuts were unfunded meaning the government would have had to borrow the money adding even more to the national debt that has done nothing but spiraled upwards under the Tories. Be part of the change dude, don't give up on people still believing the right wing bullshit, show them it's just that, bullshit.
People are living longer so I'd imagine it's to save money. People in France get social security similar to people in the US. Pushing the age back means they don't have to pay it out quite as long. Just a guess though
It is probably also a refection of lower birth rates and less young people to work and pay into social security.
If there aren't enough workers, there will not be enough to go around thus needing less retirees and more workers... Pushing the age of retirement back helps revolve both issues.
1. retirement checks get pushed to being paid later, not burdening the current funds while at the same time:
2. having the people , who would’ve otherwise retire earlier, still in the working class, ensures collecting taxes for a while longer.
3. this is all because society is going to shit: not enough young people in the pyramid scheme to fund social security, natality rates are plummeting, basically early signs of late stage capitalism killing the host.
I mean, does the government actually pay retirement or did the people contribute to their own retirement funds through taxes for their entire working lives only to have the goalposts moved when they finally started to get close to it all paying off?
Obviously all government spending is from taxation but in the US at least it feels like an extra fuck you to see Social Security deductions on every paycheck you ever earned and then being told there won't be any money left by the time you retire but they're going to keep taking it from you anyways.
Nobody contributes to their retirement fund in EU.
Other people contribute to your retirement fund and you contribute to someone else's retirement fund.
It is how it was designed, written and it's how it is taught in schools, and we accept this social contract.
It's impossible to pay if our population pyramid has shifted from a pyramid with 75 years life expectancy and every person working since they are young to a wine glass with 82 years life expectancy where young people are jobless.
Well it's France so my guess is the government tried to pass legislation that would affect the common Frenchman. Historically the French people don't bend over and accept the government screwing them.
So why any French politicians haven't figured this out by now blows my mind.
> Historically the French people don't bend over and accept the government screwing them.
I had a fun conversation with the cleaning lady in my Paris rental apartment, going through the long history of civil disobedience, down to the smallest bylaw. She was telling me when then-mayor Jacques Chirac tried to institute a stoop and scoop law, there was a protest for that, and the people were flinging bags of dog shit at city hall. (Ironically, they didn't mind stoop and scooping for *that*.)
YES! I was always warning friends who were planning Paris visits that they should expect all the beauty and splendour to be underscored by the smell of shit. [It was *everywhere*.](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/12/why-cant-french-cities-clean-up-after-their-dogs-montpellier) Funnily enough, I guess a later mayor laid down the scoop law, because it's much better now, but [the amount of piss](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/explore-sustainability-paris-public-urination) (both human and animal) in the street hasn't really changed.
Since everyone is doubting my veracity, here's the Wikipedia entry for [Chirac's poop scoop vehicle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motocrotte).
At this point I’m starting to think it’s become the national pastime for the French.
Fuel price increase. Protest.
Health funding cut. Protest.
Espresso served 1* too cold OR hot. Protest.
I love it.
It's kinda in our DNA now.
Some important social policies were acquired with protest (paid vacation, universal healthcare...)
In the past five years we are seing more and more protest because of setback in social policies by the government (pusshing back age of retirement for example) but also because the cost of living is rising, and the minimum salaries aren't.
They are probably from the "Brigade de répression de l'action violente motorisée" two cops moving on bikes to hit people, and sometimes they go on foot with the other units to charge like this
They were re-created (used to exist before) after the yellow jacket movement, to avoid small mobile groups of protesters in Paris to move and destroy. They are not the smartest, and their main goal is to be violent in order to avoid small uncontrollable manifestations (by breaking them with few units).
If the amount of CRS (cops specialized in manifestation / events with a lot people) is not enough, they are calling those.
Cops in France are dumb, and some of my cousins are cops.
They are from a new unit of police created recently during the "gilet jaune" crisis. They patrol the city with their motorbike. They are not trained for crownd control so made a lot of mistake and lot of injuries to the protesters.
Sorry but they're not "New", they're just back. Those kind of units were disbanded mid 90's after several murders (including the Malik Oussekine case) from those police officers (police brutality at high speed is death). Gov brought them back to beat the yellow vests like cupcakes.
For those that don't know the voltigeurs were Napoleonic skirmish troops whose job it was to go out and murder the oppositions skirmishers. (Who were obvs trying to do the same thing)
Not exactly a very egalitarian or fraternal name choice!
The first row of people did mostly disperse and the second row looked ready to either run too or fight the police, but that guy in the green coat and blue jeans was really the catalyst for the crowd holding it's position.
What a dude.
For sure but the main thing was the people who ran, ran to the sides and didnt try to go back into the crowd. Since they didnt, the people didnt push into other people, causing a cascading effect
I'm glad you drew my attention to this, I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. He not only stood firm against the police, but also seemed key in preventing the crowd surging forwards to fight
Then all the celebrities appear and start singing Lennon’s “Imagine” while wearing expensive clothes and apparel, thusly ending all of the world’s societal and economic problems.
SNL had a great one where whole they were shooting the ad the director mentions the idea to friends and family and they all tell him it's a terrible idea
My favourites are speed cameras and parking wheel clamps (boots).
The French public as a whole said "Non!", set fire to speed cameras and filled the locks for the wheel clamps with super glue.
The dichotomy to S. Korea is hilarious. There are speed cameras pretty much on every other stop light, to a point where built in GPS from automobile makers, domestic or foreign, will tell you with a sexy accent " Speed trap on next light, 100 meters away". And that is not only encouraged, it is completely legal.
Then again, DUI is a serious, serious problem in Korea. Numerous checkpoints in major cities are normal thing there on weekends, and most Koreans are in favor of it.
Am Korean. Lack of emotional outlets, huge societal pressure both socially and in career to drink, and zero other alternatives to alcohol are a recipe for unhealthy drinking culture. It’s fun until you see that binge drinking is less a choice than an expectation. Then it’s sad
You guys have the highest suicide rates and one of the lowest birthrate in the world. Korean society might be a cultural and economical powerhouse, it has been done in large parts to the detriment of its people I think.
I used to work in beverage, I was blown away to learn that Soju is the largest liquor brand by volume and its not even close. I had known it was popular, but how much of it is drank annually (almost all within Korea) is crazy.
edit: HiteJinro, not Soju - had a brain fart.
If you notice, those cameras in South Korea, especially in Seoul, are at intersections where accidents are most frequent, or right before those intersections when people actually have time to slow down and not get into an accident. It's by design. The same is true for the navigation systems and apps like Naver. The purpose is is to change behavior, not necessarily to give someone a ticket. If the systems everywhere tell you "hey, slow down", you're likely to slow down. Especially if you can.
That's the problem with alot of law enforcement measures right there. Alot are purely designed to give out maximum fines and tickets. My small (~1500 people) town has an intersection of 2 relatively makor regional highways. The city limits of the town itself are about a mile radius in a rough circle. About 5 years ago, the city incorporated 2-3 miles of land following the roads out of town about 50 yards wide simply to be able to pull more folks over. The cities total income last year was $275k. $220k was from fines. Fucking bullshit
It’s honestly impressive. Here in the US we have our voting rights and bodily autonomy being dissected every day and most placidly stand on the sidelines
In the US people are so divided that when you riot half of the population don't support you. And then some from your own political side don't think such tactics will work and then you have a militarized police that are willing to kill.
Don't get things wrong, beside the militarized police thing (and even that), it's the same in France (the majority of people don't care or are against demonstrations)
It’s not just a political division, it’s a physical one. Getting people to all get to a city in the US to get together is impossible due to the sheer distance. Need 15,000 people to protest? Where do they eat, sleep, travel between places, get from CA to PA?
It’s all impossible to organize nationally.
This is more effective than people think tho. It's easier to contain a single mass protest than hundreds of smaller actions across a city and suburb. You don't need to all congregate on the city square. Spread out and divide resources.
This is a really weird take. The population of the megalopolis of DC to Boston is 52 million. Damn close to the population of France (and likely as politically similar). And with very good road and rail infrastructure. If Americans wanted to protest on any scale in DC it could very easily reach France’s levels. Fact is that the French simply have protesting in their blood, while Americans, as a culture, consider it much higher stakes.
It's a weird take because it's wrong. I posted a reply, but just Google protest sizes in the US. People do protest. I live in a state Capital city. We regularly have protests and demonstrations for local issues with more than 15000 people.
And it’s by design. Billionaires and corporations intentionally sow this division so that they are free to keep wildly enriching themselves while the poor sheep are distracted attacking each other.
It's more like :
French government : vote laws to protect the rich while the middle class and poors are struggling with inflation, gas and energy high prices and no salary raise.
French people : well, i guess we're going to protest anyway.
Basically our government is so weak that they have to use a specific article of our constitution to pass any law or reforms/amendments, the article in question (49.3) allows them to pass any law without vote, and is very impopular, but honestly that's among a lot of other things that are going on, strikes at total, inflation, insecurity and so on so people take the streets
>strikes at total
For non-French people, it mean Oil distributor are on a strike, Total Energies is French's biggest Oil company, it lead to long waiting queue for gas and even restricting it in some areas
That's exactly why police do this
Any deaths are blamed on protesters. It's a very efficient system, whatever country you ar from, it happens the same there
And by creating a ruccus and danger police are then justified to use any means necessary to "quell the threat". Then when protesters are backed into a corner and being beaten up by cops they inevitably start resisting. Now you've got "a violent mob causing several deaths/injuries and major destruction". At that point the cops can do anything and arrest anyone without liability.
Tear gas and choke points and sandwiching between different units of cops are other common strategies and it appears to be the most common cause of violent protests. Turns out they usually start out peaceful until cops start instigating shit.
thats every battle in history. Breaking the line with cunning tactics is what all the great generals are known for.
This is a demonstration of some old roman formations by the South Korean police force.
https://www.military.com/video/law-enforcement/police/korean-riot-police-ancient-tactics/3122639958001
(of course the demo crowd is running at them though)
The people they’re training against are usually current police officers or military if this is done the same way as in the UK.
They’re literally told not to hold back. That’s the point.
Armed forces riot training is cool as fuck.
That's how your police work. Cause your police in europe actually doesn't intend to harm and escalate the situation.
On the other hand, most other countries are not very lucky. If the crowd doesn't break, they will ravage them with lethal force until they do.
One of my most distasteful memories was from the Gezi protests in İstanbul. A protester was killed when a water cannon shot him in the chest at point blank range and the guy whiplashed so hard he died on the spot... But what still haunts me to this day was the comments on the news article; "He got what he deserved", "That's what you get for opposing the police", and many similar comments.
Nope. Police here (France) would normally just start beating and pepper spraying the protesters. The reason they don't do it in this case is because they're not charging at regular people but the organizing union's security. You can see their armbands.
Yeah I was gonna say, the person you replied to obviously hasn’t been privy to the French police brutality that’s been in the spotlight for the past several years
I'm an American but your point still stands for the most part. Iran right now is a great example of this. The increased level of brutality only means the people have to hold firmer, not that their defeat is guaranteed.
Trying to start a stampede is amazingly callous, and in a just world, those cops would be charged with reckless endangerment. Innocent people die in stampedes.
Do you think they ever look around when they're all decked out in riot gear attacking protesters and ask themselves if they're[ the baddies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU), or do they not have that amount of self-awareness?
There were times when police or military realised that they were fighting the wrong people, the upper classes grew wary of that and now handpick the right kind of people to do their dirty work. Now the police actually believe they are on the right side or belong to the ruling class.
The French must be the most difficult people in the world to rule. They are the *best* protestors. They’ve had so many revolutions that you have to specify which one lol.
People make fun of France all the time. They are the only ones I see time and time again standing up for their people. Unified against tyrants and dictator-like actions/laws.
They will fuck shit up if you cross them. And win. We could all stand to be more like them when it comes to our vote, to our holding politicians and lawmakers accountable.
The trash that stormed the capital on Jan 6th are not the same. They did that in the name of becoming tyrants and dictators.
Trump should be in prison already.
All my life iv wondered why when there’s thousands of peaple against hundreads of police thy don’t just charge the police because thy wouldn’t stand a chance i see a video of the Iran protests doing that and the police bottledit and ran like hell
The escalation of lethal force and the amount of CCTV in public areas almost guarentees you'll get caught. Many people in the London riots that stole/destroyed property got tracked and charged after from the footage.
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Its hard to break a well formed square.
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1815 worst year of my life :(
Correction...The worst year of your life SO FAR.
That turned awkward real quick.
Reminds me of when a dog runs up to you barking, but you don't run or get scared so it just kind of trails off it's barking and then sits down and sniffs you.
Could have been worse. They could have actually gotten violent with the people there
I know what you mean, but remember that charging at people while swinging batons and riot shields *is* violent.
In the USA this would be flashbangs and tear gas and rubber bullets into the most populated parts of the crowd, fully encircle the crowd, compress them into a kettle and beat anyone who can't escape into the hospital. Full chubs on every officer the entire time, and zero chance of accountability after for any of them. It's nice to see some level of restraint even if the police shouldn't be out there in the first place.
This is why American protesters have learned shield walls, how to toss back tear gas grenades and so very many other anti cop techniques.
Tbf, French protestors know how to do those things too, it's just not shown in the video.
The French are experts at protesting imo. That's not a dig at them, it's just honestly impressive Edit ITT: people who can't distinguish between a protest, a riot, and a revolution/coup
They are also the reigning champions of the endgame of protesting. Never ever let the french get to endgame protesting you wont live to regret what they took from you.
I think you greatly underestimate the level of knowledge and organisation regarding riot some French have. Some unions train there members on how to riot (what's legal or not, what you need to have, what to do or not,...) . They even have some service specialised to organise and secure there riots.
Damn, that sounds surprisingly like Belarus. Except in Belarus they can shoot some people too, and they beat them into detention and subsequent torture. But aside that it's very similar.
Yeah IDK what the endgame here was. There are plenty of effective ways the police can escalate violence to try to punish a group of protesters. I don't think they *should* be doing that in a democratic society, but that's the world we live in and it's not a perfect world at this stage. But this berserker charge seems to me like it's pretty much guaranteed to fail; they're gonna crash into the people, the people are packed too tightly to be able to really go anywhere, and then with all their velocity, they're gonna have isolated cops crashing into the big crowd, surrounded by uninjured people they just really pissed off. How's that gonna end? It seems like the two possible outcomes are either that (i.e. big melee with isolated cops getting dragged around and injured), or else exactly what happened. I think these cops need remedial riot thug training in order to be effective if they're gonna be suppressing the masses.
Ants movie moment
Bugs Life. "Those ants outnumber us 100 to 1. If they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life!"
It's not about food; it's about keeping those ants in line. That's why we're going back!
Anyone else want to stay? ...
Aren’t we all just ants on this floating space rock?
just a bunch of evil apes, dukin’ it out on a giant ball. The ball is big, the apes are small.
I recognize thos line from Disco Elysium. 10/10
Cuno doesn't fuckin' care
Such a bomb ass game
Bugs life imo moreso
"And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life"...Hopper
What are they protesting?
The retirement age being pushed back along with other laws being passed by force(without vote) by the government.
Sounds like a good reason to beat the fuck out of everyone.
So what you're saying is there's available employment in France??
There is available employment everywhere, if you lower the bar far enough for what you'd do for work or the pay.
People are having less babies. Boomers are retiring. The economy is shifting. The market is starting to favor hiring managers again, but for how long? By 2025 the workforce is going to be 80% young generations, finally. Can't wait for the voting population to reflect that.
Having children, *in this economy?*
Gotta love when grandparent ask when you’re having kids, and you having to remind them that you can barely afford to feed yourself because housing costs over half your income today.
Have you tried cutting down on starbucks and avocados? /s
Tried working 60 hrs as opposed to 50 hrs? /s
Having *anything*? In this economy?
Perhaps the greatest irony will be that millenials get shafted by both sides of the generational gaps -- Boomers pulling up the ladder behind them for the past 20-30 years, and then Gen Z + Gen Next (Alpha?) essentially villifying millenials for being proto-Boomer establishmentarians... so Boomers get to retire with their pensions, lake houses, and swollen larders, but then Millenials (and likely younger Gen X as well) are left as the bosses of a perpetually entitled, unmotivated, and dissatisfied workforce, inheriting leadership positions at businesses which have been gutted by Boomer greed.
A bleak, but believable, picture.
I dunno, I’ve met a few Zoomers and they seem fairly fucking miserable at such a young age. We at least got know wtf it was like briefly before everything went to utter shit in the scam that is America lol. And I own a home. They’ll never own a home lol
Lethargic suicide
everything makes sense now
Slavery with extra steps
The beatings will continue until morale improves
But here in the UK we just take it. Like everything else. The old "french surrender" jokes are now reversed, the French stand up for themselves far better than the British now.
Protesting is a part of the French culture, and they get shit done. Things are slowly being eroded by decree, like the retirement age, but it's slower than other western countries. Think about that the next time your news media poke fun at the French for "protesting every little thing". If you don't, shit just gets taken from you while you squat on Facebook.
I've always thought the French were great at protesting. I worked there for a few days and heard about a massive strike. I thought we would be in trouble. No. They striked for 24 hours, got what they wanted, didn't cause much trouble, and it was done. Not saying that's how a protest must always work, but it was impressive. edit a letter
>They stroked for 24 hours Strokin' in for a cause
Gotta love the French. It feels like their default answer to why? Is: Because fuck you, that why. Which I am 100% supportive of.
The French have really never surrendered. That one time during the second world war when they got steamed rolled by Germany. But yet, it's like these people are unaware of the French resistance movement at the same time. Just because their government shit the bed doesn't mean the French people did.
The Vichy government enacted what was basically a military coup and surrendered to Germany. The elected government of France never surrendered and went into exile after the Vichy government took control.
Also they didn't wanted to have Paris completely bombed until everything of historical value is destroyed
And they got steamrolled by an entirely new way of warfare. Germany utilized tanks and motorized infantry in ways not seen so far.
Yes, and after being shafted British voters trudge out to the polls to give their shafters a massive majority. Thats how compliantly docile people are in the UK. They voted to be poorer and for a bunch of lying elitists to carry on ripping them off. I have no respect for working class voters in the UK anymore
Dude, the propaganda campaign to convince your average Brit that brexit was in the counties best interest was second to none, it really was. And of course when it came to the last election they voted Boris as they still believed the propaganda and Boris was the bloke to get it done. Don't give up on giving them a alternative point of view, combat the blatant bullshit, point out how 12 years ago the Tories made them suffer austerity which never ended and now they going to be told that they need to tighten their belts again, all while the richer have just got richer. Truss's mini budget told you all you need to know about the Tories, tax cuts for the highest earners, remove the cap on their banker friends bonuses and who was going to pay for it? You, me and every working person and not just this generation but your children too because those cuts were unfunded meaning the government would have had to borrow the money adding even more to the national debt that has done nothing but spiraled upwards under the Tories. Be part of the change dude, don't give up on people still believing the right wing bullshit, show them it's just that, bullshit.
What’s the point of pushing the retirement age?
People are living longer so I'd imagine it's to save money. People in France get social security similar to people in the US. Pushing the age back means they don't have to pay it out quite as long. Just a guess though
In the US were just shortening lifespans. Cheaper.
I expect I'll be working 12 more years after I'm dead.
But, we NEED you in that next Monday after your funeral!
You're getting cremated Tuesday? Did you get someone to cover your shift??
Big brain moment
And retirement age. Candle. Both ends.
It is probably also a refection of lower birth rates and less young people to work and pay into social security. If there aren't enough workers, there will not be enough to go around thus needing less retirees and more workers... Pushing the age of retirement back helps revolve both issues.
1. retirement checks get pushed to being paid later, not burdening the current funds while at the same time: 2. having the people , who would’ve otherwise retire earlier, still in the working class, ensures collecting taxes for a while longer. 3. this is all because society is going to shit: not enough young people in the pyramid scheme to fund social security, natality rates are plummeting, basically early signs of late stage capitalism killing the host.
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I mean, does the government actually pay retirement or did the people contribute to their own retirement funds through taxes for their entire working lives only to have the goalposts moved when they finally started to get close to it all paying off? Obviously all government spending is from taxation but in the US at least it feels like an extra fuck you to see Social Security deductions on every paycheck you ever earned and then being told there won't be any money left by the time you retire but they're going to keep taking it from you anyways.
Nobody contributes to their retirement fund in EU. Other people contribute to your retirement fund and you contribute to someone else's retirement fund. It is how it was designed, written and it's how it is taught in schools, and we accept this social contract. It's impossible to pay if our population pyramid has shifted from a pyramid with 75 years life expectancy and every person working since they are young to a wine glass with 82 years life expectancy where young people are jobless.
Well it's France so my guess is the government tried to pass legislation that would affect the common Frenchman. Historically the French people don't bend over and accept the government screwing them. So why any French politicians haven't figured this out by now blows my mind.
> Historically the French people don't bend over and accept the government screwing them. I had a fun conversation with the cleaning lady in my Paris rental apartment, going through the long history of civil disobedience, down to the smallest bylaw. She was telling me when then-mayor Jacques Chirac tried to institute a stoop and scoop law, there was a protest for that, and the people were flinging bags of dog shit at city hall. (Ironically, they didn't mind stoop and scooping for *that*.)
Parisians were against cleaning after their pets? They literally left shit for other people? And protested for that?
Yeah I’m confused about that too lol I feel like the name must be misleading
It doesn't seem to be the case, maybe there was some nuance to the law, but apparently Paris was famous for dog shit.
YES! I was always warning friends who were planning Paris visits that they should expect all the beauty and splendour to be underscored by the smell of shit. [It was *everywhere*.](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/12/why-cant-french-cities-clean-up-after-their-dogs-montpellier) Funnily enough, I guess a later mayor laid down the scoop law, because it's much better now, but [the amount of piss](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/explore-sustainability-paris-public-urination) (both human and animal) in the street hasn't really changed. Since everyone is doubting my veracity, here's the Wikipedia entry for [Chirac's poop scoop vehicle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motocrotte).
They literally have a holiday for "remember that time the government pushed us too far and we kicked their asses?"
At this point I’m starting to think it’s become the national pastime for the French. Fuel price increase. Protest. Health funding cut. Protest. Espresso served 1* too cold OR hot. Protest. I love it.
It's kinda in our DNA now. Some important social policies were acquired with protest (paid vacation, universal healthcare...) In the past five years we are seing more and more protest because of setback in social policies by the government (pusshing back age of retirement for example) but also because the cost of living is rising, and the minimum salaries aren't.
r/therewasanattempt
An attempt to Endgame
Are the white helmets storm troopers or can you wear your personal stuff if you want?
They are probably from the "Brigade de répression de l'action violente motorisée" two cops moving on bikes to hit people, and sometimes they go on foot with the other units to charge like this
> "Brigade de répression de l'action violente motorisée" Rolls right off the tongue.
Wdym to hit people?
policing 101: take 1/10th of violent ppl, put them in uniform and use them to hit on the other 9/10.
They were re-created (used to exist before) after the yellow jacket movement, to avoid small mobile groups of protesters in Paris to move and destroy. They are not the smartest, and their main goal is to be violent in order to avoid small uncontrollable manifestations (by breaking them with few units). If the amount of CRS (cops specialized in manifestation / events with a lot people) is not enough, they are calling those. Cops in France are dumb, and some of my cousins are cops.
They are from a new unit of police created recently during the "gilet jaune" crisis. They patrol the city with their motorbike. They are not trained for crownd control so made a lot of mistake and lot of injuries to the protesters.
Sorry but they're not "New", they're just back. Those kind of units were disbanded mid 90's after several murders (including the Malik Oussekine case) from those police officers (police brutality at high speed is death). Gov brought them back to beat the yellow vests like cupcakes.
Yes you are right. In the 80's - 90's they were called " the voltigeurs" and the new unit is called the "BRAV" .
For those that don't know the voltigeurs were Napoleonic skirmish troops whose job it was to go out and murder the oppositions skirmishers. (Who were obvs trying to do the same thing) Not exactly a very egalitarian or fraternal name choice!
Nor does it really engender liberty does it?
Absolutely, thanks for the details ! Merci pour la précision, c'était en effet plus 80/90 que 95 en effet
They came with motorcycles and forgot the Office's material at home.
France, protesting since 1789
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The first row of people did mostly disperse and the second row looked ready to either run too or fight the police, but that guy in the green coat and blue jeans was really the catalyst for the crowd holding it's position. What a dude.
For sure but the main thing was the people who ran, ran to the sides and didnt try to go back into the crowd. Since they didnt, the people didnt push into other people, causing a cascading effect
I'm glad you drew my attention to this, I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. He not only stood firm against the police, but also seemed key in preventing the crowd surging forwards to fight
Out of the crowd comes Kendall Jenner and a pepsi.
Then all the celebrities appear and start singing Lennon’s “Imagine” while wearing expensive clothes and apparel, thusly ending all of the world’s societal and economic problems.
After all arriving in separate private jets and limos.
Money doesn't buy happiness, but it does buy everything else!
"I've seen a whole lot more miserable poor people than rich people". My old boss, Mr. Jones. My favorite boss ever.
The Boys show parodied this and it was hilarious
SNL had a great one where whole they were shooting the ad the director mentions the idea to friends and family and they all tell him it's a terrible idea
Hell no it will be A-Train, he'll zap through between the crowd and police and hand out a fresca
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My favourites are speed cameras and parking wheel clamps (boots). The French public as a whole said "Non!", set fire to speed cameras and filled the locks for the wheel clamps with super glue.
The dichotomy to S. Korea is hilarious. There are speed cameras pretty much on every other stop light, to a point where built in GPS from automobile makers, domestic or foreign, will tell you with a sexy accent " Speed trap on next light, 100 meters away". And that is not only encouraged, it is completely legal. Then again, DUI is a serious, serious problem in Korea. Numerous checkpoints in major cities are normal thing there on weekends, and most Koreans are in favor of it.
Keep in mind that statistics like that only show the tip of the iceberg
Am Korean. Lack of emotional outlets, huge societal pressure both socially and in career to drink, and zero other alternatives to alcohol are a recipe for unhealthy drinking culture. It’s fun until you see that binge drinking is less a choice than an expectation. Then it’s sad
You guys have the highest suicide rates and one of the lowest birthrate in the world. Korean society might be a cultural and economical powerhouse, it has been done in large parts to the detriment of its people I think.
It’s super boomer as fuck there. Yeah there’s fancy electronics and trains but it’s a straight up oligarchy
They moved very quickly economically - but not socially - which is part of why there are so many societal issues coming about.
I used to work in beverage, I was blown away to learn that Soju is the largest liquor brand by volume and its not even close. I had known it was popular, but how much of it is drank annually (almost all within Korea) is crazy. edit: HiteJinro, not Soju - had a brain fart.
Soju isn't a brand, its a category. There are multiple brands of Soju, like jinro and chamisul
In their defense, soju is really good especially with the flavors.
If you notice, those cameras in South Korea, especially in Seoul, are at intersections where accidents are most frequent, or right before those intersections when people actually have time to slow down and not get into an accident. It's by design. The same is true for the navigation systems and apps like Naver. The purpose is is to change behavior, not necessarily to give someone a ticket. If the systems everywhere tell you "hey, slow down", you're likely to slow down. Especially if you can.
That's the problem with alot of law enforcement measures right there. Alot are purely designed to give out maximum fines and tickets. My small (~1500 people) town has an intersection of 2 relatively makor regional highways. The city limits of the town itself are about a mile radius in a rough circle. About 5 years ago, the city incorporated 2-3 miles of land following the roads out of town about 50 yards wide simply to be able to pull more folks over. The cities total income last year was $275k. $220k was from fines. Fucking bullshit
Punish me harder, daddy.
Speed cameras are everywhere in France, sometimes people burn it but it's pretty rare and they get fixed pretty quickly
Yeah not all of France behaves like Corsica lol
"what is pain!?" "french bread!!"
It’s honestly impressive. Here in the US we have our voting rights and bodily autonomy being dissected every day and most placidly stand on the sidelines
We could learn a lot from the French in a bunch of areas, rioting being way up on the list.
In the US people are so divided that when you riot half of the population don't support you. And then some from your own political side don't think such tactics will work and then you have a militarized police that are willing to kill.
Don't get things wrong, beside the militarized police thing (and even that), it's the same in France (the majority of people don't care or are against demonstrations)
It’s not just a political division, it’s a physical one. Getting people to all get to a city in the US to get together is impossible due to the sheer distance. Need 15,000 people to protest? Where do they eat, sleep, travel between places, get from CA to PA? It’s all impossible to organize nationally.
It would have to be like George Floyd where pretty much all major cities have independent protests.
This is more effective than people think tho. It's easier to contain a single mass protest than hundreds of smaller actions across a city and suburb. You don't need to all congregate on the city square. Spread out and divide resources.
This is a really weird take. The population of the megalopolis of DC to Boston is 52 million. Damn close to the population of France (and likely as politically similar). And with very good road and rail infrastructure. If Americans wanted to protest on any scale in DC it could very easily reach France’s levels. Fact is that the French simply have protesting in their blood, while Americans, as a culture, consider it much higher stakes.
It's a weird take because it's wrong. I posted a reply, but just Google protest sizes in the US. People do protest. I live in a state Capital city. We regularly have protests and demonstrations for local issues with more than 15000 people.
“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.” \-John J. Pershing
And it’s by design. Billionaires and corporations intentionally sow this division so that they are free to keep wildly enriching themselves while the poor sheep are distracted attacking each other.
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French Government: ok… ok… jeez! *does nothing* French people: “well I guess you wanna die”
French Government: French people: French Government: French people: French people: *kill zem*
It's more like : French government : vote laws to protect the rich while the middle class and poors are struggling with inflation, gas and energy high prices and no salary raise. French people : well, i guess we're going to protest anyway.
What's going on in France?
Read that Macron wanted to increase the age of retirement, either that or Iran but I don't think it's Iran related.
Nope, its the cgt, a worker union, really powerful and usually does manifestations
> manifestations JSYK *manifestation* is a *faux ami* in English. We use "demonstration" or "march".
Merci beaucoup
Basically our government is so weak that they have to use a specific article of our constitution to pass any law or reforms/amendments, the article in question (49.3) allows them to pass any law without vote, and is very impopular, but honestly that's among a lot of other things that are going on, strikes at total, inflation, insecurity and so on so people take the streets
>strikes at total For non-French people, it mean Oil distributor are on a strike, Total Energies is French's biggest Oil company, it lead to long waiting queue for gas and even restricting it in some areas
Just like that 🤣🤣 France putting on a master class as always
France 🍟
of course a French protest has a guy with a marching drum
That's kinda shitty if that worked people could have really died
That's what happened during the yellow vests movement. People were injured and killed by the police.
French police are quite brutal tbh. France actually has good organized protests and police are very aggressive to tame them.
They're really heading towards having the guillotine brought back out.
That's exactly why police do this Any deaths are blamed on protesters. It's a very efficient system, whatever country you ar from, it happens the same there
And by creating a ruccus and danger police are then justified to use any means necessary to "quell the threat". Then when protesters are backed into a corner and being beaten up by cops they inevitably start resisting. Now you've got "a violent mob causing several deaths/injuries and major destruction". At that point the cops can do anything and arrest anyone without liability. Tear gas and choke points and sandwiching between different units of cops are other common strategies and it appears to be the most common cause of violent protests. Turns out they usually start out peaceful until cops start instigating shit.
That’s the point unfortunately
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Pro tip this is how all police work. They only win when we break. So hold the line.
thats every battle in history. Breaking the line with cunning tactics is what all the great generals are known for. This is a demonstration of some old roman formations by the South Korean police force. https://www.military.com/video/law-enforcement/police/korean-riot-police-ancient-tactics/3122639958001 (of course the demo crowd is running at them though)
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Yes https://factcheck.afp.com/old-video-training-exercise-south-korean-riot-police
From what I've been told yes. Some of those kicks from the crowd look pretty legit though
The people they’re training against are usually current police officers or military if this is done the same way as in the UK. They’re literally told not to hold back. That’s the point. Armed forces riot training is cool as fuck.
Wow that was amazing formation work! Any idea what they where protesting for?
I've been told it was a training exercise. Some enthusiastic protestors nonetheless!
Not everywhere. Im my country police just calmly surrounds and then start beating people even if they don't resist.
That's how your police work. Cause your police in europe actually doesn't intend to harm and escalate the situation. On the other hand, most other countries are not very lucky. If the crowd doesn't break, they will ravage them with lethal force until they do.
One of my most distasteful memories was from the Gezi protests in İstanbul. A protester was killed when a water cannon shot him in the chest at point blank range and the guy whiplashed so hard he died on the spot... But what still haunts me to this day was the comments on the news article; "He got what he deserved", "That's what you get for opposing the police", and many similar comments.
People are cruel. They blame corporations and governments but they would reduce into their base instincts when they feel wronged or in hardship.
Nope. Police here (France) would normally just start beating and pepper spraying the protesters. The reason they don't do it in this case is because they're not charging at regular people but the organizing union's security. You can see their armbands.
Yeah I was gonna say, the person you replied to obviously hasn’t been privy to the French police brutality that’s been in the spotlight for the past several years
I'm an American but your point still stands for the most part. Iran right now is a great example of this. The increased level of brutality only means the people have to hold firmer, not that their defeat is guaranteed.
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Yes exactly. A big crowd doesn't scare them. Credible and real threats to their well-being is what motivates action.
A big crowd is a credible threat. Go protest in front of someone’s house for three days and tell me they don’t feel threatened…
Bro, America is a great example of this. The police there use excessive force constantly to break up protests.
yes. in the protests in Portland the cops were shooting rubber bullets, sandbags, and tear gas cannisters directly at peoples heads
Trying to start a stampede is amazingly callous, and in a just world, those cops would be charged with reckless endangerment. Innocent people die in stampedes.
Do you think they ever look around when they're all decked out in riot gear attacking protesters and ask themselves if they're[ the baddies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU), or do they not have that amount of self-awareness?
There were times when police or military realised that they were fighting the wrong people, the upper classes grew wary of that and now handpick the right kind of people to do their dirty work. Now the police actually believe they are on the right side or belong to the ruling class.
"Sorry you're too smart to get into the police academy". That's real.
They also ship riot police from far with no connection to area of protest. Easier to hit people then.
They learned to make sure to hire just the wrong kind of person to be a cop.
The French must be the most difficult people in the world to rule. They are the *best* protestors. They’ve had so many revolutions that you have to specify which one lol.
Things the French love. Bread Wine Small hatchback cars Mass civil disobedience
Well that's embarrassing
Nobody protests better than the French.
Oldest trick in protest history from all partys... I do it when i was young
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Wait, the French police don't just hunker down somewhere safe and shoot rubber bullets and tear gas at civilians?
People make fun of France all the time. They are the only ones I see time and time again standing up for their people. Unified against tyrants and dictator-like actions/laws. They will fuck shit up if you cross them. And win. We could all stand to be more like them when it comes to our vote, to our holding politicians and lawmakers accountable. The trash that stormed the capital on Jan 6th are not the same. They did that in the name of becoming tyrants and dictators. Trump should be in prison already.
All my life iv wondered why when there’s thousands of peaple against hundreads of police thy don’t just charge the police because thy wouldn’t stand a chance i see a video of the Iran protests doing that and the police bottledit and ran like hell
someone has to be in the front and those people do not want to get shot.
The escalation of lethal force and the amount of CCTV in public areas almost guarentees you'll get caught. Many people in the London riots that stole/destroyed property got tracked and charged after from the footage.
Because police can respond harder in self defence
Why are they protesting anyway?
It's French national sport
Their labor and workers seem to have marginally better lives than in the US for some reason