Tuesday, December 04, 2018

seen on Gab: à propos de l'émeute des "gilets jaunes"

Someone on Gab published one of those message-board theorists (they vary in trustworthiness; I recall one theorist insisting that Bill Clinton was in poor health and wouldn't live beyond 2016), and I thought I'd pass the message-board clip along, with the caveat that the author of much of the text on the right side of the image is apparently French, and apparently hates "Africans and Arabs" (continent + race? —strange). I can see singling something like that demographic out for the economic reasons cited, but had I been the author, I'd have provided some context for my anger. By simply mentioning the demographic without clarification, the guy risks sounding racist, thus perpetuating non-Gabbers' impressions of Gab as a cesspit of bigotry... which it may well be if my own experience is any indicator. Anyway, keeping that in mind, the rest of the page is a rather informative summary of events in Paris and beyond—causes, motivations, etc. Click to enlarge the image below; enlarge further by right-clicking the enlarged image and hitting "open image in new tab."


And since we're on the topic of bitterness over uncontrolled immigration (h/t Bill Keezer):


The Wikipedia entry on "the Yellow Vests Movement" (the French word gilet can mean "vest" or "jacket") includes a list of causes and goals for the current movement:
Caused by:
Increasing fuel taxes
High fuel and motor taxes
Unpopular austerity measures
Globalism

Goals:
Decrease of fuel and motor taxes
Improved standards of living
Resignation of President Emmanuel Macron and his government.
End to unpopular austerity measures.
Government transparency and accountability to the working and middle classes.

I'm tempted to call this a rightie/anti-globalist movement, but the above message-board theorists seem convinced that the riots are, at this point, something of a jumbled, mixed bag—an amalgam of people from many different parts of the political spectrum who have simply had enough of top-down government. It's tempting to see this is an example of the right's own capacity for violence, but if the movement truly is a mixed bag, then it'd be wrong to characterize the current chaos as purely rightie-fueled. Will President Macron resign as a result of this? I doubt it. He's probably gambling on the violence dying down by Christmas. France will come out of this mess perhaps a couple billion euros poorer.

And now, I need to go read up on the mai '68 riots, to which the current riots are being compared. But if I'm not mistaken, the '68 riots were clearly leftist in origin, nature, and goals.



3 comments:

King Baeksu said...

Les Gilets Jaunes – A Bright Yellow Sign of Distress
http://www.unz.com/article/les-gilets-jaunes-a-bright-yellow-sign-of-distress/

Macron is losing the support both of the people in the streets and the oligarchs who sponsored him. He is not getting the job done.

King Baeksu said...

The May ’68 generation has turned out to be the most anti-French generation in history. To some extent, the Yellow Vests mark a return of the people after half a century of scorn from the liberal intelligentsia.

King Baeksu said...

Macron's police. Twitter censored this video:

Des Gilets jaunes se font violemment matraquer dans un Burger King rue de Wagram - Paris
https://youtu.be/kvQhrkr1veQ