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So... Them French Protests, eh?

Started by Blumf, December 03, 2018, 11:50:14 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Captain Z

Quote from: thraxx on December 03, 2018, 12:12:43 PM
There has been some incredible footage of French police and security teams disguising themselves as protesters and committing violent acts.

Against whom?

Paul Calf

Quote from: biggytitbo on December 03, 2018, 01:01:18 PM
Blaming Bannon is like blaming the flies around some shit, for the shit. Yes, flies buzzing around is annoying, but whats the best way to deal with that? Swat the fly away, only for it to be replaced with another fly? Or get rid of the shit?


We're here because the 40 years of social and economic orthodoxy that has governed Western societies is rapidly collapsing, and those that have benefited most from it - holding all the strings of power as they do, will do anything to prevent any alternative replacing it that doesn't afford them the same inherent privileges and advantage.


The endless array of tawdry blameshifting and bogeymen they keep conjuring up for us to fight over is exactly to do with preventing those alternatives.

Soros though.

chveik


thraxx

Quote from: Captain Z on December 03, 2018, 01:46:30 PM
Against whom?

Setting fire to cars, looting shops, assaulting or abusing other protesters.

Plenty on you tube and Twitter.

Buelligan

That's pretty standard practice for undermining sympathy for dissenters in most states, I think.  Please don't get me wrong BTW, I'm not against protest, not at all, but I do think it's better if you set out your aims.  I am concerned that meaningless thrashing about is often the harbinger of authoritarian clampdowns and to me, what we are experiencing looks very like genuine anger that's been stoked deliberately and is now being used to usher in a brave new era of freedom and securityTM.

Alexandre Benalla is not a police officer.

Twed

Quote from: Fabian Thomsett on December 03, 2018, 12:42:06 PM
Pamela Anderson I shall call you comrade
She is consistently wise and excellent.

Autopsy Turvey

I think Joe Maplin should just give them their pay rise, they've earned it.


biggytitbo

Yeah and I don't think Soros is behind it either. Soros is a regime change billionaire who works with the US national security apparatus and it's various NGO fronts to preserve a world order favourable to the US empire. Bannon, I'm fairly certain, represents a smaller nationalist wing of the very deep state he claim to be fighting, that twigged early that the establishment order was collapsing and spotted an opportunity to put a break a bit on globalisation and multiculturism (but not US imperialism of course).

Neither of them are singular figures, they are just the most notorious examples of the two regressive forces at work, both of which gain power through divide and rule. Both should be rejected - globalist finance capitalism manipulating the politics of multiple countries to preserve the neoliberal world order, and regressive nationalism which seeks to drag us back to a non existent past. They're both the wrong answers to the wrong questions and of course the actual alternative is the one thing all these seemingly but not actually that disparate figures all exist to prevent, which is what we shouldn't lose sight of.

If we're going to get conspiratorial its way more likely Bannon, or Bannonism lets say (but more likely the French state), has some involvement with the riots in France than Soros ( the US empire doesn't want to otherthrow Macron as far as I know), but that would yet again, like all the blameshifting over Trump and Brexit, to rob the people of their agency, and to distract from the far more fundamental underlying problems that are causing this wave of discontent through the Western world.

Buelligan

Quote from: biggytitbo on December 03, 2018, 02:38:13 PM
If we're going to get conspiratorial its way more likely Bannon, or Bannonism lets say (but more likely the French state), has some involvement with the riots in France than Soros ( the US empire doesn't want to otherthrow Macron as far as I know)...

How do they feel about Europe?

biggytitbo

The US empire was involved in the creation of the originator to the EU and see it as a key part of the international order ruled by them. So they definitely don't want to see it break up - Trumps off-piste outbursts aside, which as usual don't represent any kind of reality.

Buelligan

Do they, bollocks.  They hate, hate, hate, the idea of a stable and united Europe.  Especially one with its own armaayy.  And you knows it.

biggytitbo

I don't know about the army thing, it kind of depends how it manifests itself - its unlikely to be independent of NATO so just becomes another US appendage. But they certainly have been strongly behind the EU since its early days, first as a bullwark against the soviet union and then as a strong component of the US led military and financial world order. The last thing they want is lots of large, old power western nations going rogue and potentially rebelling from the system.

Buelligan

That's just sooo last century tits.  The US are fine with Europe (divide et impera) as long as they can be the power-brokers.  If Europe gets itself together and becomes the United States of Europe, suddenly, everything starts to flow in a different direction (mainly towards Alaska), if we're talking bulwarks about Russia.  The last thing they want is a united socialist democracy telling them to stop warmongering.  Second to last, another global competitor as big and organised as they are.

:(


Blumf

Speaking of armies, I assume this went down like a lead balloon:

https://www.france24.com/en/20181128-paris-france-german-proposal-un-eu-macron-merkel-security-council-nations
QuoteGerman Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Wednesday proposed that France give up its permanent seat on the UN Security Council and turn it into an EU seat, attracting a stinging French rebuke.

In a wide-ranging speech on the future of Europe, Scholz said that giving the European Union a spot on the Security Council would allow the bloc to speak "with one voice" on the global stage.

Makes sense for a united Europe to be present on the UN Security Council, but I assume even fairly moderate Frenchies spat their espressos out at the thought.

biggytitbo

Well a United States of Europe is never going to happen is it, not with us certainly, but not without either. Even something as fundamental to that as the single currency has been a total disaster and at least part of the reason the EU is facing so many problems right now. Eurosceptic parties are making massive gains throughout the continent, so to me this is the beginning of the end (which is why Brexit is causing such a crisis, it hastens the end), but just like neoliberalism its not going to go down without a very ugly fight first.

Buelligan

Have you ever wondered why at all, titbo?  They have been at this for some little while.

Kryton

Well someone's just been killed. An 80 year old lady has been hit in the face by a tear gas cannister.

Buelligan

Quote from: The BBCA spokesperson for the "yellow vest" movement, Christophe Chalençon, called for the government to resign on Monday, to be replaced by what he termed "a true commander, like General de Villiers"...

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also spoke with political leaders on Monday ahead of his meeting with the "yellow vests" on Tuesday.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who was at the meeting, warned that Mr Macron could become the first president to give the order to open fire on his own people in 50 years. She said he should scrap increases in fuel duty, lower gas and electricity prices and end a freeze on the minimum wage and minimum pension.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46429930

General de Villiers is the scion of one of France's old aristocratic families.  He resigned as Macron's Chief of Defence Staff because cuts.  His brother, Philippe, ran for President under the Mouvement pour la France banner and is an open and outspoken anti-Islamist who likes Putin.

And Marine Le Pen is bringing it all on home.

Do you see how they are doing us bigs?

BlodwynPig

yellow vests, white helmets, red hands, green berets, black gloves, brown shoes don't make it.

thraxx

Quote from: Kryton on December 03, 2018, 04:36:01 PM
Well someone's just been killed. An 80 year old lady has been hit in the face by a tear gas cannister.

Overkill really, she must have been crying real tears by that point anyway.

Buelligan

Quote from: BlodwynPig on December 03, 2018, 06:34:06 PM
yellow vests, white helmets, red hands, green berets, black gloves, brown shoes don't make it.

Which reminds me.

im barry bethel

Balloon d'Or in Paris tonight, I'm worried for Ronalado

Buelligan

The frères Montgolfier playing, yes?

græskar

Quote from: Buelligan on December 03, 2018, 03:09:45 PM
That's just sooo last century tits.  The US are fine with Europe (divide et impera) as long as they can be the power-brokers.  If Europe gets itself together and becomes the United States of Europe, suddenly, everything starts to flow in a different direction (mainly towards Alaska), if we're talking bulwarks about Russia.  The last thing they want is a united socialist democracy telling them to stop warmongering.  Second to last, another global competitor as big and organised as they are.

I absolutely agree with this. A united, strong Europe is the antithesis of US interests. Donald Trump came to Warsaw and said Nice Words about Poland specifically because the current government of Poland are of old Polish conservatist stock, which means hating Europe and licking the US boots.

Petey Pate

Quote from: https://twitter.com/KarlreMarks/status/1068882704563884032An organic, leaderless protest movement with no clear ideology has emerged in France. I've been waiting for this since 2011. Let me explain the French Spring to you.

Firstly, why the colour yellow? In traditional French culture, yellow represents the Mediterranean regions of France which always felt oppressed by Paris. These protests represent ancient regional grievances.

Secondly, why the vests? In the French psyche, the lack of arms represents 'helplessness'. The protests are about marginalisation and the impotence felt by ordinary people.

A respected Lebanese anthropologist has studied the protests and concluded that the burning of cars represents 'anger'. These protesters appear to be unhappy about something, and it's more than just typical French grumpiness.

In overturning cars the yellow vests are symbolically overturning the entire Cartesian premise of France. This is not merely against the authoritarian Macron but a revolt against the centuries old republican order.

Experts are already warning of a 'domino effect' leading the protests to spread from France to neighbouring countries. In all of this it's not clear how we in the East should respond, aside from calling on the French authorities to respect the right to protest.

Lastly, and I say this with supreme delight as a Middle Eastern person, it's clearly all about the oil.

biggytitbo

There is never going to be a United States of Europe, so that's an irrelevant musing. The US empire are perfectly happy with it the way it is - its still extremely important to them, just look at how they use it to peel off former soviet allies and satellites and get them closer aligned with the EU, nd thus NATO and the US. Trump's blather aside, they'd rather we were still in it too, as we provide a key bridging point between the two blocks.

Captain Z

You know the game's up when the middle east is doing satire about your culture on social media.

chveik