“For a few hours on Saturday the Paris Opera District and the
Arc de Triomphe were in the hands of yellow vest protestors as
the anti fuel price rise demonstrations again boiled over into violence.”
There is chaos in the streets of Paris,
with over 200 injured and one fatality, as the working class
unites against the neoliberal order of Macron and his push for
privatization, hurtful austerity measures, tax cuts for the wealthy,
and now a new gas tax that uses the guise of
environmentalism to further punish the poor.
But if you ask the morons here in America who only have the capacity
to view every issue from the narrowest of frames, it’s because they’re
all angry at Muslims and that they want Trump?
“There are some people wearing the yellow vests chanting,
‘We want Trump' among the rioters in Paris.”
This is of course a lie spread by 4chan to the
morons over at r/ Donald followed up on by the boomer
altright heroes network like Rush Limbaugh going up the
content pipeline to the younger grifters of the movement such as Charlie Kirk
- arriving at the president’s timeline because
we live in hell
and virtually every single person is completely brain dead.
Now first off, this is from a Tommy Robinson rally, and it’s in England
But i guess if you’re dumb enough to think
Trump is playing 4D chess with everyone, you’re probably dumb
enough to think that England is France. I mean, they’re all
European socialists anyway, amirite?!
God, people are so stupid.
It’s also additionally insane to think that a country where
Trump has a 10% approval rating is rioting because they
love Trump super hard, so you should absolutely question the
motives of any outlet - professional or otherwise - that
is spreading this f**king nonsense.
Now look, I’m no expert on France, but I did visit last year,
so I guess I AM for the sake of this conversation.
Let me tell you what I have read from on-the- ground accounts with a
better grasp of the situation than the diaper boy who’s one
tweet away from blasting fake FBI crime data on his Twitter okay?
This is some good ol’ wholesome class conflict,
through and through - this isn’t about nationalism, it isn’t
about the migrant crisis or it isn’t about the Muslims or the
fact that French people are no longer wearing French braids.
What a dumb argument that was.
There’s no singular leader of this movement. They’re chanting
against its centrist leader, Macron. People are rightfully mad at the
neoliberal order, they’re angry at the societal institutions
that have left them behind to uphold the capitalist status quo
because often times that means literally hurting the working class.
This is why the largely rural working class are storming
the streets of Paris, destroying luxury vehicles and fancy
storefronts. Similar to what you would see at an anti fascist rally.
While the gas tax may have sparked the fire, it seems
unlikely that the recent rollback of said tax will
actually be enough to stop it because people are pissed, and
the gas tax is just the tip of the iceberg. But first let me
set the scene for you. Imagine 30 years of cutting taxes for
large corporations, and the wealthy and privatizing
essential services like the railroads- and then, when
average citizens can't afford services any more, compensating
for declining revenues with austerity measures that hit the
working class even harder. Austerity measures like cutting
social spending, closing down public schools, closing down
hospitals in rural areas. All of which increases the cost of
living for rural French regions making it more difficult to
survive while decreasing their living standards.
According to the famous economist Tom Piketty, this inequality is demonstrable
in income even in the capital of egalitarianism like France where,
between 1983 and 2015, the average income of the richest 1% had risen by 100 percent
as compared with barely 25% for the rest of the population.
Now, of course, if you’re an American, that disparity
is LAUGHABLY small. We have a much greater problem when it comes to
that wealth-growth disparity.
But, unlike America, France actually has class consciousness,
so people are not willing to put up with that merde.
“They’re out in the streets to send a strong but
peaceful message to the French president, a message that they
can no longer live with this disconnect between the people and the power.”
But let’s talk about the Gas Tax which triggered these protests
because it’s a perfect embodiment
of everything i’ve just mentioned. And I got to give a hat tip to
Ph.D and French Reddit user Upset Lobster here:
I'm gonna read it in my best french accent possible, okay?
The last lifeline for poor rural folk was their ability to find work far
from home by being able to afford transportation. Having a
car, and being able to afford fuel, is equivalent to being
able to continue living for most rural people and the urban poor
that have been relegated to far from city centres by
gentrification and increasingly unaffordable housing. So when
Macron announces that older vehicles (the only ones poor people can afford)
will be taxed more to encourage people to buy
newer vehicles, that these vehicles will lose the right to
be driven on polluted days, and that the fuel they use
(which is diesel)
will be taxed a lot more, you directly attack the livelihood
of millions of french people across the country.
Thank you French Hasan.
Stupid American.
Take it away.
And even though these measures were ostensibly put in place to
combat global warming, they were received by the public as hypocritical
Why privatize the electric railroads, making them more expensive,
to double down on busses when the prices rise?
Buses, of course, are not electric and pollute way more.
Why not tax newer gas-guzzling luxury SUVs and
restrict them from being driven on no pollution days?
Why compensate for declining revenues by taxing the working
class more while ALSO forcing other austerity measures on them
AND THEN continue to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations?
These are all questions American citizens
should be asking their government as well.
But you know, if you ask America, it’s the migrants and stuff,
it's the shifting demographics that are changing, let’s keep
punching down instead of looking up.
Let’s not look at those in positions of power. No sir.
It's the poor migrants that are ruining this country.
Speaking of white nationalism, given that the yellow
jackets movement is a largely decentralized uprising,
there are certainly far right elements trying to
hijack it for their personal gain and make it seem like they
are responsible for this. But I want to end this story on a
positive note - so watch what happened to this neo-Nazi in a
yellow vest when antifascists confront him in the marketplace of ideas.
Boom!
Down goes the fascist.
So much for the tolerant left, amirite?
This is exactly how you’re supposed to deal with nazis.
I’m hasan piker. if you’re confused
about all the yellow jacket stuff and you wanted to sound smart,
please share this video with your friends and smash that like
button and leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
For a longer conversation to tell me how wrong I am, or how
right I am, join me live on my twitch everyday at
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it’s only $5 a month. And this has been the breakdown.