French farmers up pressure on government as protests spread

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[–]Maniak🥃😾 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Somewhat funny aside: they're blocking the highways right next to me, in an area filled with dipshit employers who are still on the "EVERYBODY BACK TO THE OFFICE NO MATTER WHAT!!1!" bandwagon. So those blockades are having a much bigger impact on their bottom line than if they had let people work remotely when they can and want, as was happening naturally before the pandemic bullshit sent them into the stupidest authoritarian mode ever.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Hopefully this will result in long term changes in society.

It's clear that the government is giving up even pretending to be a democracy, while arrogantly lecturing other nations about a democracy that doesn't exist.

[–]Maniak🥃😾 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Hopefully this will result in long term changes in society.

Hasn't happened in recent memory, including yellow vests, so I'm not holding my breath.

It's clear that the government is giving up even pretending to be a democracy, while arrogantly lecturing other nations about a democracy that doesn't exist.

That's the thing. They're now simply dismissing the protests and waiting them out. They're not the ones being inconvenienced, and at the first sign that protesters may be getting closer to them, they "preemptively" send the military. That's the Macron era.

Meaning that the only people being inconvenienced by protests are regular workers and small companies, neither of which the government gives any single shit about. So... that doesn't help either with effectiveness or support, especially from the PMC \o/

[–]RandomCollection[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The yellow vests are a sign of the rising discontent.

At some point, there will be something that pushes the system off the ledge. From there, we will see changes. Another Republic, another revolution, a 1991 like breakup of the EU, etc.

[–]Maniak🥃😾 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's the "at some point" part that stops me from being optimistic about this.

Yellow vests started more than 5 years ago, those were not the first protests of their kind (there's been "rising discontent" in France for decades), they were mostly ignored by the government then shut down with the "pandemic" measures, now entirely ignored by the government who simply sends in the military if they ever get too close to the elites' neighborhoods.

The situation when it started in 2018 was bad. The situation during the pandemic was worse. The situation after the pandemic was way worse. The situation now is even worse.

And yet, we're still waiting for this hypothetical "at some point" while Macron got reelected and the only thing that actually happened over those years of protests is that the government has become even more authoritarian, with even more measures to protect the owner class against the peasantry and make sure that any discomfort stays between the lower classes.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

People who lived during the monarchy or Ancien Regime probably knew that at some point, there would be a big blowback. The Bourbon dynasty was badly running the nation.

The precise nature of it and the timing, they would not be able to say.

[–]Maniak🥃😾 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They didn't have the ability to track every citizen and control their finances at the flick of a switch though.

People have become ultra-dependent on things that are controlled by the very few, and that's by design.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

https://archive.ph/2KpmK

The protests aren't occurring in just Germany anymore, but all over Europe.

I don't think the MSM wants to report this, but the existing governments in the EU are losing legitimacy.