Bastille Day 2: Electric Boogaloo

Let them vape cake

We DONT have Enough MONEY for Teachers! We spent ALL that Money on SHOOTING CHILDREN IN THE FACE instead!

-LITERALLY The French Government!

I see thanks

This is false, because the Bastille literally doesn't exist anymore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastille

It didn't exist during the July revolution either, but the plaza in front of it's forget location became a powerful symbol.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution

Somebody should have taught them some history then.

They're being rather pedantic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Bastille

Place de la Bastille being overtaken by protests hasn't boded well for multiple French governments. The actual prison may have long since been demolished, but the plaza that existed in front of the prison is still rather symbolic to the People of France

Didn't go super well for the revolutionaries either

The place where they are is still called "Bastille" now, so it does, actually.

Yep. I like how the general consensus in society is "don't beat your children, that'll teach them wrongly". Meanwhile the government out and about beating up all the children, who just ask for a better future 👍. That'll teach them the right lessons, I guess.

The US should take notes. No one is as efficient at protesting as France.

Debatable. The people of France gained more liberties than anyone else in contental Europe at the time. Feudal rights abolished, internal trade barriers stripped away, eventually the best law code the world had seen to that point, etc... It was overwhelmingly positive for the people of France long-term.

Long-term, sure, but they quickly lost most of their gains in the short and medium term when Napoleon restored the monarchy.

Not at all. Napoleon's Empire was extremely enlightened compared to the ancient regime they had been laboring under. He's the one that implemented said law code for instance. It wasn't a republic but in a lot of way Napoleon's reign is what cemented the gains of the Revolution. The institution that made them permanent and helped to forge the concept of the nation of France.

Also don't forget that Napoleon overthrew the dictatorship of the Directory that itself had overthrown the Revolution.

But MAGA keeps telling me France has burned entirely to the ground because of Muslims! They wouldn't be saying that just to promote Islamophobia and racism, would they? /s

I think the previous time was the yellow vest movment (gilets jaunes) ; and the gouvernment got saved by Covid...

No, Napoleon was a tyran and retcon a lot of liberty ; slavery, antisemitic laws, for example.
The only legacy of Napoleon that matter is his own propaganda that still exist in France. I would bet that you've followed a French education

Paris has been redesigned in the XIXth century to contain revolts: the wide avenues are hard to block with barricades , and in straight line, so it's always visible from the main police barracks that are located on the big squares at each end.
Also, since 1930, almost all strikes have to use the same route between 3 places: Republique, Bastille and Nation.

So basically, we've been storming the Bastille weekly for 2 centuries.

it happens here but it goes ignored with the largest happening during trump years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_and_demonstrations_in_the_United_States_by_size

Do you have any idea how protests in France work? Size is not what counts. They will burn down the whole city if it has to be. Garbage cans and cars regularly get ignited and flipped over. Pure chaos in the whole city for DAYS, if not weeks, not just a couple hours. And they are all ready to answer police with violence, if they are violent towards the people.

No Kings etc is just a nice get together with a bit of cosplay.

(of course I am exaggerating a little bit, but don’t ever compare US protests to French protests)

The Directory was dysfunctional but not a dictatorship. I mean, what kind of dictatorship cuts the executive power five ways?

Napoleon's reign is a mixed bag. He did cement some of the gains of the Revolution but it still wasn't a good time to be a woman or a former slave.

don't ever compare US protests to french protests

Why not? Having been at both, I will compare them (out of spite)

I agree that french protests are generally more intense, we have witnessed similarities in the recent protests (in Minneapolis for example).

Spontaneous upheaval, organized response to police brutality, occupation of large avenues and city cultural trademarks, property damage...

I do feel that there is a lack of class cohesion and solidarity in the US protests, response to police crowd control isn't as good, groups of ultras are few and unorganized, protests don't last as long and aren't discussed in public opinion as often, there isn't as many meaningful chants (or enthusiasm when chanting them) and last but not least, it's way harder for the protest to have a meaningful impact on a city's normal operations because they're so damn big

The Irish revolutionary, Gilles O'Teen will be there again this time around as well. And all other future times in this seemingly endless cycle! /s

oh yea we’re not france also US is far more of a police state by comparison and far, far larger

Well, yes, but first it went very badly for the students.

If they don't fear you, they wont treat you fairly.

So... France protests the same way Eagles fans lose. Noted.

/s

Oh, I'm well aware. I was trying to make a joke about the state of education because that's what's being protested.

Take notice America

They failed long time ago F-

US protesters: hold up a sign saying "We're angry"
French protesters: are angry

We are not the same.

For Americans, doing the protest is an end in itself. They’re a way for comfortable white liberals to telegraph that they’re “on the right side” and “the good ones” so that they can return to doing nothing after a few hours of waving signs around and posting photos.

There is never any plan to escalate, never any thought to what happens if their demands aren’t met. The US does parades. Bring the kids, it’ll be fun- you can LARP participation in democracy.

Time to play some Rush

Are you saying we don't protest? Because I've been to 4 protests this year and was suppressed by police at 2 of them. What am I taking note of? The fact that so many people on here get a hate boner for Americans just as much as they do for Trump?

God I'm so fucking sick of this attitude. Americans are trying to fix this. How about you go get maced and shot at by the police and then tell me how much you want to do it again? I have a sneaking suspicion that the vast majority of people with your attitude would turn tail or stay home in our exact situation.

Americans protest when it’s convenient (for the most part). The biggest evidence of that is the no kings protests. Doesn’t interfere with work or business. A true protest would do actual damage because of the lack of work being performed for the owner class.

Worse than in other countries? Serious question. Women seemed implicated in the revolution a lot for example (not always in a good way). Maybe it freed the mind of people.

A quarter of the working age population is functionally unemployed. They can’t afford to protest the way you want or they won’t eat, will lose their housing because there’s no social safety nets. Of the few that existed those were some of the first things to go.

Americans could petition their government representation to fix that but that representation either doesn’t care or has no power in the current system.

What you’re talking about would be, essentially, a siege with each side trying to wait out the other; and that’s assuming you could get enough people together.

Let’s compare France, a country known for protest, with the US:

• France population ~70 million

• US population ~340 million

• France size ~551,000km squared

• US size ~9,900,000km squared

With just those two numbers we can see that France’s population is ~1/5th of the US in a country roughly 1/18th the size of the US. That’s without getting into the transportation options that are available in France that aren’t available in the US to get people to the seat of power.

There has been an ongoing campaign to weaken the power of the citizens of the US for decades and that’s not the only place. Fascism is on the rise globally.

NOTHING is substantial until it is substantiated

Last time this happened? You aren't talking about the revolution right? Because that certainly wasn't the last time it's happened.

Do you hear the people sing?

the first time, people were hungrier and more determined to unseat the existing leadership. this group today appears to be more amenable to working with the existing leadership by comparison

I don't think people understand that the French Revolution largely failed because it led to Napoleon, which led France to become an Empire again....

Also, the legal system set up by the revolutiaries led to Capitalism thriving in France and other parts of Europe.

The French Revolution was sparked by a failing if the Monarchies creditors and a state bankruptcy. The revolutiaries wanted the poor to have similar opportunities of investment and land ownership that the royals had.

It's typical that many American and European leftist can't even read a few history books on what the Revolution was actually about and how it was a failure for modern socialism.

They just see poor people killing royalty and insert themselves as the poor revolutionary and some boomer as the monarch, it was much more complicated than that.

Its not impossible tho, the '68 protests had De Gaulle flee to Germany.

Bro, if you think France is going to get an emperor again you’re gunna wanna take a breather before making comments. They are protesting a government that needs to be reminded to serve its people, but until they start murdering politicians and replacing them with their own people we’re just not going to see their democracy completely wiped out.

History rhymes, absolutely, and I would be a fool to ignore possible parallels, but this just is not the same thing.

How is that worse than what we have now? It's only one data point. Maybe the experiment needs to be rerun.

From the Wikipedia page "Women in the French Revolution":

"Feminism emerged in Paris as part of a broad demand for social and political reform. These women demanded equality for women and then moved on to a demand for the end of male domination. Their chief vehicle for agitation were pamphlets and women's clubs. The Jacobin element in power abolished all the women's clubs in October 1793 and arrested their leaders. The movement was crushed. Devance explains the decision in terms of the emphasis on masculinity in wartime, Marie Antoinette's bad reputation for feminine interference in state affairs, and traditional male supremacy. A decade later the Napoleonic Code confirmed and perpetuated women's second-class status."

And to expand on that last sentence on the Napoleonic Code:

"With regard to family, the code established the supremacy of the husband over his wife and children, the status quo in Europe at the time. Women had even fewer rights than children. Divorce by mutual consent was abolished in 1804."

The French Revolution did not fail. It was a bourgeois revolution that overthrew the feudal government and established a capitalist system. Socialists in the modern sense were not a significant power bloc at that time; the leaders of the third estate were mostly petty bourgeoisie.