Coming from Limoges, things fell apart badly mainly due to police actions :
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a group went apart tried to go and block the highway
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the police decided to tear gas everyone, including the peacedul protest with families, babies and elderly persons
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people where told by the police to stand back and to go to townhall neighborhood
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building was unprotected, though it’s usually is in case of protests
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despite a few plainclothes police officers, no action were taken when first fires started
Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but everywhere in France things were so badly handled by the gov and police that it look almost intentional.
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Anyone see any Reddit posts on this? That site is becoming more and more unhinged. Front page is fine for the most part, but some of the other posts about this event that are not too far from the front page are just filled with islamaphobia. I was so lost as to how this is even related to religion until I realized that it’s a bunch of right wing Indian centric accounts. So just idiots fueled by propaganda just spreading more hate.
Reddit has become mainstream, it’s synonymous with facebook at this point.
You should go to /r/Sverige, it’s filled with so much hate for immigrants and they’re using the protests to fuel it. God I gotta get out of this fucking country.
It’s a strange new reality and not just Reddit. Somewhere along the way ESL posters have become more commonplace and with AI it’s easier than ever to run bot farms. Between the AI shitposting and general oddness of ESL phrasing you’ll now see replies such as “brown hands wrote this” as a reoccurring retort.
R/worldnews? Because that place is a cesspool of right-wing nutjobs that is modded by Zionists
I think it was some Indian specific subreddits
Not too different demographic
Crybaby about islamophobia 😂 Islam is objectively bad. French dont want islam. Islam need to go Or they need to go. One way or the other it s nice for once to have hope for the futur
Lol that’s awesome. You guys here have fucked up so bad. You’ve given every platform imaginable to the racists and bigots. Just give them this one too. Love to see it. Maybe one day you’ll all wake up to realize how ineffective and lazy this generation of leftist are and how they were just as affected by manipulations and propagandists as much as the right. The consequence though for the two are entirely different.
Quit wasting all that energy! Burn down some data centers! I mean REALLY fuck with the man. Quit fucking with the goddam shop owners selling you dipshits your pokimon cards and go after the culprits - the reason you’ve got nothing to do, nowhere to live, not enough to eat, and you’re out of money.
Fucking FOCUS.
Its just a building. Just like a flag is just a piece of cloth. Whats a building matter in the face of systematic grift country wide? They’ll burn more of them till people wake the eff up.
It definitely woke me up, but not in the way you would like. Now I think they are not protesters, but just arsonist. And all normies will think and vote the same way. Congratulations, now you are branded domestic terrorist group.
If you think you can successfully brand my free speech as terrorism in a court of law, report it-- have it at it, you little troll. Your silly threats dont scare anyone and I find your comments and implicit threats to be pathetic and clownish.
To the readers, there are no legal tests for “terrorist speech” for US citizens. You can say you love a group that the Us government proclaims as terrorists if you want to, and as long as you dont mail them a check or basically incite real actual violence connected directly to your speech, you’re fine. There are tests ( established as law in Brandenburg vs Ohio) around what free speech crosses the line into illegal activity, and u/thatguywithglasses doesnt understand those narrow legal tests that he is busily running his mouth about.
My friend, please educate yourself. No change has ever resulted from peaceful action. That’s a narrative to keep you complicit.
Yeah it’s better to sit behind a screen and screech impotent yelps about how to conduct yourself against systemic evil.
This is helping the far right in France. You run the very real risk of waking the wrong crowd
It gives the far right an excuse to call for law and order abd punishments for protestors, but that doesnt mean the cause of the protests are a far right plot. You cant go through life pre-reacting to what awful people might do. You wait for them to be awful and ridicule them for it.
U mean ppl asking new building aren’t being took seriously when they burn building…
I could have never see this coming
And? People lives means shit, but buildings ans statues! Oh those grand building and statues, THE SYMBOLS, THE HISTORY.
History and symbols of what exactly? Of history? Nation or pride? History of a nation of prideful exploiters of the masses. Good it’s burned down, it will be rebuilt. But people’s lives? Do anyone will make them better, or will people use this building poor fate as an excuse to squeeze lover population even more? Burn more of them. Make them fucking afraid.
In minecraft of course.
Two things can be true at once.
I wish people wouldn’t destroy priceless artifacts, buildings, and works of art as a means of protest. Destroying history in an act of passion makes no sense.
I still fully support the French and hope they guillotine some fucking billionaires and their collaborators. Everyone, everywhere is feeling the pinch and it’s heartening to see people fighting for justice.
A riot is the language of the unheard.
Though I agree that it’s sad these things are being destroyed, the people rioting were not being listened to. If the people in power care about these buildings but not your problems, then the only sensible solution is to make your problems affect these buildings.
The idea that a protest or march that inconveniences no one gets anything done has been largely disproven. I don’t live there, but according to articles I’ve read the schools have active mold and pest infestations and are visibly leaking. If the students are mandated to be in buildings that are unsafe then the government should as well. I don’t know know if this was an intentional act, or if it was just an agitator, but I am not going to shed a tear over the destruction of a building being used to protect officials who are unwilling to help the people they are serving, regardless of how irreplaceable the building may be.
I get all of that.
When peaceful action accomplishes nothing, people rightly (and smartly) turn to violence. I can’t blame the French for going all ‘Battle of Blair Mountain’ because these fat bastards in power aren’t doing their jobs.
Intentional or no, buildings like that are priceless and irreplaceable. I wish people had better sense, but poverty and oppression will rob people of good sense.
Is it more a less replaceable than the literal human beings who are dying due to the material conditions imposed by the state? A serious question for you. If the people dye because the government is not acting in their interest, it’s “regrettable” but when a building is burned, suddenly it’s MASS VIOLENCE. But not the state sanctioned starvation and abuse of the masses. That’s not violence, you see, because the state or corpos did it.
You misunderstand me. I fully understand and support rioting, especially now. I have an 80 year-old parent stuck driving for DoorDash, in my car, just to survive. Historically violence has been a necessary component of opposing corporate control.
I just wish they’d burn a fucking McDonalds or a Nike Store instead.
Sorry, on rereading, I came in a bit hot. Others in this thread are wacky.
Also yes. A McDs would be good. Or a bank. Or parliament. There are levels to it I think.
buildings like that are priceless and irreplaceable.
I get your meaning, but its also Arguable. realistically, it is replaceable. Humanity could rebuild it exactly the same inch by inch if they really wanted to. For not even all that much more than a replacement building. But they wont. Because of economics. So the “value” you speak of has a real actual price – the difference between replacement cost vs replacement-for-cheap cost.
Its destruction also has a meaning which also has value. It is a lasting monument to change-- to action-- to French character. And when a drab, cheap replacement building is put in its place you can bet they will have a picture n the lobby of what used to be there, and why it burned. They will be proud of burning it-- its their culture, and its laudable. It sure beats the Ameriucan passtime of sitting around voting ineffectively or else sitting around waiting for trump to burn the place to the ground so we can start over. I applaud them.
I still think they cant cook a steak right, but the french protesters are heroes in ways we are not, and they are people with some brass balls/ovaries.
Not to press the issue, but you seemed to suggest murder as a viable solution. In my opinion, destroying a building, regardless of it’s age or significance, is not as bad as murder. I get that we’re anti billionaires here, but would you legitimately have preferred that this crowd drag the wealthy out of their homes (likely damaging the homes in the process) and executing them in the street? Would that have seemed more like “good sense” to you?
It seems like we both agree it was time for something drastic, but you seem to suggest this was senseless rather than directed violence.
I’m not making a statement on murder specifically, but I’ll indulge this as an intellectual exercise.
I don’t think it’s a matter of opinion that violence against billionaires is a net good, and we’ve seen it empirically. Remember in 2025 when a health care CEO was murdered in the street in New York? That single act led to tens of thousands of health insurance claims being approved that otherwise would have been denied, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives. These were lives who PAID for a service, only to have it denied so the money could be pocketed.
Tens of thousands of lives that the law and billionaires saw fit to be murdered via private enterprise, to fatten wallets that are already sufficiently fat for their bearers’ permanent economic security.
Why should billionaires expect safety when they’ve created this state of violence for the poor and middle class?
Just so you know, I wasn’t attempting to attribute anything to you unnecessarily. I was mainly going off this from your original comment, which might have been hyperbolic:
hope they guillotine some fucking billionaires and their collaborators
I totally agree with the “no justice no peace” argument, I just was trying to understand why you were suggesting it wasn’t “good sense” to make the legislators scared by attacking their place of work and instead attacking the billionaires. Obviously billionaires are a huge problem, but they are mostly a symptom of a broken political and economic system that does not hold them to account. The issues the protesters seem to have are mostly related to school funding. Billionaires, to my knowledge, cannot personally decide to fund the construction of public schools and increase teacher salaries. They can certainly lobby to have that done, but they are not directly able to change that. Maybe things are really different in France, but the people who can actually make the change now are the officials currently working in government. Scaring THEM into either raising taxes or somehow finding the budget to fix schools seems like the most immediate way to fix the problem. Sure, billionaires may be paying them off, but if they’re worried that these people are going to burn your home next, they’re more likely to do what they want than what the billionaires want. Maybe if you suggested attacking the government officials it would feel different, but the actual problem can be solved by the government so I feel like that is a great place to start. It seemed like you thought it was stupid to attack a government building, but it makes sense to me. Attacking billionaires seems like attacking the symptom of the problem, where the problem is actually that the government no longer works for the people. It may be because they are being bribed, but then the solution seems to be to make the government fear the people again. Don’t get me wrong, I am not defending billionaires, but it seems like the wrong outlet in this case.
The healthcare situation you described improved because the billionaires had direct control over those decisions. Mind you, some people were still not helped, but the issue was with the actions of private companies not the government. If we took it out on officials standing in the way of M4A, think of the lives that could be saved there.
I am curious if the people bemoaning the loss of a building would bemoan the loss of a billionaire in the same way. Like if they had instead literally set a billionaire on fire in the streets instead of a public building, would there be more or less support for the action?
I’m genuinely curious.
At least here in the US they would cheer for it. Of that I have no doubt.
When the UHC CEO was gunned down in New York, the general consensus among the public was that he deserved it.
I checked a few articles about this. They’re all very short on facts and very long on emotional reactions. This is most definitely being used to discredit otherwise valid protest. Mostly by far-right-leaning outlets. I found only one article that speaks of masked individuals, refrains from blaming the protests and adds overall context, and it’s not in English.
This happened yesterday. It is now Sunday. I will withhold further judgement for a few days.
edit (Monday):
Police reaction to these protests has been described as escalating, violent and incompetent long before this occurence and I can see how that might lead to events like this one.
Taz.de meanwhile has some more context; your favorite nuanced news outlet probably has too.
The day after, however, all that was spoken of was the violence and the powerlessness of the state leadership. The actual topic and reason for the protests, namely the government’s austerity policy with its draft national budget and the question of purchasing power, faded into the background - which is perhaps just fine with the government. (source)
I’d also like to add that these acts are not aimed at people, just property. Something that cannot be said about the police violence.
As of right now, the article speaks of “Maskierte Demonstranten”, meaning masked protesters.
This is true, and so do most articles. But Der Spiegel is still describing this as an individual occurence as opposed to most others who forego any finer points and immediately portray it as part of The Protests writ large. Its tone is also more respectful while remaining factual but that could just be because I’m more familiar with German.
A group of masked protesters who had torched a police car outside the town hall were seen breaking windows and entering the building to set a fire, according to witnesses.
I can hear it now, “The extreme left hate free speech and like to burn things.”
No false flags needed here. wp:Reichstag fire.
It doesn’t even need to be false flag. All it takes are a few pumped up idiots who use the protest as a pretext for getting thrills and dopamine kicks out of chaos and destruction.
My kid’s school burned down during a protest in a suburb (not in France). The perpetrators were youth from more affluent parts of the city, kicked up on drugs they used the protests and travelled all across the city to try to set fire to preschools, schools and residences.
Yep.
and I forgot to mention the possibility that they might have been/might be agent provocateurs, however unwitting they might be in their vandalism and arson.
Jesus fuck you guys are insane.
This seems like a bit of a dramatic response to the comment, unless I’m misreading your meaning here.
Keep going guys, lead the way and hopefully the rest of the world follows.
That went so great the last time.
(For people unaware of the history of the French Revolution: it didn’t go so great)
I don’t know, everyone looks like they are having a pretty great time, living in the moment and not a cell phone in sight
Yeah, initially it sure went pretty great for the side that was on the winning side of the revolution. Agree on you there.
What happened soon afterwards, though?
Better question: what changed for the better, compared to before the Revolution?
What did happen?
Within a few years, they were at war with almost every other country in Europe. Jacobins with their leader Robespierre ran a reign of terror a year until he himself was guillotined. Civil war in the Vendee (about 150 000 - 200 000 dead). All kinds of crushing of revolts in several large cities.
Generally speaking: horrible chaos everywhere, marking the first instance of leftist terrorism after a successful revolution. This would happen several times in other countries that went the same route. Of course, both leftism and the modern concept of terrorism were invented around that place and time.
Cherry on top: Napoleon, one of Europe’s worst dictators of the 1800s century rose to power as a direct consequence of the revolution and how badly its aftermath was handled.
marking the first instance of leftist terrorism
Calling the French Revolution left of center is probably correct, but calling it Leftist most definitely isn’t. Look up Bourgeoisie, which is much closer to your Libertarian/“Centrist” views than you think.
Also, people have been doing this for much longer. Only much later was the label terrorism added, which usually just means “violence that isn’t state sanctioned”
If you think Jacobins weren’t leftist and also actively refuse to read, I don’t think anyone here can help you. Perhaps ask your high school history teacher?
Oh well, I suppose we should all get on our knees for the billionaires then.
deleted by creator
You do you.
I mean, yeah, the other monarchies probably didn’t take too kindly to their own being killed off, but it brought in the First French Republic, that’s a pretty good thing. I believe Marat was stabbed in his bath and Robespierre was shot ending the Reign of Terror and bringing in the White Terror, so it had it’s rocky moments.
This should be a tripping through time post!
The French Revolution birthed liberal democracy.
This sounds a little bit like someone claiming that the German nazi regime shouldn’t have ended because Germany still isn’t a leftist paradise.
Seriously, anybody saying “the French Revolution didn’t go so great” is conveniently leaving out how bad things were before. Seen that way, the French Revolution was a massive success for both the working class and the bourgeoisie.
In the end you’re just trying to dissuade and demotivate people who want change.
In the end you’re just trying to dissuade and demotivate potential revolutionaries.
I’m not just trying to do that. Helping people learn history is the main point, demotivating revolutionaries is just a healthy after-effect of becoming more educated.
It actually improved a lot of things on the long term. We don’t have to rent land to a lord for example like British do today. But I don’t mind you to love being slave to lords and rich people. Freedom and equality is a tough road, not for everyone.
Surely if you’re renting land to a Lord, or any other person, that would be a welcome income stream?
Sure, that might be true. A bit like free market capitalism improves a lot of things in the long term, even though it might locally sometimes cause some pain.
Just like free market capitalism improves a lot of things in the long term
its the opposite, only short term. Definitely not the long term.
Protesting is fine. Destroying beautiful places like this is a serious loss
Do not fuck with your citizens then
Still don’ doesn’t excuse it
This is the main point. The French do not fuck around.
You have no idea what protest is about then. When you have nothing and capital is entirely owned by someone else, you can burn your city and lose nothing. Peaceful protests are by definition useless and only Americans think it works.
Exactly, pointless conserving if you have nothing to conserve.
Secondly gov’s, everywhere has shut down the avenues and options to complaint and peaceful protest have been minimised to stuff like fill in an online petition. Its not even appeasement at this stage. They have ignored the voice of reason, so that voice is now back and looking to burn everything to the ground to get attention.
Go burn the mansions of the billionaires then, sink their yachts. Why burn down your own history? It’s like shooting yourself in the foot because you are mad. How the hell does that change anything?
In our defense, Americans are only TAUGHT that peaceful protest is the only viable way.
Our schools don’t teach about the Battle of Blair Mountain, or Haymarket Square, or the Deacons for Defense, etc. etc. etc.
I’m sure it has to do with your education but I find it dangerous how it makes the average american allergic to non-cosmetic protests.
Right there with you, dude. I read history for fun and there are many, many things I learned just through self-educating that I know were deliberately censored by our public education system.
Just read interesting interview about the situation (in Spanish and probably paywalled).
TLDR: Macron in a Lame duck president now. Next presidential elections are in May and he can’t run again. He doesn’t have the time or mandate to start major reforms now.
France has the biggest debt in EU. They have the 3rd highest debt-to-GDP after Italy and Greece. They have worse debt-to-GDP ratio than Spain now.
While people are destroying private and public property causing billions in damages there is simply no one who will listen to them. There’s no money in the budget to simply increase funding for education or lower gasoline prices, the debt is already overwhelming them. No one knows who will win the next elections so the current government has little interest in starting major reforms now. All they can do is to send police to the streets and try to control the situation (which they are failing to do, clearly).
The protests have very little chance to achieve anything. Macron will be out in May so how can he even promise anything to the protesters? The protests are mostly pointless. They will most likely just polarize the vote before elections pushing people to support the extremes.
The money is there, it just goes into the few already deepest pockets in the world.
I knew someone will say this…
The money is there but you can’t divert it without changing the tax system and passing a new budget. Those are the major reforms I mentioned that lame duck president will not do. Without them they would just be adding to their massive debt.
They’ve just passed an amendment allowing tax-free gifts of up to €100,000 to one’s children. It’s a new handout for the rich, paid for by taxpayers, voted just the day before these protests.
It’s funny how they never have a problem pushing things forward in one direction. Maybe we should stop coming up with excuses for why they can’t do it in the other.
It’s funny how they never have a problem pushing things forward in one direction. Maybe we should stop coming up with excuses for why they can’t do it in the other.
I was a bit tired when I replied to the other guy last night, but there it is. Even just NOT passing legislation that makes matters worse for most (and surely more options for rich people to NOT pay taxes makes matters worse for the rest of the nation) would already help and costs nothing in terms of “major reforms” that “take time”.
It’s a form of concern trolling. The previous commenter might be earnest about it though; such opinions are offered by all major outlets and talking heads and it’s nothing new either.
Though I do notice with this one that they carefully avoid drawing conclusions: should we tackle these “difficult” and “long-term” changes or not? They never say which side they’re on, really.
Lmao fuck the rich cause your grandma can donate you some money without tax. 100k isn’t even rich U wont even buy a appartement with that money
Yes, politicians often use lame duck period to pass unpopular laws, they don’t have to worry about winning elections anymore. It’s completely different than changing the entire system. They have 0 interest in doing it and other parties have 0 interest in helping them do it.
They don’t have to change the entire system, just close loopholes they themselves opened, the same way they opened that one. They have no excuse, and we don’t have to provide one for them.
They have 0 interest in doing it and other parties have 0 interest in helping them do it.
That’s not excusing them. That’s explaining why thinking that Macron will dismantle the system he built months before elections is a fantasy.
both of those changes have a big political cost. but if Macron can’t run for presidency anymore, he is in the best position to make those decisions, so that the next party doesn’t have to bear the political costs
That’s some fantasy politics you’re playing there. First, big reforms like that are not done in a matter of months, specially in the middle of an election campaign. Second, Macron is not going to make reforms the left wants, why would he? He could look for some compromise but why would other parties help him do any reforms now if they are so close from taking over and doing the reforms they actually want to see? Third, Macron’s party has zero interest in helping the next government with anything. Macron created the system he wanted to have, why would he help his rivals dismantle it now?
I agree that there is a larger problem at play here.
changing the tax system
It seems to me that the comment you’re replying to said that.
Where ? Whose ? Stop lying
I hope you can well imagine how Le Pen, Trump and Putin are opening champagne bottles about these riots. These rioters couldn’t shoot better in their own knees and causing a critical situation for the entire EU and for themselves - it increases economical instability, because potential investors will step back, rendering any solution more difficult, and it increases the chance that Le Pen will win the next election - a loss for Ukraine, a loss of freedom, an increase of imbalance and instability for the entire EU.
Sorry, but everybody supporting these riots - protests are something different - is IMHO an enemy of the EU, a supporter of the three above mentioned people and their agenda.
Funnily enough, France is also the country that spends the most money in the world in social services. So what do the rioters want, end to that?
They’re just rioters, not protesters…
Riots are the voice of the unheard, and every time there’s a protest the people in charge close their eyes, stick their fingers in their ears, and start making noises loudly while sending the police to quash the peaceful protest. It’s a lot harder to ignore a government office being deleted by fire than it is 25,000 American liberals dancing to “we didn’t start the fire” while they signal to the police to drag the person sharing leaflets out in handcuffs. Go ahead, keep dancing, it’s changed so much already.
Maybe community facebook groups are more your speed.
Happy to see this, should happen to more places of power
Jesus fuck you guys are insane.
What seems insane to me is to watch power oppressing people and still refuse to take any meaningful action against it, but here we are
They’re not insane, just not cowards. The french truly does have some backbone. There’s not a single civil rights victory that was not achieved through violence, as that’s the only thing the Elites actually understand and fear.
nice
Literal terrorists. But people here on Lemmy still see those looters and rioters as heroes. Absolutely beyond me. They destroy public and private properties of normal people and yet people here on Lemmy celebrate those deeds. Absolutely revolting. Wonder whether y’all still would be cheering if it were ur store or car or whatever that got destroyed by those “protestors”. No mercy against those lawless rioters.
You would have called for the execution of the people that got the US weekends and the 8 hour work day, wouldn’t you?
Wtf no?? I’m not condemning the peaceful protestors, I am only condemning those who riot and loot; those people have no interest whatsoever in the actual cause. They use those protests solely as a pretence for looting.
Jesus Christ, the extrapolation y’all guys on Lemmy do is really its very own form of insanity. Y’all really can only think in black and whites, as in two polar opposites where no middleground exists.
Wtf no?? I’m not condemning the peaceful protestors, I am only condemning those who riot and loot;
were US weekends and 8 hour work days achieved by peaceful protestors?
Were US weekends and 8 hour work days achieved by arbitrarily destroying public and private property and lootings like the world is about go down?
Seriously the lack of condemnation of the haphazard violence and destruction here on Lemmy is utterly appalling.
Seriously the lack of condemnation of the haphazard violence and destruction here on Lemmy is utterly appalling.
This got serious “but do you condemn Hamas?” vibes. Do we have to pledge allegiance to old decrepit buildings before we try to change society? The people killed by the police, the state, and the capitalists are rarely talked about but a fucking building has more value for some apparently.
It’s not just one buildung; it’s stores, cars from ordinary citizens, public infrastructure like bus stations, etc. Do y’all really think this is necessary and good and helps the actual cause? Cos it LITERALLY does the opposite. Who tf do y’all think has to pay for reconstruction of all the public infrastructure? Exactly, the taxpayers. Money that could actually be used to address the original problems.
Bloody hell y’all are lost af. So if the rioters would destroy your car/house/whatever you would still say “nice, that helps the cause, I like sacrificing my private property and possessions I worked hard for for no fckn reason”.
I literally can’t understand how y’all can approve this haphazard violence and destruction.
I kinda could understand it if the rich were affected by those riots, like if their private yachts/planes/mansions where the target, but they are not. So literally the only people who are suffering are the ordinary citizens.
Nice straw man. Nobody is saying the destruction is good. However regressive conservatives only focus on the destruction. Réacs’ like you don’t seem to find the death and maiming by the police worse than destruction of inanimate objects. You’re showing your true colors.
How’s the boot? Do you like the taste of blood from protestors?
You literally divided the protestors into the peaceful ones and rioters, who you call literal terrorists, and have the gall to accuse other people about black and white world views? Surely there are a lot of groups between then in a movement this big? Your worker rights don’t come from the people who just sat around peacefully until the people in power got so bored they gave them their rights, most of modern conveniences arrived here with a body count.
Perhaps a bit of nuance would do you good as well?
Lol get your chud shit off of Lemmy
