The NY Times editorial board, featuring racist Sarah Jeong, has finally chimed in on the riots in France, and it’s as wacky as you’d expect
….
A relatively mild hike in fuel taxes, intended to lower France’s carbon emissions, proved to be the last straw for a broad swath of people in the provinces and suburbs who believe that government ministers, bureaucrats, trade unions and especially the political class in a wealthy, complacent Paris are deaf to their economic struggles. Cars are indispensable in their lives, and a fuel tax increase intended to reduce vehicle use was an insufferable insult. Mr. Macron, without much political experience or an established party behind him, failed to see the anger rising, and when it erupted, seemed to have few responses other than retreat.
They’re missing that people in Paris and other bigger French cities were also incensed, and that this mild hike was on the back of other hikes and diesel rising naturally via market forces.
But when the government tried to open talks, there was no one to talk to. Some unofficial interlocutors appeared but were pulled back by threats from other yellow vests. So Mr. Macron and Prime MinisterÉdouard Philippe were left with no choice but to retreat, suspending the fuel tax hike and tougher vehicle inspections and freezing gas and electricity prices, while warning that violence would not be tolerated. “I hear this anger, and I have understood its basis, its force and its seriousness,â€Â Mr. Philippe declared. “It is the anger of the French who work and work hard but still have difficulty making ends meet, who find their backs against the wall.â€
The retreat is a dangerous gamble. In the view of the demonstrators, Mr. Philippe and his boss heard their anger only when they started torching cars on Avenue Kléber, not when it smoldered in distant villages. Social media is already buzzing with calls for more. Demands now include Mr. Macron’s resignation and dissolution of the Parliament.
Can you feel the sneering towards those darned little people who are tired of the political elites mucking up their lives? But, they are correct in one thing: it does set a dangerous precedent when a duly elected government retreats in the face of riots. Funny how we never heard the same thing in regards to all the Leftist and Black Lives Matter and such riots here in the States.
Such steps would be big mistakes. Certainly Mr. Macron and his government have to pay much closer heed to the France outside Paris and other big cities, and they need to make far greater efforts to explain their measures and to lower their burden on the many people struggling at the borderline of poverty.
You can either explain the measures or lower the burden which had been caused by the same government: you cannot do both. That poverty is being caused by government. It is funny when the NY Times says the French government should listen to those outside Paris (being the capital and a big city), when the Times itself sneers at people outside in the suburbs and rural areas here.
But the power of social media to quickly mobilize mass anger without any mechanism for dialogue or restraint is a danger to which a liberal democracy cannot succumb. Mr. Macron and the Parliament were democratically elected only 18 months ago, and the reforms they have been pursuing, both within France and in the European Union, and on the environmental front, were what they openly promised in those elections and what France needs.
Maybe it’s time for the politicians to shut up and listen, rather than having “dialogue”, which often ends with government doing whatever the hell it wants, like mom putting her foot down.
One thing they are correct on is that Macron and co. are doing what they said they would do. And Warmists became very upset when they realized that all the climate policies would impact their own lives. That should be a lesson for Warmists, all the Progressives/Marxists/Socialists, let’s just call them Statists, who want the same. All these Big Government policies, including ‘climate change’ ones, aren’t just going to impact Other People, buttercups.
Yeah thats why the FBI raided the PROTECED WHISTLEBLOWER of the Clinton Uranium One deal. The guy gave the Federal government all the documents he uncovered while working as a contractor. Unlike Snowden he went to the Inspector Generals office and turned them over to the IG and received official Whistleblower status.
Later the FBI kicked down his door, literally and searched his house for 6 hours despite being protected under the whistleblower protection act. Now if this had happened to someone squealing on Trump the Democrats would be marching the streets and burning down towns.
Because it happened to someone throwing dirt on a democrat….the PRESS IS SILENT, the left is Silent and the right is like….Yeah so what the FFFF is new??
Torches and pitchforks. We’re seeing what happens after decades of wealthy/gov’t elites “legally” taking much more than their share of economic productivity from the working classes.
In the US plutocracy, this results from both GOP and Dem politicians doing the bidding of wealthy donors, enacting policies (trade, tax, patent/trademark, labor, finance/corp oversight & regs, immigration, fiscal & monetary) that enrich and benefit wealthy elites over the working classes. The burdens on the working classes, the disparities between rich and poor, are not a natural occurrence but were engineered over the past several decades by policy. This help explains both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014
Jeffery waits to the 2 words of the last sentence to acknowledge the fact these people want less government, not more. Not Bernie, he’s worse than what we have now. They want The Donald
They don’t like your massas, Jeffery, no matter how much you try to hide it.
They want The Donald That’s LOL funny.
Yet, in 2016, more Americans voted against tRump than voted for him. And his campaign worked with the Russians to get him elected.
In 2018, even more Americans voted against him.
Not sure you know what the people want, but you do keep spouting your ideology.
Maybe his fans will visit The Donald in prison. When he’s not being gang raped by cholos.
Ever notice how the nignorant angry little negro fella from st. louis is obsessed with fantasies of anal sex?
Ahem…
By now tRump has an “innie” not an “outie” so it’s just plain ol’ pussy rape of the fat Orange New Girl.
Dp,
As I said before, he is really upset as he picked up an STD at his make bonding at deer camp.
The “disparities between rich and poor” are most certainly a “natural occurrence” as they have existed in every nation from before Rome to the Soviet Union, under every type of government from Kings and Emperors to democracies and communism and are found on every continent and by every race. There is nothing new and existentially unique about Western or American wealth disparity although the way leftists act and speak you would think there is. In fact, only in Western “democracies” will you find a greater ability for “the working classes” to become wealthy and only under capitalism. Socialists, communists and others don’t offer upward mobility nor merit based wealth. In fact under those systems if you’re not already in the “elite” chances are you’ll see the inside of a gulag before the inside of a mansion. Capitalism has made more people middle class than any other system and socialism has made more people dead than any other system. Liars like Bernie Sanders who came from average family and now is a multi millionaire yet hate capitalism and promote socialism should be striped of their wealth and exiled to North Korea.
Another thing is also true: regardless the system and regardless the opportunities presented therein if one does not take advantage of them and/or apply himself he will be at the bottom and not the top.
Kye — Upvoted 100 times!!!
Whoah, that could mean the mankind has a normal statistical distribution of intelligence, of ability, of drive.
Oh wait, it does.