I’m surprised that this guy is still at the helm.
When the alternative to him was Marine Le Pen, it’s hardly surprising most people wanted him and not an open fascist.
Lots of us wanted neither, we juqt settled for 5 more years of “Macron the dipshit that is covertly racist” to avoid 5 years of “Le Pen the dipshit that is overtly racist”. And we hate every minute of it.
The police murdered a young student electrician for ‘refusing to comply’ with a checkpoint set up outside an Algerian ghetto. His capital crime he was likely trying to avoid arrest? Driving without a license.
This riot wasn’t caused by social media, or Nahel’s murder for that matter. It was caused by systemic racism in France. Macron is trying to scapegoat and shut down social media because the kind of peace we wants can be destroyed by truth.
Lol, at first I thought this meant Riot Games. I think most players of League or Valorant are too busy throwing slurs at each other to leave the house and protest anyway.
And blaming video games again?
This is France. A nation that can barely go a decade without a major protest.
I’m now imagining Louis XVI weakly flailing his hands about, complaining that the Jacobins were driven to their cause because of all the violence they were exposed to while hosting LAN parties.
Maybe the real disagreements between Robespierre and Danton later on were regarding which machine was best, the Station de Jeu or the Fboîte. Some stragglers saying neither and it was something called “Ordinateur”.
(Apologies for my poor translations, French friends. Apologies also for making light of the situation. I know it’s serious. I hope you’re all safe.)
Jacquard loom vs those crummy looms without cards that only losers use because they’re a bunch of filthy casuals.
An absolute wannabe authoritarian brute. The institution pushing back against outrage could (and probably already has) lead to a massive Streisand effect.
“We wouldn’t have civil unrest if the peasants couldn’t communicate!” - his thought process I’m guessing.
Isn’t rioting part of French pastime that predates social media by like over a century or so?
Anyway, maybe if he gets those domain name block lists installed on browsers like he wants, he can just shut them down altogether at any time.
France has been a big fan of revolution since the late 18th century. They’re on their Fifth Republic and I’m sure some French people feel they’re overdue for a Sixth, just for the sake of keeping the tradition alive.
Meanwhile, the United States will have its 247th “If it’s broken, don’t fix it” celebration in three days.
