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VyrPlan t1_j5j1nzu wrote

>The interior ministry said 80,000 people marched in Paris on Thursday, as part of nationwide protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to extend the retirement age from 62 to 64

gotta love the french; tried to raise it 2 years and they take to the streets

meanwhile in the US republicans are coming for our entitlement programs (or getting clever in the meantime with ideas like putting social security up for for a congressional re-authorization vote every year or two) and we're like "meh"

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shariewayne t1_j5jifl9 wrote

Violent clashes with Government & employers are part of the French Id. The Americans had one civil war, the french had eight.. nine? Nobody really knows..

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isawagoose t1_j5k145o wrote

Americans need to start doing this. The US government doesn't respond to peaceful demonstration.

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MadRonnie97 t1_j5k48v8 wrote

The US government doesn’t have nearly enough restraint once it turns non-peaceful though. During the George Floyd Protests they riddled both rioters and peaceful protesters alike with rubber bullets and teargas canisters. I saw more than one video of a person with a rubber bullet lodged in their skull. It’s actually amazing that so few people were killed (19 in total) during the violence.

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bn1979 t1_j5k97oz wrote

What’s really crazy is just how “peaceful” American rioters are compared to the police trying to stop them.

At one point I was watching a row of police advancing down a road to push protesters back and all I could think was how easy it would be for one pissed guy to drop a dozen cops in a matter of seconds. If the imagined threats to police were actually real, they would need to find some seriously different tactics.

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MadRonnie97 t1_j5k9zni wrote

I guess no one really has the stomach to push it “past that point” which I don’t blame anyone for. If anything the protestors showed significantly more restraint than anyone else.

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bn1979 t1_j5kczg2 wrote

That’s definitely a good thing. We will be heading into interesting times if one random person snaps.

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karl4319 t1_j5m20pp wrote

They already have. The Jan 6th coup attempt saw mutiple cops killed and dozens seriously injured. Only one traitor was killed by a guard, with several more killed by accidents (like falling off the building as on tried to climb it). Instead of trying to block them in and arresting them, they were all simply let go. Over 2 years later, and only a few hundred have been arrested, all but a handful only sentenced a few weeks.

Moral of the story: if you are going to protest in the US, be clearly armed. Best way to insure peace these days.

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Broken_Reality t1_j5lxvn8 wrote

They have plenty of restraint but only when the protest or march involves the far right. They get let off with pretty much anything and cops applauding them and chatting with them.

Anyone else though gets the tear gas, rubber bullets and beating (especially journalists).

It is pretty clear that the police in the USA are far right fascists.

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karl4319 t1_j5m14by wrote

That's because the protestors weren't armed. Police in the US are a bunch of cowards and bullies, and are easily cowed by even the idea that there might be violence. But against unarmed, peaceful protestors? They go all out since there is almost no risk.

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BoyTitan t1_j5mphl6 wrote

I think that's probably why the left is anti gun. Keeps the people who would protest over pay and against the government unarmed. Lean right keep your guns but end up protesting against the people of the left and not against your party or the government insurrection aside. Left protests government but much lower gun ownership, right protests against the left. Government never has to worry about armed united resistance due to political split. The left may protest but they will always likely be unarmed, the right will be heavily armed but will spend significantly more time counter protesting the left than ever going after the government.

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[deleted] t1_j5kxqpl wrote

[removed]

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isawagoose t1_j5ldki7 wrote

>We did it for police brutality

No we didn't. Burning a few cop cars and dumpsters and then getting bored before the end of the summer is jack shit and was never going to be enough to accomplish anything. Peaceful and mildly rowdy protesting rarely achieves anytjing because it's not a real threat. The US government in its current state has demonstrated consistently that it absolutely will not give us anything of real value that we don't force it to give us.

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JohnGillnitz t1_j5mjjec wrote

That sounds righteous and all until you think about it. Then it is stupid.

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isawagoose t1_j5mlbw1 wrote

It's only stupid if you pretend there aren't brownshirts committing mass murders on a weekly basis, cops brutalizing non-violent protesters in the streets with impunity any time they might have chance of accomplishing something, state legislatures stripping people of their right to their very identies and murdering people by banning and restricting access to life saving medical care, mainstream religious leaders openly (and without consequence) calling for violence up to and including the wholesale murder of LGBT people, and an untouchable SCOTUS actively supporting and enabling all of this.

You have to be incredibly stupid to think any of this is going to go away without meeting their violence with violence, either from the state, or if that ultimately fails, from us.

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reggiecide t1_j5k8468 wrote

Well, we had one a couple years ago, but it was people trying to overthrow our democracy and install a dictator.

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commandrix t1_j5n77t2 wrote

That was kind of a lame civil war, to be honest. The big one at least had the decency to last for a solid five years.

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Bullroarer86 t1_j5k0kf0 wrote

Executing children and innocent people were also part of those French Revolutions.

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oldspiceland t1_j5k9tkl wrote

Dead kids and innocent people are the provenance of the police here in the US. Can’t have protestors try to edge in on their real estate.

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Bullroarer86 t1_j5kb87i wrote

Guillotining small children is pretty different.

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oldspiceland t1_j5kbcux wrote

You’re right, very different. Was a lot less common for one.

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Bullroarer86 t1_j5kbolw wrote

You're high if you think police kill more people than the French Revolution did in any single year.

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oldspiceland t1_j5kd86e wrote

Moving goalposts. This isn’t about how many people they killed, it’s about dead children.

But beyond that, The Terror accounts for 17,000 public executions in under a year but only 20 of them were children.

19 children were left to die by police in Uvalde alone.

Robespierre, along with 80+ other conspirators, was executed himself, none of the police in Uvalde are going to be executed.

Maybe comparing protests to The Reign of Terror isn’t the best huh?

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pyrilampes t1_j5jjxmt wrote

Have you seen what happens when we protest Wallstreet? Check out those riots. You lose more than a testicle.

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ComradeMoneybags t1_j5k1p1p wrote

Not saying you’re wrong but it helps when the unions organizing this literally fought the Nazis as Resistance organizations, a third of the population works for the government, and, crucially, 2/3rds of the population are less than 2 hours by train.

Imagine going to a protest after work then going home for dinner and not having to take vacation days/travel many hours/etc.

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Arisen_01 t1_j5mto5p wrote

And when someone wants to ban guns that’s the only time they rally in the streets

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d0ctorzaius t1_j5qxh1r wrote

>We're like meh

Nope, a significant percentage of the population is saying "fuck yeah, take my social security!"

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