Let's Count To 10 000!

5061
oK

 

5062

A few hours left, some things have already started
Yesterday I saw images of police tanks going to Paris, this really looks like some kind of insurrection is happening...

Thank you very much for your opinion Leonardonox, that's really interesting.

EDIT : it's 2 PM now, the situation is overall suprisingly calm, although tensions are agrowing since the last half hour ; the policemen adopted a very useful technique, that is to locate a disturbing group, isolate it, arrest its members and go back to the former positions ; this morning they settled roadblocks to body-search the demonstrators and arrested everyone that was carrying dangerous stuff (cobblestones...), and by 8 AM they had arrested 700 people in France (almost 600 in Paris) ; as I said more and more conflicts between demonstrators and forces of order are happening right now, but nothing too serious for the moment

 

5063.
I don't see this in my everyday news.

 

5064.

8PM : thanks to the exceptional police presence (90 000 members of the forces of order in France, 8000 in Paris, 12 tanks, the largest one since several decades actually), the damage were limited to ""some"" ""minor"" casualties ; 1400 demonstrators were arrested in total (I guess most of them are pure trooblemakers), which definitely calmed everything down ; contrary to last Saturday, an important proportion of the protests took place in other big French cities, and most of them were rather pacifist ; so today things were definitely way better than how we all thought it would be, but it's still not over yet, next Saturday will be Act V of the protest

 

5065.
Sounds like things passed over relatively well, which is nice, at least from a "Just don't cause any trouble!" viewpoint, which I think I stand by as I'm not invested in any of the opinions in play here. I hope things turn out relatively well, and that they do so without any further commotion. Do you have any opinions on the matter? As in, do you think the things they're protesting for should be changed or not?

 

5066
People do stupid shit when they get mad don't they. I supposed that can be said about any human emotion however.

 

5067
True

 

Very real
5068.

 

extremely real
5069.

 

Unrealistically real
5070.

 

5071.

I've looked at some more info, and it tuns out it was pretty violent and actually there was more total damage than last week, but it's just that people didn't attack symbolic places (Arc de Triomphe as last week, or the Elysée Palace as expected), but more to shops (btw pictures show that it's not the demonstrators themselves, but troublemakers from extremist political groups, bothfrom the right and the left)

In my opinion (I'm a convinced left-wing - social, against capitalism and liberalism -, and think we should definitely give a lot more importance to ecology), the claims are entirely legitimate. Today, the wealthiest and the big companies get wealthier and wealthier, whereas the poor people become poorer and poorer. The suppresion of a part of the wealth tax, which was totally totally unnecessary, has cost the country 4 billion euros, and after that they claim that they spend - I quote - "crazy money" on social welfare. About the increasing tax on fuel, which initiated the "gilets jaunes" movement, I agreed on an increase since we're draining all the oil wells on the planet, but there were three major problems ; the first one is that it was supposed to only concern the private individuals, and not the companies, which do pollute way more ; the second one is that it didn't come with an upgrading of the public transport networks - I live in the countryside, 30mn away by car from the nearest important city, and with only one bus per hour, I do have to use a car ; the third one is that the incomes generated by this ""ecologist"" tax didn't go to the ecological transition, but they were used to counterbalance the debts caused by the suppression of a part the wealth tax.
So in conclusion I would say that I do agree with most of the political claims from the "gilets jaunes" (not all of them though, since it involves no political party and there is no true leader, some of the political claims are contradictory from one person to an other).

Wow that was political, feel free to give me your opinion in calm and without insulting anyone, I know these subjects always cause issues.

 

5072
Well, that's politics for you. When it comes to opinionated discussion, people feel like they're opinion is in the right and will most likely refuse to budge; which is funny since that pretty much invalidates any reason to have the discussion in the first place. It's hard to agree on something when both sides expect the other to change their opinions.

People don't really have open minds, despite what they tell themselves.

 

5073.

Actually I do think I can completely listen to other people's opinion and understand it ; the only problem is when the other person only wants to refute every single thing you're saying, even if it doesn't make any sense at all (I have a friend like that...).
I'm not trying to make other people's opinions change, I'd just like to present the current situation in France, give my opinion on some aspects of it, and listen to what you guys think of this situation (even though it appears you didn't know about it in the slightest before I presented it to you).
As long as it's a constructed and peaceful discussion, everything should go find.

 

5074
Well what's going on in France doesn't sound anything close to peaceful

 

5075

 

5076

 

5077.

 

Sure i'll join in.

5078

 

Welcome to the forums! :D
5079.

 

5080
and the main thing that drives me crazy