American "leftism" a threat to France...

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Anything posted in The Daily Mail is simply not worth reading; hence, an argument based on an article posted in The Daily Mail is inherently insupportable and also not worth reading.

Ok, so that's an admission that you didn't read the article that you were supposed to be responding about. I'm sure that's not the first time either.

If you are going to gainsay claims without reading the arguments behind them, at least you can try paying enough attention to what those actual claims are.

The French feel threatened by anything they perceive as threatening Gallic culture.

You are wrong again.  I read the article, confirmed that it was typical trash from The Daily Mail, and then dismissed it as not worth reading.  What ... did you think that reading the article would inspire me to think otherwise?  Many proselytes think that way about their religious tracts.

50 years ago, the left of politics had a heart.
These days, they have a fist.

50 years ago, the Left was weak
These days, they have found their strength.

Indeed.

Violence is strength.
Compassion is weakness.

That sounds like 'Ingsoc' propaganda, to me.

People have ideas outside of "The Daily Mail".
'Cancel Culture' is a cancer on society.
That's the fact, Jack!

But they *luv* Garlic cuisine.

As far as I can figure out intolerance and bullying is not a province of a particular point on the ideological spectrum. Nor is it a new problem. I find it fascinating people don't understand that.

Not that it matters.....but Macron did marry someone who is 15-20 years his senior. He's not exactly a paragon of conservatism in that regard.

I wonder what Macron actually thinks about the Daily Mail article.

I wonder if Macron truly feels resentful about the loss of French West Africa in the 1960s.

I have *always* said there are a$$holes on *both* sides of the political divide.
Unfortunately, most on the left deny they have bad elements in their ranks.
Strange political myopia.

Related: Macron himself called up the NYT to box them and the entire Anglo world around the ears a few months ago, for a certain breed of wokeness.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/15/busi ... islam.html

The president has some bones to pick with the American media: about our “bias,” our obsession with racism, our views on terrorism, our reluctance to express solidarity, even for a moment, with his embattled republic.

So President Emmanuel Macron of France called me on Thursday afternoon from his gilded office in the Élysée Palace to drive home a complaint. He argued that the Anglo-American press, as it’s often referred to in his country, has blamed France instead of those who committed a spate of murderous terrorist attacks that began with the beheading on Oct. 16 of a teacher, Samuel Paty, who, in a lesson on free speech, had shown his class cartoons from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo mocking the Prophet Muhammad.

“When France was attacked five years ago, every nation in the world supported us,” President Macron said, recalling Nov. 13, 2015, when 130 people were killed in coordinated attacks at a concert hall, outside a soccer stadium and in cafes in and around Paris.

“So when I see, in that context, several newspapers which I believe are from countries that share our values — journalists who write in a country that is the heir to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution — when I see them legitimizing this violence, and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost.”

The biggest threat to France is...wait for it...wait for it...

Do I even have to say this? It should be obvious...

France.

France genuinely has a huge issue with socialism. It is very heavily unionised with a large and powerful public sector. Every attempt at pension reform, for example, leads to huge strikes that shut down the transport system. The previous president, Francois Hollande, set the top rate of income tax at 75%. Their agricultural sector is hugely propped up by the state to the extent that it warps the global market.

France doesn’t have an issue with “wokeism”. It’s a country that has a few areas where it is better than Anglophone countries (it has very close ties to Francophone Africa for example), but generally on issues of race and religion it is a long way behind. Unfortunately parties right across the spectrum are socially conservative.

I was optimistic about Macron at first but he’s been prevented from making the necessary public sector reforms and he’s been mostly bad on social issues. The only real advantages about him are that he’s much much better than Le Pen or Melenchon, and he really annoyed Trump. But genuinely feel like Merkel (an actual conservative) is more of a leader on social issues and better for European unity.