#and life isn't to be considered as trivial for god's sake | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

saint-gallier · 10 months

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there are things that i'm feeling, an opinion that has been building up and i'm not sure if i can think that way. to be scared id be considered as stupid or extreme or else

we discard feelings entirely when things like this happen. it's all about expressing something that is primal, whether it's rage or disgust or anger or deny, etc.

Him

My French landlady at the pub is annoyed that the British don't know how to rise up.

But yes what is happening is awful

18:53 what do you consider awful? please tell me.

Him We were just discussing it in the pub. How the French government aren't giving an inch and referring to rioters as mutinous vermin. Crazy. Our government would still flounce around the issue but not openly say things like that.

19:03 It's not telling what your opinion actually is.

Him I'm not sure what my opinion is! It's just sad. There isn't very much about it in the news here. Perhaps they don't want us to be inspired.

The French have always been better at protesting for their rights than us. We just made protesting illegal.

19:08 That's a very fair answer. Few words but i thank you. The thing is that i don't accept these riots. Not because i don't think they're legitimate but because, well, i think two things are already being accepted: that the rioters fell into complete disgrace from the population, or at least a large part. Destruction in all its forms are not acceptable, even within the most legitimate combat. Especially today and i do think social media played a part in the spreading of the violence. Because it's not Paris only, it's Marseille, it's Lyon, it's everywhere. The second thing is that the government let a situation that was brewing, immigrants that witnessed how they were let down generation after generation after they've been welcomed so well after the war.. The rioters are for the most part children of these generations. Their fight is legitimate. Factually and i'll try to stay on facts only, how it blew up in our face, after a teenager got killed by a policeman - and factually, even the initial tragedy is filled with ambiguous components which puts me in the situation of saying "yes BUT", how it's raging right now reaches such a level of wrong that i cannot fathom my anger. And that anger stands against both sides. I don't accept that the rioters destroyed dozens of infrastructures, the very same structures that welcome them - and there are people that welcome and help them if they feel let down. They have been ravaging the entire system that makes a city function as a city, a society. Stores are material, it's not much upon reflection. But i cannot but reflect that stores mean business, it means giving people employement and the security of leading a normal life, not asking more. Most people don't ask the world, they just want to survive too. The rioters pose as victims, creating more victims of the system. And obviously, my dear government is not willing to do anything towards helping anyone. It's like a candle burning from both sides and i, because this is how my life is right now, is standing right in the middle. Just like most people. And it's bloody scary. It's fucking unbelievingly frightening. That my government, which saw it coming years ago, didn't act anything into helping the people. By people i mean everyone, every single one of us. This is my true feeling, that the government put so much effort into disaggregating the system little by little, every social aspect of our lives. The government is so much accountable from every decision it took over the years. But on the same side, the rioters, young, benevolent if they're guided well, display such cruelty in their actions, because nothing is left behind, they destroyed town halls, stores, public transports, police cars, firetrucks… schools, libraries, pharmacies etc. They freed animals, lions have been spotted. It's not anarchy. I'd go on a limb and say this is not how anarchy looks like. They're not doing for the good of the people, well that is hard to believe but at the same time, i am not able to hear anything from them, what do they think. Destruction brings chaos. They didn't march side by side to protest about the killing of a teenager, and i know it's a very concerning subject, but sacking stores and burning schools are not helping them, it won't help anyone, it will bring more chaos until darkness falls. My then question is: what is the purpose of all this? What will happen after?

Him It will all blow over…. eventually.

19:37 And to be honest, some things suggest that they will come after people, and they already started. Mayor's spouse got attacked during the night, taking her young children outisde, breaking her own leg, after rioters pushed a burning car into their house. And this is the breaking point to me. You don't get to hurt innocent people when you're angry at the system. And i mean children. A baby got hurt with shard of glasses.

Him That's fucking terrible.

19:40 It breaks my spirit so hard. I see people on the net, friends and so on who go on with their lives. My sister says to that "i cannot stop living because of what they do". And she's right but i cannot stop thinking that we should. We should be worried. About the way they achieved it. About the way the government showed nothing but disdain, claiming - you're going to love this - that video games are part of the problem. Well, you know what? Even if what Macron said that, which is the stupidest thing he has ever said, visions of riots are the same as in video games. But it's a consequence, not a cause. He's a horrible man. Incomprehension is running wild. It's how you define chaos you know? Chaos is the ultimate form of when you lost control over a situation. In that case, it has been brewing for years.

Him That's a way of looking at it. The gilet jaune thing went on for a long time, and that was a few years back

19:44 The government is responsible. You blame the government, not the people living in the place where the government acts (or doesn't act), you don't get to hurt the firemen who are exhausted to break fires.

Him

The French police force has become incredibly militarised over the last few years. That much has been clear. Perhaps losing compassion in the process.

19:46 Very true. But compassion goes in both ways. For a certain amount of police brutality, there is an equally amount of hurt from people. People hurt people, whether they wear a helmet or not. And leftists cannot tell right wingers compassion is getting low and vice versa. Because signs of violence are everywhere, things that noone can quantify.

Him Civil war in France?

19:50 I dare to have a say now, with you, because it's aching my stomach, and i know you may have some distance to it or perhaps another perspective, indirect but it's still a perspective. A part of the population may be angry now but they don't have the monopole of expressing themselves that way because the way it went so far are apparently opportunistic disruptions such as once again sacking businesses, destroying the forms of education and else; it also leads to more and yes i can say it here - thank you! much less compassion therefore less understanding. i'm done for now, thank you reading me. it's been a trying statement. tomorrow i will think things differently or with an updated mind, as always.

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thebreakfastgenie · 2 years

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"there's a war and america's laughing" shockingly, people do not think about disaster every second of every day. people are allowed to enjoy life even when bad things are happening because otherwise you'll go crazy. like it's a cool juxtaposition but it's not that deep fam

Not to be rude but WHERE did you get that from??

That post (which isn't even mine) is about season 4 episode 24 of M*A*S*H, a television show from the 1970s, that explicitly juxtaposed the characters treating a massive influx of casualties during a storm with news footage of things going on back in the States, including "funny" celebrity golf and ping-pong playing cats, and other generally trivial news.

The point the episode was making--about the Korean War and also about the Vietnam War which was very fresh in the original audience's minds--was that the war, which is all too real to the people living it, is not real to the people back in America. We don't think about disaster every second. The people in the war? Do, because the disaster is constantly happening to them. We get a choice, they don't.

It wasn't saying we should be thinking about disaster every second or that we're "not allowed" to enjoy life jesus christ what an interpretation. The point is that those things are still going on. Even when those of us fortunate enough to be removed from it are enjoying our lives. Do you think the people in Ukraine are thinking about disaster every day?

Additionally, the episode is, in my opinion, making a bit of a point about the media. It shows us the war, and it shows us the news media talking about celebrity golf. Remember, in the 50s (and the 70s), there were three networks, they all did the nightly news, and people took that seriously. The American relationship to and expectation of the news media was different in the Walter Cronkite era. And maybe those expectations were good, considering where we are now, but my point is more that covering celebrity golf and animal tricks during a war when you have a limited amount of airtime is a choice that might seem questionable. It's easy to say we can talk about more than one thing when we have the internet.

It's not "Americans should never think about anything else" it's "don't forget there's a war on." Which when you consider the public response to Korea and later Vietnam compared to WWII, makes sense.

And. You know. A lot of Americans could stand to spend more time reading or watching the news and less time watching tiktok. Isn't one of the major criticisms of us that we're not aware enough of the rest of the world? "We don't think about disaster every second of every day" can very quickly become an excuse for never thinking about any unpleasant realities. For god's sake, we have an election in a month.

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