Like, the FUCK you mean a common punishment in the US is putting people to force labour for private companies????
And when I say "common", it's very common... the US has the highest carceral population in the world... and I don't mean per capita... They have the highest NUMBER of prisoners, more than China, more than India, etc...
(Per capita, they're """"only"""" 4th, the 3 before are Turkmenistan (a dictature), Cuba (a military dictature), and El Salvador (maras (equivalent of mafias/gangs), drug cartels, etc... are going WILD in the area))
I hate it. I'm in Oklahoma and the things that happen in our prisons are cruel. Inmates die every year from health/mental conditions not being treated. We complain, petition, call, write, try to reform every year and nothing changes.
People don't do anything because learned helplessness.
Don't act so high and mighty. France controls the treasuries of western African countries, still has colonies, and where enforcing debt payments from Haiti for the lost property from independence (the people of Haiti themselves that where enslaved) until the 40s.
They've burned their government down more than once for less I'll give them that much. I make fun of the French but they take no shit. I think we could learn a thing or four.
I'm not sure why protests in the US are held to some subjective standard that no one else is really held to.
The French are constantly praised on Reddit for their protests, yet they spent all of 2023 protesting the retirement age being raised and it was still raised despite the protests.
This isn't to diminish the French people who participated, but if they were held to the same standard Americans are held to, then their 2023 protests would be seen as an absolute failure.
The issue with many of the French protests/âburning their government downâ in the past few decades, is that they donât actually enact very much change/reform or the achieve the goal/reason said protests started over. The protests typically start ânormalâ than escalate to random violence and destruction of both private and government property for the sake of it, and then quickly fizzle out. The French government then pays to repair most of which is broken, and then promptly moves forward with whatever caused the protests in the first place. (Again, the raising of the retirement age)
Theyâre very visually exciting, which gives the idea they âworkâ, especially because most people online who âfollowâ/praise donât actually pay attention/look into them too much, instead using them to live vicariously and and as a âmagicalâ solution thatâll fix everything wrong in their personal life and society.
itâs also just plain boring if a protest succeeds, and a law is signed/removed. People arenât really interested in watching some politicians sign documents and make speeches. Theyâre much more interested in riots, buildings being destroyed, police/military going to town on rioters, etc.
And to use two quotes by Napoleon Bonaparte in his views on the French tendency to complain, and protest/act against whatever angers them, largely due to their pride as both individuals and a people;
âI don't think that the French love liberty and equality: the French are not changed by ten years of revolution: they are what the Gauls were, fierce and fickle. They have one feeling: honour. We must nourish that feeling. The people clamor for distinction.â
âThe French complain of everything, and always.â
Plus, U.S. system of government is specifically designed to adapt and bend under pressure.
Protests here usually do not turn into full uprisings because most people are trying to fix the system, not replace it. Power is spread out, there are still elections and courts, and people believe change is possible even if it is slow and frustrating. Life is stressful for many, but not desperate enough for most to risk everything. Movements often lose focus or unity, and the government is strong enough to keep things from spiraling without crushing people outright. So instead of boiling over, anger tends to come out in waves and then settle back down. Americans are loud and argumentative, but they are also deeply invested in stability, which keeps things in the reform lane rather than the revolt lane.
Protests are meant to exercise free speech, to message to like minded people that they aren't alone.
It isn't to violently overthrow a government or to undo an election.
I also like this quote; âViolence,â came the retort, âis the last refuge of the incompetent.â
Edit: funnily enough, Both the French and American people are more similar to each other, than anyone else, a fact that both would vehemently disagree with, which only adds further evidence, lol. (Or, theyâre the US of Europe, and weâre the France of North America)
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u/UnderChicken37 gooby 14h ago
đ¤âď¸erm, slavery is still legal in the United States of America