• Lord_McAlister@lemmy.world
    1954·
    1 year ago

    At least france has the balls to pull this shit.

    The US just saw their failing rail system cause a serious chemical spill, then when the rail workers unionized and asked for time off they got told by the president they have to keep working.

    • SquishyPandaDev@yiffit.net
      783·
      1 year ago

      Worse than that. Major public opinion was against the rail strikes because they didn’t want to pay more at the supper market. Americans are just capitalist zombies doing whatever their corporate overlords tell them to do.

      • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        581·
        1 year ago

        American here. Yep. Most of us are clueless fucking morons who have been brainwashed into hating unions and the “laziness and entitlement” that comes with it. These dipshits will pay money for a sticker to put on their car to show that they support the class traitors that are the overly militarized police that constantly destroys our property and kills us. Most of us are indoctrinated, nationalist cowards who worship sociopathic oligarchs because they’re “job creators”. And anybody who doesn’t chug the Kool Aid is called unamerican and becomes socially excommunicated. Being aware and intelligent and having basic critical thinking skills is too threatening to their fragile worldview to be permitted to have a seat at anybody’s table. And I’m tired of being gentle about how stupidly dangerous or dangerously stupid their active efforts against knowledge, class consciousness, justice, and democracy are.

        Last night, my wife and I tried to come up with a list of things to be proud of our country for. Ready? Because it took like an hour to come up with this.

        • Americans with Disabilities Act
        • no pay toilets
        • National and State Parks
        • pop culture as an export (music, movies, jeans)
        • military technology
          • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            1 year ago

            Excellent points! Very notable of their times, but not super unique today. I think most wealthy nations probably have a space program or contribute to a collective one and their own pseudo universe of internet. It’s more relevant than talking about Henry Ford and his assembly line, but I don’t think they’re super different.

            • ashenblood@sh.itjust.works
              4·
              1 year ago

              Yes, as we know, the notability of national accomplishments diminishes as a function of time… other nations would never consider being proud of anything their ancestors accomplished before they were born. Lmao

              If you don’t have enough things to be proud of as an American, which nationality would be good enough to meet your standards?

              • balderdash@lemmy.zip
                3·
                1 year ago

                I’m not who youre commenting on but I wouldn’t mind being German. They seem pretty sensible

        • Mac@mander.xyz
          11·
          1 year ago

          Ridiculous. The USA isnt the only country with national parks. 🙄

        • Mac@mander.xyz
          514·
          1 year ago

          I agree but dont forget that you also have the privelige of even saying these things without repercussions in the first place.

          • kev@lemmy.kevhomeit.trade
            252·
            1 year ago

            Ridiculous there is a lot of countries where you can say whatever you want that’s not especial to the US , they brainwash us into believing we are the most freee country but reality is that we are , but we are not the only one.

    • Godric@lemmy.worldOP
      371·
      1 year ago

      The French are absolutely fucking based with how they protest, my meme is a joke, not a serious dig at them

    • noobdoomguy8658@feddit.de
      242·
      1 year ago

      What will the 2nd amendment fans have to say about this? How are citizens bearing arms preventing the government from becoming tyrannical and acting agasint the people will? Did arms prevent the government from the evil commie masks and vaccines?

      • Lord_McAlister@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        No. And now many of the pro-gun absolutely no restrictions people are rolling out the red carpet for an active fascist.

      • ssboomman@lemm.ee
        314·
        1 year ago

        None of what he said was misinformation. Fuck biden for making it illegal for them to strike.

            • Hikermick@lemmy.world
              112·
              1 year ago

              Show me where it says Biden made it illegal to strike

              Also you have completely ignored the fact workers got more sick time and the unions thanked Biden

              • Stoneykins [any]@mander.xyz
                9·
                1 year ago

                I literally just did, read the article.

                After biden signed that the strike would have been illegal if it continued. Idk what you think it means when a signed order by a government official declares that something cannot be done anymore, but I tend to describe that as making the thing that cannot be done anymore “illegal”. If they had continued the strike, it would have been what is known as a wildcat strike.

                Unless you are just gunna be a troll about it and do that thing where you refuse to look at evidence while constantly demanding more evidence. Then just fuck off

                • Hikermick@lemmy.world
                  18·
                  1 year ago

                  Still not seeing anything about making it illegal to strike. You’re making it up. Neverming that workers got increased sick time and pay increase with the unions thanking Biden. I guess you know better than the IBEW.

                  Do you get paid to spread this garbage? This mirrors the Reddit propaganda leading up to the 2016 election. It’s gonna be a long year

    • droans@lemmy.world
      8·
      1 year ago

      That’s not true at all.

      We’ve had way more than one serious chemical spill caused by the failing rail system.

  • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.worldEnglish
    582·
    1 year ago

    If only we were as badass as French people when protesting for workers rights, most other places are full of entitled bootlicking pussies who make memes about people who actually get out there and fight for their rights.

    stares at OP

    • Godric@lemmy.worldOP
      302·
      1 year ago

      I respect the fucking shit out of the French willingness to strike, protest, and burn for their rights. I wish my country had a quarter of their fervor.

      That doesn’t mean I’m not going to tease them :)

  • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
    43·
    1 year ago

    What I think is interesting is that we usually have pretty good scores in term of productivity despite having a lot of holidays and strikes.

    If anything it should be a testament to the idea that it’s ok to be against “too much work”. It’s not being lazy, it’s understanding that you work better when you are properly rested.

    At least that’s the way I see it. Don’t work more, work better.

    • Saneless@sh.itjust.works
      10·
      1 year ago

      We work with a lot of teams from France and during July, guess what, nothing bad happens. Despite everyone acting like everyday is a crisis, it somehow is never a big deal

      The bosses need to chill and realize people enjoying life doesn’t mean everything else falls 8 months behind

    • JackLSauce@lemmy.world
      7·
      1 year ago

      Can we get more details on this?

      I’d like to hear something more nuanced than the bumper sticker logic that seems to always float to the top of this community

      • bouh@lemmy.world
        441·
        1 year ago

        Liberal policies have done a lot of harm to the French system. We still have a lot of holidays, probably more than anywhere else (minimum 5 weeks, sometimes 6 or 7, and then, if you have more than 35h/week, you have even more, up to 11 days/year for 39h/week).

        But healthcare and unemployment are being dismantled over the years.

        Government is planning a law this autumn to force people to work to get the lowest unemployment income (what you get after 2 years of unemployment, or if you never worked). Unemployment became harder (you get less for less time).

        Public healthcare is understaffed and underfunded. There are more and more wait before you can get an appointment and the quality is decreasing. You more and more need a complementary insurance to cover the full cost, because the public one covers only a part of the cost or not some specific cares.

        Police is becoming litteraly fascist, asking for special laws applying to them. And the government consider giving it to them. They are asking for more weapons, and they are asking to clean the vermin from the cities (litteral words they use, I consider this sedition). Currently the government plays nice to the police because they’re scared if what would happen if they didn’t. Especially since they rely a lot on the police to shit down protests.

        Protest are severly repressed by the police, and the right to protest is in actual danger because if the préfet (chief of police in a department, appointed by the government, representative of the government locally and responsible for the security of the department ; a department is a small administrative region) decides that your work is necessary, then you can be drafted to work. Public services are already unable to protest (in hospitals for example).

        Information is very concentrated. TV channels are possessed by like 4 people, same for newspapers. And public ones are less and less independant.

        This autumn will be very hot. Right now it’s the holidays. In September both school and assembly will get back to work, and the government is planning to anger teachers, one of the most powerful union in the country, and several questionable security laws. Government has no legitimity but hide behind the discourse that “no one else has legitimity either”.

        I don’t think we have it worse than in many places, but it’s getting worse for us. Fighting in the beginning of this year didn’t got us anything for retirement (now 65yo to get it).

        • utopianrevolt@lemmy.world
          20·
          1 year ago

          it feels like the “promises” (read: lies) of neoliberalism have screwed over many first world nations.

          a lot of what you excellently described is going on in the United States as well, for the most part.

          many kudos to our French brothers and sisters and their massive protests. I’m not sure what needs to be done, but I hope that people around the world can take back what is rightfully theirs: equality, true freedom from oppressive, corrupt governments, and an honest living

          • droans@lemmy.world
            7·
            1 year ago

            The whole time I read that, I just kept thinking “haha yeah imagine a country doing all that…”

            The French do seem to take protesting to the extreme, but then again, it got them the benefits they currently enjoy.

        • JackLSauce@lemmy.world
          7·
          1 year ago

          I like to pretend the police “shitting down protests” isn’t a typo

          Adds a weird, unnecessary twist to an already interesting, though highly disconcerting, read

      • Zloubida@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        1 year ago

        France is far from a worker’s paradise:

        • The last time a slightly leftist government was elected was in 1981, and they turned neoliberal in 1983. Since then, worker’s right are fought by successive governments.
        • And successfully so: the last time a national worker’s movement won anything was in 1995 (in 2006 there was a student’s victory though).
        • Only 10% of the workers are in an Union, same as in the US.

        However, it’s not a hell neither:

        • French work 1511 hours by year, indeed under the OECD average (1751) or the Americans (1810) but higher than Germans (1340) who have the reputation to be workaholics.

        The reputation is however not without basis:

        • French have the highest number of strike days by year for 1000 workers (114), far more than Americans (6). But iy should be noted that not everyone strikes in France, generally the civil servants or employees of State owned firms strike for the others. I did not found the exact number, but for private firms’ employees, the number of strike days on average will be far lesser than 114 (but probably more that 6 ^^). And these hours are not paid, thus a lowering of quality of life.
        • Sodis@feddit.de
          7·
          1 year ago

          The German numbers are low, because it is quite common to work only part-time, especially for women. Part-time workers are included in the statistics. Also it is questionable if overtime is counted correctly, because Germans probably do not report it.

        • royalbarnacle@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          I would add that France is the 7th largest economy in the world. Germany 5th. South Korea 13th.

          Working time matters much less than the slave-driving CEOs or workaholics would have you believe. 1 week vs 6 weeks off a year is like a 10% difference. That’s a pitiful variance compared to how much our productivity is affected by liking our job, being motivated, not being overworked, etc.

    • Godric@lemmy.worldOP
      142·
      1 year ago

      I love the French and how they respond to any infringement on their rights, that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna make jokes XD

      • NotSpez@lemm.ee
        61·
        1 year ago

        On another meme I saw the response (dont forget to do the french accent in your head)

        typical anglo’s, as afraid of culture as they are of seasoning

        I liked that

    • Marxist1312@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      51·
      1 year ago

      That’s ironic because I’m friends with a French person and they tell me France is one of the most bigoted countries in western Europe. Particularly towards women.

      • Tetsuo@jlai.lu
        3·
        1 year ago

        Ah shit, we got got, they are onto us. He has THE friend that said we are all bigoted especially toward womans !

        Noooo!

        In all seriousness, having lived in France for 35 years and traveled extensively throughout Europe this is not AT ALL my experience.

        Religions has very little impact here and to my delight it seems like it’s on the downward trend.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Europe?wprov=sfla1

        As you can see we are not a particularly religious country and I think it doesn’t play as much as in other countries in Europe.

        Also, we have fairly stricter than usual laws concerning religious displays in schools and other public spaces.

        At least I highly doubt we are one of the most bigoted country considering our laws concerning religions and considering the rather low rate of religious people here.

  • Auster@kbin.social
    72·
    1 year ago

    Never understood why repeating the last word from the top text at the bottom is done in some memes.

    • Godric@lemmy.worldOP
      141·
      1 year ago

      The french have a strong history of not taking shit when it comes to infringement on their rights as workers. This is joking about that