So, apparently, a country is having a mental breakdown.
7 సెప్టెంబర్, 2025
"More fundamental... is an underlying national malaise that can seem inexplicable to outsiders but which has undoubtedly gathered pace..."
"Call it the 'French Paradox.' For the more than 100 million people or so who visit France each year — more than any other place on the planet — the country has long been synonymous with glorious weather and scenery, good food and wine, and the best high-speed rail network in Europe.... Many of the French themselves appear to see their country differently, however, with a traditional national grumpiness giving way to what one recent poll described as 'a collective depression.'... It could be... a 'feeling of lost identity.' Such national gloom explains the rapid spread of the discontent expressed by those behind the protests planned for Wednesday, largely on TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms, many of them from Paris and other big cities in what has been dubbed la France périphérique...."
"La France périphérique" means "Peripheral France." I can see that there was a 2014 book titled — and translated — "Peripheral France: How the Working Classes Have Been Sacrificed" — which Grok says "analyzes the marginalization of France's working classes—often described as 'French of native stock' or 'petits Blancs' (little whites)—who have been displaced from urban centers due to globalization and economic shifts."
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81 కామెంట్లు:
There is a similar sentiment on the rise in Ireland, but the Irish are a bit quieter about it. And no, Connor McGregor will never be president of Ireland despite many Americans apparently loving him. He is widely disliked in Ireland, and for very good reasons.
Well, they did it to themselves so don’t act shocked.
The French Paradox is the French seemingly eating unhealthy diets yet remaining collectively svelte and free of disease. We hoped it was all the wine, mais malheureusement…
I liked them better when the national outrage was accent egu instead of grave…
What are the french upset about? Its so crazy. Well, they're upset at the raising of the retirement age, and Macron proposed cuts to working and middle class benefits. Meanwhile, black and muslim migrants keep pouring in and the French elite keep banging the drums for war.
I'd like to be sympathetic, but the Leftwing workers are the ones who put Macron in power. Anything rather then Le Pen, who agrees with them on many economic issues.
They're like dumbshit Libtards in the USA, who'd rather put up crime, censorship, Billionaire Oligarchs, corruption, war, and decline than help those Goddamn Republicans.
A while back, Macron wanted to get rid of several French Holidays. Don't know what happened to that.
Turns out importing a bunch of poor black people into your society to serve as underclass workers "displaces" white people.
I hope the French enjoy the multi-culteralism that their sexual-assault victim President has foisted upon them.
Whatever you do ... don't suggest that these Frenchies bring back their guillotines or Ann will delete your comment.
Reading this article, I mean did Bill kristol write it? It reminded me of his absurd "Whats all this fuss about Illegal Immigration? The unemployment rate is low, and everyone i know likes those cheap nannies and gardeners".
Its like someone going to Austria in 1937 and going "Hey whats all this fuss about? Austria is a beautiful country full of great beer and Skiing. Most people have jobs. Why is everyone so upset?"
The word peripherique is also a play on the highway that circles the city, suggesting something like "beyond the beltway" in the US.
In the 60s and into the 70s, France was a big deal. Big in film, literature, theatre, philosophy, social science, literary theory, couture, cuisine. Under De Gaulle they were still a world power of sorts. They still had an empire for a while and even made cars. It wasn't surprising if when you had to learn a foreign language in school it was French.
Spanish was a poor relation, spoken in poor countries and dictatorships without as glorious a (recent) past as French. It was for the not so smart kids. How things have turned around. Spanish has been ascendant since then, and even in the little things the French still prided still themselves on in the 70s (movies, food, fashion, tourism), Spanish has been more than competitive. The really smart kids, who learned Russian then, if they could, have moved on to Mandarin.
Elites being fashionably ashamed of their redneck/rube/trash/country bumkin cousins are going to be the death of our enlightenment societies.
As always, I blame Rousseau.
"More fundamental... is an underlying national malaise that can seem inexplicable to outsiders but which has undoubtedly gathered pace...
the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament.
The French are losing their “je ne sais quoi”.
From FrenchIceberg.com: “Je ne sais quoi” is a captivating and elusive French expression that adds a touch of mystery and charm to the spoken language. Literally translated as “I don’t know what,” this phrase embodies an ineffable quality or characteristic that is difficult to pinpoint or describe.
It conveys an enigmatic allure, an intangible essence that captivates and fascinates. Used to describe someone or something that possesses an indescribable charm or appeal, “je ne sais quoi” encapsulates the notion that certain qualities are beyond words, leaving an air of intrigue and fascination in their wake.
Today, we explain all about the origins and meaning of “je ne sais quoi”, which happens to be one of the oldest French expressions still used today.
Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Petite Annonce, newspaper ad for a mate song
Google translates (to make sense of the video)
I'm looking for a man who's five foot three.
I'm not the King's daughter. Either I'm fine.
Or I'm not fine.
Please answer me.
Whoever announces receives a reply.
Whoever asks for a reward.
Whoever announces receives a reply.
Whoever asks for a reward.
I'm only five foot two.
Yet I'm not lame.
Is that too much?
Is that too little?
Answer me for the love of God.
I'm tired of being alone at home.
It breaks my heart and then my liver.
I keep the dogs away.
I scare the cats.
I scare the little children.
I only smoke good tobacco.
I like mice, I hate rats.
Two or three-legged.
Or four-legged.
Villains or aristocrats.
Five two, five three.
Glass eye, wooden leg.
Military.
Good-natured.
And above all, know-how.
What do they have to be upset about? How about collapsing fertility, a stagnant economy, an impotent military, out of control immigration, and an arrogant leftist elite that brought them all this.
Even if things are generally OK, people can see the direction society is taking. France has had that direction visible for many, many years. The change is gathering speed and the brakes have been tampered with.
Gemini AI Says:
Recent reports indicate French hospitals are preparing for a potential armed conflict by 2026, a measure that could involve expanding military-related medical capacity, though the article doesn't specify the nature of the expansion itself. Meanwhile, France's national military healthcare system, the Service de Santé des Armées (SSA), is already responsible for supporting the French Armed Forces, and the country maintains the largest military in the European Union and the ninth largest global defense budget.
"phantommut said...
.....
As always, I blame Rousseau."
Added to the list:
Trump
Climate change
The Parents
Rousseau
French expats set up a boulangerie nearby so I see an upside to all this.
Elites being fashionably ashamed of their redneck/rube/trash/country bumkin cousins are going to be the death of our enlightenment societies.
YouTube Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson were having the same conversation from the lived experience perspective of different guests.
Dillon (the comedian) was telling Joe how the same people deriding him for accepting a well paid gig in Saudi Arabia, are the same people spousing -- to the point of fomenting civil disobedience if need be -- that we should welcome people who live and breathe Sharia. The most stringent, divisive and intolerant doctrine in the religious sphere. There people are so 'enlighten', they are totally blind to the inescapable result of their conceit.
I wonder if it will go as well as their last major “shake-up”?
I passed on commenting on the Shipley thread even though I almost always pop in when music is part of the post or discussion. But, there's always another chance. Thanks rhardin for the Kate and Anna link. I've been a fan of theirs ever since I first heard one of their songs (that would be Heart Like a Wheel by Linda Ronstadt in 1974). One of them married Loudon Wainwright III and gave birth to Rufus and Martha Wainwright. The McGarrigle Christmas Hour is one of my favorite Christmas albums.
"...collapsing fertility, a stagnant economy, an impotent military, out of control immigration..."
All the things French people either chose personally or voted for. Now that they have what they wanted/chose, they howl for someone to "give" them something different. Much like the people voting for Mamdani, they will find that nobody can "give" them what they want. They can only have what they chose, whether or not they realized what they were choosing.
My French teacher recently moved back to France, because of her hatred of Trump. Her life will be improved in many ways (better cheese, bread, schooling for her kids) but her standard of living will go down about 30%. It's worth it to her.
The political influence of the so-called “working class” in France and England has been superseded by the jihad. Donald Trump has intervened for the “working class” here by pushing back against the antisemitic jihadists and Democrat communists on campus and by closing the border.
They're drinking alone and listening to Merle Haggard.
The article doesn't mention immigration from third world countries, and the strain that puts on governmental programs. When a formerly Christian country finds that their major international city is trending Muslim, that can unsettle the native stock.
Surprising that the London Times didn't mention that. Perhaps the New York Times will cover that angle.
Protests. Always protesting...something. But what? Protests are more about inconveniencing others than 'the cause'.
It never would have occurred to me that a big strike in France would need any explanation other than force of habit.
they seem to want the wrong solution to the problem, inflation is largely do to spending, also aggregate energy costs,
Marathon man, set in the 70s, but mostly shot in LA, has a scene with a garbage strike, where Scylla is driving through it,
Purchasing power is not always the best definition of standard of living. If contentment is measured by how big your boat is or what kind of cars you have, then wealth is the most important thing, but if you are not poor then other intangibles can be much more meaningful. My life when I am in Ireland is far more pleasant that my life in the USA even though things are cheaper and money more plentiful in the US. Better cheese bread and schooling are not small items, neither is the general way of life.
"Peripheral France: How the Working Classes Have Been Sacrificed... analyzes the marginalization of France's working classes—often described as 'French of native stock' or 'petits Blancs' (little whites)—who have been displaced from urban centers due to globalization and economic shifts."
No. The French have been driven from the cities by the criminality of African and Middle Eastern Muslims assisted by Macron's two-tiered justice system that turns a blind eye on Muslim rioters and rapists, but vigorously enforces tax collections from working class Frenchmen to provide the indolent migrants with all the amenities of honest labor without a bead of sweat dropped or a finger lifted.
from paris with love, a luc besson project, showed the nice part of Paris, along with the banlieus, this was years before battaclan and charlie hebdo,
Leave it to a nation of Bernadette Devlin-lovin’, baby-rapin’, priest humpers to hate Conor McGregor.
h/t Don Imus
Well McGregor is a coked up rapist who beats up old men in the pub. Other than that, he's a terrific guy.
This French general strike is Wednesday. Tommy Robinson's big London rally is the following Saturday. Any other similar events in nearby countries this week? RR,JSM
Did you call the Garda or just wait for the ambulance, old and slow?
'a collective depression.'... It could be... a 'feeling of lost identity.
i do NOT understand?
they should be feeling GLORIOUS, and touting their VICTORY!
France is now one of The LARGEST muslem countries on earth!
They've WON! they OWN IT! they should be rejoicing!
wait a minute? are you talking about the infidels that USED TO live there?
SCREW THEM! IF they want to stay, they Need to pay the jizzrag
If they WON'T submit, and Bow DOWN.. Off with their heads!
If McGregor is someone you admire, then it says a lot about you. Probably just that you are ill informed, there's a lot of that about.
This is all simple to understand. The left ruins everything it touches, and after fondling most institutions in the world, it continues to touch, and all that touching continues to rot everything that we once loved or counted on. Will it require a major violent world changing event to reverse this? Probably, because many people have been touched too, and the rot also affects reason and values.
its the agenda of Herr Schwab, to make the world more nasty brutish and short, his no 2, Larry Fink is all in on this,
Once Brigette Bardot rolled in their sparkling sand. Now she is convicted of race hatred for speaking out against the Islamic terrorists their betters imported.
From the City of Lights to the Camp of the Saints.
Ah, go polish your shillelagh, old and slow. I’m just having the solid craic.
People leaving the U.S. are just like many leaving blue states. They are running from the policies of their own ideology and choices, but the ones leaving the U.S. think they are running from the what is really just the inevitable result of those failed policies in a place with an individual rights-respecting Constitution and culture. They're just not made for that. They prefer to be coddled and controlled with wine and cheese.
It may be a surprise to some, but you can buy French wine and cheese anywhere, but why?
The French are so depressed that Chat GPT has managed to talk several of them into eating Miracle Whip.
he prefers the kneecapping plastiquers of Sinn Fein my mistake,
I have said here before that I prefer Texas, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and more states on the way becoming more Mexicanized rather more than more Islamized. Poor Michigan, Minnesota, and Maine.
They're overdue for one of their revolutions. They've had a lot of revolutions. Is the left on the side of this one? Leftist revolutions generally get good press both in the media and the history books.......Also, the Germans frequently get together and try to overthwrow western civilization. Not so often as the French have their revolutions, but it happens. They're re-arming. It won't be long before those Germans who think Palestine should get their lands back, will look at east and demand the return of Konigsberg........None of this would have happened if Biden had been re-elected.
Sinn Fein are nothing but socialist gangsters who support massive immigration. They are mostly about enriching themselves and always have been.
Macron stopped for heron soup in Hebron
On and on, on and on, Stephen Bishop song.
Randomizer said...
"The article doesn't mention immigration from third world countries, and the strain that puts on governmental programs."
Seems to me that they actively avoided bringing up the immigration issue. Maybe they are just following their usual agenda or maybe they are afraid to do so in today's England.
France’s ruling coalition is expected to fall on Monday,the country is probably lying about not being in recession due to the boomerang effects of sanctions, and Macron thinks that it his destiny to complete Napoleon’s subjugation of Russia, whatever the price. Don’t all of these people know that they are just Putin stooges standing in the way of the glory of La France?
Most of the refugees came from wars that the West picked like Syria, Libya, Lebanon.
and Sinn Fail really aren't any better,
now once the governnment falls then what, do they partner with Melenchon's party, that would be doubling down on stupid
France lost control of the Sahel region over the last couple years. No more bullshit colonialism and the US is reducing it's "anti-terrorism" efforts there because we got kicked off the bases we set up down there.
Ukraine is about to be completely defeated.
There will be no military allowed in Ukraine. There will be no defense industry. It will be "de-nazified." Half of Ukraine will be taken by Russia and the other half is going to have a 2 to 1 female to male ratio for a generation.
All of Europe is headed for a complete melt down. None of the people of Europe want to go to war in Ukraine. There will be new governments in most of Europe by next year.
I don't know if I really trust what an English publication has to say about the French (or vice versa).
Installment of Soros-Biden was the worst thing for the planet.
Ah, the wonderful 60's and 70's, when the French Communists were anti-immigrant :)
"Who have been displaced from urban centers due to globalization and economic shifts." No mention of massive immigration?
"and the other half is going to have a 2 to 1 female to male ratio for a generation.."
wait a MINUTE! you're saying that, like it's a BAD Thing?
i mean; sure, it's disastrous for the Ukraine..
But good deal for single guys Everywhere (else)!
I'm starting to think, that Joe Biden was a GENIUS!
ps: you know who's Almost as hot as Ukrainian chix?
Russian chix! and THEY'RE short on guys too! OUTSTANDING!
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20250906-young-politicised-far-left-who-are-france-block-everything-protesters
Political Junky: true, but we have serious gang violence and child sex abuse problems because of the influx of illegals from the Southern Border here. More importantly, the Islamists and the illegals (and the leftists abetting them, including, irrationally, the gay activists) immediately coalition politically.
chuck: funny. Carlos the Jackal really was the weird bridge to a new age, wasn't he?
@gilbar (3:18), you’re right but we need to make sure to punish that insane dude in Charlotte so severely that black males everywhere learn to leave slender blonde Ukrainian chicks the Hell alone when they see them.
An amusing pile of obvious falsehoods in the 2:24pm comment:
"Ukraine is about to be completely defeated.
"There will be no military allowed in Ukraine. There will be no defense industry. It will be 'de-nazified.' Half of Ukraine will be taken by Russia and the other half is going to have a 2 to 1 female to male ratio for a generation."
The Ukrainian armed forces are not so short on trucks they have to use donkeys and horses for supplies, or mopeds and golf carts to carry men into battle: that's the Russians. Nor are they sending men into battle on crutches, or with only one arm, as the Russians are doing. Ukraine has also captured 3-4 times as many square kilometers in the last month as they've lost: the Russians are whining that the only town of any size they've captured in the last year, Chasiv Yar, had a pre-war population of 12,500 and it cost them 30,000 dead to capture it. The Russian army is recruiting whole battalions of HIV-positive guys with special insignia, trying to keep AIDS from spreading through the entire army. There are gas lines all over Russia, since Ukraine has destroyed 24% of their oil refineries in the last 5 weeks. And they're distributing leaflets to the wives and girlfriends of soldiers telling them what to do when their SVO veteran beats them (just be glad if he doesn't kill you). All these are clues to those who understand.
The one true statement is that Ukraine will be "de-nazified" - when the Russians leave. The rest: utter baloney.
Finally, the reason there will never be a "2 to 1 female to male ratio" in Ukraine is quite sinister: because the Russians kill Ukrainian women (and children) every night and many days by bombing apartments, hospitals, schools, and shopping malls.
Big Mike said...
..severely that black males everywhere learn to leave slender blonde Ukrainian chicks the Hell alone when they see them.
Absolutely!
We NEED to make SURE, that those Ukrainian chix feel this is a "safe space", where they can let their hair down, etc.
we CAN'T being scaring them off; or they'll end up in GOD Knows where!
Comments have reached soixante-neuf, which seems appropriate in the context.
sacré merde!
“It was right on the tip of my tongue (tip of my tongue)
And I forgot to say (to say), "I love you" (I love you)
It was right on the tip of my tongue (tip of my tongue)
And I forgot to say (to say), "I love you" (I love you)”
h/t Van McCoy
"the country has long been synonymous with glorious weather and scenery, good food and wine, and the best high-speed rail network in Europe.... "
and now wall-to-wall Muzzies. Allahu Akbar, s;il vous plait.
Phantommut said, "As always, I blame Rousseau."
I with you on that. I personally blame the stupid MF'er for most bad things that have happened from the Terror to international communism to my stupid fellow boomers marching in favor of anything and everything that Trump comes out against.
“Peripheral France” is essentially all of France outside Paris. To a degree that is probably greater than any other country in Europe, power and prestige and revenue are concentrated in the capital.
Dr Weevil said...
An amusing pile of obvious falsehoods in the 2:24pm comment:
"Ukraine is about to be completely defeated.“
Are you truly this deluded?
Or are you just pure evil?
Ukraine was an American/CIA war from start to end.
Remember when watching this that Taibbi and Kirn are reading a NYT puff piece that was fed to the NTY Reporter by the CIA here.
Just one paragraph: "Would the precision targeting honed against terrorist groups be effective in a conflict with one of the most powerful militaries in the world? Would Ukrainian artillery men fire their howitzers without hesitation at coordinates sent by American officers in a headquarters 1,300 miles away? Would Ukrainian Commanders , based on intelligence relayed by a disembodied American voice pleading, "There's nobody there -- go." order infantrymen ti enter a village behind enemy lines?"
The only people in the world who don't know this are Americans by the way. Everyone else in the world talks openly about this.
again from the article:
"I will never lie to you. If you lie to me, we're done, General Zabrodsky recalled General Donahue telling them at their first meeting. "I feel exact same way," the Ukrainian replied.
A big part of the rest of the article is about everyone lying to each other.
The start of the article is about MI6 kidnapping 2 Ukrainian Generals and taking them to a command center NATO had set up in Germany and telling them how they were going to use the Ukrainian Army to fight Russia.
The Biden Regime and the people who started this war were just pure evil.
Would Europe be what it has become if we weren't what we became? Didn't the elite ideas that the périphériques object to come mostly from North America? Bush-era US versus Europe rhetoric was always hollow and insincere because it didn't recognize the connection.
No, Achilles (6:02am), I am not deluded, nor am I evil. Everything I wrote is true, and well-known to anyone who bothers to keep up with news from Ukraine, as I do, and you do not. I've listed my usual sources before, and you have never bothered to look at any of them, which makes you more than a bit evil. Your willingness, even eagerness, to consign 40 million Ukrainians to slavery is disgusting and contemptible.
As for your 7:20am, I will not be wasting two-and-a-quarter hours of my remaining time on earth watching a video that obviously (from the bits you quote here) is full of bullshit. Get me a transcript, clearly marked with who says what, and I'll take a look at it. Or the "article" you keep mentioning. And first tell me why I should believe anything that was allegedly "fed to the NTY [sic] Reporter by the CIA". I don't trust the CIA, especially anonymous leakers in the CIA, or the New York Times ("NTY"? misspelling a 3-letter acronym takes talent), nor do I believe that the NYT's sources even exist, and the allegations you repeat are a mix of the incredible and the totally non-scandalous.
Coincidentally, I just borrowed a book from the library called The Invention of Paris, by Eric Hazan. The main focus of the book is the "walled" city of Paris, and how the walls have expanded over the centuries. London like other cities have sprawl; the fragments of Roman wall are an oddity for tourists. Paris has concentric rings of "the wall" that are taken very seriously in their time. Then, yes, not only do people (probably the relatively poor) on the inside move out, but people on the outside travel or take the Metro to get in for many purposes, the boundary blurs, property on the "inside" becomes scarce and expensive, and eventually a new wall is built. The term "peripherique" apparently became "official" with President Pompidou.
Per Lazarus at 1028--I've often thought and sometimes posted that the Europeans such as Merkel had 19th C America envy, and sought mass migration in emulation of the USA.
As to US-Europe connections, we're still family in a way that will never be true for other continents.
LWR at 1205--you might enjoy Joan de Jean's "How Paris Became Paris." Among other things I learned from it is how the grand boulevards of Paris often are inversions of the former bulwarks.
The author also claims that Paris was the first city for which guidebooks were produced that focused on new structures, not antiquities.
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