At least in France people will protest. Places like Australia, NZ and Canada have far too much trust in the government...
Also protests have been heavily repressed during Macron, it's becoming scary to actually go sometimes.
I don't keep up with all the protests but it's a far more active middle finger against infringement than most countries where we sit around and watch our liberties erode away in the name of progress and security.
That erosion is really all a front in the US for increasing power of already concentrated power and we sit back idle and watch it happen as we struggle to stay afloat in a set of abstract rules we must follow to survive.
When I see France, I at least feel like your citizens haven't given up and are still trying to fight for their rights. How effective it is is another thing, but at least there's some will left. In the US we just bend over and say, "oh boy, this again..." We seem to have already given up the fight, are unaware, and/or simply don't care anymore. I'll take an ineffective attempt at retaining rights over complacency any day. It's not like we have more clever strategies that are more effective, we just don't participate at large, period.
I don't care, it's the spirit that counts.
> Also protests have been heavily repressed during Macron, it's becoming scary to actually go sometimes.
You helped us during our revolution. Maybe it's time to become state #51?
That's what the founding fathers did, ironically. Didn't work either.
They do carry the same weight.
They are both useless.
Standing around holding signs and marching and chanting has never been effective.
Having the crowds filmed and broadcast, on the other hand, is effective. If the media isn’t making a story out of it, it means nothing.
In the 60s and 70s people began to believe marching and protesting en mass was effective. But, it was only effective because the media, for their own reasons and agendas, decided to broadcast the Freedom Marches and anti-war marches and all the rest.
I don’t believe that prior to the 60s, anyone would have considered milling around in front of govt buildings effective at all. To be sure, having mobs tearing down the buildings was effective and happened frequently.
You could assemble a million protestors in DC and, if it’s not shown in CNN, you might as well have stayed home.
I don't know about the French. For the most part, they protest for the wrong reason.