The French may not have the first democracy, may not have the best democracy, but they have had to fight harder than most for their democracy.

  • paraphrasing from an audio tour by Rick Steves, I think.

Edit: oops, i flipped words in the title

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[–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What if Americans decided to be a little more like the French and instead of just surrendering to the fucking literally swastika waving Nazis we just did the fucking bare minimum and VOTE

But instead we'll get four more years of orange geriatric Hitler because young people won't vote. It would be funny, if it wasn't happening here.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The people did vote. They voted trump out of office. If you're talking about the upcoming election, well that's still months away, so you have no idea what the turnout will be like.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago

    His point about the nazis not disappearing after the election is a tremendous problem that's not going to go away. We need to figure out the root causes of it and address it properly. Hint: it's establishment corruption taking too much too quickly.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It kind of reads like they're implying that the US are the founders of democracy and the ones that perfected it but the French are trying to get on their level.

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  • [–] [S] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    No, more like the US's revolution likely wouldn't have succeeded if it wasn't for the French support.

    France's revolution attempted for a democracy but that got twisted and they got Emperor Napoleon, so then they had to fight again.

    Edit: And today the US and France are again fighting similar political battles so it feels like the strong support from a French person has a long history.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago

    The French were fighting and an inspiration for US independence.

    Rousseau, for one, spoke of sovereignty residing not in a monarch, but in the people as a group, and of the need to craft laws for the general good. Thomas Jefferson’s rhetoric (including “All men are created equal”) owed much to Rousseau. However, the drafters of the U.S. Constitution may have been most inspired by the Baron de Montesquieu, who argued in his treatise The Spirit of the Laws that avoiding despotism required a government of checks and balances.

    Without the ideas of these French philosophers to inspire them in tough times, it’s hard to imagine the revolution succeeding.

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    French have been our homes since Day 0. Always got solidarity for our brothers in democracy over there. They got way more spice and fight than we do.

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  • [+] -7 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    I agreed with you until the last sentence.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I don’t see Americans unionising and making a noise about rising pension ages

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Unionization is on the rise and they've been more active than at any point in my life. There have been several large strikes in the last couple years alone. What are you talking about?

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I dont see Americans burning down Blackrock buildings.

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