You look at the number of people arrested during the protests in France, and they're enormous. You have to realize that these arrests are the result of a *deliberate strategy change* by the Macron administration. They weren't arresting these numbers for comparable protests ten years ago.

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Police violence against protests used to be a pretty rare event in France. That's radically changed in the Macron years. The kids on the line today are expecting to be brutalized.

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I enjoy the meme that France is filled with strikers and demonstrators who will protest at the drop of a hat as much as the next person, but sometimes the jokes do tend to gloss over the courage, work, and organizing that it takes for students to march in the face of overwhelming police violence.

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One time a taxi-driver in Paris explained to me that he liked Macron because the French were not used to a president who could be "ferme" (firm, strong) against dissidents. He made a fist-crushing motion while he said this. Plenty of French people long for fascism, is my point.

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It's 100% true that French society has a more robust organizing infrastructure than the United States, and that French society supports the right to protest more than American society does. It's also true that a significant contingent of France + French politicians fucking hate protesters.

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