Some people can't seem to understand why so many French are protesting after #Macron's victory. The most popular comment goes pretty much like "you got what you voted for", which is revealing: these commenters understand politics as if it was a soccer match in which the only thing that matters is winning. They can't seem to understand that Macron won because he was the lesser evil, and the fight needs to continue, if people don't want to see France become a neoliberal hell
@Antanicus but are protests the best way to achieve whatever the aims are? Could energy put into some more constructive way of creating the positive change they want to see (which is what incidentally)? I see those sorts of protests like shouting at the sea for being the sea!
@NOiDEa @Antanicus protests are an incredibly powerful way of making yourself aware that you are not alone and making sure your voice gets heard.
@simonv3 @Antanicus yes fair point - what are they trying to say though?
@simonv3 @Antanicus @NOiDEa We shouldn't expect the voice of the people to be the one providing answers to society's problems. The people are there to highlight when something is wrong, and to do that they are uniquely qualified.
Political parties are the ones who are there to take that discontent and shape into a course of political action.
Whether political parties actually do that or not... that's an entirely different problem.
@jjatria @Antanicus @NOiDEa if the voice of the people isn't what's controlling our democracies than they're not democracies.
Most of our nation states have elected to do this through republic representation, but it's still - in theory if not in practice - the voice of the people.
@simonv3 @Antanicus @NOiDEa I didn't say anything about who is "controlling our democracies". What I meant was that what drives the people to the streets is discontent, and that discontent does not need to come bundled with a concrete political path to a solution, or even a clear diagnostic of what the solution is.
That is not the role of the people. That is the role of political parties: they heed the discontent, and articulate it into policy
@jjatria @simonv3 @NOiDEa this might have been true up to the '70s, but it's no longer the case because of the two funamental changes neoliberalism introduced into the fabric of our society: 1. by offshoring production, it destroyed organized labour, which acted as a counterbalance to corporate power 2. by severing the ties between people and politics, it produced a general disenfranchisement that results in a deep distrust towards politics
@jjatria @Antanicus many ideologies are over-simplified narratives (with an agenda). Left/right ideologies were tried throughout the 20th century and found wanting. There is a new world of complex networks that has emerged long after those narratives were penned. Feel free to view the new paradigm through that old TV set but you may miss the bigger picture
@Antanicus @simonv3 @NOiDEa You talk about the distrust in politics as a bad thing (which it is), but then you celebrate the fact that "the age of ideologies is over" (which is not). I don't get that
Ideology is a political compass that helps us evaluate the circumstantial choices we make every day and check whether they are a step forward or not
I prefer to not be so cynic: cynicism is the gateway drug to political conservatism