WTF is going on in France Svarty?

[Cunt]

'Psychopath' is just an insult. If you look for psychopathy, you will find that nearly everyone successful fits the bill.

[Svartalf]

Getting back to the topic, why are there crowds around Europe (not just in France) chanting 'we want Trump'?

because idiocy is a common human trait wherever there are ground apes...

and the yellow vests in France chanted Macron's Resignation, not that they wanted trump, we leave him to the Merkins.

[Cunt]

For yourself, Svatalf, would you prefer strict immigration control, or open borders?

I know the EU is pushing an open borders agenda, and the media assures me that it is all a good thing, but what about those experiencing it?

Oh, and are you city dweller?

[Svartalf]

Strict immigration laws between the EU and the rest of the world, open borders within the Union.
qnd my profile says where I live, more city than that, there isn't in this country.

and yeah, I stayed home last saturday because a) I did not want to get caught in the protest that was bound to pass in front of my home and b) said protest cause the metro to be closed, so I could not access the place where I really wanted to be.

[JimC]

Getting back to the topic, why are there crowds around Europe (not just in France) chanting 'we want Trump'?

Because even Europe has a lunatic fringe?

[Forty Two]

I can sort of understand the fuel protests - nobody likes to pay more tax even if it is going to help save the planet (it seems), but now we just seem to be entering lawlessness territory with disparate interest groups from the commies to the far right deciding to have a pop. I know the French love their 'direct action' and have been on the receiving end of it once or twice myself but this seems to be getting out of hand.

Any ideas what is really going on? And everyone *always* hates politicians so it can't just be that.

I can certainly see why folks would say that the French way is the superior way to go. Their economic system seems quite enlightened, and unlike the American dog-eat-dog, every-mxn-for-zirself attitude, folks are quite civilized there.

[DRSB]

Shots in Strasbourg (seat of the European Parliament, no less), I was thinking of going to Christmas markets there, will reconsider. But the going is definitely rough in France.

[Svartalf]

They say policemen were the primary targets and the shooter has been identified, but has yet to be taken... MASSIVE police and military forces mobilized to cordon off the area, even our minister of the Interior will have his picture taken there, before midnight...

can't tell more, it was 10 O'Clock and I had to shut off the radio to avoid the neighbours' ire

[Rum]

The term psychpath isn’t actually a formal psychiatric diagnosis. As mentioned earlier it is classed as a personality disorder and is widely considered to be untreatable. It is often characterised by the person saying things, not on the basis of their views or outlook but on the basis of what will be to their advantage, whatever the effect, negative or otherwise on other people. Most could I suppose be characterised, using the vernacular as ‘cunts’. Odd you should choose that as a user name.

All the best to you.

So all politicians are psychopaths?

I suppose if you are cynical in your outlook about them perhaps they are. Personally, though I know it is unfashionable to say so I believe far more are motivated by the desire to serve than is generally given credit for, depending on the country one is looking at.

The core of the notion of psychopathy is the notion that such people are devoid of empathy and even if they can imagine what it feels like to be another person experiencing suffering, and some simply can’t - of one sort or another they don’t give a damn. Cunts as a rule as I said.

[Svartalf]

Even those who start wishing to serve are swiftly turned into evil power mongers.

[Rum]

Well I don’t believe that is so. No way of really knowing is there, other than to ponder how thankless the job often seems to be.

[Svartalf]

Show me an honest and serviceable politico, and I may start to believe there is a good god somewhere.

Thankless job, Man? It pays very well, if maybe not as much as some positions in the private sector... and it allows you to play with people's lives, how thankless is that?

[Forty Two]

Can't be. That's western Europe. It's where the kind, thoughtful, folks live. Surely, just being asked to pay their fair share in taxes ought not upset them?

[Forty Two]

They say policemen were the primary targets and the shooter has been identified, but has yet to be taken... MASSIVE police and military forces mobilized to cordon off the area, even our minister of the Interior will have his picture taken there, before midnight...

can't tell more, it was 10 O'Clock and I had to shut off the radio to avoid the neighbours' ire

OMG! massive police and military forces mobilized? Military cordoning off areas? Man that's like Nazi Germany over there. It's French Kristalnacht! That's no way for a civilized country to act.

[Rum]

Show me an honest and serviceable politico, and I may start to believe there is a good god somewhere.

Thankless job, Man? It pays very well, if maybe not as much as some positions in the private sector... and it allows you to play with people's lives, how thankless is that?

I could name a few in the UK. You’ll be familiar with Jeremy Corbin of course, a conviction politician if ever there was one. Tony Benn, sadly no longer with us, another in the same mold. I think the left throws them up more naturally as it is usually ideology that motivates them in the beginning. The right tends to encourage people who believe that business is everything. Even so there are a few of them. I can’t imagine the UK is a special case.

Local politics has become more or less a matter of time tabling when the garbage bins are collected and how much to spend on street lighting, but I will grant you that in days gone by it was a hotbed of favours, who you knew and cronyism. Not so much now. Perhaps with your Mayoral system, villages and very locally accountable arrangements in France it is a little more akin to local government her in the old days.