French President Election- The Centre Fights Back?

[Uppercut]

Deep in Macron Country

 

[Spark]

ust down the street I run into Joséphine. "Are you angry?" I ask.

"Yes, I am fuming!"

"I suppose you are deeply resentful of immigrants and their effects on wages - or perhaps seized by an intense yet vague sense of national decline?"

She stares at me.

"No. My bicycle has been stolen."

 

[wpdavid]

They are just genuinely terrible human beings. What do you expect.

Of course, but it's still worth reminding people who insist on painting them as glorified freedom fighters against the horrors of the modern world.

 

[Gnske]

I've realised another horror from this debacle.

France had a chance to break the #glassceiling and failed. Misogyny wins the day again.

 

[Furball]

Also the British centre-right has a weird obsession with painting it as a basket case.

Because the French workforce has these nasty things like 35 hour weeks. Why aren't they working zero hours contracts until they drop?

 

[_Ed_]

The Daily Mail (and their boneheaded readers) have been obsessed with his 24 year older wife (who was his former teacher) for weeks now.

Exactly the same age gap as the Trumps, for what it's worth.

 

[Mike5181]

Exactly the same age gap as the Trumps, for what it's worth.

Melania was 28 when they meet whereas Trogneux was Macron's high school teacher when he was 15. It's a non-issue anyway, but it's a bit different.

 

[Anil]

Ha ha

No seriously.. her program seems to align pretty much with what you seem to want. Left-leaning economically but anti-immigration, globalization etc. You don't strike me as an alt-right type.

Are you kidding? Now that Milo has abdicated the throne Watson is their official spokesman...

 

[vcs]

What is alt-right's position on economics (if they have one)? I mean, Watson probably agrees with the anti-immigration, anti-globalization, ethnic nationalism stuff, but he seems to be socialist in terms of economic policy.

 

[indiaholic]

National Socialism...

 

[Prince EWS]

What is alt-right's position on economics (if they have one)? I mean, Watson probably agrees with the anti-immigration, anti-globalization, ethnic nationalism stuff, but he seems to be socialist in terms of economic policy.

They don't really agree as a movement on economic policy. They oppose foreign aid and *most* of them oppose free trade, but the fiscal size of government on domestic issues is a bone of contention inside that movement, with views ranging from those similar to watson's to people who used to be libertarians. They're pretty united on the idea that this stuff just doesn't matter nearly as much as the things they agree on though.

 

[GIMH]

Because the French workforce has these nasty things like 35 hour weeks. Why aren't they working zero hours contracts until they drop?

You aren't contracted for 35 hours?

 

[Uppercut]

You aren't contracted for 35 hours?

Your right to work no more than 35 hours is very well protected legally. Companies have to pay you a solid premium on overtime and stuff. In practice you can't work harder even if you want to.

Obviously this environment isn't to everyone's tastes... but the results are really quite impressive. French workers produce almost exactly the same amount as British ones while working far less.

 

[vcs]

Your right to work no more than 35 hours is very well protected legally. Companies have to pay you a solid premium on overtime and stuff. In practice you can't work harder even if you want to.

Obviously this environment isn't to everyone's tastes... but the results are really quite impressive. French workers produce almost exactly the same amount as British ones while working far less.

They're very bright and I find that their standard of Math/Science/technical education is very high (anecdotal evidence from interacting with a few colleagues).

Not sure how it will work for less-skilled jobs, etc.

 

[watson]

What is alt-right's position on economics (if they have one)? I mean, Watson probably agrees with the anti-immigration, anti-globalization, ethnic nationalism stuff, but he seems to be socialist in terms of economic policy.

Obviously the economy of any country is vitally important, but in recent decades the economy in countries like Australia and the UK have become self-serving. That is, Australian and British societies currently exist to 'serve the economy' rather than the other way around.

This strange inverted view is ultimately destructive to any society because economists and their economics care very little for culture, or the cultural bonds that bind society together and give it meaning. If it makes financial sense to bulldoze a church, library, park or cricket stadium to make way for a shopping mall or block of flats then an economist will do it.

The central philosophy behind the Alt Right movement is that culture is the most important aspect of any given society whether it be Christian, post-Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Sinic or whatever.

The reason that most Alt Righters veer to the Left in their economic thinking is that socialistic economic policy tends to be more sympathetic to the Arts, Sciences, Universities, schools, hospitals and so forth. In other words, the cultural fabric of society.

Incidently, the reason that most Alt Righters are socially Conservative is because culture cannot exist in any real or meaningful way unless you give it an historical context and link it directly to the past. A multicultural globalist agenda inevitably severs a society from its history and leaves it without a context or greater meaning. This is an abomination by definition.

To put it crudely, the globalist's agenda is all T20 and no Ashes.

 

[vcs]

sympathetic to the Arts, Sciences, Universities...

Bollocks, they actively deny science to further their agenda (see climate change), and revel in anti-intellectualism.

An alt-right government would be a nightmare for the scientific community and academicians in general, what with having to make their results conform to the Bible or whatever medieval book that the "culture" of that country dictates.

 

[Spark]

I have absolutely no idea where he's got that stuff from, most alt-right types are extremely hostile to the humanities and and many of them are proudly anti-positivist which kind of precludes being pro-science.

Alt-right stuff is just the NRx movement from a few years back with better branding, a subreddit and a 4chan board.

 

[vcs]

*nods knowingly while Googling anti-positivist and NRx movement*

 

[Anil]

Bollocks, they actively deny science to further their agenda (see climate change), and revel in anti-intellectualism.

An alt-right government would be a nightmare for the scientific community and academicians in general, what with having to make their results conform to the Bible or whatever medieval book that the "culture" of that country dictates.

thanks for quoting only a tiny bit of the overall drivel...

 

[Ausage]

I think you'd find most alt-Rs would support academia/science conceptually but complain that institutions are currently political in nature and thus conclusions drawn from them should be treated with scepticism.