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French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

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Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#181

Post by boricj »

hkt wrote: post #88

It is worth remembering that France got its current constitution in a bloodless coup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1958_crisis_in_France It amazes me that the constitution that was put in place then is largely unchanged today, insofar as the French president is still incredibly powerful, parliament is subservient, and the electoral system is deeply majoritarian. I don't know exactly what it says about a society…

As a French, we tend to change political regimes every so often. Since 1789 we've had five republics, two empires and a couple of other things. I would bet that I'll outlive the fifth republic because of that.

If anything, keeping the same constitution for more than 230 years is a horrifying thought to me.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#182

Post by pif »

beremaki wrote: post #158

Situation in France will not end well. Both rule of law and liberal democracy are increasingly damaged. Our institutions are so weak that we are one election away from a complete disaster. Our constitution always concentrated a lot of power in the hand of the president but there is no effective counter-power left. The government set multiple precedent that violate freedom of assembly and association and parliamentary…

I live in France as well, and personally do not feel the same negativity as you.

What I don't appreciate at all is our share of idiots that think that blocking the country is a proper way of protesting (see "gilets jaunes"). That is not democratic, when a minority imposes their will to the silent majority.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#183

Post by nolok »

yohannparis wrote: post #172
nolok wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have had well-educated French acquaintences telling me for a decade that France is ripe for a new system of government First, this is not "well-educated French acquaintences" so much as it is supporters of Melanchon's LFI political party, who explicitely campaign on the idea of ending the 5th republic to start a 6th where all problem would be magically solved. Second, the reason I hate his proposal, is because he…

Not everybody that want a 6th republic are supporters of Melanchon's party. We have to be careful about this kind of amalgamation.

Given that out of the dozen or so "main political parties" he is the only one who wants that, and that when asked about their priorities for the change of France no group of frenchmen put that in their top 5 besides voters of LFI ...

You're absolutely right that there are definitely some people who want a 6th republic but do not vote or agree with LFI, but for the sake of generalized conversation like we're having now they're mostly irrelevant. If it were to happen, it would be through him and his "vision", and as such I maintain my critics.

Beware of what you want for you might just get it.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#184

Post by SettembreNero »

ElMocambo_x4 wrote: post #135
getrealal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French government disbanded various far-right groups that were not "neonazis trained in handling weapons" (last in date was the Identitaires).

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#185

Post by bambax »

explorer83 wrote: post #96
lannisterstark wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really curious as to why Macron govt is looked up to by a lot of Americans. American citizens, with all of the country's flaws, tends to have a lot more inherent civil rights than most of these governments.

I think France is generally perceived here to have more progressive social policies regarding labor, education, healthcare and the environment. The limited media coverage I've seen about French elections seemed to paint Macron as the candidate more representative of those values.

Macron, as so many French leaders before him, is in fact obsessed by transforming France into the US.

Sarkozy, his most alike predecessor, used to wear a t-shirt that said "NYPD" while jogging, as he was president of France; and later renamed his party "Les Républicains" as an hommage to US Republicans (!!?!)

This was 9 years ago, so right before Trump happened. At the time, 53% of party members thought it was "too American" but they accepted the change nonetheless.

Macron pushes through "liberal" reforms (liberal in Europe means the opposite as in the US: liberals here are free-market proponents) because he thinks it will make France great again, I guess.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#186

Post by paganel »

Leaving aside the supposedly technical ineptitude of the French authorities (even though I think they're quite competent and that they full know what those apps do and how they work), cases like this one make me think that, going forward, one of the best strategies for "defeating" the powers that be will consist in avoiding the use of encrypted communications via special apps and the like and trying to blend in with how the general population, i.e. the normies, communicates.

Of course that the message will still need to be encrypted in a way, but that won't happen by using Telegram or Signal or WhatsApp or by encrypting your hard-drive using dedicated software, but the new "encryption" should work in a sort of "out in the open for anyone to see way", like in the famous E. A. Poe The Purloined Letter [1] short-story, with the stolen letter that was "hidden" in plain view for everyone to see.

Again, I realise that this new strategy isn't ideal, that it will most likely make it harder to keep constant the rate of encrypted communication that is now carried out using dedicated apps, but the reality on the ground is that by using Telegram or Signal or any other dedicated app that focuses on technical encryption one just manages to paint a target on his/her back.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Purloined_Letter

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#187

Post by junon »

ElMocambo_x4 wrote: post #132

[flagged]

I'm pretty center compared to many of my left friends, but I've anecdotally never heard nor seen anyone say "they shouldn't have privacy because they're far right" or anything close to that sentiment.

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#188

Post by baud147258 »

nolok wrote: post #145
conradfr wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We celebrate the revolution and throwing out the king while basically electing a new one every five years that will magically solve all of our problems.

We celebrate the revolution while ignoring it went terribly, being in terms of rights, economy or basically anything else, and we happily put an emperor on the throne less than a decade later

> we happily put an emperor on the throne less than a decade later

to be fair, the emperor climbed on the throne pretty much on his own; I think he had support across broad parts of the population, but it's not as if he was elected (and he didn't even start as an emperor, that came a few years after his coup)

Re: French govt. says users of uBlock Origin, Signal etc. are potential terrorists

#190

Post by beremaki »

FreelanceX wrote: post #180
beremaki wrote: post #158

Situation in France will not end well. Both rule of law and liberal democracy are increasingly damaged. Our institutions are so weak that we are one election away from a complete disaster. Our constitution always concentrated a lot of power in the hand of the president but there is no effective counter-power left. The government set multiple precedent that violate freedom of assembly and association and parliamentary…

> EU knows and complains about Poland & Hungary but France is going to be a shitshow of a far worse magnitude. I am French too and this sounds greatly exaggerated. Either you don't really know about the situation in Hungary or you have a very twisted view of what's happening in France (maybe induced by the medias). You should take a step back.

What I say is that IF France becomes an illiberal democracy, it is going to be far worse for EU than what happened in Hungary. Hungary and France are absolutely not on the same scale
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