Mathieu Duplay 🌈

The French government was planning to block major social media (but, curiously,* not Facebook) across the country should today's protests turn violent. Social media companies objected as such a measure would be 1/ unworkable (ever heard of VPNs?), 2/ probably illegal, and so nothing happened.

*NOT

New travel destination unlocked.

I know, I know, but now I just have to go there.

A quick reminder that the escalation started with students asking for clean toilets and central heating in schools. It would have been easier to say yes and send in the plumbers.

I am going to see a film tonight in a cinema that had to be hastily evacuated on Monday because of a curfew imposed at the last minute (in the meantime, they have updated their entire schedule to make sure that the police doesn't intrude halfway through).

I was going to post something about the very fine Toulouse production of Balanchine's Four Temperaments and the Peter Martins version of Fearful Symmetries, but it turns out that the Toulouse Opéra will be off limits starting Thursday night as it is right in the middle of the no-go zone decreed...

There is a busy metro station inside the no-go zone, and the metro is still operating at midnight, when the curfew is due to begin. What will they do about that? What do they hope to achieve apart from terrorising late-night dog walkers?

I was going to post something about the very fine Toulouse production of Balanchine's Four Temperaments and the Peter Martins version of Fearful Symmetries, but it turns out that the Toulouse Opéra will be off limits starting Thursday night as it is right in the middle of the no-go zone decreed...

...by the authorities in the wake of the protests, and it makes me so sad.

In Paris ist Revolution ausgebrochen.

Confusion reigns, but the fact remains that children were tear-gassed, blinded, and maimed, thousands were left unable to exercise basic democratic rights, and a street medic has died after being brutally arrested, but looting continues in broad daylight in central Paris without police interference.

The state is spectacularly failing to perform its basic missions. I keep recalling something Hannah Arendt said about May'68, that it failed because protesters were stunned by how quickly they toppled the entire power structure and didn't know what to do when it happened, so a restoration...

Bluesky is at its worst in the immediate aftermath of events like yesterday's. Everything is still very much up in the air, no one has any clear idea what happened (or what is continuing to happen--there are reports of further clashes in central Paris right now), let alone what it means in the...

My main concern is not the electoral impact of yesterday's events, as the presidential election is in April and Heaven knows what could happen in the meantime. My concern is the immediate backlash, which will be brutal. The next few days will be crucial.