For people not following the news in France, a fascist militant was killed this weekend.

[vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de]

@David I fear its been going on *many* years, in 1984 I embarrassed my host family on exchange trip by asking "pourquoi on a écrit LE PEN partout, sur tous les murs?"

I also remember hearing on the radio (France-Info) about quite a lot of blood shed in political violence in France in 1980s..

[bredroll@mas.to]

@negative12dollarbill @David https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3630g3e802o

[negative12dollarbill@techhub.social]

@Bredroll @David Thanks

[david@setouchi.social]

@vfrmedia Yes, but back then, the far right was rightly seen as a threat to democracy. Now, the political discourse has moved so much to the right that it's the left that are considered terrorists and everyone in mainstream media (and in the government) are preparing for the far right to reach power in 2027. As problematic as Le Pen was he never ever was anywhere close to reaching power. Political violence has always existed, but 90% of it is exerted by the far right. The media barely cover it.

[david@setouchi.social]

@vfrmedia And what's frustrating is that it's the exact same playbook as Murdoch's media empire and MAGA, and so many French people don't even see it (or worse, embrace it)

[useravoiding@mastodon.social]

@David One of my best friends is a french guy and we're sometimes talking politics. He's always sure that the fascists won't win, and his reasons are that they have a very stable base but not enough to win. The polls will show that they're about to win because there are a lot of passive woters who haven't decided or say they won't vote, but just before the elections when all the media say the fascists will win, the passive french will scream "only over my dead body!" and vote for whatever.

[david@setouchi.social]

@useravoiding Hence the reason the fascists have bought all the media in the past 20 years, have made the National Front (renamed the "National Gathering") more and more acceptable, and demonized the Left.

I'm one of the people who used to say that the fascists had no chance to win when a lot of my compatriots were afraid they would. They didn't. Now they do.

[runoutgroover@cloudisland.nz]

@David isn't it telling that any number of normal people (or left wing activists) can be killed and the establishment just shrugs. But as soon as one of these far right weirdos gets offed it's "Quelle horreur!"

[david@setouchi.social]

@runoutgroover Exactly.

[ninesigns@birdity.club]

Did this "militant" directly initiate violence?