Coverage of the French protests is a lesson in modern media. The outlet providing information has successfully shaped viewers’ opinions on the situation. Headlines have ranged from demonizing rioters to celebrating the power of the people. The one thing all of these biased reports have in common is that they have completely missed the real point.
If you’ve even heard about the riots, you have probably been told that they are about fuel taxes. The most common explanation is that the French people are upset because the new tax isn’t being put towards the fight for climate change. You see, the French people are willing to pay a high price to protect the environment, but they feel like they have been betrayed by the government.
This notion is about 90 percent wrong. The fuel tax is among the list of items being protested, but it’s not because the tax revenue is going into a general fund. The protests are because working-class French can’t afford to fill their tanks and go to work. The riots are in the face of having the tax at all.
More importantly, the fuel tax is only one item on a full list of grievances. In reality, the protests are about populism versus globalism. France isn’t as unified towards the globalist agenda as you’ve been told. Neither is the rest of Europe. Take a look at this video. It might be the first honest explanation of the state of France and Europe you’ve seen all year.
