David Saranga on X - "Meet one of the leaders of the riots in France: Yazan Majdal Abu Sammour, 23, a prominent Palestinian activist. And here I was, under the impression these were “student protests.”"
nic carter on X - "having tried my best to intuit the motives of the protesters in France today, I am struck by the fact that two of the most treasured pillars of the European postwar order are colliding:
1. unfettered immigration, especially from former colonies, justified by historical obligation and postcolonial guilt
2. protecting pensions and the elderly at all costs, even to the point of extreme fiscal strain
now you have first and second generation immigrants, as well as young native french people, taking to the streets because the french state is hell-bent on extracting whatever it can and feeding it into the maw of boomer luxury communism. the younger generation is being asked to accept a deteriorating deal: pay more, receive less, and abandon the expectation of matching the living standard of their parents or grandparents. the young immigrant newcomers have even less incentive to accept any kind this bargain. they are not bought in to the french social contract. they have no common identity with the french boomers they are being asked to sustain. they resent the fact that the entire machinery of the state is designed to exploit the young to serve the old. the old do not care about the immigrants enough to trade away any of their entitlements for them. they have the advantage as they wield the franchise reliably and their share of the electorate is only growing, so they won't accept a decline in their own standard of living to fund a future they will never live to see. now these two groups are on a collision course.
ironically, immigration was intended to ameliorate the worsening fiscal picture brought about by a demographic transition. but this did not happen. studies have repeatedly shown that immigrants do increase aggregate GDP (by simple brute force, by adding to population), but not the fiscal picture [1]. the most comprehensive paper using real-world data [2] segments immigrant types to France and finds non-EU immigrants to be persistently fiscally negative. EU immigrants by contrast are the most fiscally positive group, meaning that studies that consider immigrants as a whole are masking the negative impact of non-western immigrants (and Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia rank #1 and #2 and #4. Africa accounts for 50% of the 8 million immigrants living in France today.) immigration has not caused France's fiscal crisis. but it hasn't bettered the economic picture at all – it has deteriorated it somewhat – and it has created a combustible demographic that has little allegiance to the French nation. far from helping France deal with its aging workforce, immigration has added fiscal burden and created a permanent, non-assimilated disenfranchised underclass. the original justifications for immigration – labor scarcity, postcolonial obligation, and more recently workforce aging – have largely failed to manifest the promised results. the pro-immigrationist policy has been defended in Brussels as necessary to defend the welfare state, but it has expanded the population making claims on the state, without eliminating the need for fiscal adjustments. France now has an aging electorate aiming to preserve the benefits it was promised, mingled with a younger more diverse population that questions whether it will ever receive a similar deal. the young are vastly outmatched at the ballot box and so they take to the streets. the french establishment is now trying to preserve a tenuous status quo: unlimited intergenerational obligations alongside a neverending immigration regime that continually changes the composition of the society intended to honor those obligations. the immigration regime also actively worsens the fiscal picture while creating these cultural fractures and inculcating a society more prone to sectarian violence. the french state will have to renegotiate its social contract and disempower one of these groups. electoral gravity suggests that the old will continue to win until France finally reaches default and creditors renegotiate the welfare state for them.
the major contenders in 27 take different approaches to this tradeoff:
- the right in Le Pen looks to reduce immigration-related expenditure and focus public spending on French citizens, while resisting retirement age increases
- Macron in the center aims to control immigration somewhat and reform pensions by raising retirement age
- Melenchon's left, largely behind the protests this week, denies the tradeoff and aims to keep funding pensions and retirement at 60 while increasing immigration. as France has very little fiscal space it's unclear how this would be paid for
whether the french social contract can be peacefully renegotiated remains to be seen. [1] For France, immigrants' net fiscal contribution averaged -0.85% of GDP over 2006-2018 when all public expenditure was allocated (and this includes ALL categories of immigrants including European, American and Asian) See: https://oecd.org/en/publications/international-migration-outlook-2021_29f23e9d-en/full-report/component-8.html
[2] See table 4 (translated below) https://shs.cairn.info/revue-economiq"
Pork Products, Toilet Paper Mysteriously Untouched By Paris Rioters - "The truly eagle-eyed might have also noticed that a good portion of the wine was left on the shelves... The media tells me that these riots are being carried out by "French students" who want "better schools" and that the riots are "mostly peaceful.""
French newspaper blasts Macron after violent riots sweep France - "A prominent French newspaper delivered a blistering critique of the country’s leadership after nationwide protests descended into riots, looting and arson. The article, written by Vincent Trémolet de Villers for the conservative newspaper Le Figaro and published Sunday afternoon local time, blamed years of political failures for contributing to the unrest and took particular aim at President Emmanuel Macron. It criticized what it described as a justice system that is "lenient toward criminals," accused far-left groups of carrying out violence with little consequence and took aim at France’s immigration and security policies. "A judiciary that is lenient toward criminals but unrelenting toward decent citizens. The incomprehensible privilege of these far-left militias, who destroy, set fires, and kill with impunity," the article stated, according to a translation. "An uncontrolled immigration, in which a portion of the immigrants rebels against the country that took them in." The article also took aim at Macron over his past calls for police to show greater empathy. "Emmanuel Macron’s reprimands toward a police force he deemed insufficiently 'empathetic' — directed at officers under attack by bolts, cobblestones, and mortar fireworks — will remain an indelible stain," it stated. The author argued that the unrest reflected deeper failures by France’s political establishment. "If the far-left, criminals, and looters can turn France upside down in a matter of hours, it is primarily because a technocratic monarchy — intoxicated by its own self-importance — has methodically dismantled all the moral, security, cultural, and economic safeguards that allow a society to remain standing." The scathing assessment followed a day of violence across France, where masked groups clashed with police, looted businesses, set fires and attacked public buildings"
Visegrád 24 on X - "BREAKING: The first rioters and looters have been sentenced in France. The judges practically refuse to hand out prison sentences:
🔴 Toulouse – Ylan, 18 years old. Throwing a Molotov cocktail at police officer
- Sentence: 12 months suspended + 140 hours of community service + deprivation of voting rights for 3 years.
- Max. sentence: 10 years in prison
🔴 Lille – 3 men, including 2 illegal migrants. Arrested with bags filled with loot from Micromania and Calzedonia stores.
- Sentence: 10 months in prison with custody warrant + 2-year territorial ban (for the 2 undocumented migrants).
- Max. sentence: 5 years
🔴 Lille – Father of a family with a crowbar, attempted break-in at a store.
- Sentence: 10 months in prison with custody warrant + 3-year ban on demonstrations.
- Max. sentence: 7 years
🔴 Lille – 23-year-old man, launching fireworks at police
- Sentence: 12 months under electronic monitoring + 140 hours of community service.
- Max. sentence: 5 years
🔴 Reims – Sahel W., 19 years old. Looting a Carrefour
- Sentence: 105 hours of community service.
- Max. sentence: 7 years
🔴 Reims – Hugo M., 20 years old. Looting a Caviar boutique.
- Sentence: 4 months under electronic monitoring.
- Max. sentence: 7 years.
🔴 Rouen – Tunisian delivery driver, looting of a gold buyback shop (16,000€ worth of jewelry in his pockets). Repeat offender.
- Sentence: 8 months in prison with custody warrant + revocation of 6 months suspended from a previous conviction.
- Max. sentence: 14 years
🔴 Rouen – Anthony, homeless. Looting of the Courir boutique. Repeat offender.
- Sentence: 6 months in prison + 6 suspended.
- Max. sentence: 14 years
🔴 Rouen – 26-year-old unemployed man. Looting of Micromania. Repeat offender.
- Sentence: 6 months under electronic monitoring.
- Max. sentence: 14 years
🔴 Rouen – Nicolas, garbage collector, and Zakaria. Throwing projectiles at police and insults.
- Sentence: 12 months under electronic monitoring.
- Max. sentence: 5 years
🔴 Lyon – Mohamed, illegal migrant. Looting of Louis Vuitton boutique (6 wallets, 2 pairs of glasses, one pair of pants, one leather bag, and one fabric bag).
- Sentence: 6 months in prison with custody warrant
- Max. sentence: 7 years
🔴 Lyon – Cheima, 30-year-old woman. Looting of JD Sports store
- Sentence: 8 months suspended.
- Max. sentence: 7 years
🔴 Lyon – Sophia, 27 years old. Already 9 convictions including thefts. Looting of JD Sports store.
- Sentence: 12 months under electronic monitoring.
- Max. sentence: 14 years
🔴 Lyon – Adam, 19-y-old Swiss national. "Black bloc" from abroad. Arrested leaving a looted Monoprix + resistance
- Sentence: 12 months suspended.
- Max. sentence: 7 years
🔴 Perpignan – 20-y-old man, throwing a construction barrier at 2 police officers.
- Sentence: 6 months under electronic monitoring
- Max. sentence: 5 years
🔴 Perpignan – 21-y-old man. Throwing objects at police and vandalizing the city. Ski goggles, t-shirt as balaclava, and reinforced gloves.
- Sentence: 10 months under electronic monitoring.
- Max. sentence: 7 years
🔴 Perpignan – 22-y-old Amazon delivery driver, already one prior conviction. Scooter theft after demonstration with face concealment, in a group and break-in
- Sentence: 8 months under electronic monitoring.
- Max. sentence: 10 years
🔴 Limoges – 20-y-old woman. Looting in stores and at City Hall (later destroyed by fire)
- Sentence: 6 months in prison with custody warrant + 18 suspended prob.
- Max. sentence: 12 years
🔴 Pau – 43-y-old man. Throwing objects at police
- Sentence: 6 months under electronic monitoring.
- Max. sentence: 5 years
🔴 Nîmes – 24-y-old PE teacher. Throwing objects that injured a police man (3 days of leave).
- Sentence: 18 months suspended prob.
- Max. sentence: 5 years
🔴 Grenoble – 10 people. Looting
Sentences: from 4 months suspended to 8 months served (served for 1 individual already convicted to suspended in June).
Max. sentence: 7 years"
The same people who keep obsessing over January 6th and how they allegedly murdered a police officer (though that has long been debunked) praise mass riots, looting, throwing molotov cocktails/launching fireworks at police officers and burning down historic government buildings when it pushes the left wing agenda
Philippe Lemoine on X - "One of the main misunderstandings I see about the protests/riots in France right now is that people abroad don't realize it's not the same movement as the high school movement that started last month and peaked about 2 weeks ago. The high school movement was already fizzling out and what was left of it just bled into today's movement, but the protests of today were planned even before the high school protests started and are primarily about the cost of living. Of course, the actions of far-left activists and children of immigrants causing mayhem are a major factor in both cases (especially to explain the violence), but the underlying social movements on which they are piggybacking are different."
MenchOsint on X - "Fun fact: France isn't "burning" because of migrants. It's experiencing an intense cost of living crisis fueled by ... the global economic shockwaves of Trump's war on Iran."
Philippe Lemoine on X - "Once again, this is a false dichotomy. The protests were about the cost of living, but were it not for far-left activists and children of immigrants, France wouldn't be burning and there sure as hell wouldn't be groups of hoodlums going door to door looting and terrorizing people in Paris right now. The people who deny that are either clueless or lying to you. Just open your fucking eyes and believe what they show you. The reason why you don't see videos showing predominantly white crowds looting stores isn't because of a conspiracy to hide the truth from you, that's because it doesn't happen."
Meme - TrendingTony @trending_tony (Translated from Spanish): "DO WE HAVE THE PHOTO OF THE YEAR? (Owner defending his video game store during the riots in France)" *Vegeta in orange with shop owner in same pose*
Meme - "IF YOU CALLED THE FREEDOM CONVOY A "VIOLENT PROTEST," CHEERED ON THE EMERGENCIES ACT, AND NOW APPLAUD RIOTING IN FRANCE. SPARE US YOUR FUCKING LECTURES ABOUT PUBLIC SAFETY. APPARENTLY, YOUR OUTRAGE DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON WHO'S IN THE STREET. YOUR PRINCIPLES DIDN'T CHANGE. YOU JUST NEVER HAD ANY."
The principle is that whatever pushes the left wing agenda is good
Meme - "Spirit. French High School Student. INCLUDES: Palestinian flag, Keffiyeh, Molotov cocktail, Cheese. ADULT. ONE SIZE FITS MOST *Black clad man with keffiyeh, balaclava, Palestinian flag cape, molotov cocktail and cheese block with hazy Eiffel Tower and burning bin*"
Meme - Visegrád 24 @visegrad24: "A picture from today’s massive riots in France. This is the flag of violence" *man waving Palestinian flag with building on fire*
Meme - Karen Matos-Borba: "This is true. I did not see French flags only Palestinian ones. I'm here in Paris and was in the thick of it. The protestors were started by students but was quickly hijacked by Muslim immigrants akin to Antifa."
Dr. Maalouf on X - "The Palestinian flag has basically become the socially acceptable version of the ISIS flag. Muslims have realized that and are taking full advantage of it."
Blue&White on X - "💯 Palestinianism is a new socially acceptable (and even glorified) cause supporting intifada against Western values, with a socially acceptable ‘accessories’ - jihadi flags, keffiyehs and pins."
Ari Fleischer on X - "I asked Grok if the NYT or WP have shown any pictures of the rioters in France holding Palestinian flags. The answer is no. Why are these papers hiding the truth? Why are they sanitizing the news to protect Islamists? It’s not Islamophobic to show pictures. It’s the truth."
Kentucky Girl on X - "POLAND
- Refused the EU's 2015 migrant quotas.
- Voted against the 2024 EU Migration Pact.
- Built a steel wall on the Belarus border.
- Suspended asylum there in 2025.
- Zero successful illegal crossings from Belarus in 2026
- 2021 census: 2,209 Muslims, about 0.01% of the country.
- Homicide rate: 0.68 per 100,000.
FRANCE
- 8 million immigrants, 11.6% of the population.
- Nearly half were born in Africa.
- Top African birth countries: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.
- Homicide rate: 1.33 per 100,000. About double Poland's.
- 2023 riots: 3,300+ arrests, 808 officers hurt, 5,662 vehicles burned, €650 million in damage.
- Oct. 17, 2026: a cost-of-living march turned into looting in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Nice.
- Shops smashed. A historic town hall in Limoges burned.
One country guarded its borders. The other is guarding its storefronts.
Import the Third World, become the Third World."
Clearly Poland lives in a different universe where there's no Iran war and the cost of living is low, since those are what are causing riots
Saggezza Eterna on X - "Paris is burning because Western elites deliberately imported the Third World under the banner of “diversity” and “compassion,” then ignored every warning about assimilation and cultural compatibility. Macron’s globalist project is collapsing in real time—city halls torched, shops looted, over 1,200 arrested, landmarks reduced to ash. This isn’t about schools or cost of living. It’s the predictable end state of open borders + progressive self-hatred. The left calls diagnosing it “hate.” Reality calls it math, crime stats, and civilizational suicide. JD Vance is right: this is the future Democrats want for America. Defend the West or watch it die."
Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 on X - "Muslim in Scotland is asking for the uprising of Gen-Z all over Europe to happen here! She says: “I’m very pro revolution, we need not just revolution but we need violent revolution, you can’t get anywhere against imperialism and colonialism without violence, we need to get organised” Is that not inciting violence UK judiciary? 🧑⚖️ Zamard Zahid is an alleged school teacher. The Muslim population in Glasgow is 8%"
Meme - Common Sense Extremists @crushmarxismnow: "How I wish I could go back in time and show this to the men about to storm the beach at Normandy so they could see THIS is the future France they were about to die for" *masked men in black, many black/brown*
Meme - *Men in balaclavas setting fire to school*
Man in balaclava: "SAVE OUR SCHOOLS! SAVE OUR SCHOOLS!"
Normal person: "HOW IS BURNING YOUR SCHOOL GOING TO HELP...? ... OH WAIT THIS ISN'T SCHOOL ABOUT SCHOOLS AT ALL IS..."
Meme - Somali Pirate from meme: "LOOK AT ME. WE'RE THE FRENCH NOW"
Meme - "French leftists when the protestors burn down LGBT-owned cafes instead of seizing the banks
Harry Osborn from Spider-man: "NO!""
Guillaume Herblot 🎖️ on X - "Voilà donc le niveau de ces gens. Marine Tondelier débarque en plein 11e, devant les commerces encore barricadés après les violences du 17 octobre, avec son nourrisson d’un mois calé dans le porte-bébé, filmé en plan large, posté, diffusé. Le message est limpide : regardez comme je suis engagée, humaine, proche des gens et comme mon bébé me sert de bouclier émotionnel parfait. Le petit Léon n’a même pas six semaines. Il n’a rien demandé. Il n’a pas choisi de se retrouver en pleine rue, au milieu des planches de bois et des traces d’émeutes, pour faire de la communication de campagne. Mais peu importe. Chez eux, un enfant est un outil de storytelling. Une semaine après l’accouchement, déjà en marche pour le climat, puis salon de l’auto, puis visite post-émeutes. Toujours filmé, toujours mis en avant, toujours instrumentalisé. Ils nous parlent de protection de l’enfance, de bienveillance, de « ne pas mettre la pression aux femmes », et dès que ça arrange leur image, ils sortent le nourrisson comme accessoire. C’est de la pure exploitation cynique. Un bébé qui ne peut ni consentir, ni comprendre, ni dire non, utilisé pour humaniser une candidate et susciter l’émotion là où le fond politique est vide. Et après, ces mêmes gens s’offusquent quand on pointe du doigt la mise en scène. « Laissez les mères tranquilles ! » Non, on laisse les mères tranquilles quand elles ne se servent pas de leurs enfants comme de boucliers humains et de supports Instagram. Là, c’est de la politique de bas étage, version écolo-bobo, sans aucune limite. Honteux, gerbant, et surtout, parfaitement révélateur du rapport qu’ils ont à la vérité : tout est mise en scène, tout est calculé, même un nourrisson."
Jesse Singal on X - "There is this deranged "Anything young people are doing or saying leftishly must be wise and just" stance that absolutely melts my brain in its condescension. Basically the noble savage trope, but for The Youth."
It's not even consistent too. It's begging the question
Tabuk on X (Translated) - "The German channel DW produced a documentary about immigrants in the Paris suburbs, focusing on two groups living in the same area. On one hand, there are about 70,000 French people of Chinese origin. In Aubervilliers, in the northern Paris suburbs, they built Europe's largest wholesale clothing sales center. Their lives are simple—they get up early and work until late, running small workshops, managing their shops, and delivering goods. They reinvest what they earn into their businesses, and if things get tight, they sort out their affairs and try to push through on their own. They're usually calm and stay out of the spotlight, rarely asking for special government aid, and they don't take to the streets to stir up chaos. And over the years, the number of families who bought homes and grew their businesses has increased. On the other hand, immigrant communities from North Africa, living in the same neighborhood. Their economic integration in the area hasn't advanced much. But the documentary captured a subtle shift in mindset—a perspective that's starting to spread quietly, one that sees self-reliance as a kind of threat. According to what the film observed, some of those who faced difficulties integrating tend to see themselves as victims, feeling like society owes them a lot. But when they look around and see the Chinese people right next to them, their view changes. Instead of learning trade from them, they treat them as competitors. So, where does this hostility come from? The clearest point of friction is that the more the Chinese succeed, the harder it becomes to cling to the victimhood narrative. Everyone here came from outside, facing the same hardships of alienation. Even the Chinese, when they first arrived, many of them didn't speak French and had no connections in the country. So if there's someone who can grind 12 hours or more a day and gradually organize their life, it becomes tough to keep repeating the phrase ("We're struggling because the world is unfair") and have anyone believe you. The one who builds themselves through effort and without fuss often annoys those accustomed to blaming circumstances and the world, living in a victim mentality. And there's another deep difference in understanding wealth. Many of those demanding aid see wealth as a fixed-size cake—people divide it up and that's it. They don't see how these wholesale shops came to be, how their owners hauled the goods with their own hands, carton after carton. All they see is that the profits from the Chinese shops come at their expense. Add to that the fact that the Chinese are used to patience and brushing off problems. If there's a dispute, it's normal—they choose to let it pass to keep the peace. And with this mismatch in thinking, the issue quickly turns into security problems. Robberies, stakeouts, and street assaults repeat against these people who just want to live quietly and earn a living."
Proof that Chinese are white-adjacent and need to be condemned for their complicity with Whiteness!
Visegrád 24 on X - "A second or third-generation migrant from Africa explains why Chinese businesses are targeted by looters: “The Chinese living in France have become too wealthy. It's unfair”"
Melissa Chen on X - ""It's not fair that those who work 15 hours a day and save like crazy become (too) rich, while I just do nothing and live off welfare. How’s that fair?”"
Stephane E. Roy on X - "Avec tous les feux qu'elle a mise partout en France, c'est la preuve que l'extrême gauche ne prend pas du tout au sérieux le réchauffement climatique ."
Brivael Le Pogam on X - "To my American friends: if you don't want to repeat France's mistakes, read this. In 1983, kids from the French suburbs, mostly sons and daughters of North African immigrants, marched from Marseille to Paris. Their demand was simple: treat us as French. Equality. Same rules, same country. A year later, the Socialist Party captured that energy. SOS Racisme was born, with its little yellow hand and the slogan "Touche pas à mon pote" (Hands off my buddy). Concerts, celebrities, prime-time TV. On paper, a beautiful anti-racist movement. In practice, it changed the deal. The message to an entire generation stopped being "become French, this country is yours." It became "you are different, you are a victim, and France owes you." The right to difference replaced the duty to belong. Anti-racism became a political weapon and a moral alibi for the left. Assimilation is a demanding promise: you take on the language, the history, the codes, and in exchange the nation adopts you completely. We abandoned that promise. Instead of building the conditions for assimilation, we built the conditions for resentment. Then add socialism on top, and you get a lethal cocktail. A school system that stopped teaching and started preaching. Fewer fundamentals, more grievance. Kids who struggle to write a paragraph but can recite that France is a colonial, systemically racist country. A welfare state that teaches you the country owes you everything and you owe it nothing. A political class that explains every failure by discrimination, never by choices, effort or culture. Tell a teenager for 40 years that he's the victim of the country he lives in, and don't be surprised when he treats it like an enemy. Look at France right now. Since mid-September, a high school "movement" has turned into weeks of street clashes: nearly 700 police officers injured, more than 200 students hurt. On October 17, a nationwide day of protest that started over fuel prices and the cost of living. The Prime Minister himself said it was no longer a student movement but urban violence. And the far left tied the day to colonial memory and the 1961 Algerian massacre in Paris. A protest about gas prices, rewired into a trial of the nation itself. That's the software we installed in the 80s, running at full speed. Now look at New York. What I see forming there is the exact alliance we've had in France for 20 years: hard-left economics plus identity grievance, with political Islam welcomed as an ally instead of recognized as a problem. We even have a word for it: islamo-gauchisme. The far left needs a new oppressed class and new voters. Islamists need a political shield. Each uses the other. To be clear: this is not about Muslims as people. Millions of French Muslims are fully, proudly French, and they are often the first victims of this alliance, because it locks their kids into a victim identity and hands their neighborhoods to the most radical voices. It's about a political model. And I've watched it play out for four decades. America's superpower has always been assimilation. You show up, you become American. Hyphen optional, flag mandatory. The day you replace that with "you are a victim and this country owes you," you've started the French experiment. We ran it. I can tell you how it ends. Don't."
Michael Murphy: Parisian looters brought to you by the European left - "the right-wing former presidential candidate Eric Zemmour posted on X: “There are little whites among the looters, of course. As Audiard used to say, there are flying fish, but they are not the majority of the species.” He added: “The Great Replacement is not a theory; it is a fact.” It is true that the majority of the footage that I have reviewed in recent weeks has shown a preponderance of ethnic minority rioters. Foreign flags, especially those of Palestine, Algeria and Morocco, have made regular appearances, while tricolours are rather thin on the ground."
Gunther Eagleman™ on X - "🚨 WOW: Look at what's happening on the steps of the old stock exchange in the heart of BRUSSELS. Red smoke flares, a sea of Palestinian flags, and chants in Arabic, a few blocks from the Grand Place. This is the capital of the European Union. Europe's leaders spent years lecturing America about borders. Now they can't control their own front steps. Europe, wake up."
France in flames is preview of what 'DSA' Democrats want for US, Sen. Eric Schmitt warns - "The chaos engulfing France is a preview of what Democrats want for America, Sen. Eric Schmitt warned, contrasting the unrest with new manufacturing jobs and a federal crime crackdown in Missouri that he credits to cooperation with the Trump administration. “You see what’s happening in France. That’s exactly what they want here, the DSA Democrats,” the Missouri Republican told Fox News Digital... “I think the Democrat Party at this point is sort of post-American and anti-Western civilization,” Schmitt said."
Left wingers *want* chaos and destruction, so.
