This seems a bit extreme. When they raised our retirement age I don't think most people even commented on it (preview)
This week: a Vietnam veteran is tormented by modern McDonald's; the beta males at the Museum of British History go WOKE by sometimes using the phrase “mummified remains” instead of Mummy; And Americans across the political spectrum cheer the massive direct labor actions by unions in France (cutting power to the homes of billionaires and giving free electricity to preschools), BUT one South African billionaire is here to keep everyone grounded. ------------------------- Support the show for $5/month and get a weekly bonus episode of Minion Death Cult as well as our brand new weekly live show: DEATH CHAT 500 (also available in podcast form). That's TWO bonus episodes a week. Also get access to our entire back catalogue including BUTT FEST 2000 with Bryan Quinby; live-reads of My Antifa Lover, Rodham, and Ladies First: A MAGA Hat Romance; movie episodes like Believe, To Die For, and Loqueesha; and hundreds more. Sign up at http://patreon.com/miniondeathcult
I have another more slightly more detailed story from France24.
This is from a couple days ago.
Robin Hood energy strikers give free power to French schools, hospitals, low-income homes.
Yeah, it's so sick.
It's not that novel.
It's kind of an age-old tactic.
Mid-national strikes in the energy sector, some workers in France have found a novel way to protest.
It's not that novel.
It's kind of one of an age-old tactic.
Yeah, actually.
On Thursday, Robin Hood operations, unauthorized by the government, provided free gas and electricity to schools, universities, and low-income households throughout the country.
This is like insanely glowing press.
Like, if this happened in America, the media would find, like, the one person who got really cold.
Like the one, a maid at one of the gated community's houses, she got cold because they cut power to her millionaire boss's home.
Yeah, like some doctor couldn't charge their Tesla.
So they're gonna be like, you know how many people died because I couldn't get to work?
Three.
The answer's three, actually.
Didn't think I had an answer, did ya?
Among the facilities provided free energy were public sports facilities, daycare centers, public libraries, some small businesses, oh, I mean, nobody's perfect, and homes that had been cut off from power.
The Robin de Bois operations, named after the English folk hero Robin Hood, and I'm gonna choose to read that as Robin de Boys, Robin Deez Boys.
Robin de Boys, yeah.
We're part of a wider effort to force the government to drop plans to increase the retirement age in France.
Providing free energy was intended to, quote, intensify the balance of power in favor of striking workers, said Felipe Martinez, Secretary General of the GGT, one of the largest confederations of trade unions in France.
It's about returning energy to those who don't have it at all because they can't afford to and making it free for hospitals and schools.
Like, imagine having this enemy.
Imagine having this political enemy who gave free, like, granted free energy to hospitals and schools and daycare centers and the impoverished.
Like, how?
How could you argue against this?
Man, it just sucks because all I'm thinking about is, again, if that were to happen here, the way our class consciousness works, people would still be mad.
People would still be upset about it.
They would be like, oh, they should have voted for it.
Or they would be like, oh, they should just have power supply backups.
Why don't they just have those?
They would have all the kinds of reasons why this is not good.
I think it's like...
Maybe not a chicken and egg thing, but I think it goes... They go together.
Once you have enough class consciousness or enough power to do something like this...
The, like, rhetorical pushback from everybody else is far less because they're there with you in the same society, like, growing as a, you know, as a zeitgeist or whatever.
And if you have the physical support to do something like this, you probably also have, like, rhetorical support and emotional support from, like, broadly, you know what I mean?
So we have to build, I think, The emotional support, the rhetorical support, and I think that might lead, you know, what I'm saying is podcasting is the way to get these things, I think.
Thank you for saying it.
You know, not enough people are saying it, but I'm glad we're finally saying it out loud.
Yeah.
Podcasting is how we're going to shut the power off.
Podcasting is how we're going to get control of the grid, okay?
The reference to the Englishman known for stealing from the rich to give to the poor was appropriate, Martinez told France Info on Wednesday.
The unconventional protest comes during ongoing cost-of-living crisis in Europe that will see gas and electricity prices rise by an additional 15% in France in 2023, intensifying long-standing issues.
In 2021, a quarter of households in France were already struggling to pay energy bills.
And from the reporting that I was reading, there were like Plenty of people who just didn't have it, who were just going without energy, had their energy shut off because they couldn't afford it, which of course happens in this country too as well.
Yeah.
"We could paralyze the country." "Meanwhile, strikes by energy workers in power plants, refineries, ports, and docks on Thursday reduced French power availability by two gigawatts at three nuclear reactors," the outage table of state-controlled nuclear group EDF showed on Friday morning.
"Strikes also took place in almost every French port." Yeah, don't fuck with the people who are running your nuclear.
You know, that's a good rule of thumb.
Strikes also took place in almost every French port, with many coming to a complete standstill.
The CGT—see, it goes back and forth from GGT to CGT.
I don't know which is the correct name of this union.
The CGT's National Federation for Ports and Docks said, While Total Energy's workers broke their strike on Thursday evening, other energy strikes continued on Friday.
They do it crazy.
They just go on strike and they're like, are we still striking?
Yeah, I guess we're still striking.
Let's fuck stuff up again today.
And then they just stop, go back to work, and then they just do another strike later.
It's great.
It's like a reflexive tick.
I love it.
It's awesome and I think and like you said it is because they kind of have the support you know they're able to be like oh oh that's that's today no we're not working today and everyone's down just because the the conversation's already been had uh the if you're working there you're already down Right.
The energy walkout follows a national strike on January 19th over pension reforms proposed by President Emmanuel Macron's government that include plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Again, in America, what's the retirement age here?
73?
It's like 70.
It's up there.
Do we even have one technically?
Do we even have like a, you know?
You get Social Security benefits.
It's not a pension.
Um... Yeah.
Oh, it says you can receive them as early as age 62 here in America, but you get, like, reduced benefits, obviously.
Your benefit would be about... But it's 67, generally.
30% lower than it would be at your full retirement age of 67.
So we're talking full retirement age is 67, whereas full retirement age in France is 62, and the goddamn neolibs in government decided they wanted to raise it to 64.
This is sick shit.
This is amazing stuff.
They know what they have in their hands, and they have the country in their hands, you know?
And it's just like, what a wonderful thing to use it over.
You know, this isn't like a trivial matter.
The retirement age, it's a big deal.
It's something that affects every working person.
Yeah, and they didn't say, we're raising the retirement age for the electrics union.
They said we're raising the retirement age for France, and the electrical union said, fuck that.
Right.
Like that, and it, because it wasn't just about them, and like that rules.
Yeah, um, let's get into responses here.
Okay, now we're getting into the good stuff, because Shirley here says, they're moaning because they can't retire till 64?
Really?
And Emmanuel, a different Emmanuel replies.
Emmanuel was all over this comment section, by the way.
Emmanuel says, French people are never happy.
They live in paradise and are not aware of it.
And you might be thinking, that's kind of a silly thing to say if you think about it for more than a second, but there's more of this conversation.
Shirley says back to Emmanuel, they want to try working to British employment laws.
You're like, yeah, they sound worse over there in Britain.
And then Emmanuel says back to Shirley, they just prefer not to work.
It is just sad.
So many go on disability after 55 and wait to retire.
They should come and live in the US for a while.
I love this is this is the argument what this is the most common art so I will say overwhelming response to what what they're doing in France extremely positive people love this stuff across the spectrum Liberals love this stuff.
The left obviously loves this stuff.
The right loves this stuff under certain conditions, which I'll get to in a second.
Broadly popular.
Broadly, like, enjoyed.
Just like people are having a good time watching the strikers work their will on their country.
Watching them invent new ways to, like, be cool while striking.
Like, putting that barbecue on a track to push along the tracks.
To grill while you're marching.
Amazing, amazing stuff.
The most common, what do you call it, negative response to this, though, is, why are they striking over 64?
We have it way worse where we are, and we never strike.
That's the number one argument with the strikers.
And it starts with him saying, like, France is a paradise.
Like, why would you not want to continue to work there longer?
Why would you want to retire and enjoy that?
France is a paradise.
How did it get like that, by the way?
Yeah, how did that happen?
That's weird.
They're just, they take everything for granted.
They take it for granted.
You got a 62 retirement age.
It's only going up to 64.
You don't know how good you got it.
You're taking it for granted.
And I would say, maybe they know more than you do.
Maybe they know what they're doing over there.
It sounds like they're not taking anything for granted.
They're actually taking it very seriously.
No, see, he doesn't even stop there, Alex.
It's not even just the retirement age.
Do you know about their vacation laws?
Do you know about that?
Do you know about their maternity and fraternity and family leave?
Do you know about these things?
Have you heard about their... Wait until you hear about what happens when you get sick over there.
It's disgusting.
Wait until you hear about... It's gross.
You know, you're just gonna go get help without having to earn that?
Because then you're not even gonna be grateful for your health.
