Les 'gilets jaunes'

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661-Pete
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by 661-Pete »

There's more.

Just been reading this story:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47270935

And a bit earlier in the day, was looking at this one:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47268651

Both equally nasty. I just hope I'm not identified with such scum, just because I wear yellow hi-viz some of the time when cycling. And I won't give in and stop wearing the yellow. Others may do what they like, I wear it for an honest reason. Enough said.
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pwa
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by pwa »

I don't think anyone will think you are a neo-nazi just because you wear a hi-viz.
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Cugel
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Cugel »

pwa wrote:I don't think anyone will think you are a neo-nazi just because you wear a hi-viz.


You'll be surprised then.

Humans are daft (even me). We are keen to find nice big easy-to-recognise labels for identifying easily-defined baddies and goodies. "Le gilet jaune" protests are composed of all sorts of people with all manner of angsts, dislikes and even hatreds. They have in common only the yellow vest that has become a protest thing.

Yer average Daily Frightener reader (and they are all average, normal, middle of the road, moderate and other meaningless labels, themselves) will now take a yellow vest to be a sign of ...... "them protesters I don't like" (subtext "because they were against something I agree with").

The flavour of the jauner protests are politically left, right, up, down, sideways and into the unreal dimensions, with yellow vesters, so Mr Moderate will certainly find a few he can take agin', thus justifying his dislike of any and all in a gilet jaune.

This will, of course, include cyclists. "They attack emergency workers, don't they. Just criminals - run them ovah"!

Cugel
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pwa
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by pwa »

I've seen quite a few people today wearing hi-viz and I'm pretty certain that it didn't occur to me they might be neo-nazis.
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Cugel
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Cugel »

pwa wrote:I've seen quite a few people today wearing hi-viz and I'm pretty certain that it didn't occur to me they might be neo-nazis.


You will be incorrect then. Statistical statistics suggest that the more yellow-clads you see, the more likely it is that some will harbour the sentiments, opinions or even potential actions of both neo-nazis and actual ones.

The questions are: which are they and how many? Some might be identifiable by their actions. Others will be revealed with a few simple questions. Why not stop them all and perform a valuable analysis?

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
Ben@Forest
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Ben@Forest »

661-Pete wrote:Both equally nasty. I just hope I'm not identified with such scum, just because I wear yellow hi-viz some of the time when cycling. And I won't give in and stop wearing the yellow. Others may do what they like, I wear it for an honest reason. Enough said.


Are you in France? I don't think the idea that yellow vest = protestor has taken hold in the UK. It means dog walker, cyclist, jogger, contractor or employee in some type of high risk activity. I have a yellow vest and complete orange hi vis in my car for working next to roads or railways. Does that make me subversive? :wink:
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Cugel
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Cugel »

Ben@Forest wrote:
661-Pete wrote:Both equally nasty. I just hope I'm not identified with such scum, just because I wear yellow hi-viz some of the time when cycling. And I won't give in and stop wearing the yellow. Others may do what they like, I wear it for an honest reason. Enough said.


Are you in France? I don't think the idea that yellow vest = protestor has taken hold in the UK. It means dog walker, cyclist, jogger, contractor or employee in some type of high risk activity. I have a yellow vest and complete orange hi vis in my car for working next to roads or railways. Does that make me subversive? :wink:


There will an ex-colonel somewhere near Nether Wallop who thinks so!

These easy badges and associated stereotypes are very easy to make and often take-hold with nothing more that a couple of Daily Frightener stories. I often examine my own badge-induced prejudices, in order to keep them to a small and discreet number, since they grow like Topsy. ....

For example, I often used to assume that a thickset beer-bellied bald bloke with a tattoo or two is a football hooligan with fascist tendencies. Imagine my surprise to discover many that aren't, not only loving their mum but helping soft lads to ride a bike without a hint of impatience! I also discovered that not everyone from Essex is an empty-headed poseur with terrible taste in bling clothing, motor cars and indoor decorations!! Some can even form whole sentences expressing quite complex notions.

My adventures in Brechfa forest have also convinced me that not all foresters are strange and lonely hinterlanders likely to run amok with their axe or bowsaw if rubbed-up the wrong way. I recently met one who spoke quite poetically about the virtues of the often maligned evergreens dominating the forests of this fair land. I was convinced, despite no threat of axe-chop or bowsaw-wound.

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Ben@Forest »

Cugel wrote:My adventures in Brechfa forest have also convinced me that not all foresters are strange and lonely hinterlanders likely to run amok with their axe or bowsaw if rubbed-up the wrong way. I recently met one who spoke quite poetically about the virtues of the often maligned evergreens dominating the forests of this fair land. I was convinced, despite no threat of axe-chop or bowsaw-wound.

Cugel


I think the bane of the forester's life is that everyone has an opinion on what the countryside should be whereas nobody has an interest on how polyurethane should be extruded to make window frames or the best way to stack tins onto a shelf.

Which means that people who know nothing, whether it's about high density Sitka spruce or coppicing for invertebrate interest, but who have seen Countryfile have an often lopsided view!

A forester bemoans....
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661-Pete
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by 661-Pete »

Ben@Forest wrote:
661-Pete wrote:Both equally nasty. I just hope I'm not identified with such scum, just because I wear yellow hi-viz some of the time when cycling. And I won't give in and stop wearing the yellow. Others may do what they like, I wear it for an honest reason. Enough said.


Are you in France? I don't think the idea that yellow vest = protestor has taken hold in the UK. It means dog walker, cyclist, jogger, contractor or employee in some type of high risk activity. I have a yellow vest and complete orange hi vis in my car for working next to roads or railways. Does that make me subversive? :wink:
Not at present, but when going to France by car, we always carry the obligatory gilets jaunes (the vests, not the people wearing them! :shock: ) in the door pocket. Never worn them though, I think they're still in their original packaging.

All of our cycling in France is in daytime and mostly along very rural roads, so no need for hi-viz there.

It may be populism, but it's spawned a very unpleasant streak - in both countries. As for "Across the Pond", it seems to be more, those wretched red baseball caps with their 4-letter slogan.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Many of the lads in Coed Brechfa are perfect in two languages, smarter than most of us
Cymru am byth!
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Ben@Forest »

Cyril Haearn wrote:Many of the lads in Coed Brechfa are perfect in two languages, smarter than most of us
Cymru am byth!


Speaking two languages is not an indicator of smartness. If you grow up where two languages are spoken then it happens. Otherwise you're saying that many parts of the world where English is a de facto second language are also smarter. Or Switzerland where around 130 000 people are truly bilingual in French and German - are they therefore smarter than all other Swiss?
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Cugel
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Cugel »

Ben@Forest wrote:
Cyril Haearn wrote:Many of the lads in Coed Brechfa are perfect in two languages, smarter than most of us
Cymru am byth!


Speaking two languages is not an indicator of smartness. If you grow up where two languages are spoken then it happens. Otherwise you're saying that many parts of the world where English is a de facto second language are also smarter. Or Switzerland where around 130 000 people are truly bilingual in French and German - are they therefore smarter than all other Swiss?


Bryn hopes to be included with the smarty class. :-)

Personally I am only smart every other Tuesday between 6am and 6:30am, when I wake briefly from a revelatory dream explaining everything. Alas, by 7:30am I am wide awake and cannae recapture that elusive mind state or any of its content!

If I was smart enough, I would invent a dream recorder. But I'm not.

Sometimes I dream beautiful and perfect music. I hate waking from them.

Cugel
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Oh no, the reduction in maximum speed limits to 80 kmh on single-carriageways in France may be reversed, the parliament has just decided

Allegedly the reduction in maxim speed limits was one reason for the 'Gillotts jaunes' protests :?
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Audax67
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by Audax67 »

In fact the blanket 80 kph limit is not being lifted overall, but our weasels-in-office plan to let the Prefects of every département decide which from roads it will be lifted, which means that as you drive from one département to another the limit is probably going to change. It's a right dog's breakfast.

The 80 kph limit was one of the reasons that the G.J. got so much support, that and the clamping down on diesels. The protests are fizzling out now, though.
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thirdcrank
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Re: Les 'gilets jaunes'

Post by thirdcrank »

Talking of smart people who also speak different languages, does anybody know what's happened to Canuk? I've only just noticed that they've not been around for a while.
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