I see there is some debate by "reasonable people" about whether Macron's moves against Muslims are in fact comparable to "far-right fascism." Of course they are. Why would you even debate that? Do you think because he's small and cute and tres mignon that he can't be a dictator? https://twitter.com/moorehn/status/1328245843976220672

First there is a lot of textual reference in the thread I just linked, about Macron's years-long campaign of sending his grimy En Marche deputies to send dog-whistles about Islamophobia. Read that whole thread.

Second: A lot of people are arguing that the issue with surveilling children is meant to be for all children. One problem with that smokescreen: Macron *specifically* announced it as part of his "plan to fight Islamists."

Side note: I travel to Paris a *lot* and have for years. I go twice a year, I've visited most of the country and I've stayed there for months at a time. French racism is nothing new. But it is hilarious to see a country that brags about its "nuance" suddenly become so literal.

Macron's new aggressiveness is much like his old kind -- against unions, against pensions, against labor rights -- except he has found a message that white French people want to hear. Of course they've heard it before - from the woman who nearly beat him https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/10/08/macron-s-not-worried-about-islam.-he-s-worried-about-le-pen-pub-82931

It is crucial for French people to understand that this criticism of Macron as an authoritarian is accurate because the first thing authoritarians do is demonize an identity group. Macron has found his formula with Muslims.

It is understandable that Macron would want to control "Islamistes" but he is conflating everyday Muslim citizens with Islamists. He is proposing that any Muslim child can be a terrorist. This is not a mistake. This fear is how he holds power.

In order to feed this fear, he is proposing historical limits on the civil liberties of French people generally and French Muslims specifically. Again: The claim that human rights must be violated for "national security" is a classic autocrat playbook.

https://theconversation.com/so-you-want-to-be-an-autocrat-heres-the-10-point-checklist-125908

You can choose to loudly say you agree with Islamophobia -- that is your revelation to disclose, should you choose it, just as Germans loudly pledged to the Nazi party -- but you cannot plausibly argue that Macron is not walking the well-worn path of fascism.

What's more, Macron has previously demonstrated his autocratic tendencies and his arrogance. I didn't name him "Jupiter," French citizens did. Foreign media didn't put his face on this placard, French citizens did:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/05/world/europe/emmanuel-macron-france-protest.html

I have no doubt that the Elysee is reaching out to journalists to rewrite history and launder Macron's reputation. But this is silly. He has always been known as a petty little dictator. His approval ratings are low. His party lost strength in elections. https://www.ft.com/content/e2b914cc-4cdb-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5

So again: Feel free, French media and government officials, to brag about your racism openly. But please do not insult anyone's intelligence by attempting to valorize a little Napoleon as the hero of the liberal order.

Additionally: Laïcité is a concept that has been stolen and radicalized by the French far-right. They have painted it as something that existed since the founding of the Republic. Well, it was certainly absent in the 1940s when French Catholics were denouncing Jewish neighbors.

I have studied French history and the history of racism and exclusion goes back to the Code Noir, when Jean-Baptiste Colbert wrote the template for the brutalities of the slave trade. On into the atrocities in Algeria -- remember, Macron wanted to call that a genocide -- and on.

What an embarrassing week for French media and government to display their lack of logic and ignorance of their own history as well as their present. You can yell at the foreign media but the truth is, it sees this more clearly than French narcissists gazing into the mirror.

Also the number of French people who cannot read a basic Twitter bio is alarming. Perhaps Macron should have made schooling stricter earlier then, considering how bad the reading comprehension there seems to be.