Know Your Enemy
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War on Terror, Part Deux (w/ Cole Stangler)
🕑 Added 2021-03-14 00:50:56 +0000 UTCIn recent months, French president Emmanuel Macron, once hailed as the savior of mainstream liberalism, has responded to a series of Islamist terror attacks with a sharp right turn—one he hopes will serve him well in a possible run-off election against the nativist/populist Marine Le Pen. KYE Paris correspondent Cole Stangler joins Matt and Sam to explain Macron's increasingly Islamophobic, authoritarian, and anti-leftist policy agenda. Topics include: whether or not his reactionary pivot should have been a surprise; the alarming parallels between France today and America after 9/11; the susceptibility of center-left politics to reactionary forces; the role French secularism (laïcité) has and hasn't played in these controversies; prospects for the French left; and more!
Further Reading
Cole Stangler, "France’s New Culture Warriors," The Nation, Mar 3, 2021
Cole Stangler, "France's War on Terror," Commonweal, Dec 16, 2020
Comments
Agnès V
You may want to get your correspondent to tell you all about Eric Zemmour. Not that I want to hear more about the guy (talk about ad nauseam already), and he may evaporate at some point, but right now he looms big on the French political scene. Quite the enemy. Don't know if he has American friends though, but he's already palled up to Viktor Orban. His particular brand of Islamophobia may also be of interest, as would his wish to "restore France's greatness".
Diana S
Thank you, this is the clearest explanation I've seen.
David Cox
Given the role of the church prior to the Revolution of 1789, and later during the majority support for pro-Nazi Vichy, France can be forgiven for collectively wanting a solid repudiation of religion generally.
Áine Sheehan
TLDR: Ilhan Omar couldn't exist in France.
Áine Sheehan
I think, it is important to note that laïcité is better defined for American/English speaking audiences as "freedom from religion" rather than just straight "secularism". I'm an American and I think of Government Secularism as "seperation of church and state" or "freedom OF religion" which plays into different ways in the U.S. (football coaches can lead a prayer before a game, a Muslim woman can wear a hijab in public spaces, you don't have to say the pledge of allegiance in public schools). It is so different in France! No religious symbols at all can occur in public spaces, meaning more visible and public displays of Islamophobia. I think a leftist audience (like yours) would default to "freedom OF religion" when thinking of secularism.
Leo Martin
On Islamophobia it seems that the entire French political discourse is to the left of that in America.
Stephen McMurtry
Isn't Macron widely known to be the favored candidate of the LVMH guy and the French millionaire class sent to do neoliberalism? I don't think it's as hard to ascertain his politics as this French political writer makes it seem; Sam seems to pick up on it pretty well
David Cox
As Zizek has pointed out, and as Britain has proven, Nationalism and Europe are incompatible ideas. Yet Europe emerged from the French Revolution so go figure.
Colin Moir
Worth noting that Jean-Luc Melenchon also indulged in pretty ugly levels of Islamophobia after that terror attack. He openly called for more scrutiny of the Chechen community and alleged it was full of Jihadist separatists who (he thinks) were only allowed into the country because of the French government’s anti-Putin position. This is, of course, in addition to Melenchon’s Holocaust revisionism.
Catherine M Stanford
He is William F. Buckley, Jr., the founder of the National Review. Yes, he is an enemy.
joe
Hey this is probably a dumb question, but I couldn't figure it out via reverse image search. Who is the dude featured in KYE's thumbnail? Is he an enemy? Or someone that was good about knowing the enemy? Anyways, love the show it's interesting and insightful.
