It pales in comparison to the one million Jews they obligingly shipped to Nazi prison camps and gas chambers. And it only equates to a few hours' casualties at Ypres or the Somme. But still, one would think that the French would protest against 10,000 people dying from Europe's hot summer.
I couldn't believe it either, but the French regime has admitted that thousands of people died from the excessive heat in the last few months. Not to worry, though: they were mostly old pensioners, and therefore useless. That would explain the lack of coverage in the American press.
Still, one would think it might attract a little attention. I mean, these are white Western Europeans we're talking about -- it's not like we're talking about thousands of dead Slavs or Africans.
From news accounts, you can see the concerns of the French people, or at least the portion of the French people that make their voices heard:
1-5. Opposition to American "hegemony."
6. Stifling genetically modified foods.
7. The truffle shortage.
8. Increasing the number of years government employees must work to get their pensions, from 37 to 40. (This caused riots.)
9. Too many American movies in French theaters.
10. Declining baguette sales (that's not a joke -- the government ran ads encouraging its citizens to buy more bread.)
.
.
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43. Ensuring that old people don't die from unseasonable heat.
This is socialist France, cradle-to-grave-nanny-state-protection France. They aren't supposed to have Third-World death tolls in civilized, tolerant Europe. That's the continent to which we always compare backward, violent America, and France is Europeanness incarnate.
Western European Man ceased to believe in God, so he shifted his faith to the State. The State's idea of egalité is that everyone is an equal chattel of the State. Useless poor women are given the chance to abort their future useless children; useless old people are tacitly encouraged to die and spare the State any further expense.
Socialism is not a cure for the culture of death. Socialism is an engine of the culture of death.
What's "funny" about this is that the French and Germans were ridiculing America for its blackout a week or so ago, declaring that we were far behind the Europeans. Meanwhile under their very noses thousands of their citizens are dying from the heat. This is the same level of heat that the Southern US faces every year.
Ken
As Eric said, old people are "useless" in a socialist state. And with decreasing birthrates, and increasing life expectancy, "useless" old people will become an increasingly inconvenient demographic. Therefore it is in the best interests of the amoral state that they should die.
I once saw an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation about a man from a planet where everybody committed ritual suicide on their 60th birthday. This was to prevent them from burdening the younger generation and was considered by the society as quite humane to the elderly. I fear that something like that lies ahead for the west.
Actually, it's even hotter in cities like Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston, which have millions of people and no mass heat-related deaths.
Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston are used to the heat and prepared for it. The heatwave in France was quite unusual and they weren't prepared for it. That doesn't excuse the French government, or the French people who lacked any initiative in either helping their neighbors personally or lobbying their government, but it is not comparable to everyday summer heat in the South.
Plus, in the American Southwest, it is a DRY heat...
Parker:
If it's 110F, 115F, or even 120F, as it sometimes is in Phoenix or in Death Valley, it's bloody hot, even if it's dry heat.
Try San Antonio where often it's bloody hot AND bloddy humid. Unless it's flooding ... like today.