On the 14th of July in 1789, a crowd of nearly one thousand protesters stormed the Bastille in Paris, France, a major event in the French Revolution, commemorated annually as "Bastille Day".

In the months running up to the uprising, the people of France were facing a dire economic crisis, food shortage, and increased militarization of Paris on orders of King Louis XVI. The Bastille was an armory and prison, perceived by many as a symbol of royal authority in the city.

On the morning of July 14th, a crowd of approximately one thousand people surrounded the Bastille, calling for the surrender of the prison, the removal of its cannon, and the release of the arms and gunpowder stored there.

After negotiations stalled, the crowd surged into the courtyard of the Bastille and were fired upon by troops in the garrison. In the carnage that followed, ninety-eight protesters and one defender of the Bastille were killed.

Governor Marquis de Launay, fearing his troops could not hold out, capitulated to the crowd and opened up the Bastille doors. He was captured and dragged towards the Hôtel de Ville in a storm of abuse. While the crowd debated his fate, the badly beaten Launay shouted "Enough! Let me die!", kicked a pastry cook in the groin, and was then promptly stabbed to death.

As news of the successful seizure of the Bastille spread throughout the country, revolutionaries established parallel structures of power for government and militias for civic protection, burned deeds of property, and in some cases attacked wealthy landlords.

King Louis XVI first learned of the storming the next morning through the Duke of La Rochefoucauld. "Is it a revolt?" asked the King. The duke replied: "No sire, it's not a revolt; it's a revolution."

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  • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]
    ·
    6 months ago

    In my limited but not 0 experience, people have to convince themselves. So if you want to facilitate anything, you want to let them turn their minds on and work through their thoughts. If they feel any kind of pressure, they'll lock up and use their default reflexes.

    More than you'd believe, asking a question like that is about your tone of voice being curious instead of harsh/skeptical. Id also be ready for a "what do you mean?" in response and offer some entry level alternative (Citations Needed)

    • ashinadash [she/her]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Yeah that's what I'm thinking too. I can probably hammer him with articles about Israeli atrocities, popular support for resistance groups, and I did go over that stuff a bit, but he just thinks ISLAM is a death cult or whatever, it seems.

      I'm really incredibly bad at tone, kobeni-sweat but I can try, not a bad strat...

    • FunkyStuff [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Yeah it's super important to do it in a way that doesn't lock them up. The tricky thing with not being very direct is that sometimes you feel like you got somewhere, but the person just goes and easily reverts any progress you've made because of cognitive dissonance. The ideas you introduce clash too hard with all their existing brainworms so they have to choose one or the other, they likely will just choose their existing brainworms. Being more confrontational will get them to be defensive and bring up whatever thing gives them pause about the new information you show them, which will give you a chance to address those things ahead of time, but if they get too defensive they'll be unwilling to change their minds. So it's a balancing act.