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."

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

reminders:

  • 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
  • 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
  • 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
  • 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
  • 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

Theory:

  • AntiOutsideAktion [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    The Adventures of an Amazon Delivery Driver! Today's Adventure: I Swoon'd

    I very nearly fainted yesterday. It was a solid 5 degrees cooler than the day before but way more humid. And I was on an area where I got to stay in front of the van's AC most of the time between big warehouses, so I wasn't wearing my wet rag or my straw hat. My van was loaded so tight that I didn't even put the shelves down; I just piled everything in. I had nineteen big tote bags and then 33 additional 'overflow' boxes of various shapes, sizes and weights.

    On one of my first stops, I had to go looking for two of these 'overflow' packages. So I'm on this loading dock made of hot concrete tunneling into the un-air-conditioned cargo hold from the front, and unloading/relaoding from the back until I found them. The sun came out and it felt like it jumped 15 degrees. I put my mask on and put on the backpack with like 8 small things in it and stooped to pick up the two big things. A small thing fell out. Keeping my torso and head perfectly straight up, I picked up the little envelope and shoved it behind my back into the box-like backpack. I went inside and asked where to put all that shit down and barely got vague hand motions out of people until I walked across the entire 5ish truck loading bay. "No problem, have a nice day."

    I got back out and I was extremely dizzy and all of my sweat had dumped out of my body at once. Briefly I considered just pushing through it but we're talking real dizzy here so I decided to do what they tell you to do and rest. But fuck having to take one of my 15 minute breaks. I guzzled the water part of the ice soup in my thermos, and chugged a package of electrolyte kool-aide shit I took from the snack basket in the morning with a costco 17oz bottle of water that had been in the van for probably weeks at that point. I blasted the AC in my face and fancy sweat wicking sunshirt. To be productive, I called my dispatcher to inform them of a weird box I picked up and could have 100% just dealt with myself. Then, still dizzy but not -quite- as bad, I drove off to the next warehouse within the liminal spacey giant fucking warehouse complex with its own tiny set of roads and locked gates randomly.

    The rest of the day wasn't great either.