Burning Down the House Is a Fucking Terrible Renovation Plan

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Here’s my unpopular opinion: throwing a paving stone at somebody does not become intellectual debate because you’re wearing black and have strong feelings about capitalism.

Across the Atlantic, Americans are marching against kings. Meanwhile, in France, a contingent of revolutionary geniuses appears to have decided that the solution to everything being too expensive is to destroy some more things.

Excellent. Now we’re broke and on fire.

Yes, the grievances are real. Overcrowded classrooms, missing teachers, crumbling public services and a cost of living that makes a supermarket receipt look like a ransom demand. People have every reason to protest.

But somewhere between “we need functioning schools” and “let’s smash this shop window,” somebody has clearly missed an essential lesson.

Burning down the house does not fix the fucking house.

I’m talking about the people who turn up to somebody else’s legitimate protest and turn it into a demolition derby with political accessories. The ones who apparently believe a balaclava constitutes a manifesto and stealing something through a broken window counts as wealth redistribution.

Funny how the revolution so often discovers an urgent ideological interest in merchandise.

Then comes the part that makes my remaining brain cell reach for the emergency wine.

You’ve been throwing rocks. Setting fires. Charging police. And when officers intervene, suddenly we’re watching the world premiere of How Could This Possibly Happen to Me?

What, exactly, was the anticipated response?

A participation certificate? A restorative conversation beside the burning vehicle? “Thank you for expressing your frustration, Sébastien. Would you like to throw another brick, or shall we unpack your feelings first?”

I would not want to be a police officer in that situation. You’re standing there while somebody spits at you, threatens you or tries to put you in hospital, knowing that the internet may judge the entire encounter from the twelve seconds after you finally react.

A uniform does not switch off your nervous system. Nor does it turn you into municipal equipment that the public is entitled to kick.

Officers should be able to protect themselves and other people. That shouldn’t be a daring opinion requiring an anonymous account and witness protection.

And yes, police misconduct should be investigated. Being attacked doesn’t hand anyone permission to hit whoever happens to be nearby. But I’m equally tired of the assumption that a person holding a protest sign—or standing somewhere near one—is automatically incapable of being a violent arsehole.

Sometimes an arsehole has a cause. Still an arsehole.

What particularly exhausts me is the industrial production of excuses.

A difficult childhood. Alienation. Pandemic disruption. Institutional failure.

These things can matter. Understanding them might even help prevent the next riot. But explanation cannot become an endless subscription service that exempts you from responsibility.

Lockdown was shit. It was not a lifetime voucher for smashing somebody else’s livelihood.

The shopkeeper sweeping glass out of their stock also lived through Covid. The bus driver whose vehicle is burning has bills. The cleaner arriving tomorrow morning did not personally design France’s economic policy.

Yet somehow they keep receiving the invoice for everyone else’s revolutionary self-expression.

I want consequences that actually happen. Assault charges pursued. Deliberate destruction taken seriously. Restitution where possible. Decisions delivered while everybody can still remember the incident.

Not a theatrical promise of toughness followed by administrative fog. And not another sympathetic shrug that leaves the victim paying and the offender feeling untouchable.

And this isn’t some uniquely French export, like champagne or administrative despair. My frustration extends well beyond France: wherever a legitimate protest becomes cover for looting and violence, the same excuses start doing overtime.

Apparently, the system is responsible for everything—including your decision to put a brick through the window of someone who has considerably less power than the people you’re supposedly fighting.

I don’t think an entire generation is beyond saving. I do think we’re doing young people a spectacular disservice if we teach them that having a grievance means never having to control themselves.

Protest. Organise. Strike. Make those in power uncomfortable. Demand schools fit to learn in and wages fit to live on.

But if your contribution is a fire, a stolen bag and a rock aimed at somebody’s head, spare me the lecture about building a better society.

You’ve left somebody else with a worse one.

Sour thought: Smash a billionaire’s window and he calls his insurer. Smash a small business and the owner loses their livelihood. Congratulations, comrade. Capitalism would like to thank you for eliminating the competition.

Personal opinion and satire. The comic’s scenes and dialogue are imagined.

Reporting behind the rant: AP’s October 17 report describes fires, looting and attacks on police, alongside a majority of peaceful protesters. Reuters also reports unrest elsewhere in Europe and investigations into alleged police violence. The commentary above targets destructive behaviour; it does not claim that all protesters were violent or that every police action was justified.