François Valentin Profile picture
Jan 11 6 tweets 2 min read Read on X
One of the oddest things about the islamic revolution is that Ayatollah Khomeini lived in exile in the cushy Parisian suburb of Neauphle-le-Chateau for years before flying back to Iran

His leftist allies (whom he will later persecute) knew that French elites would love him Image
Michel Foucault saw in the future revolution "the most modern form of government" and Khomeini "a saint man"

Sartre believed he would lead an "anti colonialist and anti imperialist regime"

French newspaper liberation called it a "Shiite socialism"
The one french intellectual who somewhat saw through the BS was Simone de Beauvoir who saw that the regime's will to put every woman behind niqabs was incompatible with her feminist ideals
This is where the concept of "islamo-leftism" comes from

For decades you had intellectuals like Ali Shariati (partially educated in France) who worked to tie Islamism and Leftist ideology together Image
In the end the useful idiots in the West didn't get much comeuppance for their blind ignorance

The useful idiots in Iran however largely paid their mistakes and naivety with their lives
He stayed for *months! Not years! Complete brain fart on my end that usually happens when I write threads on my phone

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with François Valentin

François Valentin Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Valen10Francois

Dec 26, 2025
This has to be one of the most fascinating "hive mind" phenomena in existence

During and after wars, the birth sex ratio skews decisively towards boys, as if to make up for lost men

Graphs below show the effect of WW1 on France and Germany

Why? A few theories below Image
One theory is that men that return from wars tend to be a bit higher than those who die (about 2 cms)

And it may sound bogus, but taller men are a little more likely to have boys! We aren't really sure why though
Another suggests women taking on "masculine" roles during war (factories, resistance) boosted testosterone, leading to more male births.

This one is a bit weak biologically
Read 5 tweets
Oct 21, 2025
In a predictably 🇫🇷 twist, unions are blaming the Louvre fiasco on lack of staff

They claim that 100s of jobs were cut in the last 10/15 years. The French press took these number for granted

So I did what no one did and looked at the annual reports:

The unions are wrong Image
The unions are claiming that staff head count has gone down by 200.

In 2010 the Louvre's annual report claims 2100 employees.

By 2015 it has gone down somewhat at 2072

And in 2024? Would it be 1900?

Nope... it's even higher than in 2010 at 2242
Oh but perhaps the unions are talking about security agents.

In 2010 there's 1200 of them

In 2015 there's 1200 of them

In 2024 there's... 1200 of them
Read 12 tweets
Oct 14, 2025
People often assume that French politicians never touch pensions out of fear of the grey vote

This is only partially true:

Working age Frenchies are also delusional or ill-informed on pensions

This is how they end up backing "Turkeys for Christmas" policies

A🧵 Image
French people don't see pensions as a big issue

When you ask them what to cut:

32% mention family benefits (≃50 bn)

31% digital policy (no idea of the value but single digit billions at most)

30% unemployment benefits (≃40bn)

Only 6% mention pensions (400bn+) Image
French people overwhelmingly favor the abrogation of Macron's pensions reform Image
Read 10 tweets
Sep 22, 2025
Is Catholicism making a revival in France?

Latin masses, baptisms, pilgrimages, Catholicism seems hip again!

But behind the vibes, what do the stats and maps show?

A 🧵 on the decline and transformation of Catholicism in post-Catholic France Image
France is historically one of the most important Catholic countries in Europe

To this day the trace of Catholicism can be found everywhere in France

Here's a map of France with all the towns with "Catholic" names (with Saint or trinity in it for example) Image
But since around the mid 18th century, Catholicism stops being a mass phenomenon and is instead much more geographically polarised

Here's the map of practicing Catholics in 1965. Big contrasts. Alsace, Brittany, the SW and the south-center are very pious Image
Read 27 tweets
Sep 8, 2025
French PM François Bayrou has been ousted by parliament. Macron's 3rd PM to lose his job in 18 months

The stakes are huge:

Will Macron dissolve parliament? Will the left take over? What about the IMF?

A 🧵on what happened and what happens next Image
What happened?

Ever since Macron's snap election last july, his coalition has shrunk into a small minority government

Last December his previous PM Michel Barnier was deposed by parliament after 3 months.

Bayrou took over facing similarly impossible parliamentary arithmetics Image
On top of that his government had to deal with possibly the most toxic fiscal situation in a decade

France's deficit is well above the 3% EU target

Bayrou was aiming for 43 bn in savings!

A recipe for disaster with roughly 3 equal parliamentary blocks unwilling to compromise Image
Read 24 tweets
Sep 7, 2025
Portugal being the first modern European colonial empire despite having a population of 1 million is seriously impressive. Image
And then at a similarly impressive pace becoming a secondary political player for the five centuries that followed.
Fun fact on the Portuguese empire: after decades of negotiations to try to get Goa peacefully, India just sent in the army in 1961

Portuguese dictator Salazar ordered for the completely outgunned defenders to fight to the last man

The prudent governor surrendered 36 hours after Image
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(