COLUMN • Burning schools, masked youth gangs, and attacks on police. Behind the French riots, there is also an explosive political mix of the far left, pro-Palestinian activists, and youths from immigrant-dense suburbs—but if you follow the Swedish establishment media, you get a much tamer narrative.

Two different narratives about France are now being broadcast. One is rooted in reality, and the other is tailored to fit an agenda. On SVT and BBC, high school students in France are protesting against teacher shortages, large classes, and rundown school buildings. The police are deployed, tear gas is used, and in some places, “clashes” occur.

We see SVT journalists walking alongside the well-behaved demonstrators, talking about demands for better school environments—and interviews with teachers speaking about police brutality.

Then, there is the France you see if you open your eyes and look at what is actually happening.

Burning barricades, buses, and cars. Masked youth gangs. Schools being vandalized and set on fire. Projectiles and fireworks aimed at the police. Acid thrown at police officers. Teachers being assaulted in broad daylight.

Over 6,500 rioters have been arrested and hundreds of police officers injured, according to Le Monde.

READ ALSO: Students Set Fire to Schools in France

But here at home, the Swedish people must not get the idea that this is anything other than “school protests.” Because what kind of picture of reality would that give them?

This issue of “image” is important. Swedish leftist journalists see it as their personal duty to ensure this image is the “correct” one. It’s becoming painful to witness.

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When the School Protest Turned into Riots

And indeed, it started as some form of school protest. Some students had real grievances with the French school system—teacher shortages, large classes, and dilapidated school buildings.

But soon enough, the protest—perhaps not so unexpectedly—turned into something very different.

The protests grew out of Paris’s immigrant-dense suburbs, and in the streets you see the environment France has struggled with for decades—large groups of young men from the suburbs, many according to experts from second- and third-generation immigrant families. At the same time, Palestinian flags and far-left symbols are everywhere. You have to be blind to deny the obvious connections.

Jonas Andersson

This is now also acknowledged by the French government. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has spoken about agitators moving between schools, while French authorities use the term “urban violence” for parts of the events.

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The political angle is even more interesting. According to Reuters, French intelligence agencies have pointed out the radical left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI) and its far-left allies as driving forces behind the mobilization.

LFI, unsurprisingly, denies any involvement in the violence.

But the party has been central to the mobilization. LFI politicians have appeared at blockades, participated in protests, and spread videos from them to millions of followers. And then there’s the elephant in the room. Just watch the footage.

The protests grew out of Paris’s immigrant-dense suburbs, and in the streets you see the environment France has struggled with for decades—large groups of young men from the suburbs, many according to experts from second- and third-generation immigrant families.

At the same time, Palestinian flags and far-left symbols are everywhere. You have to be blind to deny the obvious connections.

The Far Left Meets Islamism

Here again, the two political forces that on paper ought to be mortal enemies meet—something I have written about in numerous articles and columns.

The far left claims to stand for feminism, LGBTQ rights, secularism, and sexual liberation. Islamism represents the opposite. Yet, again and again, they find each other on the burning barricades, united in their shared hatred of the Western world.

READ ALSO: Feminism Finally Found Its Ally in Islamism

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Yes, they become the very best of friends, bound in their hatred of Israel and the Jews, the police, and what they perceive as the traditional Western society.

In France, LFI under Jean-Luc Mélenchon has, at the same time, built a strong voter base in areas with large Muslim populations. The same pattern can be seen in Sweden, the UK and the rest of Europe, the USA, and Australia. The far left is joining forces with bloodthirsty Islamism.

Fox News cites the conservative British commentator Nile Gardiner, who describes it as an explosive combination of radical leftists, Islamists, and second- and third-generation immigrants.

First, you choose which parts of reality to show. Next, you choose the words. Riots become “protests.” Masked perpetrators become “students.” Immigrant-dense suburbs become “disadvantaged areas.” The far left’s mobilization becomes “dissatisfaction.” And, of course, behind it all lies yet again the eternal Swedish catch-all explanation—socio-economic vulnerability and lack of resources.

Jonas Andersson

One does not have to buy every part of Gardiner’s analysis to at least ask the obvious journalistic question—what is it that we are actually witnessing?

And why does that question seem so uninteresting to Swedish media? Or rather, how are we to relate to the fact that Swedish state media and the rest of the leftist media reflexively take the rioters’ side—in the destructive struggle against the ideals of Western freedom?

The Art of Telling Half the Truth

SVT instead explains that the protests “stem, according to French media, from dissatisfaction over lack of resources in the education system.” Lack of resources… Just savor that again. An almost poetic phrase when schools are on fire and female teachers are beaten bloody.

Here also lies the explanation for why I sometimes use the term “lying media.” It’s not always about outright lies—SVT does mention the fires, in part. They might even mention injured police officers. But our state media are smarter than that.

First, you choose which parts of reality to show. Next, you choose the words. Riots become “protests.” Masked perpetrators become “students.” Immigrant-dense suburbs become “disadvantaged areas.” The far left’s mobilization becomes “dissatisfaction.”

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And, of course, behind it all yet again, the eternal Swedish catch-all explanation—socio-economic vulnerability and lack of resources.

The same images can thus tell two completely different stories. That is why there is no need to censor images from France. It is enough to solemnly explain to the Swedish people what they are supposed to see.

But that won’t work anymore. More and more people have now started to commit perhaps the most dangerous act of all—to trust their own eyes.