Some people here and on X have expressed outrage at parts of the opening ceremony of the Olympics in France.

As someone who is both natively French and a "global citizen" (lived on four continents, visited 50 countries, expat for nearly 20 years), I wanted to share my dual perspective. My goal is not to pass judgment on Friday's performance, but rather set the cultural context in which it was delivered. So, don't shoot the messenger. Also, references are annotated in brackets like this: [i] for further reading at the end.

The TL;DR is that the French brand of secularism (laïcité) is unique, highly idiosyncratic, and part of the core identity of the French republic; it's understandable that it does not translate well to an international audience.

Now, onto the 🧵: 1/9

PhD in aviation ∩ climate science | Aviator, diver, ETH maxi, nexialist | Host of /diving /ethfinance /eth-staker /geopolitics /science /singapore /thomas

Great context. Haven’t yet watched the show but saw a lot of the outrage on Twitter and wanted to reserve my judgement.

/frontend dev・founder/decentralized data wrangler /blockhead・ritual.net・UI/UX abstractionist・DeFi/web3 builder・dropout・24・prev /dydx・x.com/darryl__yeo

The show was also much more than just that one weird burlesque shtick - Celine Dion was incredible, Gojira was refreshing, there were fireworks, laser shows, etc. Hopefully you'll find stuff to your liking in there