We call it "faire de la figuration démocratique" ="playing democratic role." We're getting tired of it.

Would their vote be worse than those of humans convinced that they have the right to defend the worst scientific errors, monstrous obscurantist prejudices, solely because they have a biological brain, certainly human, but devoid of all curiosity, all knowledge, all effort to understand?

Of course. That's perhaps even why they felt safe. Of course. But the "bar" is part of the protective society I was talking about...

2. Or simply, we mustn't forget that it's the night of the year when everyone is very drunk, and alcohol makes you lose touch with reality, even when there's no danger. So, they didn't feel threatened until it was too late.

1; I'm not sure it's morally shocking. It seems to me that it's rather a manifestation of a feeling shared by many Westerners: they feel completely safe, whatever the circumstances, because they live in a society that seems capable of overcoming all natural forces.

😀

A surprising question: nowadays, French gourmands have nicknamed them "the confectioners' truce". But due to complicated lunar calendar issues, they were long known as "surjours", the days between the official days.