[michaelt]

The article says:

  To hear the protesters tell it, they’re marching through
  the streets to fight back against rising fuel prices and
  the high cost of living in the country. Beyond that,
  though, it’s an ideological free-for-all. Fights have
  also been witnessed among demonstrators, and some have
  sent death threats to other protesters.

In other words, there are a large number of different groups protesting under the same banner. There is not an identifiable leader articulating a single agenda that can be proven or disproven.

Certainly, fuel taxes in Europe are much higher than in America; across the EU they vary from 51% to 68%, with France at 64% [1].

Other things in the article, like anti-vaxxers and a theory the french constitution has been invalidated, seem much less likely - but when the entire movement is just a leaderless movement of people posting in facebook groups, where do you draw the line between "the rioters' complaints" and a handful of fools among the many protesters?

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/03/are-the-french...