I've been questioning myself for some time why the United-States are that aggressive towards France. I'm half French but leave in the UK, I may not be totally objective but it seems it's more one-sided. There is bashing in different parts:
-People bashing, i don't know much about since I do not leave in the US. Maybe you guys can tell me if jokes about French are common.
-Political bashing, that's the part that surprises me the most. In France people may tell Americans are fat, or on the medias they may call them rambos. But on a political level, nothing. Not the same for the Americans. France Bashing seems to be a really popular sport among the republican party. http://aproposfrance-usa.blogspot.com/
Here is one quote from Bush "The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur". A part from the fact that "entrepreneur" is a french word, what is the goal of this statement? An American friend of mine told me that if Kerry was not France friendly he could have won the elections. Do you agree?
EDIT:
I really don't get it, United-States and France have ALWAYS (except Suez stuff) on the same side, so why?
So to resume, why does this bashing exist? Is it as important as it seems? At which level (street,media,political) level is it the more dangerous? My statement may be totally wrong, so I need some insight from Americans themselves. Please be respectful PS: a little trick of history xD George Washington, the first American president of history was a linear descendant of a frenchman.
Man everyone bash french people as much as they do with americans. They have so many people with strong nationalistic attitude that just pisses off everybody else. I have nothing against these people who believe their country is the absolute best (when it's not), I just think it's silly, but I understand why the world doesn't like these countries.
They're too nationalistic, arrogant and selfish. As such, people hate them and this can be seen by how apparently, French people are the most unpopular tourists.
Americans envy the French in every way possible, the English have them as rivals. There are also some irritation left as the French practically didn't fight in WW2, even though they practically caused it.
Dunno, i personally like the french. But then again, i also believe that arrogance is a positive trait, if you can back it up. Americans probably just tease and mock the french, they don't actually hate them.
I am french. Sometimes I think that people are right to bash us. I'm going to generalize a bit here, but it's undeniable that some of us are chauvinistic, pretentious, uneducated assholes. Not to mention we can't behave when abroad, and that's really unfortunate because everytime I go abroad, I think man our reputation definitely precedes us. I'm kind of tired having to pay for my fellow Frenchmen's incongruous behavior.
American bashing French for "surrendering" or being cowards is just pathetic. It's just that France didn't support a certain policy (that turned out to be a disaster anyway) and it was Republicans' way of getting back at them. That's some fourth grade shit right there.
Everyone bashes everyone else when it is easy. France and the US have easy to identify points to bash on.
Also, I giggled when you cited a Bush (I'm assuming it's W. Bush, and not H. W. Bush)quote. He's known for, among other things, retarded quotes. Although I think Bachmann may have him beat there.
On January 21 2012 21:35 Euronyme wrote: There are also some irritation left as the French practically didn't fight in WW2, even though they practically caused it.
I have been in France for 5 months now and so far they seem alright. Although I am based around the aquataine region so it might be different elsewhere in France. The locals here seems to think that mostly the Parisians are too blame :p
people bash the french sometimes because they are generally very laid back etc, aren't coffee shops etc very popular there and people sit around smoke and talk etc?
In all fairness, I'm American, but I don't bash the French at all. I'd say that most Americans who do have some sort of mild xenophobic tendencies. Because the French are very different from the American, the American people don't know how to respond to those differences, thus they make fun of the French.
Being English, France gets referred to in comedy sometimes, but no where else. I haven't heard people truly bash France in the political arena or anything, in fact, this clip from Dara O'Briain sums this issue up perfectly.
How can you be a rival with a country that runs away and leaves spain just floating there on its own with protugal?
There is nothing wrong with xenophopic banter as long as it is fun and kept amusing. It is something all cultures have in common and so is a good tool for conversation when there is nothing left to talk about.
I dont think i have ever met anyone who honestly doesnt like french people (well except a dutch guy i know) - its all banter.
The only nationality i really know that gets upset when you insult its nation is america ... Fuck yeah ...
Im french and I live in France. And this country has a lot of dumb people. Education and political system suck hard, and a lot of people are just unsociable and always unhappy. Not to mention, the arrogance of French (well this is characteristic and not that bad as every country has people with a main default).
But it's a beautiful country, and you can meet great people. And there is a reason why French culture is so well-known.
The thing is that Americans think that French are cowards who didn't take part in the WWII. Well, we got attacked by a huge ass army with a crazy dictator. Pétain, the Maréchal at this time (the commander of the army), decided to cooperate with the nazis. And that's why people don't like French. I'd like to say that after WW2, Pétain got executed for cooperating with the nazis.
EPT
