French Documentary on French Bashing

1. I’ve been reading several comments on this site and some of them have left me confused. One commenter, for instance, kept complaining about WASPS (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) and how “ultra-liberal” the U.S. has supposedly become, while also complaining about Americans who hate the French.

   Doesn’t this person realize that it is the political conservatives in the U.S. (and, strangely, this includes both the wealthy republicans as well as the poor people who tend to live in rural areas) who continually bash France? It’s Fox News-watching, right-wing people who decided to replace the name French Fries with Freedom Fries; it’s the greedy Wall Street billionaires who despise anything having to do with socialism, the uneducated “redneck” types who have a bizarre hatred and mistrust of everything “European”, and it’s usually the “liberals” who adore France and desire to learn the language.

   Can someone tell me how the majority of you view French bashing (in the U.S.) when it comes to class and race? Do you all agree with the commenter that I mentioned above? I don’t believe that it’s accurate for him/her to denounce WASPS and categorize “white Americans” as being French bashers because it’s not about race –it has more to do with class (especially the very low and the very high classes) and if they those people from opposite ends of the economic spectrum dislike France, it’s for very different reasons (e.g. the poor people are uneducated and therefore igorant, the rich people care only about $$$ and demonize the concept of taxes and the French style of government).

   In my experience, those who say things like, “I’ve heard that French people are very rude” are nearly always people who have never travelled outside of the U.S. and who have no desire to do so. They’re simply not curious about other cultures at all and it’s very sad. I understand that it’s expensive to travel, but one can learn about other cultures in other ways. Unfortunately, many American’s simply aren’t interested.

   My aunt is this type of person. She once told me that only Americans love their pets and consider them members of the family, so I showed her a bunch of Youtube videos of dog and cat lovers from all over the world to prove to her that she was being very ignorant. I don’t know why she’s so quick to believe the nonsense that her friends send her on Facebook (xenophobic cartoons and such), but that’s just how she is — a working-class person who never reads books, never watches foreign movies, never travels, etc. She only watches television and ONLY watching television makes a person dumb.

   For the record, I’m a white American (though, not a WASP, since my family arrived here in 1730 from Catholic Ireland) who is very fond of France and I do not consider myself a liberal OR a conservative — but a bit of both, depending upon the specific issue that is being examined.

   1. Hello,
      well, Danielle, I don’t see any americans defending French, especially on the Internet and social medias!
      Everywhere, the same stupid “jokes”, the same “French are cowards”, blah blah…
      Zero knowledge about French History, but a lot of nasty sarcasms, a lot of lies and anti-French propaganda.
      And it’s still going on today.
      We never see any Americans answer to French-bashing and demonstrate it’s insane and only lies!
      I don’t believe you.
      If there were as you write so many Americans that don’t agree with this French-bashing, we would see some medias and many people acting to counteract this bashing.
      I don’t see any!
      Since you consider French as cowards in USA, and considering the fact that billions of French men fought and died with bravery during many centuries of the long History of France, I am no more respecting your country and its inhabitants.
      I can’t respect an entire country that is insulting so much (with lies) and brutally French people and who is ignorant about France in many domains.
      I am on the contrary very respectful towards Russians who respect France, who know very well French cultuer.Hello,
      well, Danielle, I don’t see any americans defend French, especially on the Internet and social medias.
      Everywhere, the same stupid “jokes”, the same “French are cowards”, blah blah…
      Zero knowledge about French History, but a lot of nasty sarcasms, a lot of lies and anti-French propaganda.
      It’s going on today.
      We never see any Americans answer to French-bashing and demonstrate it’s insane and only lies!
      I don’t believe you.
      If there were as you write so many Americans that don’t agree with this French-bashing, we would see some medias and many people acting to counteract this bashing.
      I don’t see any!
      Since you consider French as cowards in USA, and considering the fact that billions of French men fought and died with bravery during many centuries of the long History of France, I am no more respecting your country and its inhabitants.
      I can’t respect an entire country that is insulting so much (with lies) and brutally French people.

      1. There’s The American Conservative, a traditional conservative magazine that opposed the Iraq War since day one and congratulated the French for not participating in it. They had a more positive view of France unlike Fox News at the time.
         http://www.theamericanconservative.com
         Sorry you didn’t see it then. Just want to let you know that there were Americans who defended the French.

2. DANIELLE. (Fun, you have a French name) I agree with you, but you forget to say one thing very important, it’s the crap “cheese eater surrender monkey” who was disgusting… No one French can love this!.. French NEVER mocke American like that or other white people in Europe ( and in fact, it was UK who betrayed France and was coward in 1939-40). Also, don’t forget USA bring a new cold war against Russia (now a Christian democracy), cold war against China, pro-sunites against chiites etc…. (France too is disgusting now with the foreign policy same as USA). You have to know, French right-wing anti-communist during the cold war stand now with Russia. (Only Elite French libtards stand with Obama). BNP-PARIBAS had a $9 000 000 000 fine in N.Y. – SNCF $70 000 000 fine to pay to a Jewish organization, PEUGEOT ousted in Iran…etc.. etc…. YES the love France-USA IS OVER! The hate of some American toward French are huge compared to Germans (3 time at war). Open Hollywood to French films. Me, I LOVED USA all my life until I read almost 1400 post in FOXNEWS and HUFFPOST about the 10 French soldier who died in Afganistan. Read!!!!!….99.5 %, yes, 99.5 % of them were anti-French (fox and huff combined), and around 25% of them SADIC. This is true! I called the French Embassy for that!… I NEVER read so sadic comments in all type of forum in the web!… I DON’T LIY.. THIS IS THE TRUTH!!!!!!… It was the day, the day who changed all my love to hate! I don’t blame FOX or Huff, I don’t blame them at all.. I like to know EXACTLY what people feel about other. When I watch a WW2 movie, I stand now with Germans (I am so pissed). IMPORTANT!!!!!! I forget to precise, all crap comments were done by MEN! I never read a bad comment by women. I don’t have the hate toward American women, I love them. Since 15years a live in USA. I knew a French veteran of the Indochina war who was a pilot of CORSAIR F4U7, yes, he hated American men. they bashed him about WW2 (He had American instructor). I don’t have anymore American friend, and I never want to have one, NEVER!.. My American wife understand me and we never discus about this. My wife is an angel.

   1. Sorry about your saddening experience. However, you must realise that America wasn’t always this way.
      Unfortunately there has been anti-Americanism in the French media too, the degree of which is nearly identical to that of of France-bashing in America. It’s important to see what goes on in one’s backyard before lecturing one’s neighbor. No-one likes double-standards, so you shouldn’t ignore French anti-Americanism when discussing American Francophobia.
      Even so, it’s rather dumb to paint a whole country under the same brush. Simply let go of your hatred of Americans and make friends with more understanding ones.

      I’m a reader of The American Conservative, a traditional conservative magazine that opposed the Iraq War since day one and congratulated the French for not participating in it. They had a more positive view of France unlike Fox News at the time.
      http://www.theamericanconservative.com
      Sorry you didn’t see it then. Just want to let you know that there were Americans who defended the French.

3. ^^
   15 years in the US, are you sure ? Because your english is absolutely terrible.
   also you’re a racist, anstisemite so Go F yourself, and go back to your country.

4. “it was the UK who betrayed France in 1939-40” The UK evacuated its troops out of France (and 100,000 French troops) mainly because of the poor leadership, lack of preparation and ineptitude of the French generals.
   You seem to forget that many British soldiers then gave their lives in liberating your country in 1944 – hardly a betrayal!

   1. “The UK evacuated its troops out of France (and 100,000 French troops).”
      OK, let’s talk about Dunkirk, yes!
      And not with the anglo-saxon Nolan’s propaganda, the real historical facts.
      Why don’t you forget to write that it’s the French that allowed the evacuation, not the British?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C5P-AYGdY
      Don’t you even know what Churchill said about that, or even the Germans??
      « These Frenchmen, under the gallant leadership of general Molinié, had for four critical days contained no less than seven German divisions which otherwise could have joined in the assaults on the Dunkirk perimeter. This was a splendid contribution to the escape of their more fortunate comrades of the BEF » — Winston Churchill, The Second World War. vol. II. Their Finest Hour, Cassel & Co., 1949, p. 86

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