Why Does America Find "the French" as they do ;-)

In an attempt to avoid Thread pollution, here is a drift topic from a thread regarding,
http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=332497&page=7&p=1063324395#post1063324395

upload 69 by Cdnpoli (69 & da French, heh-heh,,heh-heh sez cousin Beavis)
This is about France french, but why are Americans always slagging the French? Yeah Nazis took them over but they also took over a lot of other countries. We needed help from the Soviets to defeat Nazi Germany. It wasn't easy. Also US gained their independence largely due to the help from France.
And France is one of the most dominant war fighting countries in world history. Much greater than the US.
France kicked more ass than the Americans at a time when war was tough and costly.
So just think about this. Without Frances help you would have been Britians (*)(*)(*)(*)(*) until they let you become a country. Respect France you patriot.


Please, someone before, me - kindly explain why Americans have a more disparaging view of "The French",
than our old enemies from the big one, Japan and Germany and Italy too.
This is about a cultural phenomena.
Do NOT name call frogeaters or frogs, etc.
No nose twisting like this <demonstrate>, or eye gouging like that <demonstrate>.
Keep it Civil.
Why do American have less than sterling appreciation of "da French".


Moi

No ​

 

We like to pick on the nations we are close with and condemn the nations we dislike. Picking on the French is funny, but if anyone threatened her we would drop that act quick. Brothers in liberty, even if they area bunch of lefties.

 

Thank you for making this thread Moi621. I look forward to reading the comments.

 

Here is something you can like the French over:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER

Also help in the war on terror:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/05/mali-france-military-terrorists-al-qaida

 

I think a animosity for the French developed after WWII. And that's been the prevailing attitude ever since. Charles De Gaulle's actions helped foster that attitude in our WWII generation. Right or wrong, his actions where purely for French interests, and it came across as ungrateful to allot of Americans, who along with here allies payed a high price to liberate his country from the Nazis.

Personally, I have no problems with the French. I've even traveled thru Paris and Normandy. Can't say I cared much for Paris, just because I'm not a big city person. But, Normandy was beautiful, and the people where friendly. I don't play that whole "We saved France" card, I find it distasteful. I didn't do a damn thing, all the credit goes to the generation that actually did it. And as far as I'm concerned, as long as WWII vets are still treated with respect when they travel to France, is the only concern I have.

 

FIRST:
Know I grew up in a France & French loving family. I was the sole Anglophil.

For starters, The Indefinitive. As in the word, "perhaps". Americans like the definitive and experience says, you cannot count on the French. That is bothersome, like sitting near stinky cheese you cannot taste, killing the smell.

My Uncle was in the Navy for 20 years. He survived Pearl Harbor on the Nevada and was involved in some of the Atlantic war too. He never forgave the French for firing on the American Navy during the landings in North Africa. Yes the pablumized history ala Patton movie says otherwise, but my uncle was there.
Compared to the Dutch or the Danes, the French were exceptional at cooperating with the Nazis.

And of course the de Gaulle period where any avenue to be an irritant ala USSR was exploited. ie Bomb tests.

There big hero, Napoleon - is really little different than Hitler. No? Do tell.

Experience says their ability at machines is little better than the Italians, ref. Fiat.
They had a submarine in WW2 that was BattleShip quality. It would have been used for convoy escort duty but,
it kept breaking down and was holding up the convoy. Just like a Peugeot or Renault.

How about the word, arrogant? It seems to apply to the French more than any other nation in common use.

I grew up hearing of Voltaire, etc. and what not but, amongst their great philosophers they put none into practice.
I have more education of "The French", yet share the basic American lack of appreciation for anything but their cuisine.

Moi
I Have Not Yet Begun to Explore The American Attitude of The French

 

I think there is a lot of truth in this. Australia and the US have a similar relationship - A couple of people from each nation a bar a few beers and the insults will fly. If it get serious you know who has your back

 

You have no fear of that. In WW1 Australia was involved in a couple of critical local battles. In those towns they still honor what the Australians did and the school kids are well versed in who and what Australians are. You will find if you come back in 50 years, the French will remember what happened on those beaches, and the nations of the young men who died there

 

Tres magnifique, Monsieur Moi!

Ironic that the pen name of a Francophobe is the French Moi (me).

Many feel, as do I, that stinky cheese justifies the existence of life. I might have been (English) Wallace, of the "Wallace & Gromit" movies, who craves cheese with such passion. Plus one for France. (In "Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit", Wallace is revived from near death by the smell of Stinking Bishop cheese. There is such a thing, but production is so small it's almost never exported. My kingdom for the man who gets me a piece.)

Never heard the French fired on the US in North Africa. I assume this was Vichy French, who served the Nazis, but I'd like to learn more. I doubt most people know about it.

De Gaulle was less anti-America and more pro-France. The French still hoped to lead the world back then, and the US, as the great Western Power was an obstacle. Still, he had to content himself with teasing. That was old-school big-power politics. Nothing personal.

Napoleon was good for persecuted minorities such as Jews. He upset the old aristocracies and liberated the underdogs. He built an Empire for France, but kept his revolutionary fervor for social justice. This was later held against those he helped. The anti-semitic stereotype of Jews as disloyal stems from the Napoleanic era, when they pledged themselves to Napoleon, their liberator.

The French were too busy making stinky cheese to also make good machines. As they say, "chacun a son gout" - everyone has his taste.

The French have bigger noses than we Jews. What are they there for but to look down? Arrogance comes naturally. Chinese are equally arrogant.

Philosophers are to be "heard of" and even read by a few eccentrics, but who lives by philosophy anywhere? I doubt that even philosophers do. From all accounts, Voltaire was a great wit and bon vivant. He made himself rich as a young man by figuring out how to win a lottery, used the money to buy a factory town (which he ran as a model of benevolence and generosity), and lived happily.

Vive la France!

 

Americans generally feel positive or negative about "da French" (they can't say th)
Please just answer the question and explain, don't counter the opinion of the whole nation.
Why do Americans feel as they do toward "da French"


Moi

No ​

 

I guess most Americans don't feel much about the French, good or bad, because they've had too little contact. Of course, most people know the show biz tradition of hating the French. But that's not an opinion. It's a quotation.

 

I often tell people that Paris is the city that Washington, D.C. wishes it was.

 

I agree. Jacques Chirac didn't help any, either. Personally, I respect the French more than just about any other Western European nation. They can be quite useful, you just have to remember they will always look out for themselves first and plan accordingly.

 

It's just the usual love-hate relationship...just like the one I have with my daddy

 

the only thing I have against France is their homophobia and overall hypocrisy on foreign affairs.. but keep in mind there are certain things about my own country that I don't agree with either (like our foreign policy...)

 

Easy , Americans are carrying all the English phobias . The English still have hurt rears for losing the 100 years war .
The English are still shocked that the French beheaded their royalty , supported the American revolution etc etc.

From what i have seen American culture is in a very large percentage Dutch , get a map of the Netherlands , consider Germany split into over 1000 countries and city states and look who is sitting next to the big tricolor blob .

The European side of Americans hate the French or at least this is my explanation .

 

[video=youtube;1iMJB_lGYu4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMJB_lGYu4[/video]

 

[video=youtube;sOOtWnm987Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOOtWnm987Y[/video]

 

Americans have short memories seeing as they stayed out of the start of both wars for a while, while our countrymen sacrificed their lives. Right or wrong, USA isolationism was purely for American interests.

 

Which is exactly how the US acts.

 

So the American public was wrong for not wanting to get involved in another European war?

 

​

They were world wars. Those are the wars that you most definitely fight.

 

The French are rude and arrogant, thoroughly convinced of their cultural superiority.....vive la difference.

 

I don't know anyone who hates the french. I don't. I've known a few frenchmen.. some were nicer than others, just like regular human beings. I know it is a stereotype, stand up comedy style of 'other culture' jabs.. robin williams does a fine job of ridiculing the french, english, scots, russians, & just about anyone, including americans. but to translate this as some kind of national 'hate' is a bit much. We have french in our culture.. the cajuns, many new englanders, a few in the great lakes region.. & while i agree with the ribbing of differences, i don't really see animosity.

Perhaps we are pissed because our finest invention, the french fry.. has their label. But maybe it could be because they talk funny.. you know.. not pronouncing the letters in the alphabet.. Or maybe it's the smoking for the politically correct crowd.. as a whole, americans are rough on ANY stereotypes.. italians, mexicans, wasps, indians, africans, irish, germans, poles, english.. you name them, we'll insult them. But don't take it personally.. it is self deprecating humor.. all of these ethnicities are us.

 

I love the French, I hate people from Texas or other stupid, hillbilly red states.