It is good to hate the French
And right thinking Americans aren't the only ones on this bandwagon. Via McQ, we find this Telegraph article:
Language, history, cooking and support for rival football teams still divide Europe. But when everything else fails, one glue binds the continent together: hatred of the French. Typically, the French refuse to accept what arrogant, overbearing monsters they are. But now after the publication of a survey of their neighbours' opinions of them at least they no longer have any excuse for not knowing how unpopular they are.
Well, that doesn't exactly beat around the bush, does it? But here are some of the meaty details:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as "chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless". However, the French may be more shocked by the views of other nations.
For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as "preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it, egocentric bons vivants".
Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty".
I join McQ in puzzling over why "rude" failed to make the list. And smelly somehow missed as well.
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J,
J,
PJ O'Rourke, in his Rolling Stone end-of year wrap up for, I believe 1987, included this observation (which I paraphrase now):
"The deficit is now passed $1 trillion. As best this reporter understands it, that's money we owe ourselves. I recommend we collect and party down."
In a similar vein, let's follow up on those reparations. I'll buy the hibachi, you buy the chickens, and we'll be up to speed.
I gotta say, being the
I gotta say, being the progeny of a long line of scrappy underdogs, I have innate sympathy for any population of scrappy underdogs. The Prussified Germans? The Russkies? The French? NO!
But the Poles, the Alsatians, the Germanic folk of the Schwartzwald, the peoples of Transylvania... love 'em all. And they all have good food, heavy on the gravy.
(All that being said, I actually do *like* the French. Even though I don't like them very much, I like them. Is that a contradiction? Mainly because they're a whole lot like us. Yes, it's true.)
J,
J,
Arguably the Russians have been underdogs since the days of the Rus at joining the civilized world.
Ask them if they felt like underdogs in the face of the Mongols, or other Asian hordes.
Go ahead. Ask them.
Well, if you go back far
Well, if you go back far enough, everyone's been an underdog.
Which means we all owe each other reparations.
I would add that all Europe
I would add that all Europe also genuinely hate the Dutch. Not at home, mind you, but as tourists. Apparently, Dutch tourists in Europe are like Americans, but less clean, more inept, and even more intolerant of local custom and color.
For those a you who knows him, ask Christoph about that some time. Good for half an hour of irritated ranting.
J,
J,
Next time I see the C, I will ask him. I like irritated ranting.
And may I add that Poles, based on my limited observations, are fearful of the Dutch. To them they're like Germans, what with their thirst for foreign conquest, but far more sneaky about it.
And don't even get them started on those shifty Swedes.
My mom went to Scandinavia a
My mom went to Scandinavia a couple years ago, and discovered to her surprise that the Swedes were vehemently bigoted towards (at least) the Finns, the Norwegians, the Russians and the Danes. I can fly with hating the damn herring eating Norwegians, but the rest seemed rather over the top.
B,
B,
It is, and has to do with historical memory, imagined wrongs, not-imagined wrongs, and malignant making-up of stuff.
In the Polish example, it has to do with Baltic wars in the 16th and 17th centuries. But again, my observable sample is quite small, and I can't extrapolate that attitude across all of Poland.
Fear and loathing of Germans and Russians, though, is fairly universal.
Well..."dirty" is like
Well..."dirty" is like "smelly".
I've never been to France, but I have worked with French military once or twice, in passing.
The stench of a French infantry platoon ought to be included among prohibited weapons too heinous for use in battle.