Explaining French anti-americanism (an attempt to)Follow

First of all, this is a relatively serious post, so if you're looking for a stupid, badly written, incomprehensible post, look no further!

I was bored last night and started browsing forums on some well-repected French newspaper's website (Liberation). And I was schocked by how stupid people were on there. Not as stupid as here, granted, but they actually take themselves seriously. And I found a lot of posts that were quite, well, anti-american. And then I thought of the Alla people. And of how the US has been getting a lot stick since Bush got elected. And I know that you Americans pretend that you don't care if half of Europe hates you, but we all know that deep down inside you tough-skin-stiff-upper-lip-macho-jock exterior, you do have a soft side. A soft side, that cares.

So, i thought I would try to explain some of it, since it is quite a complex, diverse and relatively new phenomenon.

I'll start with my grand-dad.

He grew up during WWII, and his brother (17 at the time) was shot by the Germans a week before the armistice, because our family was in the resistance. My grand-dad hated the Germans. So much so that he forbid his daughter (my mum) from learning it at school as a second language. But he loved America and Americans. Eventough he was quite a hardcore leftist (almost a commy), he "excused" all the "bad stuff" America did (the Contras, Reagan, Vietnam, etc...) because he had such a strong emotional link with the Libération.

The generation after that (my parents), had this emotional link too, eventhough it was not as "personal", because slightly more distant.

And then it comes to my generation. We know, well, most of us, the history. But we don't have that strong "emotinal" link to it. Jut like you guys know we helped you during the War of Independence, but don't actually have an emotional link to it. It's History. But not personal history.

And so we arrive to anti-americanism today. Of which, there are different kinds:

- The hardcore leftist: France, and Europe, has a strong link with leftism, much more than in the US. In France, in Italy, in Spain, you still find people that think that Communism should've won, that it was a better system, and that regard Castro and Chavez as "heroes". These people find the American economic system greedy, superficial and unfair, and American society shallow and inegalitarian. These people are "hardcore" in their opinions, like gbaji. And, most likely, have never travalled outside France. They are blinded by an old ideology and an outdated outlook on the world, and nothign will change their mind. Good news is, they will die pretty soon. The young generation of "anti-globalisation people" will hopefully travel a bit, and are anyway more opposed to the economic system than to the country.

- The hardcore rightists: In teh long tradition of De Gaulle, these people still think that France is a superpower (cue laughs), and can do without the US. Eventhough they like the conomic system, they are jealous of America's position in the world, and feel "oppressed" by their "domination". Basically, they wish it was France. The good enws is that these are old values too, which are slowly dying. It takes a lot of mediation to still think France is an important country in the world.

- And then, you have my generation, stuck in the middle. 60% of the music I listen to is American. 80% of the films I see are Americans. I eat American brands, wear American clothes, use American expression, and love (some of) the US shows that make it here. I've been to the US three times (a week in New-York, a road trip from San Fran to Phoenix, and a two-week Basketball camp (The Dee Brown and Robert Parish camp) in Boston. I loved every minute of it, and thought the Americans were amazingly friendly and welcoming (though it was in the 90s, admitedly). Some were kinda silly (I was asked if we had TVs in France), but most were lovely people.

We grew up being told Americans were the "good guys", fighting for freedom against the nasty Russians. And most of us grew up looking up to the US. You only had to see how much Europeans loved Clinton, and how they defended him during the oral-sex-is-not-sex-gate.

And then came Bush. And thats were it all went wrong: the rise of the religious right, the war in Iraq, Guanta, Abu Graib, Halliburton, Donald "Old Europe" Rumsfeld, Kyoto, etc, etc... The media obviously had a field day reporting every minute story that somehow comforted the view that the US governemnt were a bunch of corrupted, big-business-loving, inhuman, religious fanatics. And we all know how easily propaganda spreads.

But most of the reasonably-minded people of my generation don't hate America. They don't hate Americans. They just hate the current US administration. Mostly because it shattered all their youthful illusions of America being the Big Friendly Giant, slightly clumsy, but deep down doing good things for the world.

But that's it. It's only a question of politics, and of media brainwashing. They dont see, or rather, they are not shown, "the other side" of America. And you can bet that when Bush (finally) goes, and a better administration comes in, all of this will fritter away.

And we will go back to the old sweety love-hate relationship, like the French have with English. We make fun of them, but deep down we like them.

A mate once asked me if I was gonna move to the US with my girlfriend, while we were talking about cool places to live. I asked him why the US, and he answered: "Because its exaclty the same as here. Except bigger!"

I think thats quite a good way to sum up how French people feel about America. A cousin thats bigger and can kick your *** easy, but wouldnt no matter how much you teased him. But when you're told that your cousin starts bullying people around, taking hard drugs, and acting like a nasty over-powered jock on steroids, its bound to hurt. You remeber the good times. And hope he'll get off the crack soon.

Anyway I was thinking about all this last night, and thought I'd write it down.

Next week, why Muslims hate America!

/nod

I've rarely been subject to anti-americanism in most of my travels. All the EU folk I've met have been very accommodating and nothing like what the media or stereotypes portray. Of course I've never been to Frahnce, though I assume that it's people are every bit as kind as everywhere else I've graced with my presence('cept Paris, I hear that place sucks).

I can't speak for the Swiss you talked to but it's pretty commonly figured that Hitler didn't invade Switzerland partially because the effort and tie-up of troops to rout the Swiss holed up in their mountians just didn't make it practical. Sharp-shooting was (is?) a national sport in Switzerland at the time anyway so I'd assume many of them were better armed than a single rifle.

Now, of course, it also wasn't practical because the Swiss allowed Hitler to use their rail lines for transporting non-military goods and the whole banking situation. So it boiled down to "Why ruin a good thing just so I can take troops off the actual hostile front and tie them up chasing snipers in the Alps?"

Is that like "Why would I tie up half of my resources in an attack on a country that is at least nominally an ally?".

FTFY

The thing about being Canadian is that you can sneak in and people don't even notice.

No mention of Canada. Huh.

Then I smite you with A French Erotic Film.

The US is our trading partner, our neighbour, our ally and our friend... and sometimes we'd like to give them such a smack!
Rick Mercer, "This Hour Has 22 Minutes"

Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United States has produced. We're different people from you and we're different people because of you. Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is effected by every twitch and grunt. It should not therefore be expected that this kind of nation, this Canada, should project itself as a mirror image of the United States.
Pierre Trudeau

Edited, Jun 19th 2006 at 9:48am EDT by bodhisattva

Why so ornery, tubs?

It's the same here. Since Americans on the whole don't travel outside the US very often except on business, it's hard to get people to think seriously about the concerns others might have about our motives, our interests and our capacity for misplaced action.

Hell, half the people on this board are convinced that Iraq was a third-world country before Desert Storm. Had they been there? No; and the ones who had were in the military for the most part.

But then people here tend to think Costa Rica is a third-world country, too. Canada? *Maybe* second-world. The UK? Grudgingly first-world, but we're still better because everyone's on the dole there.

Provincial attitudes + tremendous military and economic power = understandable fear and loathing, even from our allies.

You really want Belgium? Can't you just steal their chocolate and call it a day?

Just to add to the OP.

A serious point:

If you travel through other countries being loud, opinionated, boastful and intolerant of local customs and manners, you will be perceived as an cu[Aqua][/Aqua]nt.

Very few Americans I know behave that way, but when I do see that behavioUr here or in continental Europe, it's the annoying, shouty yanks who think the hatred is for being American, when it's simply because they're behaving like **********

These are also the same minority that spam the media with tales of European xenophobia and ingratitude.

[gravelly voice]Ne me quitte pas
Il faut oublier
Oublier le temps
de malentendu[/gravelly voice]