Middle aged American here, and when I was a kid the culture around me regarding france was basically “lol they surrender.” And that whole stupid thing probably peaked in 2003 with Freedom Fries.
But now?
I honestly wonder if any other nation’s population has their heads on straight as much as the French. The only place in Europe where I have spent much time though is up in Sweden, and the nords seem pretty good at life-ing too.
Yeah, the average population density of the US is a lot lower than many people realize. Protests are seen as city-based things, both geographically and culturally.
And then you have eu-nation-sized red states that can hold many many trumpers who are unable to play nice with others because they don’t have to have neighbors.
I didn’t really finish my thought there. Apologies.
It was starting to get at why we don’t really see “the americans” protested like we might “the french.” And our media doesn’t help in how they report it. It enables the republican populace as well as the entire government to more easily ignore it. It’s always "protests broke out in cities across america in response to X.
The physical separation is also part of it. it all helps feed into this “divide” where the republican voters can seemingly give no shits about human suffering or the rise of fascism because it’s all happening to “other” people far away. It might as well be the middle east.
People without neighbors are also less clued into to how policy changes affect entire societies of people, rather than just the price of gas for their truck.
And like the other reply said, this is just one contributing factor.
Middle aged American here, and when I was a kid the culture around me regarding france was basically “lol they surrender.”
Copied from my earlier comment elsewhere:
Have an extensive history of military might, from rampaging barbarian hordes, to a continent-conquering emperor, to a foreign legion famed as being one of the most badass fighting forces in the world, and nobody bats an eye. But get embarrassingly outflanked one time, and you never hear the end of it!
The other thing to remember is that when they surrendered they surrendered their entire naval fleet to the Nazis which was really irksome because why did they do that? So then the British had to launch a mission to sink the French naval fleet. All of which was a giant waste of resources, those ships could have come over to the UK.
Obviously it’s all water under the bridge now but it was a tactically stupid decision.
when they surrendered they surrendered their entire naval fleet to the Nazis
This is absolutely not correct. The Nazis didn’t try to seize (what was left of) the French fleet until the end of 1942 (more than two years later) in response to the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa. The French fleet remained under Vichy France’s control and the French admiral had promised to scuttle the fleet if the Germans attempted to seize it. Churchill did not consider this assurance adequate for the security of his country and ordered the attack. It’s worth noting that France did scuttle most of their remaining vessels when the Germans attempted to take them in 1942.
Should the French fleet have continued fighting? As I mentioned in my comment, the entire country could have and probably should have continued fighting. But once France surrendered, there’s no particularly logical reason why just one part of their military should have gone on.
Well actually…
The french kind of didn’t, the french administration did. The french army had many problems, for the most part because it was not a standing army. These were more or less I’ll equipped military, which where basically overrun by German tanks. However the french army also was in no small part responsible for holding off the germans at Dunkirk and nearly broke down the supply lines of the German Blitzkrieg. They mostly didn’t flee.
On d day the first waves of troops where also a lot of french exile troops stormy into machine gun fire. Also on d day the french resistance sabotaged the railway network and infrastructure in general so good, that the railway system only worked on 30% capacity, some balloons where running out on puncture repair kits and German tank divisions where delayed by up to 2 weeks.
Freedom Fries
As an European, I still can’t believe you guys did that
I watched Les Mis, and there’s the song about clothes wet from the rain, sticking to thier skin, while the rich are getting richer.
I wonder how the movie would do if it came out now… (But even then, people would complain about Russel Crowe.)
also alsoTom Hooper can’t get lucky. Kings Speach vs Social Network. I didn’t like The Kings Speech. (Maybe im biased with Social Network being my personal favourite movie of all time). I wasnt on the internet for that oscar race, but at least Social Network is getting more praise than the Kings Speach. Les Mis got hated on because Russell Crowe (bad singing) and Anne Hathaway (in like 1/8th of the movie and nominated for best actress). and then Cats which is… Cats… And now, I noticed, Tom also directed The Danish Girl, which I havent watched yet, but I remember the controversy…
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