The "freedom fries" thing was always seen as a joke-- why do you think it was a "hysteria"?
Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
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Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#12Laughed about in Europe, too.
After 9/11 US politicians started to wear little flags on their suits. I think that lasts until today.
Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#13When the freedom fries thing came up it was ridiculous and I am not sure how far it went in other states but they where still french fries in California. As far as I know it was just a republican stunt in the congressional cafeteria and never went beyond that. I think I remember them also renaming french toast to freedom toast.
I also remember how my dad reacted on them trying to ban “The Anarchist Cookbook” after columbine. We bought a copy, and so did a lot of other Americans at the time.
I don’t see your example with the kefir in the same light you do. What I see is a company marketing itself (sort of similar to green washing or rainbow washing) and not some sort of consent. The only consensus I see is that many companies are pulling the same advertising move. Have you asked people around you what they think about it? How many told you they think its ridiculous?
Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#14I was in the DC area during that time and everyone pretty much mocked "Freedom Fries" from the start. It was primarily the GOP congress members doing it at the time. No one else changed the name and the majoring of media outlets poked fun of those few that actually used the term "freedom fries". In 2008 there was a small, short lived boycott of Palin wines because people didn't like McCain's VP nominee (who wasn't associated with the winery).
This feels a lot like that, only with the media encouraging it this time. That leads to more people and groups jumping on the bandwangon. It's a chance to indulge in guilt-free cruelty to a designated outgroup.
Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#15I remember there being a few news stories about them being called "Freedom Fries" but nobody outside of the TV called them anything other than French Fries.
Yeah people mostly said it as a joke, but they did rename them in the congressional cafeteria. Republicans were actually quite angry at the time that France voted against them in UNSC
Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#16I was 19 and in college in America when 9/11 happened and the short answer is that Americans viewed this as a direct attack on their soil like Pearl Harbor in WW2. People wanted to get revenge and hold the attackers accountable.
I knew people my age that saw the attack and almost instantly dropped their careers and joined the military. Enlistments saw a huge bump in numbers IIRC. Everyone knew that eventually America would go after the attackers and a lot of people felt like it was their duty to help. And people that couldn't directly help felt like they had to do whatever they could to show support--the 'freedom fries' thing came from that feeling.
Politically it was a weird climate. We were just a year past the 2000 election--one of the most divisive and contested elections we had ever seen (Gore vs. Bush, where the election effectively came down to a supreme court decision on Florida ballot counting). Many people viewed Bush as a failson who just golfed and didn't know how to run a governor's office, much less a country. 9/11 instantly put him in the spotlight and for better or worse his reputation was vastly improved by showing some leadership in a time of crisis. It was very, very difficult to criticize him or his lead up to a war against Iraq (even when all signs pointed at the war being illegitimate and unrelated to the attacks).
Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#17I do avoid buying Russian made products/products from companies that deal with Russia so the target market here is me, I suppose.
If the product appears Russian I won't buy it, I assume there are enough others who feel similar that they would rather take it of the market than explain how it is not Russian.
This has nothing to do with freedom fries, it has everything to do with the place the product is made.
Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#18The United States were not the aggressors but the victims (putting it simplistically), much like Ukraine is. In the moment, Americans wanted allies to help them hunt down terrorists who committed, supported and/or funded 9/11. France was not the most willing ally and thus Americans, for better or for worse, became somewhat anti-French. The "Freedom Fries" craze was in-name-only though; it's not like McDs or Burger Ki…
French opposition was related to invading Iraq and not Afghanistan. So US was not a victim there.
Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#19It wasn't hard. Freedom Fries was a response to France not cooperating with pretty sketchy intelligence used to start a war.
Even people who supported freedom fries were mostly tongue in cheek. I faintly remember people being much more serious about France and Germany's ties to Iraq's chemical industry.
Re: Ask HN: Why was it hard to criticize Freedom Fries hysteria while it lasted?
#20The United States were not the aggressors but the victims (putting it simplistically), much like Ukraine is. In the moment, Americans wanted allies to help them hunt down terrorists who committed, supported and/or funded 9/11. France was not the most willing ally and thus Americans, for better or for worse, became somewhat anti-French. The "Freedom Fries" craze was in-name-only though; it's not like McDs or Burger Ki…
France helped in Afghanistan after 9/11 and sent troops.
"Freedom fries" were about France's refusal to support the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The US were not a victim. Iraq had been weakened by the Gulf War and the sanctions it was under since and was only surviving. In 2003 the US were the aggressor, they simply decided to attack Iraq to take control of it. That's partly why they came up with this infamous WMDs story... They needed to find a pretext to invade.