112 Gripes About the French • Hacker News Board

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#41

Post by deregulateMed » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:41 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #16

baby wrote: post #8

I'm guessing such a book exists in south korea at the moment? I've heard that there's a lot of tension between the US army and the locals. One soldier even raped some local girl back in 2011. The problem is that people in the army are not the most educated people, and thus they're not the best ambassadors when abroad.

Military personnel on average have more formal education then the general public. High school drop outs aren't even allowed to enlist anymore without a special waiver. Almost all officers, and many enlisted, have Bachelor's degrees. Senior officers usually have Master's degrees.

>without a special waiver

Oh wow so difficult for a recruiter who is paid per recruit to fill out. /s

The military is often the last resort for many people, as a result it attracts a different demographic.

>officers, and many enlisted, have Bachelor's degrees.

So? Aren't most deployed people non officers?

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#42

Post by nodejs_rulez_1 » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:42 PM UTC

> France sounded like a muslim country back then:

>> Most French girls before the war had far less freedom than our girls back home. A great many were not permitted to go out without a chaperone. France is dominantly Catholic in religion and in morals...

Can you imagine: from that to disallowing fathers to do a DNA test in less than 100 years!

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#43

Post by chrisseaton » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:43 PM UTC

morsch wrote: post #20

chrisseaton wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you are joking? > France is the country with the deepest, most sedimented reservoir of anti-American arguments. Its long genealogy has been well documented over the years, most recently by Philippe Roger, who argues that French anti- Americanism is older than the United States (Roger 2002). https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/meunierces...

> Surprisingly, polling data reveals that France is not drastically more anti-American than other European countries – even less so on a variety of dimensions. ibid

I'm going to suggest to you that when trying to get the most out of a research paper, you might want to read beyond the second sentence of the abstract.

It balances and talks about the paradoxes - such as the French obsession with McDonalds.

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#44

Post by bumby » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:49 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #10

This whole thing is amazing. It still reads really well today, like there's no tone of racism and nothing seems inappropriate (which is a hard thing to achieve with time). I wish we had such a book currently on how arabs and the muslim world are different, but not so different than us. > We didn't come to Europe to save the French, either in 1917 or in 1944. We didn't come to Europe to do anyone any favors. We came t…

>I wish we had such a book currently on how arabs and the muslim world are different

I also wish we had such a book currently on how progressive and conservatives are different

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#45

Post by nickserv » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:50 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #8

I'm guessing such a book exists in south korea at the moment? I've heard that there's a lot of tension between the US army and the locals. One soldier even raped some local girl back in 2011. The problem is that people in the army are not the most educated people, and thus they're not the best ambassadors when abroad.

Right, because well educated, wealthy men don't rape teenagers...

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#46

Post by ShinyRice » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:52 PM UTC

nradov wrote: post #16

baby wrote: post #8

I'm guessing such a book exists in south korea at the moment? I've heard that there's a lot of tension between the US army and the locals. One soldier even raped some local girl back in 2011. The problem is that people in the army are not the most educated people, and thus they're not the best ambassadors when abroad.

Military personnel on average have more formal education then the general public. High school drop outs aren't even allowed to enlist anymore without a special waiver. Almost all officers, and many enlisted, have Bachelor's degrees. Senior officers usually have Master's degrees.

Officials are probably more educated than the general populace, since they almost always need a university degree, but enlisted personnel might even be high school dropouts, so I wouldn't trust any regular soldier to be humble and respectful.

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#47

Post by 411111111111111 » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:54 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #10

This whole thing is amazing. It still reads really well today, like there's no tone of racism and nothing seems inappropriate (which is a hard thing to achieve with time). I wish we had such a book currently on how arabs and the muslim world are different, but not so different than us. > We didn't come to Europe to save the French, either in 1917 or in 1944. We didn't come to Europe to do anyone any favors. We came t…

Another thing that's been mostly sweeped under the rug wrt WW2 is that Russia both did the most damage to the German army and paid the highest price.

America only started their offensive after Russia started winning and likely only wanted to deny them Europe. And the heavy casualties in the war likely caused Russia to fold on the cold war as well, there were just not enough able men after the war to create families with about 80% of the male population in their prime dead. That low birth rate circle continues to date.

The world would've been a very different place with the USSR still in power and indoctrinating europes youth for generations.

America likely did save the Democratic western Europe at that time, just not from Germany.

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#48

Post by fvdessen » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:58 PM UTC

tasogare wrote: post #31

Did the book address the topic of rapes by US soldiers? This was a big issue after liberation, and still is a major issue near US bases nowadays (in particular Okinawa).

No. 75 years later this topic is still taboo

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#49

Post by unishark » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:58 PM UTC

tasogare wrote: post #31

Did the book address the topic of rapes by US soldiers? This was a big issue after liberation, and still is a major issue near US bases nowadays (in particular Okinawa).

Question 81 mentions problems caused by US soldiers.

Crimes by foreigners generally cause a lot of outrage, regardless how common they are. I saw stats a few years ago that had the crime rates of US troops in Japan lower than the native population. While the crime rates of immigrants was higher than natives. But one of these topics is politically correct and the other is not.

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#50

Post by thatguy0900 » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 12:58 PM UTC

johnchristopher wrote: post #19

drglitch wrote: post #14

The original is a delight to read. Sadly, I can't help but wonder how many would be "triggered" by the answers today. How do we, as a society, start accepting rational self-criticism again?

> How do we, as a society, start accepting rational self-criticism again? A good starting point would be to stop using the word "trigger" when someone reacts in a way you don't like to something you say. Personally I interpret it as a way to diminish the other side position by suggesting they don't have control over their emotions regarding some subjects. Not a good start.

? but trigger was started and used by that side themselves.