112 Gripes About the French • Hacker News Board

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#81

Post by dogorman » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:41 PM UTC

bkirkby wrote: post #62

adamjb wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Offended" would be my suggestion. "Triggered" is only really used in this sense as part of bad faith culture war discourse, mocking the idea of trigger warnings.

I've heard advocates of trigger warnings share their lived experience by talking about what "triggered" them, using that word specifically.

The word is used in the context of PTSD. e.g. "hearing fireworks triggered flashbacks from the war"

More generally, a "trigger warning" is a "content advisory warning" by another name.

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#82

Post by Hendrikto » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:42 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…

> This one could apply to our relationship with China maybe?

This is absolutely nothing like the situation with China, which is definitely NOT an ally of the west.

Shortly after assuming his position as President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping disseminated a secret internal paper with his most important views and plans, including the 7 biggest threats to China in his eyes. In 2013, this "document number 9" was leaked. Among the 7 threats were democracy, human rights, and independent media.

Seriously, China does not just have a different culture with slightly different ideas. They view our most fundamental values as their biggest threats.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world/asia/chinas-new-lea...

Edit: As pointed out by several commenters, my remarks refer to the Chinese Communist Party, not to the Chinese people.

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#83

Post by tobltobs » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #78

mbfg wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sometimes groups of people are just nasty, bad people worthy of mocking and ridicule. You can't always pretend that situations are around reasonable differences of opinion with each side being honest actors. Each situation is going to be different. the english/french situation may be one way and the progressive/conservative situation may be different.

sometimes groups of people are just nasty, bad people worthy of mocking and ridicule Yes, conservatives aren't just people with a different belief system than yours. They are bad people, liars, evil, rotten to the core, and deserve to die. /s

How did you decide that he meant conservatives == nasty, bad people?

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#84

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:44 PM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #34

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...

France is well know as being the little Russia and certainly a deep reserve of anti American sentiment. Mostly due to media and education brainwashing.

Spoken like a true American who only heard about those places from TV shows, movies, and mass media "coverage"...

"media and education brainwashing" LOL

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#85

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

tobltobs wrote: post #83

coldtea wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sometimes groups of people are just nasty, bad people worthy of mocking and ridicule Yes, conservatives aren't just people with a different belief system than yours. They are bad people, liars, evil, rotten to the core, and deserve to die. /s

How did you decide that he meant conservatives == nasty, bad people?

It was a statistical observation. The people who phrase it the way the parent did, usually tend to be on a specific side.

(The other side has its tell-signs as well).

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#86

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC

mbfg wrote: post #66

bumby wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

sometimes groups of people are just nasty, bad people worthy of mocking and ridicule. You can't always pretend that situations are around reasonable differences of opinion with each side being honest actors. Each situation is going to be different. the english/french situation may be one way and the progressive/conservative situation may be different.

[deleted]

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#87

Post by kxter » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

Amazing read, to get a glimpse of 'gripes' of Americans back in the day. Reminds me of the whole "Freedom Fries' fiasco. Times may change. Some gripes stay.

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#88

Post by gregsadetsky » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:46 PM UTC

Fantastic read!

Via the French Wikipedia page about this booklet [0], I learned that the probable author is Leo Rosten, author of “The Joys of Yiddish” [1]..!

That makes sense as “Joys” is an incredibly funny and witty read on the interplays between Yiddish and English in the US. Much recommended

From Rosten’s Wikipedia page [2]:

—

In his book, The Joys of Yiddish, he defines the word chutzpah as "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan."

—-

[0] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nos_amis_les_Français

(Funnily, the booklet’s title was translated to “Our friends the French”)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joys_of_Yiddish

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Rosten

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#89

Post by muststopmyths » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:48 PM UTC

Question 78: A 73% casualty rate for the French in WWI seemed bonkers to me at first glance, but it probably makes sense for the kind of war it was

Ref: https://www.facinghistory.org/weimar-republic-fragility-demo...

Re: 112 Gripes About the French

#90

Post by julienfr112 » Sat, Jul 17, 2021, 1:49 PM UTC

I kind of wonder why it's always acceptable to have general critics about the Frenchs, but take exactly the same discours and replace it replace it with Jews or Blacks, and sundenly, it becomes completely racist and unacceptable.