The answers to each gripe are simple, straightforward and convincing. I love how it's written.
It's prejudice vs logic and wisdom.
Its simple propaganda from the war department..
112 Gripes About the French
271–280 of 365 posts
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#272As an outsider who speaks both french and english, and has been to both countries, it always stuck me how similar Americans and French people are. Both sides would rather die than admit they are so similar in terms of spirit an attitude, and this brotherly hate is the main reason they are so similar. It's pretty funny.
Can you expand on that? I have dual citizenship, have spent each half of my life in both countries and I find French and Americans very different. How do you see them as similar?
Not the OP---I agree they're very different, but there's a striking resemblance in how both countries think their political and intellectual culture is civilization's crowning achievement and the entire world should adopt it. (Of course, the US has been more able to do export theirs than France in recent decades.) IMO this shapes both countries' relationships to the rest of the world.
I have less first hand experience, but I also think the level of distrust in the government (esp. central / federal) among rural populations is particularly high in both countries by developed nation standards.
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#273> (...) tensions began to rise between the French and the U.S. military personnel stationed in the country, with the former seeing the latter as arrogant and wanting to flaunt their wealth, and the latter seeing the former as proud and resentful. Well. I mean... Joking aside, the text is amazingly blunt and honest, in a rather refreshing way. "The French don't bathe." The French don't bathe often enough. They can't.…
It's true. Europeans of that era did not bathe everyday. My stepfather escaped nazi Germany, and moved to the us in the 40s. He grudgingly adapted to daily bathing (my mother's insistence), but remarked how very American that is. He was very 20th century European, for sure.
About 1/3 of Germans still don't bathe every day. 1/6 of the French don't bathe every day.
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
The definitions I've known have remained stable until very recently. I'll stick with Race: genetics; Ethnicity: the group/tribe one "grows up" or is most shaped by; Nationality: the country you're in/from. They can all align to (mostly) one group, like in India and China, or can be mostly aligned like in northern Europe, or a melting pot like the US. It's the "connotations" (i.e. conflations) that are the reason that…
Please try and define "genetics" in a way that isn't, in some way, sociopolitical. To give one example out of many thousands across history, still somewhat alive today: do you consider South Koreans and Japanese people to be the same race? Do you know if those groups consider themselves to be of the same race? The concept of race very much predates our understanding of genetics, which is a relatively modern science.
I didn't define race in any sociopolitical way -- precisely the opposite, in fact. The socio-political aspect comes from the Nationality+Ethnicity parts.
My wife is Chinese, and feels a racial kinship to Asian people from many countries: Japan, Korea, Vietnam, ... Refers to all as Asian.
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the text is amazingly blunt and honest It would likely have been written to be comprehensible to people with a fairly low reading level.
I think more writers, especially technical writers, should am for this type of writing. I like simple.
The DoD produces documents that are either
a) incredibly clear and straightforward, or
b) completely impenetrable (esp. anything with a diagram)
There is no middle ground. Seriously though, the Army's writing manual is top-notch and most high schools would be better for spending a month or three teaching from it.
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ever been on the L in Chicago in a car without working air conditioning? Spoiler: Everybody stinks.
Wrong. Try Japan. They're clean, polite, and courteous. Crowded trains in August (like all year) are surprisingly absent of body odor (and litter, and noisy people, ...). Different folks are indeed different in some ways.
Asians sweat less and their sweat does not stink as much for some reason.
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love the idea of this, but it also plays poorly with > Brandolini's law, also known as the bullshit asymmetry principle, is an internet adage that emphasizes the difficulty of debunking false, facetious, or otherwise misleading information: "The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it." But I guess, to be fair, giving the other sides a fair chance to make it's p…
This just seems like a rather clever permutation of ad hominem. “The reason I won’t refute your argument is that it is so incorrect that it would take me forever to explain why.”
You're looking at it wrong. It's that there is so much bull out there that it would be impossible to refute it all.
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#278> (...) tensions began to rise between the French and the U.S. military personnel stationed in the country, with the former seeing the latter as arrogant and wanting to flaunt their wealth, and the latter seeing the former as proud and resentful. Well. I mean... Joking aside, the text is amazingly blunt and honest, in a rather refreshing way. "The French don't bathe." The French don't bathe often enough. They can't.…
Also, page 35:
> The French haven’t had paint for a long time.
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#279The opening paragraphs are lovely and absolutely not what I'd expected based on the name. This is the America we want to live in. "We insist upon the right to express our own opinions. But we also believe in the right of others to express their opinions. For the right to speak involves the duty to listen...We know that the truth can only be found through open and honest discussion, and that the common good is served…
We need to be reminded of this. The left and right are so divided that they're intolerable of one another. Neither side believes the other is worth listening to. It's a shame. We're all animals traversing a complicated landscape. There's daily pain and suffering, and then we die. We should remind ourselves how similar everyone actually is, and that the diversity of our views are humanity living and breathing through…
One side wants trans people to be able to use the same bathroom and universal healthcare the other side talks about shooting democrats and Myanmar style coups.
It is impossible to be tolerant of the Fourth Reich or those who if they don't condone it will at best tolerate it for tax cuts.
Our unresolvable division is because 10% is evil and 30% is nuts and the remainder can't have anything they want if they don't embrace the crazy.
These people will sacrifice our actual values for pale shadows of same.
Re: 112 Gripes About the French
#280Fantastic 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 enshri…
Wonderful. I found that book in my mother's library--love it!