h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Do you hate the Americans?

I have been advised in a thread to ask this of a French person.

And just in case it was referring to the generic French, do you feel able to speak on behalf of your fellow countrymen/women?


Also an apology for neglecting the HH game page and after you wrote about us in the Post! It's on my list of things to do


kea.

[I wouldn't mind having a nose at that thread...]

I definitely do not hate the Americans... I think I've posted on some threads [one of them probably called "What's good with the Americans?"] ages ago giving a bit of support to the American Researchers on here... I don't always agree with the way the American governments/leaders have dealt/are dealing with certain issues but there is IMO a big difference between criticising a country's government and hating its people...

I'm probably not the best person to speak on behalf of my fellow countrymen/women though... but I probably can talk on behalf of some of them as not all of the French people agree with the French Governments [past and present] way of dealing with foreign affairs... Our military presence in Tchad being one issue some of us don't agree with... and, if we go a bit further back in time, it is still scandalous for some of us to see that some of the officers who were involved in the OAS [Algerian war] even become ministers or/and got high responsibilities under Giscard... Then again, they were kind of pardoned by de Gaulle in 1968 when he seeked their help ["just in case"] regarding the May 68 events...

So, to cut a long posting short, there are probably some French people hating the Americans like there are probably some English people hating the French but, that doesn't mean that all the French hate the Americans or even that all the English hate the French...

Hating [as in: criticising] what a country's government does/has done is different in my view... Unfortunately too many people do not make that distinction and will say "the Americans" and "the French" when talking about the American and French governments...



No problem about the HH game page... I haven't been much online lately and got a few things to add as priority to my own "to do" list...

Talk soon...

loup

Thanks loup

Here's the thread, although I have to warn you it is strange even by h2 standards: F55683?thread=509629 I shall report back there in due course, but feel free to join in of course

I agree that there is a difference between critiquing a government and 'hating' a people. I also wonder what it must be like to be on the receiving end of the criticism - I have been trying to imagine what it would feel like it heaps of h2ers were continually criticising NZ and if I could not take this personally. Although I am quite happy to criticise NZ myself, so maybe I would be ok (I'm sure if I lived in the US I would still be critical of it).

I know little about French foreign policy other than it's impact in the Pacific, and of course the Rainbow Warrior thing. I was surprised that the researcher in that thread saw the French and 'eurotypes' with such animosity, and wonder if this is since the Iraq invasion and France's opposition? Interesting though.

kea.

I've subscribed to it... and yep, it is a thread...

France's opposition to the war did provoke quite a lot of anti-French reactions in the US... The thing about changing the name of french fries for freedom fries being an example... That was actually echoed at the time in our own resident francophobe's infamous "What's Wrong With The French?" thread...

Makes a change from the usual conspiracy theories regarding world domination though...

Talk soon..

loup