# Why do Americans dislike France?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-dislike-france/476327>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 9, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-dislike-france/476327 "2008-12-09T00:25:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 198

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**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-americans-dislike-france/476327/198 "2013-03-25T05:41:47Z")

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Perhaps what you should be asking is why people worship France? Of course, the French should be proud of their culture and history. But they and their worshipers just take it too far. In many cases they even treat the worshipers dismissively, and said worshipers masochistically eat that up.

Just read the earlier thread on this very same subject. Here’s my post from it:

> [@rowrrbazzle](#):
>
> EVERYBODY hates France.
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > The plain, unvarnished truth—which the whole political community does everything it can to hide—is that France has become one of the least popular countries on the planet. I have already mentioned its arrogance and vanity. To these should be added the way our rulers presume to lecture the entire world.
> 
> Jacques Julliard, “Sur une déculotée,” _Le Nouvel Observateur_, July 19, 2001, after the poor reception to France’s offer to host the 2008 Olympics. Quoted in the book _Anti-Americanism_ by Jean-François Revel.
> 
> That sums it up pretty well.

My post from a thread about the 2005 Paris riots:

> [@What the hell is going on in Paris?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-going-on-in-paris/329347/44):
>
> “Effects of L.A. Riots Reach Across the Ocean”, San Francisco Chronicle, Jun 21, 1992 (emphasis added):
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > … the consensus of French pundits is that something on the scale of the Los Angeles riots could not happen here, mainly because **France is a more humane, less racist place with a much stronger commitment to social welfare programs**.
> > 
> > Jean Daniel, editor of the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur magazine, bible of the intellectual left, wrote an essay on the Los Angeles events titled “Is It Possible in France?” …
> > 
> > But, Daniel concluded that France’s biggest advantage in avoiding racial and class tensions is its extensive social programs, which essentially guarantee free education and health care for life as well as generous allowances for the unemployed. “ **France can take comfort in the major, incontestable fact that its social laws are a thousand times more protective than in New York or Los Angeles** ,” commented Daniel.

Then there’s this item [http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/18/opinion/france-america-relationship/index.html?hpt=hp\_bn7](http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/18/opinion/france-america-relationship/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7)

> [@](#):
>
> A rational and aloof Obama kept the unprecedented French love fest at bay.

In other words, Obama behaved like them. But they also didn’t like Bush because he was a cowboy.

> [@](#):
>
> But it is sometimes hard to be saved, especially when your savior doesn’t seem to take you very seriously.

:rolleyes: It’s a bit late to play for sympathy.

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