This isn’t really a GQ discussion. I don’t agree with the premise that Americans don’t like the French. There are, of course, some people in both countries that cling to cliched stereotypes.
A lot of it comes from the attitudes of Parisians. Most tourist go to see Paris. Parisians are arrogant fucks. Everyone I have met from France agrees. They all hate Parisians too.
Simpsons gags are a good measure of how much something has spread into popular culture - and to a lesser extent how much they’ll play to a not-inconsiderable international audience. They don’t dictate it, though.
It’s one of those things where the vocal few make people think it’s a majority when in reality most people are indifferent to anyone’s nationality.
I think it’s just that they’re ‘unknown’. Growing up and living in NY, which is typically diverse, I have met either as classmates, coworkers, or through friends: Russians, Portugese, Hungarians, English, Israeli, German, Swiss, Italian, Irish, Scottish, South African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Philipino, Canadian, Dutch, and people from most carribean and central american countries. I have not ever met someone who lived here from France. They are unknown and easy targets for those that need an easy target.
It should be a rule that every American who visits Paris must first visit New York City so that they don’t become confused about what rudeness really is.
I wish we were doing the same, rather than refusing to sell to so many places that the cost of procurement programs then goes through the roof because the quantities we buy are so small.
We cut off spare parts supply to Israel, and Jordan, when war threatened, and to India when war threatened with Pakistan. Not surprisingly neither bought anything from us again.
I remember reading an article probably about 10 years ago about Americans traveling to Paris and being shocked by the rudeness of the locals.
I remember thinking the same thing as you though, the American family they were writing about was not from a big city themselves and most of what dismayed them in Paris was simple urban impersonality such as you might encounter in Boston, NYC or many other large American cities.
The Parisians didn’t come across as rude so much as busy and jaded.
I HATE it when foreigners don’t talk like they’re supposed to. I knew an Irishman over here who was fun to piss off by saying “Top o’ the mornin’” to him. He’d go ballistic and usually launch into a diatribe about how the Irish never say that. Always good for a grin.
Those Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys? Way back in the day, (1986) France did not allow the USAF F-117 bombers (despite the “F” designation) taking off from England to overfly their country on the way to Triploi to blow Khadaffi’s butt up, adding long hours and additional airborn refuelers to the mission. Spain also refused overflights, but it’s more fun to hate the French.
I imagine it didn’t help that Michael Moore pointed out that France seemed to have quite a good socialised healthcare system. That’s apparently pure evil.
