As an American I’ve never understood the hate for the French. In France, if you’re a leader and you fuck up bad enough, they will literally murder you.
If anything, we should be taking fucking notes
France has no US military bases on its soil and has refused to be entirely vassalized by the US unlike much of the rest of Europe. It’s one of few Western countries that has managed to maintain strategic autonomy in the face of US hegemony. Refusal to participate in the Iraq war is an example of this, as other Western countries like the UK followed the Americans in blindly like a dependent vassal would.
I dislike the French for normal reasons, not weird nationalistic ones.
They folded like oragami in WWII, and the french have a reputation for cultural pomposity that dates back centuries so people give them shit for both. I don’t know of more than a handful of people who mean anything by it though, and the french/american cultural exchange is one of the most vibrant in the western world. Excepting politically right now (especially given the current trump BS), we’ve gotten along extremely well as nations for a long damn time and americans tend to tease their friends.
I’ve never heard the french complain about it - I have heard the french clap back with some equally devastating mockery of their own, though. Seems healthy enough.
From what I remember: France refused to join US war in Iraq in 2003, and around the same time I started hearing nonsense like “freedom fries” and “google french military victories and you get no results lolololol”, and it was all really fucking stupid. But some of that seemed to remain in popular culture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-French_sentiment_in_the_United_States
It was well before that. French were saddled with the white flag, from results in wwii, whether deserved or not
This is the answer. The core of all American-based French slander is badly-remembered WW2 anecdotes.
Some of it goes back to one of those dumb Bush wars when France refused to allow American warplanes to fly over their airspace.
Republican Congressman threw a tantrum, and did important stuff like rename French Fries to Freedom Fries in the Congressional cafeteria… Not kidding.
Nobody is mentioning Vietnam? That’s the source of boomer complaints IME. France “abandoned” the US and the industrial war machine convinced the American veterans that it was France’s fault that the greatest military in the world couldn’t defeat communist Vietnam.
Ignorance, propaganda and probably racism.
I can imagine that many African and East-Asian countries have their own strong opinions on the French and with better reason than the USA.
American exceptionalism at work. Decades of being lead to believe they are the solver of the world’s problems and the centre of the “free” world. I’d also many don’t even know that the French were involved because US education is very good at altering history to make them look superior.
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Because “the revolution” to the French is not the one in 1776. Nor is it “the revolution” for most of the world. The French Revolution was the big one for most of the world.
That makes a cataract of meaning for the USA.
Americans and Europeans disdain the French over WW2 with little regard to the damage done to human life in France during WW1. There are still uninhabitable zones in France from the world military poisoning swathes of land in WW1 with shells, mines, munitions, and corpses.
They are both called WW for a reason. They are inextricably linked.
Note how anti-french sentiments in US only get serious when republicans are in power. Otherwise it’s just “hon hon hon stinky frenchman more baguette please we love you ❤️”.
Yeah, I really don’t think most of it’s serious. Like ribbing between friends.
Except the stupid political stuff from Republicans, like you said.
Gerard Depardieu! Hon hon hon, baguette!
Yeah no Gerard Depardieu is a pretty big insult. I mean, it fits with the whole rapist pedo government but still.
Oh shit. The only thing I knew about him was that he’s French and has a big nose.
Yeah no, he’s a big piece of shit who did and said a lot of crap,
I’ll quote just two small sentences from the big wikipedia page, and the wikipedia page is only a summary.
“The girls wanted to be raped. I mean, there’s no such thing as rape. It’s only a matter of a girl putting herself in a situation where she wants to be”
On 13 May 2025, Depardieu was convicted on both counts of sexual assault. He was handed an 18 month suspended sentence. The court commented that Depardieu did not appear to have “grasped the notion of consent”. He appealed against his conviction
Of course France, who looooves rapists and pedo (just take a look at random government heads, or if you want to make yourself throw up look up Matzneff) has been loving him and defending him for literally half a century.
Right… its usually casual xenophobia. Which never in any country becomes habitual serious xenophobia, particularly not in the US.
When the english and australians do it it’s just a bit of banter but when the americans join in it’s xenophobia.
Nah, I disagree with you there.
Well as long as you’re consistent with your views I’ll call it fair enough.
Glad we got past your whataboutism eventually.
Yep - and the American Revolution heavily inspired the French Revolution. Probs how WW2 went down and we’re still echoing boomer rants from the old days.
Seems to make no sense in today’s times but maybe it’s some sort of ‘banter’ between 2 countries that are so different?
Mostly because they lost in WW2. The Americans had to save them. Kinda the same in WW1, they just skip over the stalemate and say the Americans had to save them. Also they refused to help in Iraq.
Ignorance… that is usually the root cause
Muricans are poorly educated, half can’t read past 6th grade level and most do not read unless forced to.
In this particular case they make fun of the French for not beating the Nazis in WWII because they probably saw it in a meme somewhere but their history knowledge does not go far back enough to realize how stupid they look when they do this “seriously”
In addition, they gave us the Statue of Liberty.
A French politician actually called for it to be returned—to be clear, it was just a single politician, not the whole government—and the Trump administration said (very heavily paraphrasing), “No, it’s ours, and also you suck for being invaded by Germany, so we deserve it more than you.” However, I personally find it ironic that the administration is so attached to it, given the famous poem inscribed on its base that is inseparable from the signifiance of the statue:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
It’s a fucking travesty that we still have the statue. We are no longer worthy of it.
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