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Thanks, Jennifer. Unbridled French Arrogance and Petty Sarcasm -- Europeans -- Inundated for Years with Soviet New-Think -- Their Brains are Addled.Reader comment on item: Europe or Eurabia? Submitted by Sofa Sogood (United States), Apr 25, 2008 at 10:13 Thanks very much for your post. It was excellent! You excerpted some of the most significant points in Richard Landes articles, and your interpretations and opinions were extremely insightful. I will be very busy for the next few weeks, so I won't have time for this website. But I just wanted to get this off to you, and to let you know why, if you address anything to me, I won't be able to respond for a while. For now, here are some of my thoughts on the French: Although I really don't care for the sarcastic tit-for-tat I allowed myself to be pulled into with Marie-Claude, I just couldn't let her get away scot free with all that nonsensical masquerading. I've spent a lot of time around Europeans -- not only French -- who so often turn a political discussion into a petty personal attack and competition for the most smart aleck clever phrase award. So shallow and purposeless. I am so sick of their fashionable knee-jerk, mindless Anti-Americanism. So many times, while in a social situation with a group of Europeans (and this is years before the Iraq war), I'd be introduced and someone would out of the blue pipe up, "I don't like America." And they feel justified in behaving that way. It's not unusual. Can you imagine Americans ever doing that to anyone -- out of the blue -- in a social situation? To a visiting guest in our country? We're too kind and decent, and have too much self-respect to be so crude. But it's good to have here revealed the very typical attitude and approach of a large percentage of the French in the personna of Marie Claude. Mind you, I don't despise the French, although I condemn so much of their behavior. Majority or not, there are many who are lovely, courageous, and have integrity of thought, and I wouldn't want to judge them all the same. Among so much else, their past brilliant achievements and contributions to philosophy, literature and art ... how can that be disregarded? And I haven't forgotten my history lessons about the French coming to the aid of our flegling nation. Nor the gift of our glorious Statue of Liberty. That being said, it's too bad, though, that for so many, their faults and weaknesses cause their otherwise forgiveable petty arrogance to overwhelm them to such a degree -- to cause convenient but self-mutilating memory loss, and to earn themselves such a poor grade in Ethics, basic decency, and other admirable human qualities. From looking at Marie Claude's 3-23 post to Mariane [I have to say, here she is at least engaging in an attempt to communicate from her (however twisted) perspective, and I look forward to Mariane's usual lively and well-researched reply], it can be seen that in her view, it was America, not Nazi Germany, that was the enemy of France. And that because it was also to America's advantage that Stalin was kept from overrunning France, the French need not appreciate in any way what was done for them -- much less in the form of friendship or loyalty. It almost seems she is saying that she would have preferred to welcome the Soviets. Raw, that's really raw. And totally disingenuous. I guess that's what's meant by "post-modern" re-interpretation of history. And let's not forget the massive Doublethink and Newspeak Inversion of Reality kind of thinking that Europe has been inundated with by Soviet propaganda since the early 20th century, which was intensified after WW11. They can't help it -- their brains are addled. I'm very angry at them for being such destructive, vindictive, and self-deceptive fools, but I don't feel glad that Europe is in such a mess and is heading toward oblivion. I'm very, very saddened by it, and it's going to harm us (already has) as well. I wish it were different. Those who rise above the mindlessness of the majority of the Marie-Claude's -- unlikely as it seems now -- I wish them well and hope they can find a way to get their countrymen to open their eyes, minds and hearts to reality, and to prevail. Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments". << Previous Comment Next Comment >> Reader comments (415) on this item
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