When the quintessential Socialist European nation is complaining that you are going too far to the left, that might be a clue that you are going too far to the left.

'Out-of-control woke leftism and cancel culture' from the U.S is a threat to FRANCE because it 'attacks' the nation's heritage and identity, French politicians and intellectuals say

French politicians, prominent intellectuals, and academics are arguing against the influence of America's 'out-of-control leftism and cancel culture'
They claim it is undermining French society and an attack on French heritage

French President Emmanuel Macron in October cautioned against 'certain social science theories entirely imported from the United States'
His Education Minister also warned of a 'battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities'
By FRANCES MULRANEY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 17:12 EST, 9 February 2021 | UPDATED: 17:46 EST, 9 February 2021

Politicians, prominent intellectuals, and academics in France have voiced concern that 'out-of-control leftism and cancel culture' from the United States is threatening French identity.

They are arguing that American ideas on race, gender, post-colonialism – especially those coming from U.S. universities – are undermining French society and are an attack on French heritage.

The collection of intellectuals arguing that France is being contaminated by the leftism of America was buoyed on last year after French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to side with them.

In a speech in October on the 'Fight against Separatism', Macron warned against leaving 'the intellectual debate to others' as he cautioned of the 'certain social science theories entirely imported from the United States'.

His education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer also warned in October that there is a 'battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities'.

The debate came to a head this week after the new director of the Paris Opera, Alexander Neef, released a 66-page report on diversity at the company in which he vowed to diversify staff and to ban blackface.

It came after five black members of the ballet company circulated an open letter among the Paris Opera's 1,800 employees last summer, calling for greater diversity.

Neef was targeted for the decision by far-right leader Marine le Pen and by French newspaper Le Monde which said he 'soaked up American culture for 10 years' while he worked in Toronto.

This month also saw the publication of a book by social scientists Stéphane Beaud and Gérard Noiriel in which they claimed that race is a 'bulldozer' that destroys other subjects.

They added to the New York Times that they did not believe race should not be studied as an academic subject in France, as the secular government does not recognize it.

It follows tension over protests against police violence last summer in France, sparked as they were in the U.S. by the death in police custody of George Floyd.

The wave of protests sparked further backlash in universities, as students began to put pressure on institutions to disinvite well-known speakers.

Activists also targeted a play at Sorbonne University where white actors were to wear masks and dark make up.

'There was the idea that we're talking too much about racial questions in France,' Pap Ndiaye, a historian, told the Times of the summer's protests. 'That's enough.'

Some French intellects have also argued that American universities are to blame for giving justification to acts of terrorism carried out by Muslims.

After three Islamist terror attacks last fall, Education minister Blanquer accused the universities of being complicit.

He was supported in an open letter from 100 prominent scholars that blasted social theories 'transferred from North American campuses'.

One of the signatories, Gilles Kepel, argued that American influence led to 'a sort of prohibition in universities to think about the phenomenon of political Islam in the name of a leftist ideology that considers it the religion of the underprivileged.'

Historian Pierre-André Taguieff argued in the same way that the 'American-style black question' was a 'totally artificial importation' to France.

He said that it was all driven by 'hatred of the West, as a white civilization'.

'The common agenda of these enemies of European civilization can be summed up in three words: decolonize, demasculate, de-Europeanize,' Taguieff said.

'Straight white male — that's the culprit to condemn and the enemy to eliminate.'

Macron had previously mostly remained silent on the matter, with the official government line being dismissive of race and systemic racism.

It is illegal in France to collect data based on race and for many, the country's national identify rejects diversity and multiculturalism, instead focusing on fundamental rights and core values like equality and liberty.

Yet according to the New York Times, Marcron is also courting the right ahead of the election next year, which led him to eventually comment last year after center-right lawmakers pressed for a parliamentary investigation into 'ideological excesses' at universities.

They also called out 'guilty' scholars on Twitter.

In Macron's comments, made two weeks into the protests on June 14, he blamed universities for encouraging the 'ethnicization of the social question' — amounting to 'breaking the republic in two'.

Macron's intervention was welcomed by academics including sociologist Nathalie Heinich.

'I was pleasantly astonished,' she told the Times.

Last month she established an organization that fights against 'decolonialism and identity politics'.

The group has written warnings against 'American-inspired social theories' in many major French publications and has spoken out against 'cancel culture' at French universities.

'It was a series of incidents that was extremely traumatic to our community and that all fell under what is called cancel culture,' Heinich said.

Others have argued that it shows an inability in France to adapt to a changing world.

'It's the sign of a small, frightened republic, declining, provincializing, but which in the past and to this day believes in its universal mission and which thus seeks those responsible for its decline,' François Cusset, an expert on American civilization at Paris Nanterre University told the Times.

Anne Garréta, a French writer who teaches in universities in France and the U.S., has also argued that many of the leading thinkers on the subject have come from France, not from the U.S., as claimed.

'It's an entire global world of ideas that circulates,' she said.

'It just happens that campuses that are the most cosmopolitan and most globalized at this point in history are the American ones.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...politicians-say.html

Perhaps France could save us (the U.S.) on this go 'round.
I don't see us saving ourselves.

Wow just wow.
Yeah you have pretty much hit bottom when France is telling you to knock it off.

quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:. . . Yeah you have pretty much hit bottom when France is telling you to knock it off.

Bingo.

quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:
Yeah you have pretty much hit bottom when France is telling you to knock it off.

Yet, being leftists, they'll keep digging.

quote:

Others have argued that it shows an inability in France to adapt to a changing world.

'It's the sign of a small, frightened republic, declining, provincializing, but which in the past and to this day believes in its universal mission and which thus seeks those responsible for its decline,' François Cusset, an expert on American civilization at Paris Nanterre University told the Times.

And yet in her response, proving the point of the article, how Universities and their staff are central in continuing to press forward the racist and globalist idealism ie Marxism/Socialism group think plan. All the while continuing to denigrate anyone that thinks differently as "small, frightened, provincializing," she might as well add bitterly clinging to guns and bibles.

The French gave us Jaques Derrida, who championed postmodernism and corrupted our universities beyond comprehension. Khieu Samphan, Pol Pot's chief henchman, received his PhD from the Sorbonne.

France has exported plenty of poisonous ideologies--I don't want to hear them complain that those ideas have matured and are coming home to roost. Cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:
Yeah you have pretty much hit bottom when France is telling you to knock it off.

Yet, being leftists, they'll keep digging.

quote:

Originally posted by DaveL:
The French gave us Jaques Derrida, who championed postmodernism and corrupted our universities beyond comprehension. Khieu Samphan, Pol Pot's chief henchman, received his PhD from the Sorbonne.

France has exported plenty of poisonous ideologies--I don't want to hear them complain that those ideas have matured and are coming home to roost. Cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

They are no different than other liberals/democrats. They promote ideologies which result in degrading circumstances. But they don't connect the flash with the bang. They don't (won't) realize/admit their own policies caused the problems they complain about.

I would think that anyone on our side would be, well … considered to be on our side. Just how many such countries or foreign groups are there these days?

The knee-jerk Francophobia that appears in any thread mentioning the French is so inevitable that, as the expression goes, “Now I’m just amused.” You’d almost think that they were generally so corrupt and incompetent at running their affairs as to have just had a national election that was undermined, if not blatantly stolen, by a cabal dedicated to the overthrow of their 230+ year form of government ….
Oh, wait: I’m thinking of another country. Sorry.

In any event, maybe I’ll be prompted to post my “surrenderers” comments.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by mrapteam666:
Yeah you have pretty much hit bottom when France is telling you to knock it off.

Yet, being leftists, they'll keep digging.

Correct. The mental retardation suffered by leftists does not permit them to think rationally in any way whatsoever. We truly have the lowest common denominator driving us off the cliff while the entire world watches.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
In any event, maybe I’ll be prompted to post my “surrenderers” comments.

Indeed. The “Surrendering French” trope demonstrates an underdeveloped upstanding of history, coupled with national arrogance. Never mind the French bravery demonstrated at Dunkirk, the sustained losses during the resistance, or that the total losses as a percentage of the population were nearly three times that of the U.S.

I’m proud of my country’s contributions to the liberation of Europe. However, my countrymen didn’t have the threat of Schwerer Gustav or the Luftwaffe just over the horizon, ready to lob 14,000lb artillery on their families. It’s easy to be gung-ho when the family is safe and secure.

The French may be lefties, but they are much more of a mono-culture than we are. They would never let their institutions be riddled with thinking that undermines or attacks French culture and history, even when it was oppressive and imperialist. They don't have to put up with that in a more homogeneous society.

(This is not a criticism of the French. We could stand a little more cultural unity.)

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
In any event, maybe I’ll be prompted to post my “surrenderers” comments.

Indeed. The “Surrendering French” trope demonstrates an underdeveloped upstanding of history, coupled with national arrogance. Never mind the French bravery demonstrated at Dunkirk, the sustained losses during the resistance, or that the total losses as a percentage of the population were nearly three times that of the U.S.

I’m proud of my country’s contributions to the liberation of Europe. However, my countrymen didn’t have the threat of Schwerer Gustav or the Luftwaffe just over the horizon, ready to lob 14,000lb artillery on their families. It’s easy to be gung-ho when the family is safe and secure.

Thank you, both, for that.

And that's not to even mention what the French endured during WWI, primarily the first couple of years of that horrific war.

These are both fair points - the French have had much to cope with and they have been allies to us, and us to them. I took a cheap shot out of frustration.

That said, I stand by the point that the social devolution at issue isn’t an American creation. It’s the inevitable path started by pseudo intellectuals of many nationalities, including French and American. I appreciate their repudiation but it falls short of addressing the root cause - an ideological orthodoxy in the academy that has indoctrinated thousands under the guise of educating them. It’s a step in the right direction, but a small one.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
In any event, maybe I’ll be prompted to post my “surrenderers” comments.

Indeed. The “Surrendering French” trope demonstrates an underdeveloped upstanding of history, coupled with national arrogance. Never mind the French bravery demonstrated at Dunkirk, the sustained losses during the resistance, or that the total losses as a percentage of the population were nearly three times that of the U.S.

I’m proud of my country’s contributions to the liberation of Europe. However, my countrymen didn’t have the threat of Schwerer Gustav or the Luftwaffe just over the horizon, ready to lob 14,000lb artillery on their families. It’s easy to be gung-ho when the family is safe and secure.

Thank you, both, for that.

And that's not to even mention what the French endured during WWI, primarily the first couple of years of that horrific war.

....and lets not forget what the French did to help us in the Revolutionary war.

France can certainly save us - just like they saved the South during the Civil War.

I understand the frustration that leads to Francophobic comments. They have long lectured us (as have other Europeans, of course) on what they perceive as our cultural and intellectual inferiority. The same American limousine liberals, aspirationally mindless types and basement-dwelling wannabes who are championing 'wokeism' (sp?) have exhorted us to be more European than we are for just as long because they've bought the premise that not buying into wokeism is somehow backward.

In this case, though, it's not just a matter of our finding allies in the twin causes of objectivity and common sense. Here, a fellow 'laboratory of democracy' that has often been cited by our homegrown critics is actively rejecting the 'consensus' the soi-dissant social scientists are trying to cram down our throats. One might profitably (IMHO) point that out the next time the 'woke' are blowing smoke.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
France can certainly save us - just like they saved the South during the Civil War.

What are you referring to? Are you suggesting that France made some effort to support the Confederacy, but was unsuccessful in making a critical difference in the outcome?

If so, I believe you’re confusing France with Great Britain. There was some support for the South by the latter for, IIRC, economic reasons, but the French didn’t do anything as far as I know. Ultimately Britain was reluctant to do more than it did because slavery was very unpopular there.

And suggesting that the issue being discussed in this thread is something that anyone hopes will “save” us is a weak straw man. There is no reason to believe that because a group of foreigners recognize the folly of what’s being perpetrated it will save us from its consequences, and I don’t see anyone claiming any such thing. If nothing else, however, it can serve as a bit of comfort to know that even socialists can recognize when things are going too far here.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
(as have other Europeans, of course)

And as have virtually every other country on the planet at one time or another.

Frustration is one thing, and yes, understandable.

Deliberate ignorance of history and the totally irrelevant question of French military prowess that gets introduced into all these threads is quite another. It's the same sort thing that leads to introducing politics into threads that have nothing to do with politics. That's what I find frustrating and prompts my responses.

Good grief, some of you act like the French not only abandoned you in the foxhole, but took all their wine and cheese with them.

The French,like any other country,are self serving regardless of politics. Unlike most countries, they know the guillotine doesn't care who's head the frenzied masses put in it.