Miquelon.org – The Fighting French

Just a quick post about French Bashing and twitter.  Conservatives and bashers in general have discovered twitter and will us it to spew anti-French venom in under 140 characters:

To find and respond to French Bashers on twitter, check out these searches :

• “French surrender”
• “Arrogant French”
• “Surrender monkeys”
• “Hate French”

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South Park’s French Bashing Explored.

The world of cartoons is a powerful way to get out any message you could never achieve with traditional actors or more conventional means. Much like Aesop’s fables, the use of animated characters often serves as a vehicle for political and social satire that avoids serious scrutiny. After all, it’s just a cartoon right?

The Simpsons, Family Guy, King of the Hill and South Park have all achieved success through poking fun at our collective hypocrisies or our contradictions. Unfortunately, when empowered with such a potent vehicle, the creative teams behind these cartoons sometimes let their own prejudices show through.

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Following France’s decision to ahead with a formal claim to the continental shelf off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the Canadian government has renewed its opposition to any new territorial claims for the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon (SPM).

We at Miquelon.org expect a spike in Anti-French and Anti-SPM sentiment in the Canadian media and press in the next few days. French citizens in Canada are advised against engaging in conversations on this topic and should refer any queries to websites that deal with the history and news of the islands.

• News from and about Saint-Pierre & Miquelon (English): radiobarachois.net
• Continental Shelf Committee (French only) : spm.org
• Saint-Pierre & Miquelon History (primary sources): grandcolombier.com
• Saint-Pierre & Miquelon General Information: st-pierre-et-miquelon.com

“An interesting phenomena taking place here in America about the French … a backlash against the French, not stirred up by anybody except the people.” – George W. Bush, March 2003

“They say this other guy is unpatriotic, or this guy likes French people. That’s what they said about Kerry (…) They try to make it out like Democrats aren’t tough enough, aren’t macho enough. It’s the same strategy.” - Barack Obama, August 18, 2008. Sources: IHT – FOXNews – ABC News

Another day and it’s another email from Comedy Central. This time it’s a brand new website called jokes.com which is now owned and operated by Comedy Central. So with the usual glee that comes with a new source of American comedic material, sarcasm intended, I went to this website and typed in “French” to see what would come up.
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In the waning days of the second Bush / Cheney presidency, I can barely contain the seething anger that rises in me. This is not a liberal rant; this is not a left-wing diatribe nor is it a politically motivated article. This statement is what I want on the record before political amnesia settles in.

To President Bush and Vice President Cheney,

In the name of all French Expatriates across America, temporary migrants or permanent residents, in the name of Americans of French extraction, be they recent or distant, may they be Cajuns, may they be from Maine, Vermont or Michigan, I want to tell you how much you hurt and damaged the fabric of Franco-American relations, how much you made our lives difficult and painful. Read the rest of this entry »