Content
@
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
The Economist’s hot take on JD Vance’s French side (Vance recently cited Charles de Gaulle as his political inspiration)
4 replies
1 recast
38 reactions
Daniel
@dmg
de Gaulle’s overwhelmingly anti-American worldview makes this wildly incomprehensible. I struggle daily to grasp the cognitive dissonance Vance must be bathing in
2 replies
0 recast
1 reaction
Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
What’s incomprehensible to me is how not showing subservience to America is immediately perceived as being Anti-American. It’s the same “you’re either with us or against us” polarizing and nuance-free fallacy we’ve seen used by Bush in 2001. In fact, Americans were pouring wine and champagne in the streets when France first pulled out of NATO in 1966, and did it again when France warned against a baseless invasion of Iraq in 2003. I remember that vividly. The perceived “disloyalty” of France was deemed an affront and synonymous with anti-Americanism, as if being friends implies that we have to always see eye-to-eye and everything. De Gaulle was not anti-American. He was grateful for the American involvement in WWII and the Marshall plan. He was anti-communist and didn’t like the Soviets one bit. But he was also against the idea of a U.S. cultural and military hegemony over Europe, and he was deeply convinced that France had to stand on its own first, and then in partnership with Germany.
2 replies
0 recast
3 reactions
Daniel
@dmg
Agreed. However my point was more about the irony that Vance is invoking the last major figure of a conservative tradition that viewed America (and its nihilistic consumerism) as the potential downfall of western civilization.
0 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
youssef
@yssf.eth
If you’re American then it’s refreshing to see you didn’t fall for the anti-France propaganda during Iraq. Modern French foreign policy is about balance between the US and Europe; unfortunately balance is seen as “anti-[other]” in a polarized world.
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
