Muse – The French Boycott
The only thing worse than ignorance is when ignorance runs out of control. The French Boycott is an example of this ignorance in action. While it is laudable to express your discontent against another country. It isn’t when you don’t research who you boycott.
When the makers of French’s mustard feel behooved to make a statement and a local french restaurant that is American run must send out letters to explain what boycotting his restaurant only hurts the local economy, you know its bad. Somehow, I can’t imagine that the ludicrously pointless moves by government officials to rename foods in their lunchrooms that had nothing at all to do with France has a little something to do with it.
People follow the lead of their leaders. Especially amongst those who are not quite as learned about the details of the world beyond American’s borders. With that lesser understanding, they lash out blindly at what seems ‘the enemy’. If it has the word French, its bad and must be denied. They don’t think or make the leap of common sense that perhaps these little blows they strike don’t hurt the french. THey hurt Americans.
Even boycotting French wine can hurt Americans, those who import French wine to the US. So even there, Americans are damaged by the lingering upset amongst the lesser informed. Blind attacks always cause collateral damage.
I think its time for this French boycott to either end or for the people doing it to smarten up and actually aim their ire at the right people, rather than harming fellow Americans in their general ignorance. How would these people feel if they knew what they were really doing. Who they were really hurting?
Blind ignorance is irrational. Jumping onto the bandwagon and waving flags at anything associated with the word ‘French’ do not show patriotism, it shows lack of basic reasoning skills. For those of us of mixed nationalities, are we supposed to dissect the cells in our bodies that have anything French in it? It’s just as ludicrous, in my mind..
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Yeah, I think most intelligent people agree that boycotting all things even remotely French is just stupid. That won’t stop it, though. People seem to feel that by eating “freedom fries” and “freedom toast”, they’re supporting their country and being patriotic. And, let’s face it–hating the French is way easier than actually being politically active in a way that matters.
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I totally agree. However, I boycott fries anyway…French or Freedom…they both equal FAT to me. LOL :p
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VIVE LA RESISTANCE!
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Something like 90% of Bill O’Reilly’s viewers polled were for boycotting anything “French”….. and he was acting like this was a good thing.
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Since there isn’t a lot of intellgence that lies behind this boycott in the first place, it’s not surprising that the sort of people who are involved it it would be boycotting French’s mustard. The whole thing is ridiculous, but there hasn’t been a lot of common sense in the country lately.
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Cry me a river. 🙂
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(shakes head) People are dumb.
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the sad thing? the rest of the world is laughing..went to a restaraunt in Paris and the British folks next to us were chuckling about the inanity of our Congress actually taking the time to address the labeling of fried shoestring potatoes. Meanwhile, Americans are dumping French wine that they ALREADY PAID FOR. as Jon Stewart said – The French are now calling American cheese – idiot cheese
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stupid note character things lied—that was me–Shy directly above. Shy
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It’s always the ones who are unemployed and living off their parents, and who themselves, do not go enlist… who think they can get all morally superior when someone else is anti-war or points out the plight of those less economically fortunate. Good entry. Our leaders should be ashamed of themselves for setting this precedent.
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people like “A Knight of our Lady” make me crazy – I have the honor of being blocked by him after leaving ONE note when I started at this sight. I wonder what the “cry me a river” comment means? Did you not just write an entry ABOUT american interests? Is he standing proud and tall regarding bigotry and it’s eventual backlash?I just don’t get it.
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::shakes head:: Bigots who can’t even hit the right target.
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