Today's edition of "Fuck the French."

[phanatic]

Look at the garbage Bernard-Henry Levy's written about Strauss-Kahn's arrest. Take note in particular of this bit:

What I do know is that nothing in the world can justify a man being thus thrown to the dogs

Comments

[autopope]

There seems to be a tradition in France of the media (and police) being excessively deferential to big swinging dick politicians and officials: stuff gets swept under rugs or ignored. For example, the public only found out about Francois Mitterand's mistress and her children during the news coverage of his funeral, when both families turned up: even though he'd been in the Elyseé palace for about 12 years and the press corps had all known, they'd kept quiet about it.

(I think the US press corps keeps quiet about political secrets as well, but not personal misbehaviour -- the criteria for discretion are different. And, I think, not immunizing high officials against accusations of rape is, by and large, a good thing.)

[arthur_sc_king]

While France and the French have some different views on things like affairs and mistresses and shit, this really isn't that much different from the rape-friendly culture we have on this side of the pond.

Rape-friendly culture here is also deferential to men, and the amount of deference is directly proportional to how white, rich, and/or powerful the man in question is.

IOW, same merde, different pile.

[ernunnos]

Yeah, Strauss-Kahn thought we had a rape-friendly culture too.

universalrejoinder.com

[achinhibitor]

It does appear that the pile is larger in France, at least compared to the more cosmopolitan parts of the US.

[joysilence]

Well, I lived in France for the best part of a decade, listening to Henri-Levy and Jack Lang's crap on a weekly basis, and the only thing that surprises me about Henri-Levi's sickening outburst is that he didn't try to work in a reference to his BFF Visionary Director of Genius Roman Polanski (who as we all know was also oh-so-unfairly maligned along with his gorgeous charming wife.) There is some evidence to suggest that the French public are getting tired of these sexist monkeys in intellectual costumes, but it's not happening fast enough for me and, speaking with my feminist hat on, I would rather live in the country of the Page 3 girl than go back to France.

Sorry if this comment appears several times, LJ is being a knobjockey.

[phanatic]

Ben Stein's a giant fucking tool and has been a giant fucking tool for years. I don't understand why he has any credibility left after he and a bunch of other monkeys were hooting and throwing feces at Peter Schiff several years ago when he was warning about the coming recession (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz_yw0kq3MM&t=3m58s).

But that said, Stein's not attacking the same things that Levy's attacking. At least not in that article.

[achinhibitor]

Mmmmm, I chuckled when reading taerowyn's "So what are your thoughts on (non-French) Ben Stein?" followed immediately on my screen by phanatic's icon

[achinhibitor]

Collating this case and the Polanski case, it's pretty clear that (relative to the US) the French are (collectively speaking) willing to extend more privilege to the elites and consider rape to be less significant. (I suppose that latter corresponds to their attitude that sexuality is not a matter of morality.) Not a pretty picture.

The Chinese, like the French, consider all foreigners to be barbarians.
The Chinese, unlike the French, might be right.