A question asked to me: why don't Americans fight back?

[depakid]

I tried to explain, but I really didn't have much of an answer.

[wroberts189]

1. Was he French? They could teach us how. nt

[salguine]

6. Will you, and everybody else, get off the fucking "the French don't fight' bandwagon already? The

French army had one-and-a-half MILLION soldiers killed in action in World War I. Does that sound to you like people who won't fight? Get over it.

And the reason the French didn't help us out in Iraq is because the French know bullshit when they smell it.

[blublu]

11. French

Thank you.

[pampango]

12. I thought wroberts189 was complementing the French for the way workers have occupied

factories and otherwise resisted unilateral actions by management.

[slackmaster]

13. That's what I thought too

:shrug:

[City Lights]

14. That's how I interpreted his comment.

:shrug:

[wroberts189]

23. Thx ..Yes I was ..specifically the recent one. That was radical. nt

[KansDem]

20. I have the utmost respect for the French...

Hell in a Very Small Place

[wroberts189]

24. I meant to infer they could teach us something ...really no sarc tag. nt

[salguine]

31. Sometimes it's hard to tell. My apologies.

[midnight armadillo]

27. And the French Resistance fighters were pretty badass

Intelligence gathering, sabotage (<--French word!), guerilla war, etc.

Throughout France, the Free French had been of inestimable value in the campaign. They were particularly active in Brittany, but on every portion of the front we secured help from them in a multitude of ways. Without their great assistance the liberation of France and the defeat of the enemy in Western Europe would have consumed a much longer time and meant greater losses to ourselves.
-Dwight Eisenhower

WWI saw the deaths of like 1/3 of French men between 18-35 or something like that.

[pampango]

32. They were indeed, but they could have learned something from the Iraqi "resistance"

and killed more of their own civilians to prove that the German invasion had failed. ;) Instead they concentrated on intelligence gathering, sabotage and guerrilla war against the Germans.

You are right the French resistance performed admirably against an overwhelming and brutal military occupier.

[vincna]

29. "I'd rather have a German division in front of me...

...than a French division behind me" - General George Patton

[cliffordu]

30. Fuck Patton.

And, you too if you believe that shit.

[LanternWaste]

33. Patton-- failed rescue of his son in law which cost lives...

Patton-- failed rescue of his son in law which cost lives. Task Force Baum-- out of originally 350 men of the task force, only 35 made it back from his dramatically failed rescue attempt. if he'd been in the habit of attempting rescues of POW's, the context of his failure would be different. But his failure was based on little more than personal sentiment.

Patton-- spent three months throwing man after man into a slog fest in Alsace-Lorraine to capture a old world war one fort. Attempt after attempt failed, and failed miserably. Weeks went by, and he finally decided "let's go around the place", which is what everyone else had been saying prior, and since.

Patton who thought he was the reincarnation of Hannibal.


And this is a guy you want to base your opinions off of...?

[TexasProgresive]

7. The French people know how to stand up to government

that is exceeding its authority. Everybody rolled over to the Blitz Krieg- If not for the English Channel and the evacuation at Dunkirk Britain would've fell. The Soviet Union had its vast size and extreme winter as allies but the came close to losing. If you hate the French people just say so. That will earn you a place on my exclusive Ignore Club list.

[Autumn]

16. You bet your ass they could.n/t

[Birthmark]

2. Fight back against whom over what, exactly?

[slackmaster]

3. Are you saying the answer you gave provided evidence that the person was correct?

K&U

:kick:

[JTFrog]

4. mainly because half the people i was with believed it until I explained the situation to them

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Why didn't Germans?

Because they LIKED it.

[Aragorn]

8. propaganda

I agree with that but propaganda played a big role there too. Are people in general smart enough for representative (or even direct) democracy to ever work well? Corporate role is a big factor obviously.

[quantass]

9. In terms of Healthcare the American people roll over and die, repeatedly.

[ipaint]

10. And call it of all things-reform. n/t

[Fla Dem]

15. We did fight back...American Revolution, Civil War, WWI, WWII, Vietnam Protests, all the Freedom

Marches for desegregation. Lately, not so much. Tpp pampered

[RepublicanElephant]

17. we americans have this crazy belief that we'll all be rich someday,

if only we work hard enough and oppose any kind of social equity.

in the meantime, we don't want to mess things up for the wealthy, since we'll all be there one day.

:crazy:

[Samantha]

18. Some Americans do fight back

For literal proof of that statement, think about where exactly you posed the question.

Sam

[sofa king]

19. Against whom? Republican mobs?

Do you know how easy it would be for a few like-minded people to go in to one of those staged mobs and kill every last one of them, as the Iranians just did? Or how convenient it would be for this President to declare Republican "free speech zones" half a mile away in the bad part of town, and then put anyone who resists in the can for years? Or how simple it would be to identify the names of the protesters, their homes, their family members, put them all on terrorist watch lists, distribute those names to law enforcement, and watch them all for years at a time?

That's not fighting; that's fighting free speech, no matter how stupid that speech is. That is what they do. We fight those bad ideas with good ideas and better plans. And we're winning.

[chowder66]

21. Americans do fight back....

I think we need to take into account that France is smaller than the state of Texas w/ a population of around 65 million, Paris having approximately 2+ million. I think if we keep that in perspective and the vastness of the U.S. then maybe it makes more sense....? Just sayin'.

Americans protest... but they are spread out and at times they hit the same numbers as France. France's largest protest in recent memory hit 300,000. New York had one as large if not larger against the Iraq War (just an example).

While my context might be a bit lazy, it makes sense to think about the demographics overall.

[4lbs]

22. The GOP is acting more and more like Marie Antoinette. We all know what happened to her. (n/t)

.

[Juche]

25. I don't know either

I could do more, but I don't. I don't know if it is learned helplessness, or lack of organization, or what.

Protests against the war or protests to hold criminals accountable led to pretty much nothing. So you can't blame us in a way. I think we've learned that our leaders are more willing to ignore us than leaders in other nations might be.

[depakid]

26. Point of clarification on this business

Last night, I was just pissed off at all the goings on with insurance companies drumming up the thuggery- and the media reporting it as some sort of populist uprising.

Usually, I'm not so off the deep end- but you know, sometimes things need to get stirred up- and sometimes reasonable people get pissed off for the right reasons.

Having just analyzed (for a health advocacy nonprofit) about 130 health insurer's websites, putting together the database and supporting materials for both patients and providers. I've read a lot of things- from Altius to WPS Health Insurance.

Some are worse than others of course- and not all have links to formularies- or prior authorizations deals for patients- or to medical policies for providers.

Some- actually many, have 100 page manuals designed by lawyers. Have a read of them sometime.

Each one differs in some respect- though there's common language to absolve the various companies from "liability."

I thought to myself- how on earth did we get to this place?

Then to hear NPR describe the bussed in town hall nutcases as some sort of populists.

Wow.

These are trying times.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

28. Read two books for a better understanding...

"What's the Matter With Kansas," by Tom Frank
"The Political Mind," by Drew Westen

If you get the chance, read up on "The Authoritarians," by Ron Altmeyer. Familiarize yourself with the Stanley Milgram experiments on 'authoritarianism'. John Dean's book "The Conscience of a Conservative," though seeking to better understand conservative ideology and behavior; I think that over 30 years of Republican rhetoric and propaganda--coupled with the deliberate dumbing down of the American mind--may explain why we are complacent as a people.

The process goes as follows:

1. The powerful elites control all forms of information and shapes it to their liking
2. With the aid of the media, that information is filtered through the lens of the powerful elite and to the public
3. Information is meant to keep the public ignorant and apathetic
4. Propaganda is then must more effective
5. There are a few in society that are conscious of the process but are shut out, marginalized and ostracized
6. The political process is controlled by the powerful elite such that it controls who and how people vote