Azerty: Do these polls distinguish George W. Bush from the United States? It strikes me many French like the United States but rather they mistrust Bush...
Ted Stanger: Indeed, the French are somewhat schizophrenic when it comes to the United States. You'd have to be really disabled in the eyes and ears not to notice that US cultural products enjoy great success in France but it is the American model of society that is not appreciated and that is even, in my view, demonized, sometimes excessively [Hunh ?! — Ed.]. Nowadays in France, one defines an anti-American as one who hates the United States more than is necessary.
What is schizophrenic about that? And who decides when it is 'more than necessary'? Americans? The US must be the only country-with the exception of Israel-the policies of which it is impossible to criticise without being called a racist. There's no such word as anti-Frenchism (in French) or anti-Britishism, of that I am sure.
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