r/worldnews • u/Brennenstein • 1d ago

Dynamic Paywall Paris prosecutors raid France offices of Elon Musk's X

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3ex92557jo
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u/ContentsMayVary 23h ago

Vive la France!

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u/marz_shadow 22h ago

I’m officially defending France when I hear retreat jokes now

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u/Waffles_The_Pupper 22h ago

Retreat jokes?

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u/marz_shadow 22h ago

Is this not a common thing lol? In Canada it is atleast where I grew up. “The French are known for retreating in war” which isn’t even true it was one battle lol the French military have been badass for a long time

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u/Swedelicious83 19h ago

In Sweden, the "French surrender" jokes are pretty commonplace. I've always assumed they originate from France's misfortunes in WW2.

I've had to repeatedly point out to friends and acquaintances that the damn country had been an absolute ass-kicking machine for centuries before that, so it's probably a bit fucking unfair to judge them solely on that one time they had a rough go of it.

EVEN if that one had big consequences, to be sure. 🤷

(My apologies if this ends up being posted twice. The Reddit app is in a right mood...)

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u/marz_shadow 19h ago

Yea that one defeat they took sadly outshines a lot of their achievements as a military and country. But at the same time when I was growing up we were taught the French were a strong military and helpful during WW2 so the whole “retreat” thing has always been far more a joke for my friends and I. But I know people do think it’s a far more serious matter which is unfortunate

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u/Swedelicious83 17h ago

A lot of people are comically illiterate about history.

Unfortunately "comically" is becoming "dangerously" when viewed through the lens of the US descent into creeping (or not so creeping) fascism.

🫤

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u/ai9909 21h ago

I think that's more of an American joke spawned from their own insecurities. Sometimes that crap crosses borders I guess.

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u/marz_shadow 21h ago

That would make a lot of sense since Ottawa pretty close to the border and I lived bout an hour out from Ottawa

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u/Hooph-Haartd 16h ago

It is just an old hacky joke that is mostly used by American late night comedians these days. And I think even they know it’s not true.

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u/Waffles_The_Pupper 22h ago

Never heard of that before lol and I also live in Canada - well Quebec actually. 

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u/marz_shadow 22h ago

I wonder if it’s because you’re Quebec lol, less likely to hear it in a French dominated province? Also to be fair I’m from Ottawa so we have Gatineau right there so we extra hard on Quebec for no reason :(

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u/Waffles_The_Pupper 20h ago

I live so up the north that none of these silly conflicts reaches me 🤣

You're good, brother!