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Yes - and the poor buggers had been scared stiff by the repression.

Ah. Er. Well, yes. It can come across that way, I suppose. I believe it's known as chouchenn locally.

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No, obviously - as I did when campaigning at the time - you blame the government for what the government does, as I blame the French government. Don't pretend to be dim.

Er.... "The French tradition since the Revolution on has been a matter of constant rhetoric, of melodramatic posturing and bullying, always terrifying the oppressed till they believe they agree with the intellectual brilliance with which they are kicked and spat on, because they'd better. A sick lot."

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How could I possibly avoid saying 'Just like Hitler's admirable plans for Poland and Yugosavia'? As in 'Israel', okay for the settlers, doubtless.

Well I keep hoping that one day you will avoid saying it and pick some other historical example. Not today, apparently.

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Bullies always remind me of Hitler, because he is the major bully and murderer in my field of cultural reference, as he is in yours. I do not assume that anyone who disagrees with me is Hitler - just those who approve of bullying and murder. The French tradition since the Revolution on has been a matter of constant rhetoric, of melodramatic posturing and bullying, always terrifying the oppressed till they believe they agree with the intellectual brilliance with which they are kicked and spat on, because they'd better. A sick lot.

Well, I guess at least I was vegetarian and nice to my dogs. It's not all bad. Terrible watercolours though.

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Things will always get much worse if you defend what stinks. In Turkey, it depends on whether Ataturk's heirs can be tamed and made to listen to others sometimes. Their chum 'Israel' is helping here.

The place might well have had a backlash and turned into Iran. That would have been far worse.

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Originally Posted by Benjamin

1. Everyone is at least a little bit racist, or nationalist, or 'something-ist.' The French are showing their cultural sophistication and unaffected insight in their willingness to admit it frankly.* Only in pressing beyond denial on this thing can we, with awareness, act with good will toward all.

I wanted to say this exact thing. But sarcastically.

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Addicted to a naïve stimulus-response philosophy, we tend to take it for granted that people’s actions depend on nothing but the momentary stimuli that we, the manipulators, can control at will.
-Paul Kecskemeti

Originally Posted by Lucas

I wanted to say this exact thing. But sarcastically.

I find myself wanting to be sarcastic when the usual suspects say that sort of thing. OTOH, fact is, I think all the assertions of fact in that post are true.

Except the part about the French....

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Q: When is acknowledgment of racial bias noble and sophisticated and when is it distasteful and backwards?

A: When our presuppositions and expected observations match the data we're given.

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Addicted to a naïve stimulus-response philosophy, we tend to take it for granted that people’s actions depend on nothing but the momentary stimuli that we, the manipulators, can control at will.
-Paul Kecskemeti