Among other things: the global perception of the US sunk to unprecedented lows, below even China. The US’s most steadfast allies have all rejected requests for support. This is a different world now and it’s uncertain whether the US can regain its prior standing.

Fair point. XD

There are a fair few countries with amazing food, yeah. Italy, to start with, without even leaving Europe, and yeah, I’m a huge fan of India and much of China in that respect too, particularly Sichuan cuisine.

This thread was however about France specifically, and your comment reads like a fairly gauche non-sequitur.

Sorry to disappoint. :) France really has had fashy inclinations for a long time, if we’re being honest. A lot more people were plenty happy to have the Germans over in the 40s than pop media created afterward tended to willingly show. For some reason.

The food genuinely is great though.

There’s no such thing as a utopia but there are definitely some countries that have their shit more closely together than others. So don’t lose hope!

Alas, the same forces are at play in France too, they’re just meeting a less favorable pre-existing terrain. But the billionaire-owned media have been carpet bombing the country with the message that holding the executive accountable is dictatorship, and Sarkozy is innocent and basically a saint, and this is all a conspiracy by the far-left judiciary, etc

And most people don’t know better because knowing better takes exhausting amounts of paying attention, and little by little, the messaging is working.