A few short weeks ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made headlines when she condemned Twitter’s decision to block President Trump’s account as a threat to free speech. Now, French leaders, politicians, and intellectuals are making headlines again for claiming that the woke cancel culture in the U.S. is becoming a threat to French identity.
According to the Daily Mail, the French are making claims that American ideas about the following, are attacks on French culture and heritage. These ideas include:
- Race
- Gender
- Post-colonialism
They have been especially critical of American universities as a breeding ground for radical ideas related to the current culture wars. One example of how this is playing out in France involved the hiring of a new director for the Paris Opera who promptly issued a 66-page document about diversity for the organization while vowing to diversify staff. At nearly the same time, a book was released by two social scientists claiming that race has become a “bulldozer” destroying other subjects.
Other areas where France is feeling the influence of American leftism is in the push from students to pressure universities to disinvite well-known speakers. French intellectuals are also arguing that American universities are making excused to justify acts of terrorism carried about by Muslims.
Since France has been the center of three recent terror attacks, the issue is one that is of some importance to them. Claims from one French intellectual insinuate that American universities are making Islam the religion of the underprivileged and providing intellectual justifications for these barbaric acts. French education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer event went as far as accusing American universities of being complicit in these terror attacks by doing so.
The truth goes far beyond terror attacks on French interests. In fact, it isn’t difficult to see the damage of “wokeness” and the current climate of woke race theory does little more than spread division and the worsening of race relations. In fact, the New York Times reports that French President Emmanuel Macron feels this “woke” culture war does the following:
- Fuels ideas of secessionism.
- Destroys national unity.
- Abets terrorism.
- Attacks France’s intellectual and cultural identity and heritage.
You might wonder what the big deal is and why we even care what France thinks about American culture. To some extent, you would be correct. However, France has historically been one of the leading voices in liberalism in the world. The leftist ideologies of France and much of Europe have been the cautionary tale for U.S. politics about going too far to the left. Now, even they are criticizing the far-left turn the U.S. has taken in politics and culture. Much like Germany condemning the actions of big tech when it comes to censorship, this is yet another massive red flag that we the people should not ignore.
