The French left—sicker than the U.S. left

You’ve probably seen those polls over the years showing that people believe that blacks are 30 percent of the U.S. population, or even 50 percent—which they believe because TV has so many blacks.

Well, based on this campaign video for French Socialist candidate François Hollande, with music provided by U.S. rappers, you’d think that 70 percent of the population of France is black. And they are not “assimilated” blacks. Indeed, the two main impressions the video conveys are the overwhelming blackness of France (which is of course fictitious but makes the French believe that they have no choice but to surrender to that ocean of nonwhiteness), and the overwhelming edginess, disorderliness, and non-Western quality of the blacks in France.

And in the midst of all this in-your-face blackness, there keeps popping up a milquetoast of a man named François Hollande, who is presented as the blacks’ tribune. He is their champion because he will lead the way to the blackification of France.

This is the French Socialist Party’s vision of their country.

The only question I have is, did Hollande’s campaign intend this video to be shown only to black voters, or to voters in general, the overwhelming majority of whom still are, of course, white? Assuming it’s the latter, assuming that the Hollande campaign believed (correctly) that white leftist French would be attracted to the hideous image of France offered in this video, the white French left is more far gone than one had realized.

The video proves something I have always said: that leftists and left-liberals seek to bring about the suicide of their societies, via the unconditional embrace of the Other. What the video really says is: “Let’s destroy France,” and, “Destroying France is a cool experience.”

I have an idea where American self-hatred came from. I have an idea where British self-hatred came from. I don’t quite grasp where French self-hatred came from.

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Paul K. writes:

You wrote: “I have an idea where American self-hatred came from. I have an idea where British self-hatred came from. I don’t quite grasp where French self-hatred came from.”

There have been some comments at VFR that were so striking that I have never forgotten them. One, which addresses your question, was contributed by Daniel in 2007. I think he has something in his theory of “Ghetto envy.” How could European leftists play out their fantasies of tolerance and inclusion without a large, unassimilable, non-white immigrant group?

The point that racial guilt over historic colonialism has played a big part in leaving present European society prostrate in front of the incessant demands of Muslim immigrants and others is correct, but I think that it is only a partial explanation. Consider that Sweden, Norway and Denmark had no colonial empire. Italy never really got going in that business, Belgium lost the major part of her empire early in the 20th century, and the Dutch empire was so detached and remote that it did not press much upon the minds of the Dutch people. Besides, none of these nations, with the exception of Italy, had any connection with Muslim North Africa.

The immigration importation schemes of these countries, starting as a trickle in the late 1960’s and becoming a torrent by the 80’s and continuing up to today, has another justification, albeit a silly one, a very silly one, but a very real one, in my opinion. Ghetto Envy. Today’s Euro elite, who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s were brought up with newsreel and Hollywood images of America as a wild, violent, seething cauldron of racial and social strife. (A story I read yesterday brought to mind this era. Do you remember that in 1971 15 New York City policemen were killed in the line of duty!!!!). They contrasted this America (a grossly distorted view) with their own staid, prosperous, un-hip, boring, white-bread cultures (cultures that they knew were protected mostly by American military and political power, which infuriated them) and determined to change that. They wanted excitement and relevance too. They wanted dysfunctional, exotic ghettos. Oh, because they are Europeans and smart and socialist, their ghettos would never become incubators of the outrageous pathologies that America’s are. The worst excesses would be palliated. There would be just enough of an edge to their ghettos to “make it real”. But they couldn’t transplant millions of poor, unstable American blacks to their own cities, so they cast about for the most accessible exotica available: Muslim North Africa. Well, now the Euro elites have got what they wished for; authentic, violent, colored ghettos, except the pathologies of these ghettos don’t just reach a fever pitch on Saturday night and cool off for Sunday. Their ghettos are militant and triumphalist. They are on the march and determined. And the worst thing of all, in the minds of the elites, you can’t get any good Jazz or Blues in these Euro Muslim Ghettos.

LA replies:

Thanks for remembering that comment. It is excellent. I don’t remember who that Daniel was.

Also, readers should note that Paul K. is not Paul Kersey. When Paul Kersey comments at VFR he is identified as Paul Kersey.

Timothy A. writes:

A certain sector of European intellectuals have always defined themselves by opposing what they see as pathologies in American society. Since the ‘68 generation, this has become the default position for young and educated Europeans. If America is religious, Europe is atheist. If America is militarist, Europe is pacifist. If America is capitalist, Europe is socialist. American society is racist, so right-thinking Europeans are aggressively anti-racist. Being anti-racist isn’t very satisfying, however, in monocultural societies where one cannot demonstrate one’s moral superiority—thus the desire to transform (destroy) traditional European cultures. The first generation of non-Europeans was not brought in by these anti-racists for idealistic reasons, but by pro-business WSJ-types to meet labor shortages in the 1960s and 1970s. The second generation, the political refugees, however, are being brought in to show the anti-racist bona fides of the post ‘68 generation of politicians and bureaucrats. Both generations benefit from the desire of young, upscale Europeans to prove their superiority to Americans.

Jim R. writes:

I’d agree with Paul K. that at least part of the issue is Ghetto Envy, but what struck me watching that video was two things.

First, Hollande has no masculine presence. If he had been physically neutered, you could not tell the difference.

Second, the hard masculine threatening presence of most if not all the black men (and women) in the video.

So you have a message of neutered white male leadership, subservient to the throngs of threatening black hordes, in the video. That visually and through the “music” of the video is what comes through.

In my own view, the crisis of the West is that globally, after WWII, women were raised up to the equal if not slightly superior of most of their male peers, and were deprived of the “natural” white male domination they crave romantically/sexually. This caused a crisis in the West, and the desire to import male domination so that it may be binged and purged, so to speak, like an anorexic with fattening foods. This urgent desire for domination in my view expresses itself in all sorts of ways, including this video. “Don’t worry ladies, Hollande may be a neuter but here are the hard, angry black men threatening on camera to excite your desire for domination!”

I would not argue this explains everything, but probably a good deal of it. You won’t see that sort of thing in Japan, or South Korea, or China. Places where ethno-identity still rule, and female voters are powerless. Indeed you only see White women decrying “White guy” as a negative, you won’t see “black guy” or “Chinese guy” or “Mexican guy” labeled as a negative by Black women, or Chinese women, or Mexican women respectively.

And like Anorexia (not seen in poor places, where FOOD is the desire) this is a “First World problem.”

One of the interesting things I’ve seen reported was that Marie Le Pen broke out of the white male working class voters of her father to gain some white female votes. Not a lot, but some.

If you were a white male Frenchman seeing that video, would you vote for Hollande? No would be my guess, you’d pull the lever even for Sarkozy. At least he’s not proposing to rule you by Black thugs. A white Frenchwoman to get that frisson of fear? Yeah probably.

My guess is Hollande WANTS this video seen, and hopes it will get him white female votes. It probably will, but how many remains to be seen. Hollande certainly has a deficit of any masculine presence, I was shocked at how milquetoast the guy is.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 26, 2012 06:25 PM | Send