Okay, so this has been building up for about a decade. In me, I mean. Listening to all my leftoid friends worshipping France. We need something like their system of government, their culture, their possession of an actual political left, to protect the workers from those big mean capitalists. Well, Maureen Dowd, of all people, put it rather brilliantly in the NYT yesterday.
(The title of the article, "Cherchez la femme," was opaque to me. After reading an explanation, still not sure what Ms. Dowd was going for with that title. There was no woman affecting a man's behavior here, only a rape. And the story is about Christine Lagarde, who is impressive, but... Intriguing.)
Anyway, the article does a fine job of laying out the issues. I do want to emphasize just two things:
1. How can you socialist-lovers defend as "socialist" a society where the phrase "troussage de domestique" is common? And where it is used seriously as a DEFENSE of a man's actions? As Ms. Dowd puts it:
The journalist Jean-François Kahn said he was “practically certain” that DSK was not trying to rape the Sofitel maid, but was merely engaging in “troussage de domestique,” lifting the skirt of the servant. Jack Lang, a former government minister, cracked, “It’s not like anybody died.”
So if a rich man employs a poor woman, he is simply entitled to lift up her skirt? And as long as no one dies, he can actually physically enjoy her, against her will? No wonder all you lefites love France. This is Bill Clinton's idea of heaven, because you can say "So what?" instead of having to lie to the grand jury. And your wife, instead of making up some absurd "great right wing conspiracy," can proudly say that she admires your seductive prowess? (Though you francophones will have to explain to me how forcible rape is seduction...)
(Hilarious, this bit from FT. Nice arse, indeed.)
2. Capitalist elites have rich tastes, but they expect to pay for it. Socialist elites have tastes at least as rich, but think they are entitled to take, by harnessing the state's coercive force if necessary, because they "serve the people." $50k per month apartment? $3,000 per night suite? And this guy is a man of the people? The case reveals not just the hypocrisy of protecting male sexual predators in France, but also protecting the political predators who call themselves socialists. I think that part of the story is underreported. National Review hits on it, but that hardly counts among the "real" media you lefties take seriously.
Here is one honest person of the left, I'll admit.
UPDATE: Anonyman sends this tidbit. The title of the article could be expanded to ANY socialist organization, including our own Congress. And before you guys go all, "He's not a socialist" out of your little reflexive talking points, I have to point out that DSK calls HIMSELF a socialist. So go argue with him.
4 comments:
If DSK had lived in a state of frugal immiseration and hitchhiked to the world capitals he was corrupting, his politics would be no less vile and his economics no less delusional. The underlying compulsion is ruinous.
I really don't care about his personal habits (beyond wanting a fair trial).
That's a little crude and strawman-ish in argumentation, no? I highly doubt that anyone on the left side of the political spectrum would say "I admire aspects France's economy and culture, AND ALSO wholeheartedly affirm DSK's actions and the culture that would deign to justify it as 'boys will be boys.'" Can one not admire aspects of the more liberal American economy while denouncing, say, the Islamophobia of the heartland or the sadistic rituals of fraternity initiation? Must one affirm cultures all in one big gulp? And for the record, I harbor very few if any Francophilic tendencies.
What Luc said. This is lazy and sloppy. Sounds like someone didn't like the moules frites at Vin Rouge.
This blog is much more edifying when it's hosts avoid projecting. It is a tell when a conservative/libertarian has nothing entertaining or informative whenever they construct a sentence that has the word 'liberal' or 'France' in it.
So tired, yet precisely predictable, like a vibrating quartz molecule.
Some pompous country club liberal on 9th street likes wine and fois gras. Most Frenchmen are lecherous. Ergo liberalism is bankrupt. Got it.
I think they have a great issues. I wonder if they could acquire fair justice specially for servant who has been rape.
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