this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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History Memes

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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 58 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Explanation: After following the USA into Afghanistan over the Taliban harboring the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, France raised some serious questions about the Bush Administration proposing to attack Iraq next. Iraq was utterly uninvolved in the 9/11 attacks, and Saddam Hussein, shithead dictator though he was, was not ideologically aligned with the Taliban or Al-Qaeda and unlikely to offer them aid. For that matter, the excuse given by the Bush Administration - that Iraq was supposedly developing 'weapons of mass destruction' - was unconvincing and unsupported by the available evidence.

Because France was not willing to play dipshit regime change games with the Bush Administration, a frenzy was worked up amongst US conservatives about how awful France was, and there was a short-lived attempt to rename French Fries "Freedom Fries".

France was right (it happens sometimes). US conservatives were wrong (I don't even remember the last time they were right?). Saddam had no WMDs or WMD capacity, and the entire ordeal in Iraq turned into a clusterfuck that got a lot of fucking people killed for no good fucking reason. On top of that, it caused the situation in Afghanistan to deteriorate, both by the funneling of extant resources into invading Iraq, and by the international hostility (rightly) provoked by the US invasion of Iraq, giving the battered Taliban a new lease on life.

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

US conservatives were wrong (I don't even remember the last time they were right?).

It doesn't help that there is literally no belief or conviction that conservatives haven't completely flip-flopped on in order to hurt brown people, from gun rights to small government to taxes.

Even if they ever were right about something, give it a short amount of time and they'll have flipped to be wrong about it.

[–] snoons@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago

Well, they're people that will literally shit themselves just to make [minority they currently hate] smell it. There is no reasoning or logic, just hate and the emotion that comes with it.

[–] Gork@sopuli.xyz 19 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

This also caused a minor diplomatic row with France, whose foreign minister had state publicly that the French didn't care what Americans called their potatoes.

I'm more offended by that than the original name change to Freedom Fries™ 🍟

[–] TheYojimbo@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

As we like to say in France, "on s'en bat les couilles".

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

uh, you keep the fries then

gotta remember... onsen battles coooie. i slap my testicles at that.

[–] TheYojimbo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

The t is silent

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

US conservatives were wrong (I don’t even remember the last time they were right?)

AIRHORN

[–] Imhotep@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

France was right (it happens sometimes)

Is France noticeably more often wrong than, for example, the UK or the US?

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nah, but it's a longstanding internet tradition to make fun of France.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

longstanding ~~internet~~ [anywhere that speaks English] tradition to make fun of France.

FTFY
e.g. (Simpsons, 1995):

as an english speaker who is proud of my french heritage it's kind of weird, but hey, bring the cheese and pour the wine garçon.