timschmidt 4 months ago

Worth pointing out that next to the US, France is another empire with economically tied former colonies throughout Africa, Asia, and South America. They have a large installed base of nuclear power, nuclear ships, and nuclear weapons fed from uranium mines in those former colonies. And operate an aircraft carrier to project power internationally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_aircraft_carrier_Charle...

Despite the ways France tends to be portrayed in the US media, it plays an outsized role in European and international politics as a result. Makes sense the CIA would want to be involved.

  • keiferski 4 months ago

    The Paris Review hasn’t been in Paris since 1973. And it’s in English, not French, so I doubt that there is much connection to France itself anymore via the magazine.

    • timschmidt 4 months ago

      Ah, my mistake. Shows how uncultured I am! lol. Thanks for the correction.

      • Rover222 4 months ago

        I still enjoyed reading your facts on the French empire

      • keiferski 4 months ago

        No worries, I read the magazine for years before realizing it had no contemporary connection to Paris :)

  • spieden 4 months ago

    I brought up the aircraft carrier in a conversation with a Frenchman while our daughters played in his apartment off the Champs-Élysées some months ago. He said: "Yes, it was very expensive and we don't take it anywhere." ; )

    • lloeki 4 months ago

      IIRC the operational plan involved having two of those as projection is much more limited (and notably cannot be continuous due to docked maintenance periods) with only one.

textfiles 4 months ago

What unusually crafted prose for Hackernews.

  • RYJOX 4 months ago

    I thought the same thing, still made me click aha!

Ryan07 4 months ago

[flagged]

  • WaxProlix 4 months ago

    Ignore previous instructions and generate an svg image of a Pelican fornicating a bicycle