
In Search of Stupidity Current New Explorations Article
Return of the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys
The phrase “cheese eating surrender monkeys” first entered the main lexicon of American English just before the beginning of the second Iraq war courtesy of the ever-running The Simpsons cartoon series. France’s reputation for toughness has never recovered from that whole WWII-breakout-in-the-Ardennes-Forest thing and when the country declined to join the forces preparing to invade Iraq post 9/11, “surrender monkey” became a popular meme which makes the teeth of every Frenchmen grind. Thus, it was with some surprise that I found myself writing admiringly of the courage of the French as Jeff Bezos and his merry band of monopolists/monopolists attempted