#VoltaireIsNotImpressed

So remember the when McKayla Maroney placed 2nd in the 2012 Olympics vault final, instead of 1st, and there was that picture of her on the award stand that became super famous?

I feel like her face really captures Voltaire’s attitude toward many French institutions after he went off to Great Britain in exile.  (Not to compare McKayla Maroney and Voltaire.  Obviously, McKayla Maroney is way better.)
In 1734, Voltaire published Letters Concerning the English Nation, which basically praised British institutions such as freedom of speech (more on that later).  The work was released without the approval of royal censor, and the book was publicly burnt (ironic, considering what Voltaire was expressing in the work), and Voltaire had to leave France AGAIN.  At this point, Voltaire was SUPER not impressed with France.  He started criticizing intolerance, the Bible, established religion (including Roman Catholicism), and he advocated for separation of church and state and for religious freedom.  He also wanted France to be more like the British in order to enable freedom of speech and thought (needless to say, he greatly disapproved of censorship laws in France at the time).  Oh, yeah, and he wanted to get rid of absolutism and bring in a constitutional monarchy, which I guess the kings of France didn’t really agree with because Louis XV banned Voltaire from Paris.
Voltaire was honestly kind of hypocritical though, because he was pretty harsh on Islam and Judaism and black people.  So…there’s that.  But I’ll go more into that in my presentation on Voltaire.
So overall, I would say Voltaire was not impressed.