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Originally Posted by The Dear Leader
Again, your typical condescending attitude.
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Funny how it always rears its ugly head when confronted with the typical ignorance of the usual suspects...(not meaning you but rather the influx of SSC "Europeans" not even living in Europe or outside of the EU).
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What Europe is lacking, and what the US has, is a sense of nationhood. Regardless of whether you're a redneck hick, or a gay New Yorker, you consider yourself to be an American and you're usually proud of that. I don't see what I have in common with hardcore Catholic Poles or Sicilian mobsters. I don't understand their language or share their values.
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Who cares about nationhood? Europe shares a lot that can act as a substitute of "nationhood". Things that go deeper then a flag or an anthem and this feeling is only growing (sad you STILL can't see this happening).
You have about as much in common with a hardcore catholic Pole as a liberal American urbanite has with a hardcore religious Kentuckian..., or a Mormon..., or an Amish person.
On the whole, there is a very much higher % of people in Europe who shares the same values with you then the % of people in the US who share values with the New York liberal. Weak argument...
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And we don't have a shared history or culture either. Parts of Europe were ruled by the Ottoman Empire for centuries. What sort of history does Germany share with a place like Bulgaria?
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The Ottoman Empire and the struggle against it itself is part of European history!!! Just like the Roman Empire having dominion over virtually all of Europe and INFLUENCING everything that came after it is. Christianity? The World Wars? There are millions of connections between all the European countries which together amount to a very firmly established shared history.
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As I said in another thread on SSC, that country might as well be located in southeast Asia (don't mean this in a derogatory way). I feel like Germany has much more in common with non-European countries like Canada or the US than with Bulgaria or other Balkan states.
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Be a sport and let's start with the countries which are established EU members OK? It all depends. I put it too you that you have much more in common with a Belgrade urbanite then you have with a Canadian living in rural Alberta.
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So please feel free to point out the particular similarities that Germans and, say, Montenegrins or Bulgarians share (similarities which we don't share with Americans or Canadians).
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How good you chose just about the two furthest poles possible. With one of those "poles" not even being in the EU...
But I'll play. For starters, Germany has a lot of immigrants from exactely that region. A lot of shared history too. Not too long ago the D mark was the de facto currency in Montenegro, now the Euro is. German is the most spoken foreign language there. The economic connections are already plentyfull (and neither Montenegro nor Bulgaria is part of the EU yet). What cars do you see in the streets in Sofia? What clothes do people wear? What is their favourite sport? What is Europe's nr 1 favourite snackfood (hint: it's not a hamburger).
Look at the laws in Germany and Bulgaria and compare those laws to the laws in the US. Which one is the odd one out?
I could go on for pages, but I fear it is of no use. You will just use the fact that the countries in question countries speak different languages (hasn't stopped India from being a nation) or that there are also a lot of similarities between western Europe and other western countries as "proof"...