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Originally Posted by The Dear Leader
Algeria...and various other struggles for independence.
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Ergo, they were not countries yet...
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But that's the thing. There's western culture and then there are regional cultures (even here in Germany the north is pretty different from the staunchly Catholic south). Who cares were they got their culture from, fact of the matter is that you can't just draw a line and say "oh, that's specifically European, all other continents are excluded." I wrote this in a previous post but please tell me which sort of values Germany and Bulgaria share, values which we don't share with Canada or the US.
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Stop pretending that history didn't exist between 1000 BC - 1776 AD.
Stop pretending that there are no VAST regional differences in the US (or India for that matter).
Stop using the cultural similarities in the western world to deny there is also a specific European heritage/culture/shared history which goes even deeper then "western culture" (but of which it is a part of and founder if you will). Yes Bulgaria has very much more in common with Germany then the US and the gap between the US and Germany is only widening atm, while the gap between Bulgaria and the rest of Europe is narrowing. Don't let the difference in economical (and sometimes social) development fool you.
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Again, I don't think so. The suburbanite from Belgrade speaks a language I don't understand and probably has a set of values that differes a lot from mine. Most Germans probably agree with me since they're dead set against Serbian EU membership.
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You both speak English, but that's besides the point. I guess India being a nation is a fabrication of our fantasy to then right?
Being against Serbian membership is mostly because of political (or economical) reasons, not cultural ones.
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As I've said before, cars and clothing do not mean that much to me, but even in this scenario there's neither a pan-European taste nor are you able to exclude NA from it. People wear American brands just like Americans wear European brands. And there were plenty of stores in France, Belgium and other countries that I've never seen in Germany. I also don't get a hard on just because I've spotted a German store somewhere in Italy.
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It's not just clothes and cars. It's everything. Europeans are exposed to European brands, sportsteams, cars, music, tv, movies, etc etc, everyday in a far greater volume and frequency then we are exposed to even US culture. The opposite applies too. Americans are largely oblivious to these things because they are exposed to their own brands, sportsteams, movies, cars, music, tv, movies, etc.
We know eachothers politicians, we know eachothers sportsteams. Everyone knows Nestle, Danone, Riedel, Aldi, etc. We grew up watching German cartoons and British comedy. The next generation is growing up going to universities scattered all over Europe, earning European wide degrees, getting jobs all over Europe, living all over Europe. They are not going to give a shit about silly nationalism.