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[LordSlowpoke]

i know this is the europe thread but i don't see anyone bashing china for being exactly that?

or india but it's less pronounced due to the brits having enforced that pretty well

why russia precisely

[Helgoland]

Then you must be blind - look at all the Tibet stuff, for example.

[LordSlowpoke]

yes i may or may not be blind thank you but how is that relevant

the amount of things describing the huge amounts of outrage!!!! against china doing china things to tibet in recent memory is one and that is your post

[Sergarr]

Russian isn't an ethnicity, or a culture, or a group! Anyone can be Russian!... You just have to act exactly like the ethnicity, culture, or group known as Russian. :I

European isn't an ethnicity, or a culture, or a group! Anyone can be European!... You just have to act exactly like the ethnicity, culture, or group known as European. :I

American isn't an ethnicity, or a culture, or a group! Anyone can be American!... You just have to act exactly like the ethnicity, culture, or group known as American. :I

[Descan]

India at least *tries* by giving each ethnic group a state. I don't know much about any ethnic conflict in India to say much more. I've not thought about whether they should be split into constituent nations. I can see it, though with Giant Totalitarian Nation With A History Of Subjugating Smaller Statelets just to the north-east, I don't see it happening any time soon.

China, er... Saying China sucks and is totalitarian is kind of like saying "The ocean is a little wet", pardon the cliche.

Edit: I can see your point, Sergarr, but I'll just say that at least in the American sense, it's more "People who *already* act like Americans are more than welcome" rather than "You must act like an American after we invade and assimilate you." Though perhaps that is the case with the Native tribes.

And European, I don't know enough about to say anything about that, but I certainly have not heard anything about an over-arching European culture that is pushed on anyone, besides the whole "Try not to be a dick" part of liberal European democracy.

[LordSlowpoke]

what is being pushed is a nation-state culture, except it's not being pushed, and that may or may not be a positive or negative aspect of the thing that cameron of england sir aptly described at one point of his life and this is where i leave this

[Sergarr]

"You must act like an American after we invade and assimilate you."

Isn't that what happened in Iraq?

And overarching European culture AFAIK is not a big thing in reality, however it is a big point of Russian opposition that we must embrace the European cultural values, whatever that means.

[Darvi]

European culture is as much a thing as a global government or food that everybody likes: it's not gonna be a thing in decades unless somebody decides to do some mass-brainwashing.

[TD1]

Who says they haven't already?

*Licks hypnotoad*

[Descan]

"You must act like an American after we invade and assimilate you."

Isn't that what happened in Iraq?

And overarching European culture AFAIK is not a big thing in reality, however it is a big point of Russian opposition that we must embrace the European cultural values, whatever that means.

Nah, they invaded, but no assimilation happened, and Iraq isn't an American state. Americans assimilate by immigration to America, not by land-grab expansionism.

To the extent that America grabs land, it's by puppet states and dictators, and they're under no pretense that they have to "act american."

Also, I think European cultural values are pretty much "Don't hurt people because they're different, be actually democratic instead of a 'managed democracy,' and dictators are like, way un-cool."

[mainiac]

But you don't understand! Russia is the country of Pure Evil! It is the Final Boss which the civilized world must wipe out in order to achieve it's ultimate destiny: fracturing into thousands of countries bases on even microscopic differences!

But you don't understand!  The Kiev government is the country of Pure Evil!  It is the Final Boss which the civilized world must wipe out in order to achieve it's ultimate destiny: forming a mighty free nation devoid of any liberal-fascist western influences!

Baseless strawmen dont prove a lot because literally anybody can do them to anyone.

Though perhaps that is the case with the Native tribes.

While the Americans can hardly be considered ideal in that regard it should be noted that a whole lot of white or black or latino Americans have partial native ancestry at this point.  So assimilation was possible, it's just that we ignore the population that assimilated.  I think this is relevant because it shows the difficulties of studying successful assimilation, by it's very definition it destroys the evidence of itself.

[LordSlowpoke]

wow reading is difficult and understanding things is even harder i sure hope i were able to do that

in other news: sarkozy's gonna get tymoshenko'd

[vagel7]

As Descan said, the only thing that pretty much all European nations have in common is that they respect people's freedoms(some countries even more than others), respect human rights, respect democracy, try to help out developing nations and strive for peace. Of course some countries do some things more than others.

To generalise then that is the only thing that the European nations have in common, most are also in the EU of course. But other than that they have totally different cultures, governmental systems, agendas etc etc. As for a person being European, you can count people who are born in the geographical location of Europe, born in a nation that is in the EU or as somebody who has integrated into one of the European country's societies. But it all comes down to how a person feels, I have met Germans who don't consider themselves Europeans.

But the final question is. Do you need to have European citizenship in order to be European?

[Helgoland]

If you want to know how there's not an overarching European culture, nor any attempts to make one, look at the cultures of France and Germany. Pretty different, and not looking to change.

Hell, I'd even argue that there's no unified German culture - I probably have more in common culturally with Dutchling than with that one Swabian I know.

[Dutchling]

If you want to know how there's not an overarching European culture, nor any attempts to make one, look at the cultures of France and Germany. Pretty different, and not looking to change.

Hell, I'd even argue that there's no unified German culture - I probably have more in common culturally with Dutchling than with that one Swabian I know.

REMOVE SWABIAN FROM PREMISES