I'm going to tell you a story, if you allow me. I'm not an American citizen. People build walls, and walls are mostly built in the minds of people, and sometimes they build real walls, but the real walls are so-called real walls, because the walls in the minds are as real as any wall, no matter if it's made out of rocks or air. Maybe you can see this story as a screenshot of my mind on this topic. I may be off topic with this, but somehow I think the Holy Spirit is giving me instructions on how to bring this about. This is about me not being an American, and about how I somehow feel excluded from an American community because of the place where I was born. Why is that? well, because there's a wall of two things combined mainly. I live in an apartment in Brussels, Belgium, and I'm gonna share my point of view about this with you. The wall is mainly composed of the combination of the idea that there would be some kind of wall but there isn't, but without knowing there isn't a wall. I make it very clear very fast. When I grew up, we watched the TV, and watching TV meant that the American culture entered our living rooms, and there was no alternative, there was no internet, and watching TV meant watching America. European citizens (most of them) will probably not explain this as clearly as I will explain it right now. Of course, our own country was broadcasting a lot of programs that were not nearly as expensive as basically anything that was made in Hollywood, nor did any other country in the whole world for that matter, so, we did like all the kids did, we watched movies that were made in Hollywood (in the 80's and 90's). So what we do is, when we see people on a screen that we like, we have an instinctive reaction to identify with the person we see on the screen. We recognize what we like, and we become what we like. It is a natural reflex, conscious and unconscious. But I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't like these movies, I stopped watching them in the beginning of this century (back then I was 25), but it was already too late, I was already thankful for all the things that I had seen on the screen, for your beautiful country (its nature and environments). I loved the feeling that American culture was not a foreign thing to me, because it felt really natural and very similar to the culture of my home country. What? Yes, I hated the movies, not the Americans in the movies, nor their sense of humor, nor their culture, nor their country. The reason why I hated it is because action movies (that was the main support of the whole Hollywood movie industry) made me nervous and anxious and I was in search of peace of mind at that age. It was too loud, too much and too fast. To me, America is a foreign country, but it doesn't feel like that. The TV screen created a wall because there was no comments section on these TV's, you know, believe it or not, watching a movie meant watching, and that's it. So from my point of view there was a similarity between our cultures but without connection. You know the cars with the tinted windows, that's it. Again, I feel like I'm sitting in my car, and the Americans, again, are putting on a show just outside my car, and they can't see me. The only difference is, now I can slide the window down and say: "Hey, Hi there, hello, yes you, hi, I'm not an American citizen... " The thing is, I don't watch TV anymore for a few years, but I watch YouTube videos instead, and the similarity is striking. I mean, if today was December 1, 1994, I would probably watch a Hollywood movie and say: "Hey I know him, it's that actor from that other movie, you remember the other movie we saw the other night? What's his name again? Jon Clements, that's him! That's the one!" You've got to take that screenshot man, you're not gonna remember it if you don't. You see where I'm getting at, I'm still watching Americans, even though December 1, 1994 was exactly 30 years ago. The distance is fading away though. 90% of the video's that I watch (in this category) are made in America, and I'd love to see more variety. Not because I don't love you anymore, I do love you, but I'd like to be part of it as well. I hope I'm not a stranger, I think maybe there will be a possibility to make the wall disappear at least for a little while, and maybe more European video's will come up, not only in my feed, but in yours as well, I hope so, I've uploaded a lot of video's, it's not your style, I mean you may like it, but it's different, but that's okay, everyone has got his or her own style, everybody knows everybody is different, and that's how it's supposed to be.
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