Okay, I'm sorry but no. And I'm not singling you out, because this has been bothering me about US gaf for a while now.
You have the same language, the same general culture, and consider yourselves the same ethnicity (the vague umbrella of American) in the sense of your identification with your country, even if your 'roots' are different. And obviously racial stresses do not disappear under that umbrella, but at least it keeps people from considering others of a different nation.
What USA-gaf in general does not understand is that nationalism == racism in its entirety. Calling an Irishman a Spaniard is a great way to start a fight with either or both, because they, like all nations in Europe, consider themselves different on a ethnicity (racial) level. Not just food and culture, but language, and a lot of other (though subjective) human qualities. Wars have been a constant in European history, and that includes more than a few rousing bouts of genocide. Try imaging Jersey going full "Lebensraum" (wholesale destruction by genocide of the local people) on its neighbors or Texas for a moment, and how absurd that suggestion sounds.
But that IS the reality of the European nations and the primary reason why things like the EU and NATO as projects of diplomacy are
necessary to ensure the survival and safety of pretty much every nation on the continent. Because we would start shit again if nothing held that back. And don't mistake those of us identifying as 'European' for the general population either, because that is not the common view, and the threat of something like fascism rising is a real concern here. Pretty much the reason why a 'right wing' government for the US may be considered somewhat normal, but is the equivalent of defcon 3 in Europe.
Additionally, a diplomat in the EU has to be able to speak and / or write somewhere between ten and twenty-five national languages, whereas Americans seem to think speaking a second language is already a big deal. So every time I see one of those 'but the EU is basically the same as the Federal US system' I am basically fuming at the screen. Then again, almost nobody in Europe seems to understand that the EU is a diplomacy project to prevent suffering either, so that's hardly your fault.
But it does occasionally make it hard for me to sympathize with complaints on Trump, when most of gaf seems to have a poor understanding of what actual diplomacy means and why it's vital for everyone, or how quickly things can escalate out of control if people stop playing the game.
Also, good luck using Welsh in Bucharest, or Romanian in Wales. (it's far more likely for another nation to speak English than it is for English-speakers to speak the other language). You wouldn't even get very far in Bucharest with English only either, unless you follow tourist instructions (last I checked two years ago, and I do not speak the local language either).
edit: I know my post is not in the playful spirit of the thread, but it does count as a major misconception in my view.
