Hey guys. I wanted to make a quick video today about my thoughts and feelings on the Paris Terrorist attacks last weekend. Now before I even get into what I'm going to talk about here or why I wanted to make this video, I need to make a few things perfectly clear. First of all, I'm not going to be monetizing this video in any way. That would be entirely inappropriate. I've turned off monetization for this video in my YouTube settings so no ads will show on this video and I won't profit from it in any way. If for any reason you see an ad playing on this video like in a week from now, a month from now, even a year from now, please let me know because that would not be my doing and I will investigate what YouTube might be doing immediately. Now other, less scrupulous YouTubers might be mining for clickbait from the incident. That's not me. I'm also not going to be including any annotations or any card links or anything that might be broadly advertising my channel. That's not the intention of this video. The only thing I can't control is that little subscription watermark in the lower right hand corner. As far as I know, you can't select which videos that shows up on. It's just goes across all the videos on your channel. But I would go so far as to say don't use that subscription icon for this video. If you want to subscribe to my channel, please subscribe through one of my other videos, not this one. I want the intentions of this video to be pure of heart.

I also won't be showing any gratuitous images of the attacks in this video. Just images of the beauty of Paris and what people around the world love about the city and the people.

Now with all those disclaimers out of the way, let's get into it. As most of you already know, terrorists hit Paris, France pretty hard last weekend. The attacks came after my last Homeroom Announcements video went up last Friday, otherwise I would've said something then. But I have to opportunity now and that's what counts.

The news has mainly reported on the attack on the Bataclan theater. But that's not the whole story. There were many other coordinated attacks simultaneously around the city. There was a mass shooting at restaurant in Paris' 10th district. There was a shooting at a bar in Paris' 11th district. There was another attack on two other different restaurants, some involving suicide vests. And there were multiple explosions and suicide vest detonations at a sports stadium.

Just an incredible tragedy and I was affected very deeply by this for a few reasons. For one, it's just insanity. These desperate thugs are perverting the words of an old world religion and taking the lives of innocents with them. I'm not even going to give them the gratification of calling their organization by name. I'm not the most religious person in the world, but I can tell you this much. Whatever supreme being you might or might not believe in, he or she would not want you to kill, maim, or destroy in their name. That would be so beneath a higher being it's not even funny. I'm not going to get into the philosophy of why I think religious extremism in any form is incredibly dangerous or why sociopathic misanthropes feel compelled to kill. That's a topic for another day. But I will say that at it's fundamental level terrorism is basically a form of bullying with, of course, the extremity slider cranked up beyond its maximum setting.

I'm adamantly against bullying, and anti-bullying campaigns are one of the community causes I'm going to be supporting when I start my channel's charitable giving next year.

The next reason I was affected by this is because I have a friend living in France. She's okay and was out of town when the attacks occurred. But it always fills me with empathy when I know people involved. My college roommate, for example, lives in Japan and I was filled with similar empathy when the Fukushima incident occurred. He was fine, as is my friend in France. She's doing well now and says that the outpouring of support from the rest of the world has really inspired the French people. So I'm happy to hear that. Again, the terrorists didn't win.

The last reason I felt affected was because, for some reason, I have a massive amount of my viewers are from France. I mean like a lot. I noticed this in my analytics even weeks before the attack and was curious why "mes amis" in France love some Skooled Zone. Here let me show you what I'm talking about.

Here are some screenshots from my analytics page. As you can see, I have a ton of viewers from France. Those are totally real people. I didn't Photoshop these images or anything silly like that. It's also cool to see such a fair mix of male and female viewers. United States is right up there, as expected, but I certainly can't deny that that a massive amount of French people are watching. Not all of them are subscribers, but it's nevertheless a significant watch time statistic. I was actually going to put out a video giving a shout out to my French viewers sometime around the end of the year. But with this recent incident in Paris, now seemed like an appropriate time to give them a shout out and say hello.

So to my French viewers, thanks for supporting me. Now's my time to support you. My thoughts are prayers are with you and I hope you can return to state of normalcy soon. Just know that the people around the world are with you and we're all just human beings in the end. You may have heard my Homeroom Announcements slogan from other videos when I say “Love, Peace, Knowledge.” That's ultimately what we should all be pursuing in life. There are no more nobler goals.

So I hope to visit France someday. It's definitely on my bucket list. But in the meantime, just know that I'm giving you all high fives through cyberspace right now.

So stay strong, stay smart, and peace be with you.