Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/10/01/shot-for-voting.html
…
1 Like
Such an incredibly stupid and desperate response. They just made the whole issue more real than it was before. If I were living there, I would believe that the Spanish government has just given the best reason for me to want to separate away from it. I bet that this action is shoving a lot of people who were on the fence over to the side of succession.
51 Likes
Google was ordered to remove the app that told people where their polling stations were
Did Google comply with that order? What rationalization did the Spanish government offer? Hopefully Google does not just remove anyone’s app simply because a third-party tells them to.
17 Likes
I am glad the European Union is ok with this shit
20 Likes
Yeah this feels like exactly the thing that the EU is supposed to be handling, right?
14 Likes
From what i’ve read the EU has remained very quiet about the whole thing since the beginning. They’re essentially terrified that this drive for independence from Spain will encourage other regions that have a history of wanting independence to do the same. So i’m not surprised over the lack of response but i am pretty outraged that the EU is basically condoning violence toward Catalonians.
23 Likes
Winning hearts and mind, one rubber bullet at a time.
18 Likes
Recommended reading: Catalonia, a postmodern coup
3 Likes
5 Likes
Their fear is so intense, and so obvious. Why can’t they just relax and change the vote totals like we do here? So much more civilized.
25 Likes
That reads like propaganda piece from Spain’s government. Coerced participation in a state, and violent suppression of the expression of a desire for self-rule does not in any way constitute “democracy”. Spain’s interest is the presevation of the current nation-state at the expense of democracy.
28 Likes
There is really no such thing as “The EU” as a single body with a single mind. Do you mean the Parliament or the Commission?
Separatism could strengthen the EU Parliament and make the Commission more diverse. The smallest State in the EU is, I think, Malta with about 400 000 inhabitants. Independent Catalonia (or Scotland for that matter) would simply be a reversal of the centralising pattern that started with Italian and German unification. But with modern communications, there is no reason why a Europe of, say, 30-40 states should be any weaker than one of 27 (once England and Wales have departed). The US gets by with a smaller population and over 50 States.
Independence of smaller regions could strengthen the federalists and make the EU more democratic.
29 Likes
Speaking as a Canadian, well we have a certain amount of experience with a part of the country holding votes to secede. This is NOT the way you handle it. Good god. There is no way back from here I suspect, & its going to get uglier before it gets better.
39 Likes
What do you mean? Everyone knows this is how you make people stop wanting independence and start wanting to live under the current government!
12 Likes
Hopefully peacekeepers will be sent in, though to be fair, the UN has been more or less useless since the seventies.
1 Like
This is directly out’a the “How to start a Revolution” handbook.
10 Likes
California, I hope you’re taking notes.
3 Likes
If it were Texas, or Florida, I wonder if we’d be hearing this narrative as much? Any nation that simply acquiesced to the wishes of its citizens to succeed, would soon vanish.
One doesn’t have to be for the secession to see that this is an outrageous and undemocratic overreaction.
16 Likes
