> The term "federation" is borrowed from political science for a reason. Just like in the USA, multiple federated states who share broad-strokes policies maintain interoperability while also maintaining their own sovreignty.
which is not true, under a federation the members do not maintain sovereignty, and this is the important point. The Colonial States gave up their sovereignty when they became federated.
Everything else, besides the terms reversal (my bad), it seems we agree on?
> The EU is arguably a confederation, and it's pretty much the only modern example, because confederations rarely last long.
Exactly!
> That is not the model that the Fediverse wants to uphold
So what are we even arguing about here? We agree decentralization wont last long. If you're using the US as an example of a desirable "light hand" federation I guess that's just where we agree to disagree.