If you support Hong Kong's struggle for democracy, please don't turn your back on Puerto Rico's.
The US has denied Puerto Ricans democratic rights for almost 120 years now.
The US has denied Puerto Ricans democratic rights for almost 120 years now.
Brexit is bad because it’s a shitshow that was never seriously believed would happen let alone be properly planned. It will leave the UK in an objectively worse position in terms of power, economy and politics.
Catalan independence is bad because it won’t improve anything, it’s a pride of culture movement that will likely negatively affect the population. The EU stated that it wouldn’t accept a Catalan state as a member, so the economy and movement would be heavily restricted.
HK independence is good because the Chinese government and state apparatus is evil. Having your home and culture consumed and extinguished is not something anyone would wish for. Maintaining independence is objectively better than being controlled by China.
No, everyone deserves it. It's just that people not under brutal dictatorships observably more often already have it.
This is not what I usually see reflected in the comments here and the wider media narrative. If we criticize one country for being a dictatorship and criticize another for giving people a vote and following through on that vote it's certainly worth looking at how we came to those opinions.
A vote that is substantially cast on the basis of disinformation or lulz is not a legitimate vote, and despite occasionally overwhelming public outcry to the effect that they want one, the people haven't been given the chance to recast it.
A clown, indicating every intent of not following the vote of the Parliament he leads, into an action which the polity he and that Parliament represent seem, largely enough, not to want that a new referendum is the only not-insane choice, is an existential danger to democracy. There is nothing to reconcile between these not-exemplary-of-anything-but-themselves cases.
The propaganda is strong with this one.
You're not wrong I suppose, but I don't quite understand why it's not considered possible for a nation to have sovereign independence and still function reasonably well. I'm sure being a member of the EU offers some advantages with respect to standards and efficiency, but I don't get why a nation can't remain independent and interact with other nations (complying with any necessary standards), at a cost of say 5%-10% to their economy due to the disadvantages of not being fully integrated.
But the referendum to leave was essentially pitched as “we will maintain all of the benefits, have more money, and get rid of those immigrants”. It probably would not have gotten nearly as much support if it were pitched honestly as “we will lose 10% of our economy, lose free movement to our nearest neighbors, and will lose tremendous leverage in international negotiations”
It seems to me you're describing the exact situation in Hong Kong right now.
HK would lose movement to the world by being absorbed by China.
If Spain were an authoritarian regime like China the Catalan would have been extinguished, punished and redistributed to other parts of Spain, while they and their family were observed for insubordination for the rest of their lives.