Hacker News Reader

Comment by mihemihe | Hacker News Reader

Hong Kong and Catalonia are completely different stories, you know that, but still we like to draw the attention to Hong Kong and find similarities where there are none.

They closed other sources such as websites, and VPS hosting mirrors. You cannot simply "close" WhatsApp or Telegram or SMS, that is not how it works, unless you just cut the service for everybody, or go down the rabbit hole of chasing hundreds if ad-hoc groups.

Still, the real victims here are the 50%+ of Spaniards who want to remain being Spaniards. In my opinion, while there are people who want to continue being part of Spain, the government is doing right protecting the law and shutting the secessionists down.

View on HN

Wouldn't doing right be having a proper referendum, ideally with international oversight, to get the real answer to the question? Everyone likes to think they are on the side of a majority, but its talking out of your ass til you actually do the democracy.

Is simple majority enough to split a country, change the constitution, and change the citizenship of millions of citizens? Some people think it would require a qualified majority for such a change. How big? Maybe a 70%, and 80%? A referendum when we are in the 50%-50% is a dangerous proposition, and against the law, and definitely will make the things worse.

That is a very reasonable question, and Brexit is also relevant in that discussion. Perhaps it would be a good idea to require a qualified majority for cases like this.

Why does not the status quo require some qualified majority?

The status quo was already established by a very qualified majority. Changing it should require a qualified majority too.

It's the same reason a thermostat is not constantly switching on and off when you cross the set temperature. Heating will start when you go a couple of degrees below the desired temperature, and it will only stop when you reach a couple of degrees more. Else, you have an unstable system (this is not my opinion, it's very basic control systems theory).

Amendments and changes to the Spanish constitution require a qualified parliamentary majority.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com