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Comment by dsomers | Hacker News Reader

This is kind of debatable through, sure there are national laws, and even EU wide laws. However, Germany has its states, Berlin has different laws than Hamburg for certain things, same as Italy and Spain have their regions with various levels of autonomy. Every municipality all over Europe has control of some of its local laws, too. We don’t just have one European wide law, or even German wide law for every aspect of law.

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Just like every county in the US can have different laws. An example might be sales tax rates in Florida.

Maybe the top poster should say that the map of North America should be dotted with micro-states like the USA (maybe even like Canada, I don't know)

That way it wouldn't sound like an American trying to paint Europe as some kind of parochial backwater of medieval fiefdoms.

Yeah, he definitely did not word it well. I’m from Canada, and how you describe it as North America having micro states is also kind of true. There are states, territories and provinces, across North America with a lot of local control, but there are also local native reservations that have a lot of sovereignty. For example, there are plenty of tribal lands close to where I grow up that have completely separate laws from the provenance that they are in, they deal directly with the federal government and even do their own policing. Although you almost never see those boarders on maps, there’s a strong argument that they’re a type of micro state, and Canada probably has multiple dozens of them if not hundreds with different languages and laws.

> trying to paint Europe as some kind of parochial backwater of medieval fiefdoms

no idea how you got "parochial backwater" from "microstate", it bothers you way more than it should

some of the most impressive, highly developed, secular, constitutional republics are microstates. whatever you associate the word with is not what I associate the word with.

> Every municipality all over Europe has control of some of its local laws, too.

Unless I'm mistaken, that's not true in France. Its a unitary state, where each region and commune is simply an administrative subunit of the state. That's why the French government was able to reorganize its regions at the start of January 2016.

By comparison, that would be illegal in the USA for the federal government do combine North and South Carolina, or to reunite West Virginia to Virginia. They're not administrative units of one government, but are actually separate governments.

Sure, but not every small town has a distinct language and distinct set of laws. The OP talks about "food security for an estimated 10,000-12,000 K'ómoks People", unclear that the K'ómoks ethnic group was much larger than 10k.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%27%C3%B3moks

On Vancouver island where the Komoks people lived, there certainly was a distinct language and culture and possibly laws for probably half a dozen or more groups. On the island alone, I (a white person), know of the Songhees, Lekwungen, Tsartslip, Tsawout, Wsanec, Cowichan, Pacheedaht, Ucluelet, and Homalco nations. All those are local to the island and have their own languages and traditions.

Point being that there can be a surprising number of micronations in a very small area.

Regarding your disclaimer, wouldn't it be more apt to say "someone with no Komoks blood" or "a white person that also has no First Nation lineage" the latter if you also want the affect of your disclaimer. I'm thinking its a pretty distinctly North American experience for people of any color to have some First Nation/indigenous/local heritage. At least for the black and white people that have been here for 200-600 years.

this is more so curiosity than a correction.

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