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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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It kind of seems like that group has a consensus as to who counts as a Sami- a person who speaks a Sami language as a first language and has a recent ancestor who is the same. The lap paragraph looks like a distinctly peripheral group and if a group wants to exclude a periphery, that’s fine, they can be their own thing and it’s up to them to convince the Finnish parliament they should get whatever privileges the Sami get.

that group has a consensus as to who counts as a Sami

Yes, but Democrats and Republicans have very distinct ideas about who counts as a "real" American.

If you asked either side to define US citizenship, you can bet a bunch of their outgroup ain't gonna make the cut. And that in turn means the citizens who then vote on US policy are a subgroup of an already biased sample.

While I can't speak to the facts on the ground in this particular case, this seems like a good way to end up with a few people speaking for all of the group, and encourages the leadership to exclude as many as possible to reduce competition. I think if the Finnish government is going to do this, it might be a good idea to be more precise about its official Sami representation. For example, if the periphery is excluded, then (if possible) the parliament's scope should be re-assessed to make sure it isn't being given credit for that periphery's population, land, language, unique cultural aspects, etc.