Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
When do you think a group of people are justified in seceding from their larger nation state? I generally lean towards that people generally should be allowed to have self-determination, but there are lots of complicating factors. Like imagine a county of Alphastan, majority Alphstani, which has one province which is 60% Betlish and 40% Alphstani. If that province wants to secede, when would that be permissible? What would be acceptable actions from the Betlish population if the Alphstani majority would doing things like oppressing their language in federal schools? What should the Alphstani reaction be if they had reason to believe that, if the province did secede, they'd start oppressing the Alphstani minority there? What if Alphstanis used to have a majority in that province, but then their hostile neighbor of Betland started sending settlers in as a preemptive move to try to annex that province?
All those scenarios aren't particularly important in and of themselves, I just want to have a better framework of when I should be supporting independence movements vs not. One area in particular that divides me in real life is Crimea- from what I understand, that area probably really would prefer to be part of Russia than Ukraine. But that's only after Russia has taken the region by force and increased the number of Russians living there.
Geographical proximity seems like a blunt instrument to solve problems like this. If the betlins have suffered some discrimination, why is the fact that they make up 60% of one province relevant? Is their plight any worse than if they had been distributed/diluted to 1% in all the other provinces? Arguably they have it better, being able to easier to form informal networks, autonomous zones, etc to look out for their own. The 1%er would have a greater cause but less ability to secede.
And in the Internet age personal relationships and economic transactions are increasingly online, there geographic proximity is virtually meaningless. Why should the interactions of individuals be mediated based on rules-boundaries that are purely geographic?
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link