Can you imagine the outrage and shock if Westminster imported 6000 armed police officers from the rest of the UK in order to prevent the people of Scotland peacefully and democratically exercising their right to determine their own future? Can you imagine those police officers causing hundreds of injuries? That’s exactly what’s going on in Catalonia today. When the response of a state to a demand on the part of some of its citizens for a referendum on self-determination is violence, you’re no longer a democracy.
Today’s the day that Spain died. The concept of Spain as a liberal democracy is dead. This is supposed to be a modern liberal democratic state where the right to freedom of expression and freedom on opinion is sacrosanct. You can’t claim to be a democratic country when police fire rubber bullets at people who are peacefully queueing up to vote. You can’t claim…
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Na trioblóidí 
An absolute disgrace.
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It is, and it’s a disgrace that there is not more outrage from the governing bodies of EU members. Silence is an endorsement. Makes you think.
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I don’t know that Spain ever evolved all that far from Francoism. Oh, all the window dressing of a liberal democracy is in place, but obviously the concept of self determination never took root.
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Sadly, that is accurate. We’ll see what if anything is done in response by the EU and the UN. If the answer is “nothing”, then those bodies mean nothing.
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The world has gone mad and uncivilized. What is wrong with leaders of government? It’s as if a plague of stupidity and dictatorship have been spreading like wildfire.
Is Spain a democracy? I know they’re represented by a king and queen, but the author of the article refers to Spain as a democracy. Wouldn’t that be more of a monarchy ?
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Spain is a constitutional monarchy. It’s rule of law is supposed to come from it’s constitution. They have a president, Congress, ministers, etc. It’s supposed to be a democratic society. Unfortunately, what we’re seeing around the world had been there all along. Fascism doesn’t die, it just sinks to the bottom and then slowly rises to the top. Like scum. As horrible as all of this seems right now, in the aftermath the sort of extreme authoritarianism we’re seeing will be at least partially normalised. As if it’s no big deal. Until something truly awful happens. The only way to stop this is to stop the pendulum swinging either too far to the right or too far to the left.
This is a good show, Rose. This is a DAMN good show.
Ugh.
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I agree with you. That’s what terrifies me is how people try to normalize the “leaders” who are determined to distract and lie in order to build up their wealth and power by any means possible.
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Oglacada is my name in Spanish. 😉
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I thought it was papi chulo!
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I had to look that up. Gracias. 💕
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The world has gone mad. Extremism will kill us all.
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Looking like it. It’s really up to the sane and rational right now to spread sanity and rationality, which is difficult to do without screaming like idiots. But it can be done and it has been done before, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. So it’s up to you and I, Inese.
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The sane ones seldom pursue a political career and are not good in manipulating people.
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Manipulation ultimately fails, because the person who uses dark propaganda on others is also unwittingly using it on him or herself. Far better to find a common interest or goal and persuade instead. It need not be in the political realm. Take for instance the folks at the Harvest Festival promoting grow it yourself food. Who would not want cheaper, safer, more nutritious food? And in doing so, you’re taking away power and money from factory farming, pesticide companies, promoters of GMO’s and so forth, not to mention a healthier diet means less visits to the doctor, less money spent on pharmaceuticals. And yes, I know there are “more pressing concerns” but these concerns were not born in a vacuum. We do what we can do, where we can do it, with the talents we have. If we fail in our lifetimes, we have still won by setting an example for the younger people. Surrender is not an option.
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Absolutely agree with you. People should better stop being political but start being human. You have probably noticed that I seldom engage in political discussions. I don’t believe that half of population is right and the other half is wrong. I don’t distinguish people by color. People have a name, and it is all we need to know. The same about everything else. We are the same species, and we need the same things to live. The one who wants us to be divided is our enemy.
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The world is going crazy now and so is ours here…such a disappointment
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It’s up to the good people to keep going forward. It’s our responsibility to the next generation. Thanks for reading, Mich.
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It is an absolute shocking development and I couldn’t believe it when I first read about it and watched the news.
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It’s a bad situation getting worse. I expected some trouble but not on that level.
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Thanks for sharing, Oglach. The beating of peaceful protesters in Spain isn’t a new thing at all, really. Happens all the time. This one got a lot more international attention than usual, though. That’s the good part. I think people outside of Spain tend to think Spain is a lot more democratic than it really is… Hopefully things will change.
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I hope so, too. Thanks, Aak.
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This just seemed sad. It also seemed somewhat careless for a government which might actually benefit from knowing what its people really think.
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The whole thing could have been avoided with a change in tax laws. Catalans pay a disproportionate amount of taxes for the benefits the rest of the country reaps.
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