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26 de gen. 2020

George Will "ladles" a one-sided view of the Catalonia-Spain conflict (23 JAN 2020)

When I post a link to an article with a visceral attack on those striving to achieve independence (as the Americans did 244 years ago (though the Catalans trust that Spain will be prevented from outright warfare) it is basically because its arguments are so weak, and the reason for the article being written at all are so obvious, that it deserves no reply.
Click here if need be to read the whole post.

George Will. 

"Catalan secessionist ladle a soup of fiction and paranoia".

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/catalan-secessionists-ladle-a-soup-of-fiction-and-paranoia/2020/01/23/b5e62280-3e0a-11ea-baca-eb7ace0a3455_story.html

I reproduce just the first few lines of this article, merely highlighting those words and expressions that reveal the author's utterly negative position and one-sided view.

I could recite a list of Spanish nationalists who could have written this article. He tiptoes - without issuing an opinion - through the failure of successive Spanish government to do anything to find a solution, imprisonment of political opponents as a remedy, beating up voters as a mean of enforcing bans, etc.

I would also recommend he read this: How ‘populist’ is the Catalan independence movement?, in which data analyst Joe Brew shows the five characteristics that confirm that independentism is not a populist movement.

Well, we all believe in freedom of expression, but will the Washington Post grant space to a more balanced reply? Sadly, I doubt it.


"Beneath the sleek surface of this sparkling Mediterranean metropolis boil passions generated by Spain's version of identity politics. The passions are aroused by demagogues who hope to shatter a nation. The turmoil in Catalonia — the northeastern of Spain's 17 regions, which exercise considerable autonomy (over police, health care, education, police, etc.) — is the toll taken by lies used to manufacture grievances. This is pertinent to the United (for now) Kingdom, and wherever populist resentment-mongers stoke feelings of victimization. The illegal 2017 referendum staged by Catalan secessionists (some are in jail or in exile to avoid trial) yielded a muddy result: The organizers claimed that 90% voted for independence, but turnout was only 43%. There were clashes when Spanish national police tried to prevent people voting..."

 ...ooo000ooo...

P.S. Thanks to Google, I found and recommend this set of comments that lay out quite clearly the positions both for and against Catalonia's independence process.
https://www.economist.com/node/21729438/comments

... and this piece of Spanish nationalist propaganda by a former minister (from Catalonia) published the day before the Independence Referendum that (unlike the UK with Scotland) the Spanish goverment had refused point blank to authorize: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/30/catalan-nationalists-just-like-separatists-feed-division-fantasy/



Response by Alfred Bosch.
https://twitter.com/vadortitus/status/1224065999835729920?s=19

 

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