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Re:The great British Brexit robbery by gambiting on Sunday May 07, 2017 @12:04PM (#14286083)
The same argument could be used for keeping Silesia inside Poland or Catalonia inside Spain - surely you want them to want to stay,not keep them by force, right? But both of those regions(and I am sure there are others like it around the globe) have their own groups of people who are unhappy to be part of a larger country and have aggressive campaigns to leave.

In an ideal world, I would like all EU countries to merge into one Federal Republic, like US, where UK trying to leave would be no less ridiculous than Silesia trying to leave Poland or Oregon trying to leave US. Yes, they all can - but it doesn't make the idea any less stupid.

Re:The great British Brexit robbery by mamon on Sunday May 07, 2017 @12:22PM (#14286156)
..Silesia inside Poland [..]But both of those regions(and I am sure there are others like it around the globe) have their own groups of people who are unhappy to be part of a larger country and have aggressive campaigns to leave.

You are imagining things - there's no real separatist movement in Silesia, those who campaign for "independence", are just doing it as a practical joke, the same way some people in US declare their religion as "Jedi" and have some meet-ups, local fan groups, etc. Plus, there's only few hundred, maybe a thousand of them.

Please, do not give HN community the wrong impression that they are a real thing.

Re:The great British Brexit robbery by gambiting on Sunday May 07, 2017 @03:21PM (#14287062)
I'm really confused here. Maybe the community that would like Silesia to be independent is small, but it's real. The one that wants independence of Catalonia certainly is very real.

I mean, what's your main argument here, I feel like you haven't even addressed my main point?

Re:The great British Brexit robbery by mamon on Sunday May 07, 2017 @03:45PM (#14287209)
My main point was that I'm sick and tired with the amount of FUD about Poland in the West, so I wanted to point out the false analogies.

Silesia is nothing like Catalonia - I know that because I live there (Silesia, I mean). There's no real support for the separatists ideas, because at the end of the day Silesians are not really that different from Poles - except maybe that they talk with slight accent and have a dozen or two of words borrowed from German. The concept of them demanding autonomy is as alien to me as the Switzerland demanding access to the Atlantic Ocean coast :)

EDIT: to be clear, I have nothing against granting them autonomy. In fact I think that getting rid of Silesia would solve most of Poland's economic problems :)

Re:The great British Brexit robbery by gambiting on Sunday May 07, 2017 @03:49PM (#14287234)
And the world is quite small and I'm from Silesia as well.

I never said their demands weren't ridiculous, but they do exist. I was expressing a view that countries wanting to leave EU should be seen with the same ridicule as Silesia wanting to leave Poland(as small and insignificant that number of people is). In an ideal world at least.

Re:The great British Brexit robbery by mike-cardwell on Sunday May 07, 2017 @03:27PM (#14287105)
Self determination is stupid?
Re:The great British Brexit robbery by gambiting on Sunday May 07, 2017 @04:48PM (#14287574)
What do you mean by that?
Re:The great British Brexit robbery by mike-cardwell on Sunday May 07, 2017 @05:44PM (#14287851)
It sounded like you said that people choosing to govern themselves is stupid. Like the mere concept of people wanting to be governed by people who at least speak the same language as themselves is ridiculous.