this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2025
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Catalonia (the autonomous community or "nation" which Barcelona is the capital of) absolutely does have:
Perhaps that's why they have a strong independence movement then... Y'know, as a people who have their own unique national identity that have been oppressed into subjugation by a larger state. Ringing some similar bells with Scotland.
Maybe instead of denigrating people for wishing for self determination and supporting the oppressive larger states, you should consider your list, which are pretty common determinates of nationality, and think on whether that therefore qualifies these people for independence and the right to state their capital city is their national capital.
I certainly don't regard London as my capital city. My parliament is in Edinburgh, my immigrant friends go to Edinburgh for embassies, Edinburgh is the cultural hub, the financial hub, and legal focal point for the peoples of Scotland, why would they regard London as their capital?
The same, I'm sure, can be said for the peoples of Wales, the North of Ireland (to a lesser extent, with some, er, troubles there), and Catalonia.
After all, in the context of international laws, membership of extranational organisations like the EU, how many European nations are even sovereign any more? Does sovereignty matter in the context of this map when it's definition in the key is country?
Nothing I wrote is about "denigrating" people wishing for self-determination, or about "supporting the oppressive larger states". It's just currently a fact of the world that the independence movements in those places have not yet been successful. They might still be in the future!