tripu @tripu@qoto.org
Technologist, Spaniard, male, 42
Joined May 2020
“So one side has to follow the letter of the law, or you go to jail. The other side can do whatever it wants. So there’s no more rule of law in Spain, as you’re describing it.”
I’ll call hyperbole again. These political developments are alarming and will have very bad consequences, but the rule of law is in place. Spain is one among only 24 “full democracies” in the world and has a “high state of peace”, and I doubt what is happening now will put the country in an entirely different category.
[4/7]
“The left in Spain is trying to take over the country extralegally…”
While I personally agree with this statement, people outside Spain should know that the question of whether the proposed amnesty would be legal or not is a subject of very heated debate here, and that there are law experts in both sides of the argument.
“…pardoning terrorists, offering amnesty to terrorists…”
That is hyperbole. The crimes that would be erased are mostly non-violent ones: rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. Those charges are grave, but nobody here is talking of pardoning “terrorists”. The most charitable interpretation is that Carlson is confusing public servants in Catalonia who were condemned for the events of 2017 with the long history or Basque terrorism by the ETA and their political enablers.
“…in order to take complete control”
Another hyperbole for effect. “To take complete control” invokes the image of an autocrat dismantling the judiciary and the legislative, ignoring the results of elections in a Banana republic, or staging a coup d’état. Think what you want about the deal between the PSOE, Bildu and the Catalan separatists, pardoning the debts of the government of Catalonia, and the proposed amnesty law. I am firmly against all that, but all this was done by Pedro Sánchez so that he could secure a (legal) parliamentary majority to be (legally) elected President for a regular four-year mandate with the usual powers — not “to take complete control” of the country.
[3/7]
“When a couple of weeks ago the founder of the populist Vox party was shot in the face…”
While factually true, the context makes this sound as if the attempt to kill former vice president of the European Parliament Alejo Vidal-Quadras was linked to internal Spanish politics. Instead, very soon after the incident both the police and the victim himself pointed to the Iranian regime as the most probable culprit. It’s not like politicians opposed to Pedro Sánchez are being shot on the streets here in Spain.
[2/7]
If you really need to get your news about what’s going on in 🇪🇸 #Spain (#PedroSánchez, #Puigdemont, #Catalonia, #amnesty, #amnistía) from none other than #TuckerCarlson, by all means do.
But please read this short thread as preparation — for context, nuance and balance:
[1/7]
A belated happy #InternationalMensDay to everyone!
tripu
boosted
Plan for a warm Saturday morning
My point of view about the situation in #Spain (/cc @admitsWrongIfProven):
“The gouvernment that brought you good things for the people”
Err… sure. What government does not bring at least some “good things for the people”?
“I heard nothing negative about them in terms of caring for the people”
Not sure I understand. One does not need to hear anything specific to know that in a democracy of ~48M people millions of voters think that the government is not “caring for the people” properly, much, or at all.
In this case: I think this government “didn’t care” much for the youth (transfers of wealth from younger generations to boomers in the form of public pensions, massive public debt and a two-tier job market), for men (a divisive strand of feminism), for women (ditto, cf trans issues), for immigrants (several scandals about that), for entrepreneurs and freelancers (populist rhetoric against wealth and corporations), for the middle class (tax hikes), for students (our PISA scores are shameful), for the Sahrawis (they abandoned them to appease Morocco), or for truth and science (too many examples to cite).
“The only violence i heard of is […] not the catalans”
There has been very little violence from any side, fortunately. (But lots of hatred.)
The crimes that will be erased now are mostly non-violent ones: rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.
“An amnesty seems a good idea to keep the peace”
Roughly half of the population here disagrees. Recent History has proven otherwise: the more that institutions have appeased the separatists and made concessions to them, the more radical and defiant they grew.
“Fascists will never keep peace”
I agree. Those whose crimes will be erased, those who signed the deal with #PedroSánchez, are fascists. As you say, they will never keep peace. For years they have been trying to silence dissenters, banning certain ideas, appealing to nativist ideas, encouraging hatred towards other Spanish regions, attacking minorities and the individual, expecting groupthink, bending the facts and distorting History, and glorifying the idea of a nation.
Exactly two days before this year’s #InternationalMensDay, the American Institute for Boys and #Men (#AIBM) spearheaded by #RichardReeves is born:
https://ofboysandmen.substack.com/p/birth-announcement-the-american-institute
No tienen ni una pretensión siquiera de poner el interés del país por delante del suyo propio, de pensar en qué es lo mejor para los gobernados. Ni se molestan en fingirlo, ya.
Qué ministerios debería haber → quién sería la mejor persona para dirigir cada uno → defender esos nombramientos.
Proteger al propio grupo → pensar en uno mismo → debilitar a los demás → asegurarse cargos importantes → acaparar poder, sin importar la cartera o el área.
(No es una crítica exclusiva a este partido.)
“With the international press playing a misleading ‘neutral’ role in all of this, when not tacitly acknowledging Catalan independence as a just cause, […] I often feel frustrated when well-intentioned friends of mine outside Spain ask me about the situation here. […] I lament that the picture my friends are forming in their heads is that Barcelona is a new Tiananmen Square and Spain some kind of banana republic, and that the separatists are fighting for basic human rights against an authoritarian state.”
— your truly, six years ago.
If you’re confused or curious about what just happened in #Spain with regards to #Catalonia, this summary written in 2017 might be useful.
Spain is, by the way, arguably a healthier and most robust democracy than the US, Israel, Belgium, Italy, Portugal or South Korea.
tripu
boosted
tripu
boosted
Remember kids, there's a pernicious reason why #Google redirects "http://maps.google.com" to "http://google.com/maps".
Because of this redirect, the location permission that you grant to Google Maps also automatically becomes available to Google Search - making your search queries more valuable to advertisers.
tripu
boosted
Technologist, Spaniard, male, 42
Joined May 2020
