<nettime> Catalonia and mainstream opinion

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Reading stuff in newspapers and others the last few days I am getting increasingly shocked - 
and worried, about what appears to be mainstream (media & politics) opinion wrt the 'events' 
in Catalonia.

It boils down to something like 'Catalonians are nationalistic fools, what they do is ramp illegal, 
Spain's unity should be upheld and respected, Rajoy and state forces act fully inside the 
constitution and legality' etc.

EU stands aside, while European leaders fall over each other to support the Rajoy regime - 
with sole exception Belgium's Michel, who's probably got 'his ears cleaned out' (Dutch loc) 
by now ...

The insane brutality of the Spanish police is papered over, just as is the political 
steering of the 'independent' justice, but far worse, 3 centuries of oppression, culminating 
in 40 years of ultra-Castillian Franquist oppression, which almost wipped out above ground 
Catalan language and culture, and finds its thinly veiled admirators in Rajoy's Partido 
Popular, are all completely forgotten.

And never mind millions of Catalans braving extreme odds to exercise what is the most 
fundamental democratic right: to vote and be counted. But does the mainstream care for 
democracy any longer?

With a mainstream like that, who needs extremists and terrorists for the descent into the 
unknown? And if Madrid indeed pulls out the 'nuclear option', Article 155 of the Spanish 
Constitution: total take over over Catalonia - and Madrid is on the verge of doing so, I´d 
say: pack up for the beach - or Barcelona.

Cheers all the same from Christiania, bit of a weird place in this context.
p+2D!

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