[rrrrrrrrrrrryan]

> * Confrontation with US over Taiwan: If you are OK with Texas leaving the union, then you are entitled to support Taiwan independence. Enough said. Pick your side, and stick with it.

I'm sad that you don't realize Taiwan is already functionally autonomous, and wants to remain that way.

It's also telling how you imagine that a typical American wouldn't "let" Texas leave the union.

As far as I (or anyone else I know) cares, if Puerto Rico or Guam or Texas wanted to leave the U.S. (which they don't), and they held a vote, and a supermajority voted to leave, why wouldn't we let them leave? It isn't the 1860s anymore. The world is much more democratic now, imperialism is over, and if a group of people want to go it alone, we should let them.

Scotland had a vote to leave the U.K., and they decided to stay, so they stayed. If they had voted to leave, they would have left.

The U.K. had a vote to leave the E.U., and they decided to leave, so they did.

Would China recognize Taiwan's independence if Taiwan held a vote? Of course not. The reason for this is not merely because China doesn't sympathize with the desires of the Taiwanese people, but because China doesn't even believe in democracy in the first place.

[krapp]

> if Puerto Rico or Guam or Texas wanted to leave the U.S. (which they don't), and they held a vote, and a supermajority voted to leave, why wouldn't we let them leave?

Texas has a 2 trillion dollar economy with shipping, electronics, manufacturing, oil, electronics, etc, 28 million taxpayers, a lot of military bases and assets and miles of coastline and ports. You don't just let that leave.

We're not the UK or EU - if Texas tried to secede they would just learn what it's like to be on the business end of an American military "liberation."

[mkoubaa]

If Texas wanted to leave they could easily. This specific provision was in the treaty to bring Texas into the USA

[krapp]

No, they really couldn't, it isn't the nineteenth century anymore. And no, there isn't a special provision allowing Texas to secede from the union, this is a popular myth[0]. And as much as Texas likes to believe in its fierce independence, the state is politically, culturally and economically enmeshed in the rest of the Union and without the resources, finances and status of the US (much less the USD,) Texas would be better off rejoining Mexico than trying to survive on its own[1].

[0]https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/29/texas-secession/

[1]https://www.reformaustin.org/national/texas-seceding-would-b...

[bpodgursky]

I really have no skin in this game, but there are a lot of perfectly functional countries with fewer than 28 million people, and it seems kind of silly to assert that an energy-exporting rich country of 28 million could not survive on its own.