<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>balance_factor</author><text>&amp;gt; the &amp;quot;oppressed&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Sure, how are they oppressed?  In 1938 Barcelona was bombed because the army wanted to destroy the republic and what existed of Catalonia autonomy.  So any existing Catalonia autonomy or democracy of any form was crushed in 1939, replaced by a military dictatorship, and only started to recover in 1977-1978.  The Spanish dictatorship killed thousands of Catalans after the 1939 takeover.&lt;p&gt;The same forces in Spanish society who did that are the same forces which seek to destroy Catalan autonomy again.  By the same means, policemen kicking down the door.  You dismiss prior referendums, fine.  There is going to be one in 11 days.  So if those polls you cite are true, then it seems independence will not happen.  It&amp;#x27;s bizarre to call a referendum in ten days &amp;quot;outrageously undemocratic&amp;quot;, while decades of a brutal dictatorship established by an invasion and the murder of thousands afterward goes without mention.</text><parent_chain><item><author>gfiorav</author><text>I know it’s hard to not take parts with the “oppressed” but:&lt;p&gt;You must know that this referendum was approved without reading the bill in the Catalonian parliament, so the opposition couldn’t even have a say. Even the vicepresident of the chamber stepped out of line since it was so outrageously un-democratic. The people leading this movement in Catalonia (very much like the central government) is riddled with corruption. Public workers have been pressured to accept participation in the referendum (which is ilegal to do).&lt;p&gt;And just to finish: if you’re  going to reference any prior “referendum” know that it’s not only ilegal like this one (thus no observers, nor accurate census) but also take into account participation (usually very low).&lt;p&gt;In short: please be skeptical about whatever you hear from either side. There’s an estimated 40-45% of support for the vote and less than that (30-40%) support for independence.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Spanish police raid .Cat domain name registry offices</title><url>https://domainnamewire.com/2017/09/20/spanish-police-raid-cat-domain-name-registry-offices/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>dazc</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;In short: please be skeptical about whatever you hear from either side. There’s an estimated 40-45% of support for the vote and less than that (30-40%) support for independence.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;So why not just let the vote go ahead and get it over with?</text><parent_chain><item><author>gfiorav</author><text>I know it’s hard to not take parts with the “oppressed” but:&lt;p&gt;You must know that this referendum was approved without reading the bill in the Catalonian parliament, so the opposition couldn’t even have a say. Even the vicepresident of the chamber stepped out of line since it was so outrageously un-democratic. The people leading this movement in Catalonia (very much like the central government) is riddled with corruption. Public workers have been pressured to accept participation in the referendum (which is ilegal to do).&lt;p&gt;And just to finish: if you’re  going to reference any prior “referendum” know that it’s not only ilegal like this one (thus no observers, nor accurate census) but also take into account participation (usually very low).&lt;p&gt;In short: please be skeptical about whatever you hear from either side. There’s an estimated 40-45% of support for the vote and less than that (30-40%) support for independence.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>Spanish police raid .Cat domain name registry offices</title><url>https://domainnamewire.com/2017/09/20/spanish-police-raid-cat-domain-name-registry-offices/</url></story>