Why though? I'm pretty sure that if the majority of Flanders or the majority of Wallonia decided to split, it would actually happen, even if the other region doesn't agree with that.

Oops. Centuries are very confusing to me.

It would be harder for a nationalist movement to exist if they didn't speak a different language. If all Catalans spoke Spanish and none Catalan this mess could've been avoided.

Yet still there's very little difference between the two. At least haven't seen it in my years traveling the Benelux. The only difference is the Dutch saying Patat and the Belgians saying Friet or Frites.

Friet or frites? I thought they say that in the Netherlands? They only say frieten or frietjes here.

The difference between Flemish and Dutch pretty easy to hear though and a lot of people here seem to hate Hollandian accents.

Yes, when you attack someone directly and do not explain yourself. I am on average more open minded than many. You may call me names if you feel like it as long as you explain why in a manner that demonstrates an opinion and not an aggression. But in that previous post you called me a name and that's it, no explaining why which feels aggressive. If you explain why I can tell you why you are wrong or who knows, agree with you.

At least in this last post you explain why and that's fine.

But I already told you and you don't seem to understand, Belgium is a country and how is that an exception or a caveat? You are making one if you say that a region like Catalonia is a country when it is not. Your point would ONLY make sense if I said BRUSSELS is a country then yeah you could say how is Brussels a country but not Catalonia?

If you're purposefully comparing a country (Belgium) with a region (Catalonia) and pretending the same rules apply to both when they are clearly two different types of territories (one is a country the other a region), you are either ignorant or hypocrite. But I don't think you are ignorant as there is no way you would not know that Belgium is a country while Catalonia is a region.

What the fuck are you talking about imperialism, Catalonia is not a colony or anything like that, Catalonia has NEVER been independent, its story is strongly united with Spain, what you call imperialism is nothing more than a country trying to protect the sovereignity of their own land, something any other country of Europe would try to do, included yours, do you even know that independentism is ilegal in your own country? In Portugal the creation of regional/local political parties is ILLEGAL, the politic parties that lead Catalonia to this point would have NEVER existed in Portugal, it isn't illegal here in Spain, in fact there are independentist politic parties with voice in the parlament of the Government of Spain.

Who is the imperialist now?

Vlaamse frieten? I meant that, just not plural.

Those are just accents man... There's weirdier dialects in the east of the Netherlands. People from Enschede are less understandable than Flamish imo.

True. And I've discussed this elsewhere, not sure where, maybe earlier on this thread or some other thread.

The point is, yes languages and dialects are catalysts for division and nationalism and while in the far off past it made sense to attach a language to a people and a land, it is much more irrelevant nowadays. Languages should be used to communicate and not to identify (in my opinion)

If I needed to identify to the English language to speak English I would NOT speak English as it is not the language of my culture and past. The result being that I would isolate myself inside another language just out of pride for a land and that makes no sense in this modern age of communication, internet and globalization.

If the Catalans would understand that, they would speak Spanish and teach Spanish and not Catalan to their children. But the reality is that people have this "primitive" need to identify to a land and a culture, to the point they'd rather have their kids isolated than part of the world. And again, this worked in the past when there was a million different nations and everybody invaded everybody and killed everybody but not today.

And as you say this mess and a lot of other messes that are directly a consequence of nationalisms and local languages, could be avoided if people united in language.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f3/05/a0/f305a050de2b133ff90d7a06f3dedf79.png

Learn some history.