First of all, it's their, not there.

Contrary to some people's beliefs, declaring yourself independent from the US doesn't actually help you. Sovereign citizens, American nationals, and Moorish try this often.

US law still applies to all their citizens and to all non citizens within their jurisdiction.

Declaring yourself as an independent only opens you up to all laws from every nation everywhere. This really only becomes an issue on the high seas as that's the only real place that people are without a jurisdictional government.

Without a large following, declaring independence is futile.

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Nothing stops them. They can declare independence all they want. It just won’t be recognized by anyone. If they start making too much trouble, the government will come after them to restore the peace and unity of the country.

In a fair few countries declaring independence will be considered treasonous or seditious, so people very much will be stopped, whether you're in China or Spain.

Might makes right, really. You can set up a micronation, but if the country doesn’t like your existence and is angry enough, they might wipe the floor with you.

Exactly. That’s what I said. But the question was “what stops them from declaring independence?”. And nothing stops them. But there will be severe consequences if they do.

Also without recognition from other countries prepared to work with you declare independence to your hearts content if it remains unrecognised it is useless. You need this recognition to set up many needed institutions such as a banking structure that allows you to trade.

A good example is Somaliland in Somalia, they have declared independent elected a governament and tried to seperate from the war racked rest of the country but no nation has recognised them. In effect they are unable to operate and almost nobody even knows this peacefull enclave exists in a war torn country.

Is severe consequences not something that stops you? Than why do we have any punitive justice system?

No it’s not. If it would, there would be no crime at all. If I truly want to do something, I’ll do it, no matter what. If the only thing stopping you from doing something is the expected punishment, then there’s something inherently wrong with that system.

There’s a difference between “I would like to kill someone, but if I’m caught I’ll go to jail, therefore I won’t do it” and “I see no reason for killing someone. It’s wrong and immoral and I have no desire to do it.”

I dont disagree but you have just debunked the whole right wing dogma of harder punishment and more people in jail will reduce crime.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_March_to_the_Sea

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Wars

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/spf1zl/the_ruins_of_grozny_chechnya_after_it_was/

Depending on the country, nothing stops people from declaring anything. Trying to actually act on it however tends to invite a lot of dudes with guns and explosives to help your body parts declare independence from each other.

Not much to debunk about it anymore, there have been many studies about how it does squat. People don't vote for it because it is effective.

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