Actually, I agree with all your points here. If individual rights are protected then I have nothing against every town and village declaring independence, especially if a supermajority wants it. And my gerrymandering argument was terrible for the reason you give. I basically share your viewpoint.

Really I was pushing back against what I thought to be your uninformed understanding of the Catalonian situation, which is in fact complicated. This is not an oppressed people - come on, let's get real - and in fact a big chunk of this sort-of-nation hardly sees itself as Catalonian at all. Economic interests are at stake. And as the other poster says, the local politicians behaved completely recklessly when they didn't even have a proper majority. A lot like spoiled self-absorbed children.

In response you'll probably say that that's because they're treated like children, and the solution is to give them the power to secede. And you'd be right. And like Scotland they would probably choose not to, and the whole subject could at last be put to bed, for a while at least.