Should peaceable declarations of seccession be a punishable crime?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

I support political freedom.

[Barnes]

I'm confused as to how to answer: I certainly think this game flourishes when people express their views and advocate for them.  However, it can get very messy here when players take it too far and start to lead rival states and groups within the game itself (the "Papal Patch," etc.)

In my opinion, that starts to legitimately undermine the simulation itself.  There is a whole board devoted to election and history games/simulations, after all that's free to use.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I'm confused as to how to answer: I certainly think this game flourishes when people express their views and advocate for them.  However, it can get very messy here when players take it too far and start to lead rival states and groups within the game itself (the "Papal Patch," etc.)

The Papal Patch was not created by seceeding not trying to take over any part of Atlasian sovereign territory.

[Türkisblau]

When part of Atlasian sovereign territory, yes. The Papal Patch, if my understanding is correct, basically just moved to an area outside of Atlasia. So what's the problem?

[bore]

Declaring your seceding should be a punishable crime, declaring that you want to secede and then pursue this democratically obviously shouldn't be.

[GAworth]

Declaring your seceding should be a punishable crime, declaring that you want to secede and then pursue this democratically obviously shouldn't be.

[Cranberry]

Declaring your seceding should be a punishable crime, declaring that you want to secede and then pursue this democratically obviously shouldn't be.

As usual, bore speaks the truth.

[Prince of Salem]

No, never (not a tyrant).

I still think, though, that Atlasia is better off united

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Declaring your seceding should be a punishable crime, declaring that you want to secede and then pursue this democratically obviously shouldn't be.

As usual, bore speaks the truth.

Quite.

No, never (not a tyrant).

I still think, though, that Atlasia is better off united

I reject the notion that preserving the Constitutional union of these regions is tyranny. It is illogical to argue that governments do not have the power to preserve themselves: were that the case, democracy as we know it could not exist in any stable form.

[SWE]

Declaring your seceding should be a punishable crime, declaring that you want to secede and then pursue this democratically obviously shouldn't be.

As usual, bore speaks the truth.

[Lumine]

During the 2014 Conflict I believed that outright declaring seccession was a crime, I acted in consequence with that belief (although it did brought me some trouble) and I still maintain that position.

That said, the Papal Patch does not constitute an example of seccession because their current territory was never a part of Altasia.

[Adam Griffin]

No, it obviously shouldn't, because in the cases where it may "occur", the rest of the game is likely to (and has on multiple occasions) ignore it and pretend it isn't happening (including administrations). Why do they do this? Because there is no tangible effect on the game whatsoever from it "occurring". Therefore, one must ask if it really has occurred in the first place (from a mechanics standpoint, it has not).

Furthermore, there has been a completely inconsistent handling of the issue over the game's life and even post-2008, when secession apparently became a crime. This whole "let's crack down on secessionists and those who don't recognize the legitimacy of the government" is a suddenly-new concept in the post-dissolution world. Let us not forget that the RPP (and by extension, both the IB and the Federalist Party) are in effect the Southern Secessionist Party, which is the only reason we even have this statute in place. If we're going to be consistent, then we obviously need to ban all of these traitorous fools from the game.

But honestly: can you imagine a world without President Duke, who actively encouraged secession? What about Kalwejt, who encouraged overthrows of regional and federal supremacy on multiple occasions? These are just the ones that pop into my mind; I'm confident if I were to really dig into the past, I'd find many examples of secession attempts post-September 2008 that were never prosecuted.  

I've also made no secret about how I believe there has been systematic profiling and careful selection of those who have been tried over this. Practically (if not actually) all citizens accused and charged under this statute have been Labor Party members; if this weren't the case, then there would have been many more citizens charged following the events of October 2014, heralding from all political movements. Instead, only the ones with weaker popularity and forum appeal (Snowstalker, Alfred, etc) were hunted.