Indeed, nor are US mores even the optimum, particularly the slavery of Monticello; the spectrum of possibilities is much wider than I suggested, including both dystopias far worse than GULAG and states of global eudaemonia unimaginable today. But approximations of both Jefferson's visions and Stalin's are among the possibilities, and where we end up depends entirely on which direction we go. So my top-level comment was not, I think, hyperbolic; it was understated, but only because I cannot imagine what will happen in the future any more than others can.

I have no sympathy for the Catalan separatists; I think they are a bunch of nationalist clowns. I think dark days will come to Catalunya if they succeed in their secessionist mission. But I think that is a far less important issue than preserving the intellectual heritage of humanity, rather than subjugating the noble pursuit of reason and freedom to the depraved animalistic contest of dominance that these "laws" serve.