My modest criticisms of populist nationalism in Catalonia have met with howls of indignation from supporters on Twitter. While many of them are well-meaning and passionate, the level of understanding of political theory has been underwhelming, to put it mildly. THREAD 1/12 
If you support Catalan separatism and want to explore the opposite point of view, Orwell's criticism of nationalism is a good place to start: orwell.ru/library/essays… He says that the nationalist fallacy involves generalizing and then treating collectives as individuals. 2/12
Müller's book on populism is essential reading if we want to be critical by claims of politicians to represent the true will of the people. : amazon.es/What-Populism-… 3/12
Why is populism dangerous? Levitsky's book looks at the historical precedents for letting populist politicians re-write the rule-book: amazon.es/How-Democracie… 4/12
Why do we see so much populism in the world today? Fukuyama's book analyses the reasons: amazon.es/How-Democracie… 5/12
Populist nationalists and their supporters often misunderstand liberal democracy. Shklar's essay on The Liberalism of Fear is a good intro to why we need to constrain the power of elected officials: philpapers.org/archive/SHKTLO… (If anyone has a cleaner link, please post it!) 6/12
Why do supporters of Catalan independence feel so threatened by any criticism of their movement? Cooper has a very readable introduction to the literature on cognitive dissonance: amazon.es/Cognitive-Diss… 7/12
In a similar vein, Haidt has been doing good work showing how politics begins with our emotions: amazon.es/Righteous-Mind… Our brains are very good at justifying these choices. 8/12
Sen's short and readable book on identity is essential reading: amazon.es/Identity-Viole… 9/12
Words like "freedom" get used to cover a wide variety of sins. Berlin helps us think critically about different meanings: cactus.dixie.edu/green/B_Readin… (Although it is short and uses simple language, you might need to read key passages several times). 10/12
Nearly all my arguments against Catalan nationalism are grounded in Popper's masterwork on the open society: amazon.es/Open-Society-I… If you don't have a background in Philosophy, be warned that it will give you a headache! 11/12
Finally, Arendt's classic work on toxic forms of populism is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the tragic history of politicians claiming to channel the will of the people: amazon.es/Origins-Totali… Again, it is a tough read. Start with Orwell and Müller! 12/12
I meant "critical of" not "critical by," obviously. Apologies for the typo.
