The "it's cool" thing is more a matter of a bunch of us noticed through our IC interactions that we've got a decent number of Minmatar getting sick of the Fed's attitude.
Apparently I'm quite ignorant.
You will need to elaborate on this.
For the most part this has been pretty low key or internalised, but recently with the federation's reluctance to give any information at all as to the identity/motive/anything of Midular's shooter, quite a few Minmatar are starting to get pretty fed up with the Gallente.
I was really hoping this would not be the response, that the idea that a single recent issue would make characters 'fed up' with others despite of how long a relationship? Seriously I figured it was something else, something older and more defined.
The incident that Kalara referred to is more akin to the straw that broke the camel's back in regards to becoming "fed up."
It's something that's been a long time in the building. Again, I would rather have this argument IC, but here's a summary of what my character sees/argues.
The Federation chose to help/defend the Minmatar people from the Amarr Empire after the Minmatar Rebellion. We're grateful for that, we really are.
The Federation helped us set up a new government. We appreciate the sentiment, but a democracy doesn't really work for us. It doesn't mesh quite right with our Tribal culture.
The Federation accepted very large numbers of our people into their nation as citizens. We would prefer they had stayed with the Republic, but things have been rocky here, so it's understandable.
That's how it all started. As to how it has built up, well, the Federation has consistently and continually looked down on the Republic/Minmatar people as a primitive, barbaric group that needs to be "uplifted" to Federation ideology. The Federation consistently and continually shows condescension towards the Minmatar Republic/people, treating them like children, or even, in many ways, as a vassal state. Minmatar citizens of the Federation are in many ways second-class citizens. Their culture is looked at as a novelty, amusing when the overall situation is irrelevant, but something to be tossed out the window whenever the Federation deems it irrelevant to current goings-on, such as this latest incident involving the shooter who left Midular in the state she's currently in.
Now, from an OOC perspective, I can see how in
some instances the Minmatar may well be reading too much into things, but there is definitely reason for the Minmatar to feel frustrated, and that frustration builds up over time. It's not that the Minmatar are ungrateful for the
original help and the defensive assistance they have received from the Federation. They very much are, even if their pride makes them seem otherwise at times. That does not mean, however, that the Federation and the Republic are a good match. Their alliance is an alliance of convenience for the Republic and part of the Federation policy to spread "Freedom and Democracy" to the Galaxy. It has nothing to do with any real mutual respect or understanding, thus why it has fostered so much negativity on both sides. The Federation appears to see the Republic as ungrateful barbarians who refuse to accept the gift of democracy and rage at the every little "imagined" slight, while the Minmatar are seeing the Federation as overbearing, condescending assholes.
Politically, the alliance continues to stand because the Republic
does still need the Federation's help to not be overrun by the Amarr Empire and the Federation continues in its attempt to push the Republic into becoming a clone of the Federation (if not eventually being adopted into the Federation altogether).
How long the politics can keep the alliance together is a matter of how long things can go before the rift building between the people spills over completely into the politics of it all. This is particularly bad for the Republic unless they can either get their points across to the Federation or find new allies.
For any further explanation of the Minmatar perspective on this, you'll have to talk to Katarina Musana, or other similarly minded Minmatar, ICly.