It should be possible for a people to say “We would like our autonomy” and expect other nations to say in response, “Understood, and we will ally with you to defend such a notion.”

It should. But then again, the people of Gaza wanted to not be genocided and the world stood by and let it happen. While I fully agree with your sentiment, the specifics of the world right now might require a less than ideal approach.

Europe should say that, of course. But their weak talk so far suggests they probably won’t defend Greenlanders even if they are a part of Denmark; and if so if Greenland were independent at the moment there’s no reason to think that would somehow give them more of a spine.

I understand and agree with the sentiment that Greenland is a colonized place that should be independent. I also understand that telling colonized people “not right now” and “it’s too dangerous” are the lines the colonizers always use. But that might actually be the case in this moment. The reality is that the US/Israel axis is acting as if the world is theirs. It feels like we really are in 1939, only the US/Israel axis has far more relative power than the Germany/Italy axis ever did.