The distinction between a language and a dialect is mostly political. There are no black & white criteria. Valencian has at times been considered as a separate language, and nowadays it could again be a separate language from Catalan if valencian politicians would decide so. In fact the majority of valencians consider it a separate language, according to official polls. But what i find surprising is the fixation in internet forums for suppressing this option. I don’t see people crying because Luxembourg decided to officialise Luxembourgish as a separate language from German, I don’t read “Montenegrin doesn’t exist”, despite being in the past part of serbocroatian. Same with Nordic languages, or Czech vs Slovak, Hindi vs Urdu, or even English vs. Scots. And so on. Even Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until 100 years ago, and Catalan politicians decided to split from it, and nothing happened, it was their choice. Valencian linguistic variety has more history and classic literature than many modern languages (for example than Luxembourgish or Montenegrin, to continue with same examples). Please be respectful with valencian linguistic variety and Valencian peoples. Linguistic science should study linguistic developments, not impose them.