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[Maximum Spin]

I probably shouldn't get into the Pope thing.  I guess it's technically a nice gesture, which would be more meaningful if he had any authority over civil unions.  If only there was some similar arrangement he *did* have authority over.

It really is a nice gesture though and maybe that means a lot from the head of a religion.  It's a good direction for his moral guidance to be shifting.

On the contrary, the Pope endorses it because it's not marriage and therefore not his problem. He endorses it as an alternative to marriage, and presumably still thinks the people entering civil partnerships will go to hell if they do not repent, but at least they aren't getting married, which would presumably be worse.

[Rolan7]

I know   But it's still an endorsement of same-sex relationships too.  It could potentially help some people rethink their biases.
Or it's just a setup for the looming rollback of same-sex marriages in the US, but I'm trying to be positive.

[misko27]

Don't worry, Amy Comey Barret has pledged to keep her religion separate from her work by ignoring left-wing radicals like the Pope.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

You better believe I'm taking some next-level pleasure watching trad Caths freak out and declare that the Kingdom of Satan is upon us due to this.

However, this does not improve my opinion of the Catholic Church one bit, and they deserve no credit for anything as per before.

[scriver]

I suppose it depends on how good the intentions are:

Good intentions: "The political control of big pharma can be lessened, and Oxy can be made and distributed without a profit motive."

Bad intentions: "We can take a lesson from our Best Friend Russia who has historically held a government monopoly on Vodka in order to keep the angry populace drunk, disorganized, and addicted. We do that with Oxy by cranking the opioid crisis to fucking ELEVEN and make money that the vodka barons couldn't even dream of!"

Historically the Swedish monopoly on alcohol has very much lessened our alcoholism though

[lemon10]

I suppose it depends on how good the intentions are:

Good intentions: "The political control of big pharma can be lessened, and Oxy can be made and distributed without a profit motive."

Bad intentions: "We can take a lesson from our Best Friend Russia who has historically held a government monopoly on Vodka in order to keep the angry populace drunk, disorganized, and addicted. We do that with Oxy by cranking the opioid crisis to fucking ELEVEN and make money that the vodka barons couldn't even dream of!"

I mean, there is another Russia model they could follow instead.
They could just use the government to clear all the debt on Perdue... then just sell it off at rock bottom prices to either Trump or (more likely) one of Trump's friends that then give him hundreds of millions in kickbacks over the next decade.

I don't think he could pull it off before this term ends, but if he wins I'm sure he would at least try next term.

[martinuzz]

Historically the Swedish monopoly on alcohol has very much lessened our alcoholism though

They forgot to make it affordable for the masses. Booze is so darn expensive in Sweden

[RedKing]

DNI is claiming that the Proud Boys emails were actually Iranian attempts at fucking with us. Which is completely plausible. However, given this administration's penchant for blaming Iran for everything that they couldn't blame on China, I'm taking it with a big grain of salt.

[Starver]

From what I read in the article I previously posted (and already armed with educated guesses of my own, understanding how such facilities work), the servers might well be in the vicinity of Iran but could have been randomly or deliberately chosen as the remailer by absolutely anyone.

It could even have been AOC, in a break between her Twitch Rallies, making an obviously bad attempt to look like a bad attempt to try to intimidate peiple in order to rebound upon the people who would be assumed to try to false-false-flag for their own reasons...

(Though the Russian hacking-farms were trying to disrupt the (pre-disrupted) 2020 Olympics and Chinese counterparts have been reported equally as active, and neither would have any compunction against using an open box in a middle-eastern data-centre, with or without legitimate access, just as a handy catapult to throw mud into the electoral swimming-pool.)

[MetalSlimeHunt]

There's really no reason to hope for reform from the Catholic Church, whether or not there actually is reform. We have no-holds-barred same-sex marriage - who the hell cares what the RCC does or wants?

[The_Explorer]

Sadly, a lot of religions are against homosexual marriage and many religions also prey on children. Catholics, Christians, islam, some sects of buddhism, whatever the amish religion is has a big problem with child marriages too and against homosexuals. A bunch of religions really. Seems to be a religious thing in general. Though at least the pope took a step toward same sex marriage, but I imagine a lot under him will be against it. They still have a huge problem of child predators though and say they are doing something about it but not really, like a lot of religions are facing. Religion in general is a huge issue for all kinds of leftist goals and ambitions. And the far right is just laughing cause if you say anything against religion, they can label you a bigot even though its a big issue. But then are okay with religions being bigots against homosexuals...seems a bit backwards.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Personally, I wish we were more like France in this regard - even the far-right in France is very careful to couch any religious rhetoric with a dose of nationalism, and the whole rest of their political spectrum there seems to have little compunction against smacking down religious bullshit with the force of law. The original revolution instilled a serious and permanent change to France's culture regarding religion, imo.

We may just get there too, the way things have been going for religion in the US ever since the 90s. That Francis now has whole seas of Catholics calling for his removal, even though the catechism specifically says nobody can remove or judge the Pope except God, all for a milquetoast-in-2004 comment about not being so openly bigoted, really does not say that these churches are going to reform any time soon. 

Things are going to change in a lot of ways once the boomers have succumbed to the eternal march of death, but no more so than for the ability of religious organizations to survive in the US. They give the vast majority of the money and they make up a huge portion of the reliable membership. Without them, I don't see how you keep doors open even with fascist judges actively trying to Bring America To Christ.

[RedKing]

There's really no reason to hope for reform from the Catholic Church, whether or not there actually is reform. We have no-holds-barred same-sex marriage - who the hell cares what the RCC does or wants?

Meh, gives Latinos one less reason to join the Republicans. And really, you take away Catholic conservatism and there's not much left for the Republicans to offer them.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

And the solution to sunset towns isn't being nicer to racists.

It's prosecuting sunset town enforcers for domestic terrorism.

Similarly, the issue with religion has been, can be, and ought to be solved by educating people out of the bullshit that organized religions teach. The rest will happen on its own.

[misko27]

Catholics in 1066: "No, unfailing devotion to the Pope is required. He is not 'First among equals', he is the leader of the One Holy Church, and the Patriarch of Constantinople must be excommunicated for his arrogance in claiming equality to Rome."
Catholics in 1541: "No! No salvation through faith alone, no rejecting the authority of the church: refusal to acknowledge the authority of the Pope is unacceptable, and for this, we excommunicate Martin Luther and his followers. Rejection of the ultimate authority of the Pope and the clergy led by him is in essence rejection of Christendom and must be treated as such."
Catholics in 2020: "Well you see the Pope is more of a Spiritual Leader you aren't supposed to literally obey things he says, it's a suggestion; religious guidance, open to interpretation you see."

There's some long-term issues brewing when the whole point of your religion devolves to merely a suggestion.

EDIT: Since I'm on the new page, have we discussed the Rudy Giuliani/Borat thing?