Okay, so, I always find it hilarious when Catholics argue with the Pope. I mean, if youre protestant, you get a pass. Your religions were founded protesting the catholic church. That's why you're called protestants. And if you're non christian, you have ZERO reason to care what the pope has to say. You can take it under advisement, but you have no real obligation to follow it. but catholics? To them, the pope is God's representative on earth. He is basically speaking for God, and if you speak out against him, you're a heretic.
JD Vance is a catholic. So...yeah. he just told the pope to stick to "matters of morality" and to not discuss foreign policy.
I mean, in theory, i can kinda understand not wanting the pope to butt in to policy disagreements. I mean, I dont exactly see christianity as a "functional" basis to run the world. Like, if we all lived like Jesus, nothing would function. The dude was an apocalyptic, ascetic preacher. he thought the end times was coming, and Christianity in general was more focused on preparing for that than planning a sustainable society. It's one of the reasons Christianity is so awful to use as a model for planning society. I mean, dont get me wrong. Jesus had a lot of nice and thought provoking things to say. I'm not entirely anti Jesus. BUT....even if you respect the guy, I can see how sometimes some of the things he said don't line up with reality and politics. And sometimes you kinda gotta be "bad", or, at least, tough, harsh, in order to assert yourself on the world stage.
Ya know? Im not always 100% lovey dovey myself on foreign policy. I understand that who has the biggest stick makes the rules, and I'm fine with us sometimes asserting ourselves to ensure we ARE the ones maintaining those rules.
BUT...that doesnt mean we should always be swinging our stick around. it's as Teddy Roosevelt once said. Speak softly, AND carry a big stick. Basically, diplomacy first, when that doesn't work, stick.
The problem with this current war is we got a loud and obnoxious president with a loud and obnoxious drunk frat bro as a "secretary of war", and he's not speaking softly and then swinging the stick. He's swinging the stick just because.
And the stick is killing people, including a lot of innocent people, civilians, etc. And they're supporting Israel, who is committing a genocide. And now invading a sovereign nation in Lebanon.
And this is where I get back to defending the Pope. Sometimes, war IS a matter of morality. if your war is unjust, and unjustified, yeah. You're the devil, basically. You're evil. I mean, let me ask people this. Was hitler evil in causing WWII? I think we all know the answer to that one. And barring the holocaust, i mean, we CAN compare that to trump's ramping up of questionable deportation policies, and I have made comparisons to that in the past, but just on foreign policy. Why was hitler evil? Because he was a psychipath who invaded countries for no reason, trying to take them over. And here's the kicker...how is trump any different?
I would argue...he's not. All that justifies his actions is rank nationalism, and the idea that he has the bigger stick. This war has no valid justification. Iran was not provoking us. If anything, Israel, the country that got us involved, is doing their own holocaust against the palestinians. Are we the baddies? yeah, we kinda are. We're basically the new Axis powers. It's the Axis of Epstein.
So if Pope Leo wants to condemn us for that, he can go right ahead. If anything, he's in the right for doing it. Congrats, donald, you're making me agree with funny hat man. But you know what? Despite my distaste of christianity, let's not forget it's the republicans' brand of evangelicalism that got me there. So if Mr Pope guy wants to condemn that and give his own take, I'm gonna sit there and nod and agree with him. Because you know what? He's FAR more moral than the BS going on within the evangelical movement in the republicans in the US. I can at least respect the pope in the modern era. Ya know? I mean, I'm gonna be dismissive of him on social issues mostly. The catholic church is kinda backwards there. Although francis and leo havent been too bad in that regard, at least not by christian standards. And on economics, yeah, they are pretty based. I actually come back around to semi agreeing with them. Because at the end of the day, they're not protestants who push the protestant work ethic. So they're for worker rights, and sometimes even UBI, and yeah.
And on foreign policy. Anyone with any shred of morality is gonna say we're the bad guys. Even half the US realizes we're the bad guys in this war. Although one thing I will say, Iran needs to chill with their peace terms. We're NEVER going to accept half the demands they're throwing out there. Even if we started this war unprovoked, and it's unjustified, the worst thing they can do is to...basically do what they're doing. Because at the end of the day, while I didnt want this war, if they're not gonna be compliant in ending it on reasonable terms, we have no choice but to continue fighting, and theyre gonna lose whatever moral high ground they have. And if that means more deaths, well....again. They gotta be more reasonable than an upending of the entire geopolitical world order just to make peace with them. Just because they got us by a painful pressure point doesn't mean we can't just bomb them to the stone age if we want to. We got the firepower. I really dont want us to do that. I kinda wanna end this for both our sakes. I want to spare American lives because I care about my country. I wanna spare Iranian lives because I'm humanitarian. But if Iran doesnt wanna stop tangoing, then tango we shall.
See...that's one thing I'll diverge from the pope on here. Because again, I dont have to listen to the pope. But I still kinda respect them and that's one thing I will say to support Vance and the Trump administration. I would LOVE to be a peacemaker. But the peace has to be reasonable and if Iran isnt gonna approach it in good faith, well...guess we gotta make BF3 great again...
Still, let's be blunt. Trump started this. He was wrong in starting it. And he's totally in the moral wrong here. And the Pope is, by and large, right. And im not gonna tell the pope to butt out. Because if I disagree with the pope, I dont care what he says. He's free to his opinion, I'm free to mine.
JD Vance though? He should just stfu here, if anything, or call himself a protestant, which he is, if he disagrees with the pope.
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