Surprising would not be one of them. This goes along with the whole rape defense strategy they use. Minimize, deflect and provide all the false equivalencies necessary to justify the unjustifiable.
I like how dismissive this article is.
Blaming āhomosexualsā for unacceptable behavior with underage boys because of a legal technicallity is utterly dispicable.
It is dismissive of the pain that these children suffered, and it nicely allows us to avoid confronting the basic problems that infest the Catholic Church (as well as the rest of organized religion)
There are so many things wrong and ghastly about this article itās hard to know where to begin.
The key things involved in sexual predation at any age are the (in)ability for the victim to give informed consent and a vast imbalance in power in favor of the perpetrator. Whether the perps are termed a pedophile, a sexual predator, a rapist or a thingamajig is almost not relevant.
It is just barely possible to argue that a 15 year old victim of sexual predation might be have less permanent psychological and emotional damage than a 5 year old; intuitively pleasuring oneself at the expense of a 5 year old seems like it should carry a heavier penalty but all that ignores the fact that in both cases itās terribly wrong and terribly harmful and no good faith argument would split hairs about which is worse. It is all intolerable and therefore none of it should be tolerated.
I had wondered where the left footers were taking that irrelevant nonsense, well it was to promote homophobia, and to try and dodge their ghastly churchās record on endemic child abuse by labelling the priests they protected to go on abusing countless children in their care as homosexuals.
Slimy amoral cunts, is all I can really say.
āWhen males have sex with males who are postpubsecent, thatās called homosexuality, not pedophilia.
But the media ignored the data,ā
Itās called fucking child abuse is what it is called, but yes I am sure we all remember how keen those child abusing fuckers were to publish all the ādataā. Sadly these amoral cunts have a long record of trying to blame their horrific record of endemic child abuse as homosexuality. Some people just have no shame.
I am eternally amazed at the energy these people invest in something that has no bearing or direct effect on their lives.
They think that it does. It violates their self image and worldview and thus threatens their very identity. The mere existence of ādeviantsā of whatever stripe HAS to mean they are ghastly depraved monsters, otherwise it means that there is diversity and other ways of being, and the Bible isnāt inerrant, etc.
āthe molesters were homosexuals. When males have sex with males who are postpubsecent, thatās called homosexuality, not pedophilia.ā
So Epstein wasnāt a paedophile, just a heterosexual. Theyāre not just repugnant malignant superstitious cunts, theyāre dumber than a bucket of hairā¦
In the Australia Royal Commission on Institutional Child Abuse it was worth noting that 20% of the priests that responded to the survey did not believe that sexual acts with a prepubescent boy constituted a violation of their vows of celibacy.
Confession and punishment up to self flagellation were considered sufficient in the eyes of senior clergy.
Similarly other pastors and their ilk have used a defence (?) that the minor girls they were molesting was preparing them for womanhood through special dispensation.
Excuse me while I dash for a vomit.
What. The. Actual. Fuck!?
What. The. Actual. Fuck?!
Please make room for me. 
Every abuser has their rationalizations. It doesnāt of course change the objective and documented harms they wreak upon their victims, doesnāt change the power imbalance or the inability of a child to give informed consent.
What I find more remarkable than a perpetrator justifying what they are doing is the institutional support for normalizing and systematizing it. Entire production lines of degeneracy and harm with halfway houses and lawyers and everything, and not everyone running the machinery is even a pedophile. It is just all there to protect the institution, which is just a whole other layer of abuse. The other day I read that a FEMALE bishop in the Anglican Church was enabling all this in London for years. I think they were contemplating elevating her to archbishop or something, I forget the details, and then this came out. A WOMAN. Probably a mother. That is some next level depravity, all in the name of Jesus.
As bad as that is, and it is bad, to use those awful crimes to peddle bigotry against gay people is beyond contemptable. By their rationale, Epsteinās crimes imply something about straight men, so not just contemptable, but the kind of rank stupidity I have come to expect from religious apologists peddling hate.
I never expected you to take a leap of faithā¦
There is no rational with these people. Itās all about the cruelty. They follow the lead of their Orange Jesus empowered by how low the bar has gotten.
They cannot make themselves bigger unless they make everything else smaller. The Confirmation Bias Express has left the stationā¦
This is just another example. Egregious, disgusting far right propaganda thatās packed with enough lies to keep the ship afloat when the sharks arrive.
It doesnāt matter if itās true, the punters just have to believe it. Trump coined the term ātruthful hyperboleā in 1987 in the book he didnāt writeā¦a term he defines as āan innocent form of exaggerationā. The rest of the world calls it bullshit.
This is the same asshole that took out a full page ad in the New York Times in 1989 decrying āBRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY. BRING BACK OUR POLICE!ā during the Central Park jogger case. Five black and latino youths were falsely convicted, then later exonerated. Trump never apologized or retracted anything.
He is the Judas Goat leading the group to destruction under the guise of providing them cover and protection. His toxic behaviors and projection brings out a regression in those who believe in him. He enables their prejudices to run freeā¦itās a spotlight onto their insecurities and aggression.
Be advised, there is no bottom here.
Some half-assed bottom was found in that I heard yesterday that 57% of Republicans identified as MAGA back in, IIRC, March of this year, and that number has now fallen to 50%. A seven point drop is significant, although that half the GOP is still MAGA and most of the rest are MAGA-complicit by not speaking out or taking any meaningful stand is still alarming.
You are still correct though because Iām sure that 7% havenāt re-thought their life choices or their thinking, beyond that they are being harmed by the policies they voted for and they voted for OTHER people to be harmed.
Granted, his numbers are beginning to slip. Keep in mind that the 53% that still loves him comprises a population well north of 35 million people. I am suspect as to how much of his decline is fueled by the Silent Generation and older Baby Boomers just dying off.
The bottom I was referring to is the moral and ethical bottom. I wish I could see 50 years into the futureā¦Iām curious if America ever gets its head out of its assā¦
Debatable. It could go either way. So yeah I wish I had a crystal ball, too.
My prediction is that āMurica will not take this opportunity to truly reset in a more progressive direction and probably will succumb to the desire of many to āmove onā and ālet goā rather than see justice properly done, and this will just keep repeating in different ways, some darker than others.
The two leading candidates I see at this distance for President in ā28 (Newsom and Kelly) and I suppose Harris might give it another whirl ā are all conventional centrists / incrementalists. Newsom and Kelly have talked a very good and courageous game, and I think for Kelly it even has some principled substance, but I donāt think either of them are constitutionally able to substantively address the underlying issues (as I see them anyway). They arenāt going to resurrect the middle class or the labor movement, they will just stop actively beating up on them and restore some sanity and order. But I donāt feel that will be enough. The authoritarians will always have purchase for their arguments when people are beaten down and losing hope. And of course the Brunch Democrats will probably still control the party, and through them, mostly the same oligarchs that support the GOP. They will just put their masks back on and play āgood copā for awhile.
Honestly, if the Democrats werenāt so attracted to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I believe if they had run a primary to select a candidate rather than hang on to Bidenā¦then do the divine right of selection shit with Harris, we would be looking at President Newsom instead of President Trump.
I donāt believe things will improve in my lifetime. Granted, as I get older that becomes a smaller numberā¦ The Republicans have been instilling fear and grabbing Statehouse elections for decades. The Democrats have largely been out picking clover.
Thank God Trump is such a toxic narcissist. At least that frightens the independents. Fear sells in American politicsā¦Fox News has made bank on that reality since Newt Gingrich crawled out of the slime to become speaker of the house.
Republicans orchestrate. They fall in line. They will eat an endless amount of shit to display loyalty. They have a brand that sells very well with white folks that genuinely donāt understand why the American Dream left them behind.
Democrats have become diluted in messaging due to their pathological desire to include everyone. The old joke of āHow do you get three Democrats to agree on a single issue? Make sure two are deadā is beginning to sting of truthā¦
I saw a yard sign years ago that stayed with me. āIf all the politicians were drowning, and you had time to save only oneā¦what kind of sandwich would you make?ā
All of this is mute, though. Close to 250 years into the American Experiment we have finally discovered the weak point. Itās the voters.
I never meant to suggest their bigoted rationale was rational, since theyāre obviously invoking at least a false equivalence, possibly a no true Scotsman fallacy as well.
Also this was about the linked article from the Catholic Herald, no direct involvement from senator Palpatine that Iām aware of, heās a nefarious amoral clown no doubt, but I donāt think we can blame him for the appalling actions of the RCC.
TBH his religious epithets have always struck me as typically opportunistic pandering, though it is quite dangerous of course.
I thought they should have ran Harris, Biden from the start in 2024 (a reversal of the roles).