he stands upon an empire of stolen wealth. The current unjust system is what maintains that wealth.
Isn't this true of all westerners?
I think less time should be devoted to determining whether some_one_ is "good" or not (remember the endless "is AOC good again" posts?) and we should recognize that there's nobody who bats 1000. Praise good ideas and good deeds, not the people. All people are flawed, and if you hitch your wagon to a person rather than an idea, you might be dragged into defending them when they fuck up.
The pope is literally the head of one of the world's largest and most powerful pedophile rings
Just revisiting this, extremely funny to pull out “well you pay taxes to the war machine” as it relates to the most influential religious leader in the world
Just saying it's not a unique criticism to level.
"Most influential religious leader in the world" is.
Isn't this true of all westerners?
kinda, yeah. but the pope especially so. the catholic church is obscenely wealthy, unlike your average american wage slave who can't afford rent
dude also sold out people to the argentine junta, people here have to be more critical of him
bunch of people desperate to collect all the
dragon ballsactual liberation theology guys and make a wish.being good "for a pope" is a bar so low it's in hell.
Anyone capable of becoming the Pope is by definition a bad person. I would argue this is true not just of Catholicism with its human rights record and recent history of sheltering abusers, but of any organized religion. Any Priest, Rabbi or Imam, living comfortably while taking donations from the poor and the sick, promoting chauvinism and discrimination, deserves to go against the wall when the revolution comes.
But these religious figures are also very powerful. Religion is the opiate of the masses, that does not just mean that it's dangerous and addictive, it means people find great comfort and solace in these institutions. For billions of people, these institutions are the only thing providing a restbit from the relentless grinding of capitalism and the continued atomization of the social structures around them.
We can and should highlight when these religious figures point out contradictions within the capitalist system. We can and should support them when they do true charity. When they make comments favorable to socialism, we should highlight that for their followers. While continuing to point out the absurdity of their position, and working to undermine their temporal power.
I have no problem providing conditional support to Ansarallah, or Iran, when they take actions or make statements in support of the Palestinian cause. I see no reason why a pope does not also deserve conditional support when he acknowledges the immiseration inherent in our late capitalist societies.
Yeah the pope is an asshole, and the Ayatollah is a dick. If you can praise the Ayatollah for saying nice things about the Palestinians (which to be clear you absolutely should), you should be able to praise the Pope for saying bad things about capitalism. It's called conditional support for a reason.
Maybe not but his current left-leaning words have had an influence in areas where the Catholic church holds a lot of power for the better. Honestly, I'd reluctantly ally with him to oust the Protestants and then work on the Catholics.
