I was done with these people ideologically before the pandemic but that experience added emotional scarring.

Jimi Hendrix, fan, showed up in March 1968 at a coffeehouse in Ottawa and surreptitiously recorded a concert by Joni Mitchell, whose first album came out a few days later.

For my money she and Dylan are very similar as the mercurial geniuses of that era. Both started folk-adjacent and grew out of that in very different directions, remaining vital for decades as many of ther peers turned into oldies acts.

Elder millennials grew up watching Canadian kid’s sketch comedy show “You Can’t Do That on Television” which had a running gag (yes) about this that was explicitly Nazi-coded.

There’s this weightlifting/finance bro influencer who did profiles of Catholic churches in NYC, lives near one of the more inclusive ones in this regard, and only stopped going there because some right-wing friend told him it was “not it” and steered him to one of the NY’s hottest club options.

She started off in a bad mood due to sitting in traffic all that way thanks to Suffolk exurban sprawl.

This is the kind of thing Hannah Arendt was talking about when she said people have a responsibility to think.

“Donald Trump and his cronies live in highrises and compounds while your kids can’t play outside or sleep.”

Got a lot of comments to this effect on Twitter. Seems like the latter part is a misreading of “letting liberals speak, even in official church settings, without fear of reprisal.”

I saw Ross engaging another conservative saying Leo whiffed because he separated sexual morality and religious freedom. It will always be 2015 for some of these people (which is how they justify supporting Trump).

Got a lot of comments to this effect on Twitter. Seems like the latter part is a misreading of “letting liberals speak, even in official church settings, without fear of reprisal.”

Soft on crime! This might be what finally turns Trump against Hegseth.

There has been a pretty wide variety of interpretation of these remarks. I still tend in what one might call an “optimistic” direction that that this is solidifying a new footing for discussing these things rather than backtracking, but proof will be in how things play out. I could be wrong.

One of the reasons Charles Taylor’s book on it is so good is that he discards the pretense of objectivity. You’re on a Hegelian-Catholic journey ending in Cuernavaca.

The thing about secularization is, its complexity lends to the author inserting their own agendas into the analysis and having it still sound plausible. That is exactly what one must attempt to avoid.

Like, in terms of “approaches to Cardinal Marx on same-sex blessings” one could have envisioned a year ago, politely telling him he’s on the edge and appointing someone on board with him to Münster would have to be on the milder end.

This is very interesting. Note the temporal qualifier in second quote.

I’ve seen some headlines framing this very conservatively. Like, this guy is not going to announce major changes to this on a plane. But every time he speaks on sex/gender he leaves a rather notable space for development.

Need to look for people staring wistfully at GM Building in NYC.

“Pope Still Refuses to Get Tough on Crime”

Gen X is in favor of this because of our famous slogan: No Buddy Cop Comedy Premise Too Dumb.

This is very interesting. Note the temporal qualifier in second quote.

In this house we honor the martyrs Letterman and Conan. Dick Cavett discussion interesting as he is professed aspirational figure for Colbert.

My 10-year-old is an Age of Empires addict and is the most aggressive lib in his parochial school class.

One of the problems with the former as a political (rather than personal refuge) position is that stats tend to show self-identified mainline Protestants just as Trumpy as Catholics. It’s a problem within white American Christianity writ large.

This piece by @kevjg.bsky.social is the explainer you need on why the pope's voice seems so much more consequential now. jacobin.com/2026/04/vati...

This is exactly correct. Operational improvements - which would help people spend less time in the actual station anyway - are the key thing.

I agree with this but I would say one difference is Leo is much more aware of these specific dynamics than, say, Paul VI was. They also spent years building up a right Catholic intellectual apparatus premised in part on being able to associate themselves with the papacy.

Corollary to this is diminution of Chaput who would have become a cardinal under most other plausible candidates. While he is an outlier attitudinally, his pugilistic approach allowed people like Dolan to scan as more moderate than they were.

A lot of anti-anti-Trump conservative Catholics also really hate AI so are on board with that element of Leo as well as the more formal persona. The problem they have, which Pillar guys going after him indicted, is that he has shown no interest in their culture wars.

Common thread between Barron and Vigano (he’s not that far gone yet): two guys who thought for sure they would be cardinals sooner rather than later.

Christopher Lamb’s new book makes clear that The Pillar’s animus against him connected to Sodalitium Christianae Vitae/Denver stuff. Also close connection to Chaput who clearly can’t stand Cupich etc. being in favor.

Dolan trying to have it both ways participating via video. Leaves Barron further out on a limb given Schmitz has withdrawn.

This kind of practical consideration is also why a large schism is unlikely. A lot of costs to suddenly assume for a very fragile ideological project that loses a ton of cachet as soon as it departs official Catholicism.

This podcast episode has some of my thoughts on Leo/Trump, doctrinal development, and other matters: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

Lots of retired lib boomer priests were uptight conservatives in their youth. We’re all moving targets.

The more likely alternative to a large schism is significant number of clergy quitting. Churn rate already significant for other reasons (immaturity, overwork, loneliness, etc.) but interesting to see how this intersects with AI economy.

I have always said converting younger clergy an important part of Leo’s task vis-a-vis U.S. church because necessary reforms in this area harder to carry out without somebody else (with a positive attitude) already there.

As someone who already prefers a different branch for research from the amazing ReCAP collections, witnessing these has only strengthened that tendency.

“Yeah it’s bad but they’re rushing Soto and Scott back to try to stop the streak which surely won’t have any negative repercussions.”

The implicit media consensus is that urban voters should not be able to overrule rural voters, but that rural voters should be able to overrule urban voters, an assumption so axiomatic and unquestionable that nobody even understands they're making it.

the question, the same one asked by Jimmy Carter before he lost 44 states, is how the hell to pivot while you're still in power and everything bad is still Your Fault

Don’t forget lecturing the Pope about theology.

Pope who knows the Karl Rove “We’re an empire now, and when we act we create our own reality” quote.

This is well known to Bruce diehards and VVAW people but flies under the radar because it was before Bruce became an icon in 1984.

The guy who bankrolled all this? One H. Ross Perot.

Yes connected to the fictional POW/MIA movement which had highways named after it and flags flying over government buildings.

The Mets have had multiple nostalgia nights in recent years honoring embarrassing moments in their history.

No choice now but to release Ella McCay 2 in summer of ‘28: At age 36, she becomes President of the country in which she was born and raised.

Bruce Springsteen, who was inspired by the plight of Vietnam vets, has spent a significant amount of time, including current tour, pushing back against these narratives.