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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 5, 2025

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It's tasteless, but that's Trump. I wasn't offended, more "can you please not?" The Onion ran a series of joke articles about Pope Francis both during his illness and in the period up to/after his death, some of which would be way more offensive to a serious Catholic.

He had illegitimate kids? What a funny thing to say!

While we are sincerely touched by the outpouring of condolences from across the world, we request that you respect our family’s need for space so we can navigate the loss of our beloved father,” said Ignacio Vásquez of Argentina, one of Francis’ 16 known children, who were born on six continents to at least seven different mothers.

A skit on the most sacred sacrament of the entire faith, likening it to drink driving? How hilarious!

“Our autopsy found the Holy Father had a substantial amount of Eucharist in his system— roughly four times the legal limit—at the time of death,” said Ruini, who added that measurements of the pope’s blood of Christ (BOC) were consistent with those from someone who had communed with Jesus for decades.

And of course, this charming photo.

I think that there is nothing wrong with holding the POTUS to a higher standard than some random satire website or social media shitposter. If a top Democrat had been making such a joke, then the GOP would likewise try to make political hay with performative outrage.

hay with performative outrage.

Yes, but it would be performative outrage.

Pretty much nobody would actually say and mean "well, I used to be a supporter of that top Democrat, but now that he made a bad joke, I can no longer support him!"

IDK, that would be really out of character for them, an that alone might be a problem, irrespective of how bad that joke really is. Trump has been "unserious" from the start, so he can do it.

It’s crazy to think that there was a time when the Onion was genuinely funny.

The lone and level sands stretch far away, I guess.

It still is, sometimes, but yeah it goes hard in the wrong direction on some things. When you're losing a battle of wits with the Babylon Bee, it's time to put down the bottle and decide "I should quit drinking methylated spirits".