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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 22, 2023

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The Los Angeles Dodgers, a baseball team are apparently hosting a "pride night" and have invited a group called "The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" to perform at it.

The "sisters" are of course not sisters at all, but in fact, an anti catholic group of men who dress as nuns and mock catholics.

Originally the Dodgers, a baseball team, after learning that this was essentially an anti-Catholic hate group, uninvited them. However, they recently re-invited them.

Baseball?

What is the fucking point of this? What possible reason does a baseball team have to indicate a sexual preference? And why does this include mocking Catholics?

God this stuff is demoralizing. Is that the point?

Yes, the demoralization is the point. The new update just dropped. The "appeal to religious tolerance" bug has been patched. That particular tactic will no longer work. You lose.

Curtis Yarvin is right that this level of power cannot be challenged head-on. You really thought press-releases from Republican senators would work? This is the equivalent of a Japanese Banzai charge straight into dug-in machine gun emplacements and sighted artillery. They will not only defeat you handily, they will enjoy it the whole time.

I suppose if you really are Catholic (whatever that even means these day), you can have faith in "divine providence" or whatever to eventually fix things. For everyone else, we will have to simply live with the pain.

EDIT: Speaking of Republican Senators and sports leagues, if you want to know how mid-level white-collar employees in NY and LA feel about Republican Senators sending them open letters, here’s ESPN NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski sending a “Fuck you” email directly to Senator Josh Hawley.

This is the equivalent of a Japanese Banzai charge straight into dug-in machine gun emplacements and sighted artillery.

I've long thought that if the Catholics really wanted to win a battle in the Culture War, they should start repeating "anti-Catholic animus" (or perhaps some catchier -phobia or -ism term I'm not going to consider) in the same way that "racism" and "antisemitism" get thrown around. The historical citations aren't really unjustified: the KKK was founded as, among other things, anti-Catholic. All of the historical bias against Italians and Irish immigrants is at least somewhat rooted in anti-Catholic bias, as is some of the bias against Central and South American immigration. The Nazis persecuted Catholics. And they continue to be victims of hate crimes in the US.

On one hand, repetition legitimizes and a constant drone of "we're persecuted" is functionally how various groups on the left have achieved their existing hierarchy -- this seems to bear more relation to the quantity and quality of complaints than to any particular metrics of measurable oppression. On the other, I respect that Catholics absolutely could claim (some degree of) martyrdom in the Year of Our Lord 2023 but choose not to because silent stoicism better aligns with their principles.

if catholicism is anti-non-catholicism then why should not non-catholics be anti-catholicism?

The institutional RCC is still realizing that the progressive left does not like them and won’t tolerate them forever, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

That being said, this kind of tawdry shock value LGBT crudity is going to wake up bishops much, much more than, say, suing catholic nuns to make them pay for contraceptives.

I've long thought that if the Catholics really wanted to win a battle in the Culture War, they should start repeating "anti-Catholic animus" (or perhaps some catchier -phobia or -ism term I'm not going to consider) in the same way that "racism" and "antisemitism" get thrown around.

Ah but you see, when our side does it, it's not hate speech! We're just punching Nazis! The Catholics are the hateful murderous bigots and we are simply exercising our right to criticise ideas we do not agree with.

It wouldn't work. What constitutes "prejudice" or "discrimination" doesn't in practice follow coherent principles, it's merely "who, whom" because anti-Catholics (in a broad sense) control all media by which the message would be delivered and can thus mute o, even better, skew or taint the message.

It is a highly effective strategy. When I think of someone on TV complaining about anti-Catholicism, I think of some crackpot or blowhard that has been brought on as a slow news day sideshow, and I'm a practicing Catholic who believes anti-Catholicism is a serious problem! I know for a fact that there are many highly articulate priests and professors who could give an excellent rundown of anti-Catholicism on TV, I've personally seen many of them speak. But they would never be allowed on air for fear that they might actually sway some folks (look up Fr. Coughlin), so instead you get Bill Donahue.

How can an army fight without a general? The Pope won't even speak up against the German Catholics supporting gay "marriage". The Church needed a Tywin Lannister, and got a Tytos instead.

Catholics have had a sense of victimhood for a long time, but a traditional tactic of dealing with this victimhood was voting Democrat, which isn't exactly an effective defence against mockery of Catholic symbolism and values by progressives in the 21st century. I don't think it's that Catholics don't think that anti-Catholic animus isn't a thing or even that they don't try to talk about it, but that they don't have an effective strategy for doing anything about it.

For example, Catholics' ethics don't allow them to use the strategy that blocks the LA Dodgers doing an equivalent thing with a group of trans people mocking Islam - that some Muslims would try to kill the members of such a group and people associated with them, while also claiming victimhood. A child that cries and hits will attract more attention from an overindulgent parent than a child that just cries. Professed Catholics in America have many different ethical beliefs, but a common theme is that almost all of them aren't keen on violently attacking those who mock them. I think that's less "silent stoicism" and more "ethical passivity".

Professed Catholics in America have many different ethical beliefs, but a common theme is that almost all of them aren't keen on violently attacking those who mock them. I think that's less "silent stoicism" and more "ethical passivity".

Maybe they all should just go back and watch The Boondock Saints

On one hand, repetition legitimizes and a constant drone of "we're persecuted" is functionally how various groups on the left have achieved their existing hierarchy -- this seems to bear more relation to the quantity and quality of complaints than to any particular metrics of measurable oppression

Personally I don't see this strategy working at what it sets out to do, but I'm not opposed to it. "Anti-catholic animus" would very quickly be recognised by the human machinery of the Cathedral as a form of attack, even if just on an instinctual level, and they would go out of their way to try and retaliate. I don't see it working per se, but I do see it damaging the prestige and reputation of the Cathedral, so I endorse it anyway.