It was quite big in Latin America and perhaps the Philippines. The biggest left wing groups and anti-dictatorship movements in the 20th century was influenced by the Catholic church. I am no longer religious, but I would not be the person I am today had I not been brought up in a Catholic environment.

You will hardly find any theists in Lemmy, let alone staunch Catholics.

You have to give credit to where it’s due, Pope Francis did his best as the leader of one the biggest religious organisations. And I am not defending where the gap of his leadership had been, but leaders never have absolute authority because this is an often false notion they always do. Keep that mind, as he still have to contend with his subordinates. I mean, a leader is still just one person versus the aristocrats and elites who lend support and authority. The subordinates actually have the power if you think about it (like, who elects the pope after all?) That being said, I am no longer religious but I have read over the years of court intrigues of friction between conservative and progressive Catholic clergies. Many conservative clergies complain about Francis and said they miss Pope Benedict XVI. Francis had to play a delicate balance of court politics.

You joke but there is a genuine possibility that the Vatican might elect someone who is more conservative, if not very so. The Vatican under Francis had been the most progressive it had been in decades. And it ruffled the feathers of many conservative clergies.

My guess is that they will elect a conservative pope to replace Francis. It is no secret that there are court intrigues and in-fighting in the Vatican between progressive and conservative clergies. Pope Francis openly went toe to toe with many ultraconservative, MAGA clergies in America, de-frocking one of the priests.

You know Trump and co. got offended when they were called weird during the presidential campaign? Why won’t international politicians call him as he is-- a weirdo. He’s genuinely a weirdo with all the tariffs and threatening American allies; alienating him and the country. There is really no overall rationale other than to serve Putin the advantage.

Then you just found out about the Russian mindset. Fact of the matter is, Russians developed learned helplessness and rely on authority figures because they have gotten used to it since tsardom. They will only complain if their means for livelihoods and pensions are touched. The only times Russians had seriously challenged the authority was Imperial Russia losing World War 1 causing inflation, and Putin tried to implement pension reform. It is general rule that people only rise up if their means of livelihood become affected.

The longer the war drags on, the more it is to Russia’s detriment. At some point, Russia will be in Chinese orbit, contrary to Russia trying to re-forge their own empire and influence.

What a weird timeline that we are rooting for China on this.

Vladimir Putin’s forces were not as strong as they claimed.

A three day special operation that turned into a three year operation? The headline is not exactly groundbreaking.

People have been thinking Trump will let China invade Taiwan. Like, no. Trump is vehemently anti-China from the beginning in any shape or form. So, in that respect, China knows there is no pleasing the orangecrat and therefore doubling down on tariffs will not lose them with anything more. Besides, the tariffs is actually making China and EU come closer together-- as strange as it sounds.

In all fairness, the last 80 years of economic order has been shit for 99% of the population.

Yes and no. Millions of people were uplifted from poverty because of globalisation. The technology and wealth we enjoy today is because of international trade. But on the one hand, those who lost their jobs from outsourcing were not duly provided with alternatives, and now they are electing demagogues who are promising them easy answers to complicated issues. And on geopolitics, big countries act with impunity, stepping on less powerful countries. This also added for demagogues to use the lack of international order to rally people into nativism.

Territorially? Yes, Russia is winning. But politically, economically and socially? Russia already lost. The deaths of thousands of soldiers in the face of Russia’s demographic crisis will result fewer labour force, which means lower tax revenue. The Russian economy is in war footing and this is already causing inflation because of heightened government expenditure, and businesses struggling to pay the ever increasing wage demands of civilians at home, who replaced the jobs that would have been filled instead by soldiers from the front. With secondary sanctions, even Chinese banks are reluctant to lend to Russia. The future generations of Russians will be paying for the economic and social consequences of the war in Ukraine. In essence, Russia may be winning territorially, but it will be a Pyrrhic victory with generational consequences.

There were protests and hundred of thousands of young Russian men left the country after Putin announced the first “partial” mobilisation. The recruitment process was also botched and conscripted even the disabled and old.

You have one job!

It doesn’t necessarily mean they become atheists; some switch religions. While in the West religion is in overall decline, in the global south, Christian evangelicals are on the rise. This is especially the case in Brazil where Catholicism is on decline but evangelicals are growing.

Plenty of Hasbara in Reddit these days combing through any Israel- Palestine conflict.

As someone who grew up in Ireland, I know for a fact that Ireland is one of the first countries to support Israeli statehood and then the two state solution. As a matter of fact, one of Ireland’s ministers is a Jew who later on served as advisor to one of the Israeli political party that will eventually rule the country: the Likud party. Unfortunately, with ultra-Zionism now taking hold on Israeli society, Ireland recognise modern Israel’s attempt to genocide Palestinians so there is a rift between Ireland and Israel.

Fast forward to present day, when the Irish parliament drew up a bill to ban goods from Israeli occupied territories, comments in Reddit swarmed like ants accusing Ireland of historical antisemitism/anti-Zionism and perpetuating the myth that then Irish prime minister, Eamon De Valera, sent condolences upon hearing the news of Hitlers death. These comments have been heavily upvoted. However, they conveniently and purposefully forget said Ireland’s history of supporting Israeli statehood and close political ties with the country’s early days.

MacNamara’s 100,000 idiots programme during Vietnam War wasn’t a success, so the next best thing for them is to institute the programme domestically and with intended results.

So as of now it’s none?

As of now. But there are some who are already making a push back and even Fox news are starting to question Trump. After all, Trump keeps flip flopping because obviously some are already expressing frustrations behind closed doors.

If the silly tariff threats goes on long enough, enough people will become overtly angry.

Will be many if the stock market does not rebound soon enough.

Only because US abandoning Ukraine means the US can turn its attention to China, which China obviously don’t like. This is a point made by political analyst, William Spaniel, as to why China and Russia are not friends. And Putin could be convincing Trump to turn his attention to China for said reasons. Moreover, China’s pov on the crumbling free trade will be detrimental to the country that is still reliant on many imports of raw materials, and exports of their finished goods. It is ironic that China today is being 20th century United States; in which the foreign policy is based continued international trade.