Microw

Ah yes, exactly what I tell my boss when I do stupid stuff for fun

While a good chunk of the country supports the fascist government, there has always been a part of the Israeli population saying that the war in Gaza was not right. Some of them think it's the genociding that is wrong, some of them think that any kind of war in Gaza is wrong. But voicing that can be risky in Israel, so there hasn't been a lot of media coverage in the past.

I mean, there are catholic priests and officials that are very liberal - they do exist. But those people do usually not even get into a position as a bishop, so they are not on the table to potentially become cardinals.

Vatican itself does not have much influence on this election. Francis was smart enough to appoints lots of bishops from "remote" regions like for example Mongolia or Pakistan, who have not been able to form political networks with each other and make it far more difficult for court intrigues to work out. Yes , the conclave surely will see those again, but there should be a counter weight at play here

You should know that lots of countries and societies will not do this. Especially in the global south.

There is a roman saying, "the one who enters conclave as the pope [to be] leaves it as a mere cardinal"

The catch is that he did not appoint by ideology. His appointments were mainly based on the guys doing work for poor people, for migrants, and on them doing their jobs in the global south.

Quite a few of these he made cardinals are somewhat conservative in their views, especially regarding sexuality

Imported US culture (movies, TV etc) has successfully planted the idea in a lot of people that teenagers under 18 are "essentially the same as little children". So no one cares about technicalities.

The issue here is that most countries define the age of consent differently. I think we can agree that when a 16 year old agrees to sexual contact with another 16 year old, the dynamic is different than if they agree to it with a 40 year old. Absolutely. But that does not mean that the 16 year old doesnt understand what they are doing.

I can assure you that the judiciary system in my country does work. It's just that these people either a. just want to beat someone up and need an excuse, or b. don't agree with our laws and think it should be prison time for a 18 year old who wants to date a 16 year old, or a 21 year old who wants to date a 17 year old.

They lump far more people into the same group. They attack anyone whom they think they can, even if they know that their accusations are BS.

Just happened here in Austria. Police took 20 people into custody (13 have since been formally arrested) for luring people to fake dates where they beat them up.

The suspects said they hunted pedophiles, but at least in some of the cases they targeted young adults who expected to come to a date with 16-18 year olds.