Nazi militant liberal strong-arming is alive and well
I wasn't quite sure where to begin with this one, so I thought I'd break it down into several parts:
1. A phrase like "liberal Nazi" is an oxymoron, meaning two words that are opposites of one another that have inexplicably been used in conjunction. Fascism, including Nazism, was a far-right nationalistic movement that allowed corporations unprecedented power within the government. There is a reason why the allied powers stripped the Bayer company of their trademark for Aspirin after the war and such. A lot of these corporations were complicit in Nazi atrocities at very high levels on both sides (in the corporations and in the Nazi government). Calling someone a "liberal Nazi" is like calling someone a "conservative communist". Doesn't really work.
2. If the implication you are making is that liberals are strong-arming conservatives more than the reverse these days, I do not personally feel that to be the case. Only just recently, we saw a popular priest in the diocese of Newark removed for a tweet where he stood up against the bullying of gays and lesbians (Not even something that Rome is against per say, but apparently considered too close to stuff they are against by a bishop who thinks child abuse is not an offense for which a priest should be removed from ministry). That's a real human being, sticking up for the dignity of other human beings, an ordained priest, who is now without a job and who there is some question about whether he'll be allowed to continue in out the vocation he was called to, educated for, ordained for, and who's earthly job experience all relates to in general.
Bishops and priests who advocate for women in the priesthood are routinely gotten rid of. I remember a priest getting put on sabbatical because he *once* let an Episcopalian priest read the Gospel at a funeral for someone who's family requested it because they had both Roman Catholic and Episcopalian ties and the Episcopalian priest was a friend of the deceased. Oh, and he hired a guy to do some painting who was a former white collar criminal who had done his time and was a member of the parish and who no one else would hire because he had embezzled some funds as an accountant or something many years prior. The priest felt the man deserved a second chance in a role where he wouldn't be handling any money. The priest was put on sabbatical and then sent to a monastery to "reflect" for a while for violating the diocese's hiring policy. Seriously.
I heard him give a great homily when he returned at a different parish in a different role (He had been a pastor of several churches in a community and was then reassigned as a low ranking associate priest in a large parish). He talked about a Church family and how a family is important even when we disagree and welcomed back all the members of the Catholic family members who'd been away and were returning for Christmas. What a wonderful contrast to rigid authoritarian conservative priests who used Christmas of all times as an opportunity to berate people returning to Church for the first time in a long time! He also talked about the human family and the Catholic family and how we are all in it together, and bravely before a rather conservative parish audience at a traditional midnight mass taught on the Catholic social justice teaching that health care is a basic human right. Best homily I've ever heard in a Roman church.
I wonder if that guy is still in the priesthood somewhere. I have a feeling that the Archbishop gave him his walking papers. I thought he was great. Loved dogs.
I have a relative who worked for a very conservative bishop who is very respected by conservatives within the church who actually know him, who was picketed extensively by Randall Terry and his goons because the bishop did not deny communion to pro-choice politicians who were not denied communion by their home parishes. She had trouble getting to and from work because of that guy. Their phones rang off the hook for a weeks or months and they got letters- and let's just say the language from these "Christian" "pro-life" conservatives who were was not very Christian or very respectful of the bishop's office (In the sense of the bishop having an honored position in the church, and in the sense of his physical office building). And the bishop she worked for was not even a liberal or a moderate. Conservatives are getting very intolerant even of their own when they deviate from even the smallest thing.
I mean, how often do Republicans in and outside the Church talk about "Republicans in Name Only" and drive them out of their party for not being conservative enough? Pretty often. The Democratic Presidential primary field may well have two formal Republican officials this time around (Lincoln Chaffee, a former Republican Senator who is the son of another now deceased Republican Senator, and Jim Webb, Naval Secretary under President Reagan). Others have also been driven out as too moderate for the conservative purists after long tenures as Republicans- Arlen Specter had after 30 years as a Republican because he was given no choice by a radicalized Republican primary electorate (I voted for him in the *Democratic* primary for his Senate seat in the next election). In 2008, Charlie Crist was the Republican Governor of Florida with a 70% approval rating and was strongly considered as a Vice-Presidential running mate by John McCain's campaign that year, but at some point he hugged President Obama because I guess they are friends or something, and the conservative attack dogs destroyed him, forcing him to become an independent and eventually a Democrat, basically because he had a Democratic friend who he once hugged on camera. Olympia Snowe, a former Republican Senator from Maine, who was conservative enough that she opposed Obamacare and endorsed Mitt Romney in 2012, though in general a moderate, decided to retire from the Senate because how hyper-partisian the Republican caucus had become (Though she remains a Republican as far as I know). I could go on. Even Susan Collins, a formerly moderate Republican Senator, who stayed in office as Republicans and soldiered on, was forced to start voting for far-right conservative bills consistently to prevent a primary challenge, against her previous principles.
The authoritarians in this country, in and outside the Church, are typically conservative. That doesn't mean all conservatives are authoritarian or that no liberals are. But to see people accuse progressives in general of strong-arming everyone is not in my view fair.
Catholic students at a Catholic college thought a statue was not in keeping with the social justice principles of the Catholic Church and wanted a different statue that they felt was. They might have been right, they might have been wrong, but they weren't strong-arming anyone. They're just students. The administration could have said no. Maybe the administration listened to them and thought they had a point.
There are plenty of ultra-conservative Catholic colleges out there if you want to go to one or send your kids to one. The University of Dallas and Franciscan University in Stuebenville jump to mind. But there are plenty of them. Why can't we have progressive or moderate Catholic universities as well for those students who wish to attend them?
as are all the people (including those in positions of authority) who cower before their self-righteous idiocy
Would you rather take the Kent State approach from the 60s and have police fire on and kill student demonstrators against the Vietnam War? I mean, these kids are standing up for what they believe in in a non-violent way. What's wrong with that? You may disagree with their cause, but it's based on their desire for a more moral world.
