I just have a tendency to get upset when people try to play like the N O is somehow an inferior mass and then appeal to "tradition" as if "tradition" in and of itself is a reason to do something rather than something being traditional because it has been proven to work. Like for instance: traditional marriage is between a man and a woman because that's how children are produced and that has been the building block of successful societies for centuries. Marriage is not between a man and a woman specifically because it's traditional.
What people don't understand is that the post Vatican II mass is my tradition. It is the only one I know, it is how I received all of the sacraments and as I said before "It was good enough for Pope St. John Paul II and Mother Theresa, so it's good enough for all of us". When I think of going to traditional Christmas eve or Easter mass, I think of an N O mass. I don't think of TLM at all, because I was not raised with that being the tradition so it bothers me when people try to insinuate that the masses that I go to, the only ones that I am offered, are somehow "not as valid". Many of these people, in my experience, have also tried to argue that Pope St. John Paul II wasn't a "real pope" because they believe in something called sedevacantism... the incorrect idea that all of the popes after John XXIII have been illegitimate popes because these people don't recognize the legitimacy of Vatican II, which is the church that I was born and baptized into. These people effectively are arguing that I've never received the sacraments and that my baptism isn't legitimate, and that hurts, so I tend to get all full of vinegar about it.
I've had it out with people in my generation on Reddit and Facebook before over this very issue, and these people tend to share a few common traits: they're all my age, they all converted in their late 20s or early 30s, they boast about smoking cigars and drinking expensive beer, and they gravitate to the TLM specifically because they have a secular sociopolitical project that they are trying to advance and (incorrectly) think that the Church is "fertile ground" for advancing such a project. The specific people I am talking about (nobody here) are pharisaic in nature and like to throw it in everyone's face that they only attend TLM because it's "the only true, valid mass" and they like to pretend that this somehow makes them "better" Catholics and more virtuous than those of us who do not have the luxury of attending TLM because our diocese does not offer it.
Maybe I shouldn't let these things bother me the way I do, but seeing as I vociferously defended the church even when I wasn't actively practicing my faith, it really gets under my skin to have to deal with people who hold to that belief and thus, try to not only invalidate my confirmation, holy communion, and baptism; but the very legitimacy of my birth! (My parents were not married in a Latin rite ceremony) So maybe I should be more gracious with people, but I just take offense to the entire notion because I love the mass as I have experienced it my entire life. It has always been the castle that I can run to when the pressures of the secular world and secular life are weighing down on me and I don't appreciate uppity millennial converts who try and tear it down for me.
And again, I'll state that I have no problem with the TLM. How could I? I've never been to one. It's just the attitudes of superiority and smugness that a lot of people who exclusively go to TLM, especially those who are not cradle Catholics, cultivate that bothers me. But I guess I won't have to worry about it anymore, since my diocese will definitely not be offering TLM in light of today's ruling.
