The Pope, the Cult, and the Circus

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I'm trying to be careful here, but it's really hard for me to say this in a way that won't seem brutish. It's been known for a while now that Pope Francis was very sick, and I’d like to understand why it was so important for Vice President JD Vance to get his photo op.

Listen, I'm not saying Vance is responsible for the Pope's death—but I can very easily imagine that Francis initially declined the meeting because he felt absolutely terrible. But I'm sure they insisted, like those girl scouts that always make me buy cookies, until he caved. Still, that’s not even what upsets me most.

To say I'm disgusted by how some of the MAGA talking heads are reacting to the Pope's death doesn't cut it. I certainly did not have on my 2025 bingo card that Marjorie Taylor Greene would accuse the Pope of being evil and declare that it was God who struck him down. And yet, here we are.

You see...

I've been accused more than once of falling for liberal propaganda. The assumption seems to be that I binge-watch CNN and sleep under a giant poster of Rachel Maddow. Of course, that couldn’t be further from the truth—but “truth” seems to be a word everyone redefines on a daily basis.

These so-called conservatives love to say my hatred for Trump is built on lies. That my rejection of Christian Nationalism comes from a misunderstanding of the ideology. And that when I call them a cult, I'm just being lazy. But days like today prove them wrong on every single bullet point.

I'm reminded of a fun little fact I learned a few months ago: apparently, there's this evangelical leader named Russell Moore who was rejected by the very conservative Christians he served—because he had the audacity to quote “liberal talking points” in his sermons.

• “Turn the other cheek.”
• “Be kind to strangers.”

Liberal garbage.

Being too much like Jesus, they say, makes you weak. Honestly, I don't even know how to respond to that. Maybe my alleged CNN programming prevents me from doing so. Or maybe talking to a wall would be more productive than trying to refute this hateful, hollow rhetoric.

But alas, tomorrow the sun will rise. The MAGAs will find a new reason to be angry, and post fresh rage-bait all over the internet to earn their “honest” living.

In a week, they'll forget about the Pope and his untimely death, and shift their outrage to a new scapegoat. Or maybe they’ll rotate in one of the classics—Soros, Gates, pick your demon.

The worst part?
It hasn't even been a hundred days.

MenO