Doonesbury Say What

[thewayne]

"I think it's time [the pope] starts to get questioned. Donald Trump takes questions all the time. Nobody gets to ask the pope a single thing. And I think it's time and I would like to offer myself as the person to go interview the pope. I think I'm uniquely qualified. I studied Latin, theology, went to Catholic Church for 12 years."
-- Sean Hannity

And you've been spreading lies and distorting news for 27 years on Fox. You may have studied it, but clearly you didn't absorb it and don't practice it except possibly in a superficial way.

And perhaps the brain-dead POTUS does take questions all the time. He deviates and avoids answering them at all costs, insults those who asks them, and lies to avoid any possibility of accurately answering them. You really can't compare him to the Pope. And if you think you can, then your much further gone than I thought.

I expect people ask the Pope questions on a regular basis. There's a difference between asking a question and questioning the basis of their reasoning, which is what you want to do. You want to ask entrapping questions, "gotchas", to score points with the MAGA base and prop up your boss in the White House. There's no way you want to honestly debate theology because you'd be left a charred pile of ash.

Comments

[warriorsavant]

Politicians are trained and practice to avoid questions, or rather to re-direct them. When I had some very limited media training, one thing we were told is "the questioner owns the question, you own the answer." In other words, feel free to re-direct. Politicians (and other people who answer questions for a living) memorize set phrases to bridge from whatever was asked to what they want to say.

None of which changes the facts you mentioned, but thought I'd throw that out for interest.

[warriorsavant]

Politicians are trained and practice to avoid questions, or rather to re-direct them. When I had some very limited media training, one thing we were told is "the questioner owns the question, you own the answer." In other words, feel free to re-direct. Politicians (and other people who answer questions for a living) memorize set phrases to bridge from whatever was asked to what they want to say.

None of which changes the facts you mentioned, but thought I'd throw that out for interest.

[thewayne]

This is quite true.  I wouldn't have thought he had gotten that training before his first run, but perhaps he had actually built a political org of some sort behind him, or perhaps he naturarlly had some skill at evasion and redirection when being questioned.

[warriorsavant]

Also other figures in the public eye - civil servants, business people, etc. Not all literally “trained,” but often have come to learn, even if informally. As for His Senility, he’s a natural con man, so possibly always had the ability.

[disneydream06]

He's really sinking into dementia fast. :o :o :o
IMHO of course.
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

I doubt Sean is particularly demented, just deluded.  I expect he was just playing to his audience like he usually is.  He knows the Pope would probably never allow a recorded audience with twits like him.

[disneydream06]

I was meaning that Felon destroying the White House is the Dementia one. :o :o :o

[thewayne]

Most certainly.

[silveradept]

While I know that some people would pony up for the PPV fees needed to watch Hannity get destroyed by the Pope, I also note the premise is wrong, and anyone who wants to treat the Pope as primarily a political figure has missed the point even more thoroughly than the current administrator.

[thewayne]

The utter destruction of the wall between church and state so disgusts me.  "Christians" constantly whine how persecuted they are, then turn around and persecute so many truly marginalized classes.  It's just appalling.  The thing that I find amazingly cool is how non-Catholics and even athiests are supporting the Il Papa.  You'd think these idiots could take a hint, but anyone who disagrees with them is automatically a woke enemy.

[silveradept]

It's all very much on a political stage, though. Like, there is a political component to being the Pope, because you have a worldwide dock of Catholics who at least nominally claim to follow your theological and spiritual guidance, and that supposedly has great temporal power that can be raised for specific causes. (There was all that worry that JFK would take orders from the Pope, after all.) But, if everyone is staying in their lane, as it were, then the Pope is always commenting on moral and spiritual matters, and what Catholics should be striving for, according to his interpretation and the history of the Church.

For anyone to see that as primarily political, and as personal attacks against their politics, suggests that they should take a hard look at their politics and see whether or not they're on the right side of morality, or whether they chose to acknowledge the moral authority of the Pope, and many other things.

Introspection, however, is not a part of this group's operating principles, and therefore they lash out at anyone who suggests they might need to do some of it, or that they're wrong.

So it feels like much of the Papal support is based on the fact that the Pope can say what they've wanted to say, but couldn't because of the potential consequences, rather than because they think of the Pope as a moral authority.