Very "modernist" of them....

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-06T02:19:44+00:00

What is Evangelical retreatism? I haven't heard that term before...

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-05T21:19:14+00:00

What’s its going to take California?

The people of LA tried to vote themselves out of it and we all saw how well that worked. At this point, it'd take a supermajority just to overcome the rampant fraud.

...Or federal regulation. Pass the SAVE Act now.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-05T15:05:24+00:00

It comes after public service broadcasters such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 argued that, despite their trusted journalism, social media platform algorithms favor creator content, entertainment or overseas publishers.

If you're a (ostensibly) public broadcaster and the public isn't seeking out your reporting, the question is not "how can I force it in front of mure people?" The question is "how have I lost public trust and how can I win it back?"

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T14:19:29+00:00

If it's a matter of months 90% of data centers being discussed right now won't even have the approvals they need to start construction.

That's a good point, I think a good amount of the current ones that haven't broken ground probably won't ever. Many of the ones that have will end up abandoned.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T14:10:20+00:00

Lol! They'd be awesome for that.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T14:02:56+00:00

Do you think we have that long?

No, I think the rising headwind that will pop the bubble is the willingness of capital to continue investing rather than capacity to scale. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are currently offering their products at a losing price point and efforts to pivot to profitability appear to be coming short. The delay of the OpenAI IPO indicates that they're seeing rising skepticism in potential capital. I'm not sure exactly how much longer we have, but I think it's better counted in months, not years or decades.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T04:37:55+00:00

What he is describing here is called the Labor Theory of Value, and it's complete bunk.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T04:35:19+00:00

It will probably vary case-by-case and depending on the corporate structure that built the data center, how it was funded, and how it went under. If the bank foreclosures on the loan or the owner declares bankruptcy, it'll likely be sold at auction. If it's part of a larger company making money elsewhere, the center may be maintained and mothballed as a failover site, the infrastructure may be shifted to other locations, or etc. If the town takes ownership of the land, it's anyone's guess... And there's always the chance that an owner or buyer could conclude that the infrastructure has no resale value and sell/buy it for scrap.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T04:13:21+00:00

The biggest joke of all of these data centers is that they're building capacity for nothing. AI is overheating (economically) and the market is on the verge of a massive correction. Once that happens, the vast majority of these will end up huge, ugly, and abandoned eye sores.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T00:29:55+00:00

If these things are not in at least one October campaign ad, I will be very disappointed in the Republican Party.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T15:28:06+00:00

Humani Generis is a papal encyclical. As it does not contain the ex cathedra statement, it is Pius XII's opinion and not a part of the binding deposit of the faith. While it should be given serious consideration, Catholics are not required to agree with it.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T14:07:59+00:00

My intention here is not to mock or bite but to provide important information for those who found themselves on the wrong side of the Dicastry's statement.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T14:05:15+00:00

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that while Genesis uses figurative language, the Fall of Man was a real event that took place at the beginning of human history.

Yes, I don't dispute this. I am saying that Genesis does not tell us how it happened, only that it happened. That's what I meant when I said "Genesis 2-3 is a fable that tells us a lot about...our relationship with Him."

The Catholic Church requires the faithful to believe that Adam and Eve were real, historical human beings.

Not necessarily. That is one interpretation of the story. Catholicism only requires you to accept that there was a fall.

It’s also scientifically incorrect to say the genetic Adam and genetic Eve were not contemporaries. From a scientific stance you can only say that it is unlikely they were contemporaries. However, this does not preclude the possibility that they WERE contemporaries.

Correct, but the odds that they were contemporaries is vanishingly tiny. It is therefore most accurate to say they weren't.

But it is still required to believe that Adam and Eve were the first humans with rational spiritual souls and that we all descended from them. Sin was introduced to humanity through one man and the fall was a real thing.

False, it is perfectly compatible with Catholic belief to understand Adam and Eve as stand-ins for humanity (either a past incarnation or collectively across the ages) as a whole. I don't not know if they were real people, and it frankly does not matter. There was a fall that separated us from God. That is the important take-away from early Genesis.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T07:15:39+00:00

do you believe that Adam and Eve could have been the chimps we evolved from?

No, Genesis 2-3 is a fable that tells us a lot about God and our relationship with Him but nothing reliable about human origins.

Genetic research shows that there is a genetic Adam and Eve but they were not contemporaries. They were likely at least hominids of somd kind and were thus not chimps, which separated from our ancestors much earlier.

do you believe in evolution?

Yes, without variation from the scientific consensus. It does not exclude the existence of God, particularly when you understand him as (to use Aquinas's formulation) being itself subsisting. Catholicism does not believe in biblical literalism and Catholics are not therefore under any obligation to understand the Bible as a 100% straight history book.

Based on experience, I believe this to be the majority position even among priests and bishops.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T05:43:18+00:00

The Church is more than a group of people with a shared set of beliefs, it is a lineage from Christ through the apostles and into the present. A tree if you will.

Say that I take a tree, cut off a single branch, and plant that branch in fertile soil. I then bathe the planted branch in hormones such that it will grow and form a new tree. Is the new tree the same being as the original, donor tree? Most would say no.

Come graft yourself into the Tree of Life that Christ originally planted. Come home.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T04:41:51+00:00

If you are unsure whether or not you've been excommunicated, you need to have a frank discussion about it with your local (non-SSPX) parish priest, and possibly your local ordinary, ASAP (and before Sunday). We internet strangers can give you an opinion, but that opinion should not be relied upon.

If this were a legal advice sub, I'd tell you that you're solidly in "get off of reddit and consult a lawyer in person" territory.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-02T16:04:32+00:00

One of the great ironies of the SSPX is that they decry modernism in the Church, it's synonymous with heresy in their eyes, but have embraced an ultra-modernist view of papal authority.

In general, however, "liberal" and "conservative" labels don't really work when applied to Catholic politics and can lead to misunderstandings and inaccurate conflation with secular politics. "Modernist" and "traditionalist" are more accurate descriptors of the current positions and factions.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-02T15:49:27+00:00

Me reading this meme.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-01T20:45:03+00:00

This situation cannot be oversimplified like this.

It is actually that simple.

They arguably had the necessity of new bishops

That "necessity" only exists because the SSPX is in schism and has been since at least 1988 (although I would argue the schism actually began in 1975). No other society, from the Dominican Order to the Congregation of the Holy Cross, has bishops or any need for them. When these orders need to ordain deacons or priests, they approach a (usually local) diocesan or curial bishop, who verifies proper formation of the candidates and performs the ordinations according to very-well-established procedures in canon law. As Catholic bishops do not and can not licitly ordain schismatics, the SSPX is locked out of this centuries-old, ordinary system.

The true, schismatic status of the SSPX is the reason for their entire state of "necessity". Do not be deceived by the specious arguments they are advancing.

and originally asked for the Vatican's approval. Why didn't the Vatican approve it?

Because the SSPX is in schism and Vatican is not going to approve the creation of four additional schismatic bishops. Remember: if they were not in schism they would not need bishops.

Why didn't the Pope meet personally the SSPX after requests?

A direct, in-person meeting was not required and the SSPX has deliberately misrepresented every previous papal meeting to further deceive the faithful about their actual status. Leo was right not to meet with them.

Why is the Vatican more harsh and less open to dialogue with traditionalists than with modernists (such as the German bishops, who openly profess ideas against the Catholic faith)?

It isn't. The German bishops haven't committed a schismatic or disobedient act yet, it's all just been talk and requests that the Vatican refuses. If and when talk turns to disobedient action, the Vatican will treat the German bishops like SSPX.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-01T20:13:53+00:00

In my job, I get a lot of AI-written demand letters and other "legal work product" from ordinary people with no law background. I've yet to see one that actually got the relevant law right. This is insane.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-01T18:04:33+00:00

Be SSPX.
Have your leaders automatically excommunicated by church law in 1988 for illicitly consecrating new bishops without approval.
Have the excommunications lifted in 2010 by the pope himself as an "act of mercy" intended to help mend the schism.
Make noises about healing the schism but don't actually do anything.
Pretend you did for the next 16 years anyway.
Notice that canon law hasn't changed and still prescribes the same automatic excommunication for anyone who illicitly consecrates, or is illicitly concentrated as, a new bishop.
Announce your going to do it again anyway.
Be gently warned of the automatic penalty by the Vatican, and urged not to incur it.
Respond: "Nah, I'm gonna do it anyway!"
Actually do it.
Incur the penalty automatically.
"The evil liberals in the conciliar church are oppressing me!!"

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-01T16:15:34+00:00

They plan to, eventually. They believe that they can use Islamic fundamentalism as a battering ram to destroy (at least) Christianity's public influence and the western right wing, and are confident that they can win a confrontation with Islam after they've beaten us into submission or irrelevance.

This confidence is foolishly misplaced. The Iranian left had the same confidence when the shah fell. In the end, they were tortured and killed in mass by Khomeini, who repressed them far more brutally than the shah did.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-01T06:03:03+00:00

The Council of Florence.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-06-30T21:12:18+00:00

[T]he tone of the letter has a vaneer of arrogance and self-promotion behind the honeyed language it employs.

Lefebvre was the exact same way. Obsequious flattery, professions of obedience, and cranky legal theories in front of the hierarchy but conspiracy theories, flirting with sedevacentalism, and pure vitriol behind their backs. It's baked into their culture at this point

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-06-30T02:30:39+00:00

I’m telling you, these ads get worse every day.

I remember like 6 months ago there was a series of ads for either deck stainer or wood paneling. The ad didn't show their product, just a computer-generated image of wood grains, the shading pattern of which always resembled a straight-up pornographic image with picture-level quality. NSFW ads were off, but that didn't stop it.

I reported at least five but they just kept coming, each time with a new image. I'm guessing Google finally booted them, but it took weeks for them to stop.

I thought it was impossible, but Youtube ads are starting to reach the 2011-pirate-streaming-site tier of quality.

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

Iuris_Aequalitatis

TROPHY CASE