Laudato Si'

Pope Francis' encyclical was delivered today, and for the first time ever, I am going to read an entire encyclical on the very day it was delivered, and read it as eagerly as a I would read a newspaper on a sensational day.

There is controversy about the pope treading into politics.

That is either nonsense or mendacity or both.

It was right-wingers who sewed together their Frankenstein monster of climate denial from various parts ripped willy-nilly from the body of science.
It is the politicians who have taken science and turned it into politics.
The fact that obscurantist politicians politicize a topic does not mean we cannot discuss it; it does not mean the pope cannot mention it, nor an imam speak about it, nor a rabbi deal with it.

All the truths of the world cannot be removed from the public forum because some political clown decides to politicize it.

Furthermore, it is quite obvious that when an item X becomes politicized, that means that it CANNOT be talked about at all!
"Politically correct" is a notion that applies to left and right, and it removes a topic from serious discussion. It "Twitter-izes" topics into a group of bits which winnow supporters from objectors, but does not allow serious consideration.

(A proof for this statement resides in the infamous trope that "a real conversation about race in the USA is long overdue."
Heard that one for years.
But it was about race, and we all thought we had pretty good race relations, and it was Twitter-ized into stories about good stuff, and Bumper-ized  (turned into bumper stickers)  into pictures of the Confederate flag.

This state of affairs required a whole lot of people being killed recently.)

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