Cuba (country right next to the US) aligned itself with the USSR after Castro’s revolution, and the US has attempted to coup them, invade them, murder their leaders, then sink them in isolation and starvation. I’ve always defended that Cuba had the right of self-determination for their own foreign and domestic policy, and that the US was in the wrong for retaliating against them.

It would be extremely hypocritical of me to defend that Ukraine has no right to self-determine whether they want to be in a defensive pact or not, and whether they want to join the EU or not, just because a third country would like them not to do so - just as it’s extremely hypocritical of tankies and campists to say that Cuba had the right to choose their own future but Ukraine doesn’t.

Thanks a lot for the effort put in your message. It’s going to take me a while to process it all.

I wonder what goes on the minds of the abusers.

One bad day you decide you’re going to commit the rest of your life to God, and reach a compromise to avoid sex forever. Another day, much, much later, you begin having urges, and they get so strong that the idea of abusing a child passes through your mind. If your initial intention of dedicating the rest of your life to God has led you to this point, wouldn’t it be just truer to your initial vocation to renounce your vows so that you can have sex with consenting adults, rather than harming a child?

Then again, the Catholic Church treats abusers better than it treats resigned priests.

That’s disgusting.