"Though Michael does not drink — he is a devout Catholic in that way" that's not the Catholicism I'm familiar with! More seriously, before AA, there used to be Catholic retreats, perhaps still are, where alcoholics would dry out, at least for a week or so. But sobriety reform was pretty much taken up by ecumenical AA, even in places where the meeting takes place in a church, even with all Catholic members. So, I'm not sure where that description came from, unless it's a unique understanding of Catholicism created by Michael himself. In America in particular, Temperance and Prohibition itself was associated with Protestantism, publicly and explicitly to address the alcohol use by the Catholic European immigrants. There is a larger problem in the article with presenting Michael as a healthier alternative. He's not. Just somewhere between denial and half-glass optimism, the medium of social media filters the good intentions, gives each video a numerical value for the algorithms, puts it besides Joshua and it's still all part of the Freak Show. BTW it's usually spelled Taekwondo in Roman letters. "Tai" as in the Chinese "Tai Chi" is different language, although they're all affectations when not presented in Korean or Hanzi, so... getting both "Catholicism" and "Tai Kwon Do" wrong, and the pretentiousness of wearing a big crucifix as jewelry, I'm not buying the "holy fool" bit, not for a second. The cure is to get off social media that presents such performances. He can be a "devout Catholic" that way.
Really great piece by Theo, incredibly strong writing, absolutely loved this
All PR is good PR. Get ready for the onslaught....
Voyeurism is a part of the human psyche. We get pleasure in going to the dark side. The internet is a perfect vehicle for this.
"We"????
"Though Michael does not drink — he is a devout Catholic in that way" that's not the Catholicism I'm familiar with! More seriously, before AA, there used to be Catholic retreats, perhaps still are, where alcoholics would dry out, at least for a week or so. But sobriety reform was pretty much taken up by ecumenical AA, even in places where the meeting takes place in a church, even with all Catholic members. So, I'm not sure where that description came from, unless it's a unique understanding of Catholicism created by Michael himself. In America in particular, Temperance and Prohibition itself was associated with Protestantism, publicly and explicitly to address the alcohol use by the Catholic European immigrants. There is a larger problem in the article with presenting Michael as a healthier alternative. He's not. Just somewhere between denial and half-glass optimism, the medium of social media filters the good intentions, gives each video a numerical value for the algorithms, puts it besides Joshua and it's still all part of the Freak Show. BTW it's usually spelled Taekwondo in Roman letters. "Tai" as in the Chinese "Tai Chi" is different language, although they're all affectations when not presented in Korean or Hanzi, so... getting both "Catholicism" and "Tai Kwon Do" wrong, and the pretentiousness of wearing a big crucifix as jewelry, I'm not buying the "holy fool" bit, not for a second. The cure is to get off social media that presents such performances. He can be a "devout Catholic" that way.
I loved this
Thank you. I found this piece very interesting.