Even if you take the most notorious examples, the Borgias, they did actually believe in the religion.
That may very well be true but it doesn't change the fact that the clerical caste purposefully used its position to amass vast wealth to live in luxury while the peasants starved. Their belief that it was their divine right doesn't make it any better. It makes no difference. The Church has always been deeply corrupt.
I don't think anyone actually believes that "hate speech" leads to mass murder.
They do. Otherwise they'd have no reason to be so fanatical about it. The people in charge don't think it leads to genocide but they are painfully aware that it'll inevitably lead to their demise.
save the soul of the so called heretic
Which in the end amounted to forcing everyone to bow down to their authority by threat of violence, torture and death. Believing you're doing the right thing doesn't make your actions any less despicable.
I see that as being quite different from modern wokeists, where the cruelty often is the point.
Cruelty isn't often the point. Cruelty is usually a means to an end. The January 6th prosecutions are meant as a deterrent. To terrorize everyone into towing the line. Just like the Church ruled through fear so does the current establishment. Doesn't matter if it is the fear of earthly punishment, divine punishment, nuclear armageddon, the next made up pandemic or the rise of the next iteration of everyone's favorite boogeyman Hitler.
Fear and terror is incredibly effective at stopping people from thinking for themselves. Let's take the Red Terror in Russia as an example. If the Russians had actually resisted and started communist terror squads every chance they got instead of cowering in fear despite vastly outnumbering them the communists could have never succeeded.
That may very well be true but it doesn't change the fact that the clerical caste purposefully used its position to amass vast wealth to live in luxury while the peasants starved. Their belief that it was their divine right doesn't make it any better. It makes no difference. The Church has always been deeply corrupt.
They do. Otherwise they'd have no reason to be so fanatical about it. The people in charge don't think it leads to genocide but they are painfully aware that it'll inevitably lead to their demise.
Which in the end amounted to forcing everyone to bow down to their authority by threat of violence, torture and death. Believing you're doing the right thing doesn't make your actions any less despicable.
Cruelty isn't often the point. Cruelty is usually a means to an end. The January 6th prosecutions are meant as a deterrent. To terrorize everyone into towing the line. Just like the Church ruled through fear so does the current establishment. Doesn't matter if it is the fear of earthly punishment, divine punishment, nuclear armageddon, the next made up pandemic or the rise of the next iteration of everyone's favorite boogeyman Hitler.
Fear and terror is incredibly effective at stopping people from thinking for themselves. Let's take the Red Terror in Russia as an example. If the Russians had actually resisted and started communist terror squads every chance they got instead of cowering in fear despite vastly outnumbering them the communists could have never succeeded.