Reference this thread:
http://www.cathinfo.com/catholic.php/Fr-Le-Roux-propagandaAs far as I know, the main evil of the Internet is when you go into the Internet's "red light districts".
But what about the countless traditional Catholics who don't have problems with pornography? What about Mike the Trad who has a wife and family, who uses the Internet to check the weather, read the news, keep in touch by e-mail, maybe have a facebook page, order household goods on Amazon.com, maybe buy or sell some used stuff on eBay or Craigslist (waste not, want not = frugality), etc.
Or, more to the point, what if Mike the Trad lives somewhere outside St. Mary's, KS and wants to talk with other Trads on discussion boards about Catholic issues of the day?
Yes, forums are excessively democratic (If both "pope" Michael and Bishop Williamson signed up for an account on CathInfo, they would each have the same kind of account, and their posts would be considered "equals", etc.) and that is a bad thing. But on the other hand, avoiding them means that Catholics will be starved for friendship, and will de-facto end up making friends with non-Catholics and heretics.
How is that better? Who is the SSPX to make such a far-reaching and important ruling?Then there are John, Luke, and Matt who earn their living from computers and the Internet. They don't even live in the same state as their employers (or should I say, "clients", since they're not actual employees). How many careers are feasible these days? A large portion of traditional Catholics are going to take the safe road of Information Technology. IT jobs are quite attractive: Besides being well-paying, numerous and neutral to the Faith, they also allow a man to live in the country where land is cheap (or in a mecca like St. Marys) while still earning a good living.
Since when does the Church have an opinion on Wide Area Networks or network connectivity? What does the Church care about what DNS servers you configure your PC to use?
Call me jaded, but as a long-time Internet user and computer programmer, the Internet has no "magic" for me. I understand it too well and too deeply. It's all just a bunch of computers connected on a network. I also know just how limited Google's knowledge is.
It's all about what websites you load on that PC, and what human (moral) actions follow. The Ten Commandments apply in every place: work, school, home, letters, books, or online.
Is the Internet really the "biggest fish" the SSPX needs to fry right now? Or is it because the Internet is bypassing and nullifying their propaganda machine? They'd like to be the only source, so they can feed the sheep whatever genetically-engineered forage they decide. If they want to put antibiotics in the feed, they want to make sure each sheep gets his dose. They don't want the sheep free-ranging on a natural pasture, because then they can't control them as closely.
True, the Internet is full of distractions (think: Youtube) but a person without discipline on the Internet will also be without discipline IRL. So "tossing the Internet" would achieve nothing.
TV, on the other hand, is different. Content for the TV is only produced by multi-million dollar corporations, which creates a "gatekeeper" scenario that only certain scripts get produced into movies. A group of devout Catholics won't be able to produce even one movie, whereas a small group of Jєωs will be able to produce 99% of the movies/TV that we watch. American movies aren't full of propaganda; they ARE propaganda. So by "tossing the TV" you can eliminate this source of brainwashing for yourselves and your children.
But are Internet and TV the reason the next generation of Trads won't be Trads for long? No, at least that isn't the only issue. What about public school? What about the friends they hang out with? What about visiting occasions of sin? What about stark patterns of general worldliness, even if sin is barely skirted in each given instance?
If the SSPX is going to concern itself with the details of lay life, they should address important things like family togetherness -- the wife staying home, how to be frugal so this is possible, home schooling, and other related topics. They might address the Debt Money system, so Catholics understand how the world works (so they can better fight it). The topics of training children for adulthood and career education should be brought up often.