Good-willed Catholics currently exist in many groups. Below are the arguments that WOULD JUSTIFY a Catholic of good will attending any of these groups. There are other arguments, and I don't have all day, but I'm giving a quick sample so you know what I mean:

Conservative Novus Ordo: "We must stay within the authority and framework of the Catholic Church. Obedience is important. Christ promised perpetual successors to St. Peter. I do my best to do and believe everything a Catholic should. I obey my priest, bishop, and Pope unless they are clearly in error, which some of them are at times."

FSSP: "What Conservative Novus Ordo said, but also the New Mass is defective and dangerous at least. We will play it safe and only say the Tridentine Mass and use the Rites that were used before Vatican II. Vatican II was extremely problematic at best. We will train our priests in separate seminaries so they get a fully Traditional or pre-Vatican II formation. We're OK with the new Rites of consecration and ordination, however."

SSPX: "What FSSP said."  <----- Note how useless the SSPX is now, but I digress!

Resistance: "Vatican II is heretical and destructive of souls, and we have 50 years of evidence to prove it. We should stay away from the Modernist contagion, lest we ourselves become infected. It is permitted to disobey a Pope when he steps outside his authority. God expects us to save our souls, and we need the Sacraments to do so. We have the right to cling to the Catholic Faith as it was always taught. We don't need the Pope or anyone else to give us permission to stay Catholic. But we can keep the Faith and pre-Vatican II religion without denying the papacy of the current Pope. Besides, the Pope has been validly elected and universally accepted by the Catholic Church. Also, the idea of a 60 year interregnum (period between popes) is ludicrous."

Sedevacantists: "What Resistance said, except the stuff about the Pope. The Catholic Church can't promulgate a Mass noxious to souls. And what's the point of Our Lord's promise to St. Peter if his successor could actually be harmful to, and dismantle, the Catholic Church? The last several Popes aren't even Catholic, therefore they can't be heads of the Catholic Church. They are heretics. We know heresy when we see it."

Home Aloners: "I stopped going to Mass after 1970 when the Catholic Church embraced Modernism and error. Yes I've heard about so-called "Traditional Catholics" here and there, but they have no authority from the Pope to operate independent churches. They have no authority to say Mass, much less hear confessions or witness marriages. These groups are like cut-off branches not connected to the main tree, which means they are dead. You can't get life (grace) from dead branches. So I stay at home with my Rosary, and live like the Japanese "hidden Christians" praying for God to end this chastisement."

Good summary.

To refresh your memory about what the One Ring is:


At this point I should point out, the analogy isn't perfect, since we're talking about a super evil ring, basically forged by the equivalent of lucifer in Tolkien's fantasy world. "Omnis comparatio claudicat nisi in puncto comparationis." Every comparison limps, except in the point of comparison.

The parts of the analogy I'm seeking to use: the fact that no one can withstand the power of the ring, when the master of the ring is wielding it. The only option is to go along with what it's making you do, or die (go into mortal sin, become of bad will, willfully reject or ignore the truth).

Even the "lesser rings" work in my analogy:

Each of the Trad groups has one (or more!) of these lesser rings, which compel men to follow them (by force of their arguments). The Ring of Papal Authority is one such ring, currently wielded by Conservative Novus Ordo. The Ring of Papal Authority and Tradition is wielded by the FSSP. And so on. The SSPX recently lost its ring, but they seek the Ring of Papal Authority and Tradition. There are lesser rings based on individuals too: the Ring of Archbishop Lefebvre. Treachery caused it to be lost to the SSPX, and now ever since then the Resistance and the SSPX are both dredging rivers as we speak to find this Ring. In the meantime, SSPX and ex-SSPX Catholics are left to their own prudence to decide which group +ABL would support today (SSPX or Resistance). So you see, the power dynamics change over time as Ring ownership changes.

Maybe there are some 3rd level rings, the least and weakest of them, which actually exist in multiple copies! So then we could have "The Ring of the Tridentine Mass" because several groups are using that Ring today to influence and bring in supporters.

But just as in LOTR, if the One Ring entered the scene, it would be all over. The One Ring contains the powers of, and controls, all the others.

At this point I should point out, the analogy isn't perfect, ...

I have been resisting the temptation to throw down the old omnis comparatio claudicat ... before you go too far down the road comparing +Lefebvre to Gandalf and +Williamson to Frodo.  

The parts of the analogy I'm seeking to use: ...

Ah, and this speaks to the end of that phrase I cited earlier:  nisi in puncto comparationis.  Here you lay out that "point of comparison".  It was Bishop Williamson himself at STAS who introduced me to this maxim.  Strange how stuff he taught me sticks in my brain 30 years later.  That's the mark of a good teacher.

No, these are not ridiculous debates, not in the least bit (that's going too far) 

They are ridiculous in the sense that 100% of laypeople and 100% of priests have no theological training whatsoever.  Yet most act like their opinion matters.  They act like it can be figured out.  Even the Trad Bishops have had no normal seminary training, nor any extra training in theology.  Every Trad is self-taught in these areas.  NO Trad has any vocation, nor special calling, nor ecclesiastical permission to write books or articles in any way that comes to a conclusion or a solution.  So what's the point?  There is none, except for a distraction.  

To continue my analogy:

The Catholic Church used to live in peace and unity, under the rule of the Pope, who had the One Ring of St. Peter, forged by Jesus Christ almost 2000 years ago.

But at the end of the last age (which ended in 1970), a great Council was called and many wicked men conspired to take over that Council. They mastered the will of the Council, which decided to throw the One Ring into the molten lava of the nearest volcano and destroy it. This was done. So the One Ring was thus destroyed, and ever since then chaos has reigned.

(Another limping point: the One Ring being destroyed would normally undo not only the creator of the Ring, but all the lesser rings. So the analogy breaks with LOTR there)

Some, like Pope Michael and others, have attempted to forge a new Master ring, but they don't have any power (authority) to pour into it. So although their rings were shiny and even looked like the original Ring of St. Peter in many ways, they didn't do squat. The chaos continued.

??  The FSSP and the new-SSPX aren't Trads - they don't believe the one ring (V2, new mass, modernism) should be destroyed.  

Getting off topic a bit. Normally I do say that the FSSP is technically not Trad, because they deny the basic tenet of the Traditional Movement that we don't need anyone's permission to attend the Tridentine Mass or to stay Catholic. And I've also said that the SSPX is becoming the FSSP. But on the other hand, they are "pseudo-Trad" at least, and many people of good will use these groups for a source of the Sacraments.

So while you're not wrong, I didn't want to argue about the different Trad groups here. I purposely passed over it. My point in this thread is WHAT IT WOULD TAKE to END THE ARGUING :)
Arguing specifics about this or that Trad group is far below the cruising altitude of this thread.