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It's too soon to judge through the lens of history. We're very much still living through this thing. It's far from over. WAY too soon to call winners and losers.

If anything, I'd have to call +W the winner because he was prepared -- and preparing us -- for something like the COVID totalitarian lockdowns. It's harder to shut down Mass and the Sacraments when you're the SSPX, than when you're "a loose network of independent priests" that arranges Mass by word of mouth only. And frankly, I think the next 10 years will look a lot more like 2020, than they will look like any previous year. 2020 is a taste of things to come.

There is a prominent cleric who felt as you did: Fr. Joseph Pfeiffer. We all know how THAT ended up. He wanted SSPX II so bad he could taste it. He even attempted to get himself consecrated by a random Thuc bishop. Is his cult flourishing? I don't think so. Ordaining (even worse: "ordaining") unfit, untrained, or poorly trained men to the priesthood CAN'T end well. That much we CAN conclude from long-ago history.

The main limiting factor in the Resistance is the priest shortage. There haven't been any defections from the SSPX in coon's years, especially since the Neo-SSPX learned their lessons from Vatican II -- and 2012 -- and transferred Fr. Rostand and totally changed tactics. "No more persecutions. No more martyrs. No more defections" was the order of the day.

The problem with Pfeiffer isn’t what he thought, but how he reacted to not getting his way.

Theres a Resistance priest shortage because nobody sees a future in an independent, slowly dissolving Resistance.

There are no priests because Bishop Williamson told some not to join, didn’t want seminaries, and declared he didn’t want to grow a large Resistance.

Those are facts.

By the time we got seminaries 3+ years later, it was too late.  Priests fell in love with independence, and those who made Resistance lists in 2012 haven’t been heard from in 7-8+ years.

Of course, no advertising, publicity, active apostolate (eg., conferences, websites, newsletters, etc) were all part of the strategy of not growing.

Where Pfeiffer/Hewko went wrong is to accuse WILLIAMSON of working for Fellay/Rome with all these self-destructive policies.  They were wrong: It was just a combination of Williamson not being comfortable starting a congregation without canonical approval, on the one hand, and his “end is near “ perspective which made/makes apostolic activity pointless, on the other.

But what I refuse to believe is that the Resistance disintegrated because today, there just aren’t any vocations or that integral Catholicism holds no appeal.  

It’s no criticism to say the Resistance ended up the way it’s leaders wanted it to.  Just plain history.

Part of the problem with your take on this is you’re too prone to enemy propaganda, and by that I mean XavierXem’s click bait.

I don’t think you have picked up on the mood in the Neo-SSPX, but a lot of their parishioners want out. I think if we had a differrent environment than the current one, there would have been more open clashes between the priests and the laity over the jab. So many are now praying for a new Traditional Catholic order of priests to come, especially after the SSPX’s response to Covid.

With regard to the lack priests, I think the inability of many of the French priests to join in 2012 was similar to Trump’s loss to pretender Chernenko II and 1/6. See also the physical similarity of Klaus Schwab to Fr. Pfluger.

I was already talking about these issues being problematic in 2015-2016, so not sure what the relevance of XS is.  

 As far as there being “a mood” in the SSPX about their jab position, I’m not aware of them having lost a single priest in opposition to it, and even if they had, coming to the Resistance over that issue would be a dilution of the Resistance, since they apparently would not be opposed to an accord with unconverted Rome.

That aside, I do not detect any great dissatisfaction of SSPXers in the pews as a result of the jab position: 90% of them will go wherever they’re led.

That aside, I do not detect any great dissatisfaction of SSPXers in the pews as a result of the jab position: 90% of them will go wherever they’re led.

It is the indifferent SSPX priest who say nothing or even worse say it is OK to get the jab. It is the indifferent SSPXers who get the jab. It is no different that the 1960's and look at what followed.