“Sure, anyone can criticize, but to be qualified to criticize one needs to understand the issue at hand and have adequate background knowledge.”
As it turns out, there is not certifying body that determines qualifications to criticize. The marketplace of ideas has sharp elbows. Expect it. Expect to be slammed by every other viewpoint. Don’t fear it or be shocked by it.
If something is true, it can withstand any criticism. If it is false, it is better to know that now, if you seek truth. If you seek only to preserve bias, you will not like the process in the marketplace.
Savage is an intelligent guy. I heard his criticism and I believe it was legitimate. The pope was wrong to put forth this idea as true. It is false.
There is no “legitimate” form of theft from some - at the point of a gun - to give to others. It remains theft.
I cannot say what Pope Francis personally thinks. But the Church does not condone socialism, nor does it condone crony capitalism.
My point was not to defend what appears to be an endorsement of some kind of redistributionist policy that's even more egregious than what we have now. My point is exactly what I stated: That Savage should not criticize until he has all the information.
That is not the same thing as saying he is not intelligent. But intelligence alone is not enough - quite a few inside the Beltway and in our finest Universities are intelligent. But look at what they say; what they believe - and what they burden us with as a result. Many of them cannot even control their own emotions. So ‘intelligence’ is not always enough.
Incidentally, I am not attacking Mr. Savage personally either. In fact I have a couple of his books (one nutrition) and listen to him when I can. I do not have an ax to grind with him.