Of course not. I attempt (and fail I'm sure) to talk as someone from the outside looking in. But your comment "The fact he's unopposed to it is the problem, from the point of view of the average White Council member." sounds like you're speaking as an authority on what a council member believes.
The point was, you're countering my point by trying to say since I'm not a White Council member, I can't say their point of view ... and then you expound on what their point of view would be.
I'm mainly talking from what we know about wizards and what we know about humanity in general. Humans generally don't like the idea that there's someone allowed to do something they're not, especially when that thing they're not, they're told it's wrong for anyone to do ever and will be put to death by doing it.
I mean, remember how unfair it felt when your younger sibling got away with something you'd gotten spanked for when you did it? Like that, up to 11.
Depends who you ask. Some people were paranoid, some people like it because they don't mind giving up privacy (that nobody will pay attention to) with the hope that it can stop major terrorist attacks.
I remember it being far more of the former, and a hell of a lot of outrage about it.
Yes because it happens everyday in real life. The Russian people love Putin. Polls have his support as incredibly high in Russia. He worked for the KGB, and is connected to reporters, and political opponents being murdered. If he wants someone dead in that country, they will be. The people still love him though because they think he's got their best interest at heart, and that he wants Russia to be strong again. Doesn't matter if they are right, or wrong, it's what they believe. Do some people fear him? You can be sure, but Russia as a whole loves him.
I'm wondering how close real-world politics are to touchy topics, but I kinda want a citation needed here.
See that's what I'm talking about with you speaking from the perspective of a member of the White Council. We as readers don't know this. If you have WOJ, or in book information that i don't recall I'd like to read it. But I don't recall there ever really being much information about what anyone on the Council knows.
The whole point of the position is to be a secret. The White Council isn't supposed to have someone who can break the laws, since the organization as a whole exists primarily to enforce the laws. I'm just using plain logic here. You don't need WOJ or in-book confirmation to extrapolate that the White Council's majority doesn't know all the intimate details of a position that's not supposed to officially exist.
It's like saying I need some kind of written proof to argue that the average American doesn't have the IDs and mission reports of still-classified black ops missions.
All I know is that Langtry, LtW, Gatekeeper, and Martha Liberty are people with different personalities, and beliefs, highly intelligent, and people of character from what I can tell, and none of them have come out openly about their opposition to the Blackstaff. LtW, Gatekeeper, and Liberty to me are the best examples to me.
Because it's a secret position that's not supposed to exist. They don't acknowledge it exists in any official capacity. That they don't "oppose" something they're not supposed to let on that they know about doesn't mean anything.
His position grants him immunity to the rules only for as long as the Council allows it. That's what I think you're missing. If the majority of Council members felt he was abusing his position, he'd be gone. He's not some god that can just do whatever he wants forever. You can be sure if Langtry thought Eb was abusing his position, he'd need only a few more people to support his position and McCoy would be gone.
And what constitutes "abusing his position"? The position that's not supposed to exist, again.
What it still boils down to is an assassin who's allowed to break the rules everyone else must abide by under penalty of death, it's a secret position with no official oversight, allowed to work at the assassin's choices and discretion using any methods he deems fit against whatever targets he deems necessary to snuff out (or worse -- remember, he's allowed to break
all the laws. If Ebenezer decides enthralling, transforming or mind-blanking a target is the right way, he'll do it).
When you don't know that Ebenezer is an honorable man who is primarily driven to uphold the laws, that kind of thing is terrifying, not comforting.