User blog comment:AveryWood/Reasons Why Going With the Empire is Better/@comment-1840877-20120819104842

Agreed on everything you said. The real irony about the Talos situation is that the Empire wouldn't have had to enforce the ban so strictly if Ulfric and his "sons of Skyrim" hadn't started waxing lyrical about it. Before that, most Nords still worshiped Talos in secret.