I spent a fair amount of my time in my career trying to protect children. I served on the board of a child advocacy center. I helped supervise a parents anonymous group (the only 12 step group I know of supervised by outsiders).
Yet the recent social media storm on trafficked children struck me wrong. I’ve been trying to write a post.
But Deseret News did the job better than I could.
Read this:
I think it covers it all.
Let me know what you think.
If you need help:
Wheat & Tares 
This sums it up: “QAnon is ramping up and exacerbating unbelievable levels of distrust in society. You need to understand QAnon as a symptom of a hyper-partisan, distrustful society. That’s what generates something like QAnon, it feeds back and contributes to it,”
Our #1 job in society should be to protect the welfare of children. But QAnon is hurting, not helping, that objective. Like pretty much everything else they do. And I say this as a political conservative.
100%. I’ve been really unsettled about how many of my (totally not politically active) Mormon friends have gone CRAZY posting constantly about human trafficking. I’ve talked to a lot of friends (the ones not posting) who feel the same way – like something really weird is going on. It’s like the charity / political cause version of an MLM that preys on Mormons.
Yes, human trafficking is a problem. But it seems like it’s being used to push conservative agendas (everything from building a wall to opposition to masks) and distract from other social issues like Black Lives Matter (which would force us white people to actually self-reflect on our own part in white supremacy and sit in that discomfort rather than just proclaim that trafficking — something we aren’t personally involved in — is bad, which is pretty non-controversial). It’s also pushing a ton of very questionable statistics and fake stories as scare tactics.
So this explanation made total sense to me. I also think someone is getting rich off of this and would not at all be surprised to see scandals break at some point (which of course QAnon will claim are fake news part of a liberal conspiracy …).
Here’s hoping that the Deseret News still has some credibility with conservative-minded Saints.
The Deseret News article fails to mention Tim Ballard (of Operation Underground Railroad), a prominent member of the Church who very likely is involved in promoting this conspiracy to some extent or another. He’s an unrepentant Trump supporter, has advocated for the border wall, and has written a series of books that engage in Mormon speculative history in such a way that scream “conspiracy theorist”. Child sex trafficking is real, but Ballard has vastly overstated the problem to draw attention to himself and his organization (which is under scrutiny for financial mismanagement) and now looks to be using that momentum to fuel a popular movement to undermine rational government. He is not to be trusted.
QAnon is dangerous. It is the mother of all conspiracy theories that seems to bring together all others under a unified banner. I believe we are not only at war against the virus, but in a war against conspiracism, which is eroding our collective ability to be able to reason and make important decisions based on reason. I say this as a long-time Democratic-voting liberal: all conservatives who are against conspiracism and against Trump, we need to build a united front against the lunatic fringe. There is plenty of room for legitimate conversation, debate, and disagreement among reasonable liberals and conservatives. But legitimate debate is simply not remotely possible against the conspiracists. We need a united front to deplatform them and keep them at the fringes of society. If you think that, like Trump, you can one-up the other party or the other side by dalliance with the conspiracists and conspiracism, be warned that they will infest and corrode anything they touch. A select few reasoned and smart conservatives (many of whom have left the Republican Party) know that Trump and conspiracism is a poison and conservatism is already reaping the effects of this.
How does one know whether the evil one is behind a particular movement or individual when the stated goal seems worthy? Answer: it is the methods employed. The methods of our Creator are open and transparent to say nothing about His methods being based on love and freedom of choice without coercion.
Thus it makes no difference as to where a movement resides on the political spectrum in terms of determining its source of power.
Think, what are the methods being implemented? It is a diabolical “trick” when we see what are apparently valid goals (think present day news headlines) that are promoted by ungodly methods.
If you want to hear a comprehensive explanation of QAnon, its disinformation campaign, and who the key players are, this one’s great. It helped explain some of the alarming posts I was seeing from my least informed, most conspiracy-minded conservative FB friends: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdHJhaWdodHdoaXRlYW1lcmljYW5qZXN1cy5wb2RvbWF0aWMuY29tL3JzczIueG1s/episode/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdHJhaWdodHdoaXRlYW1lcmljYW5qZXN1cy5wb2RvbWF0aWMuY29tL2VudHJ5LzIwMjAtMDgtMDRUMTJfMzBfMjktMDdfMDA?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwig8IS7opnrAhXLK80KHQSpCr8QieUEegQICxAH&ep=6
I was talking with some women from my ward, and one of them suddenly blurted “Have you guys heard about Wayfair doing sex trafficking on their website?” Another one burst in with “Oh, yes, it’s just terrible what they’ve been doing.” My pizzagate senses were immediatey triggered and I interrupted with “There’s no way that’s legit. Bullcrap. I will Google it right now.” Within about 10 seconds, I had a page full of articles explaining how this conspiracy theory got legs and why it was false (and ridiculous–who is going to human traffic children to random people who think they are buying a cabinet??) I don’t even know what to say to people who are so ready to gobble up these ludicrous conspiracy theories except “Ya dumb.” I have lost respect for many many people who are so appallingly gullible and incapable of rational thought and skepticism. Just take a beat, people. If it sounds outlandish, maybe it is.
Jack Hughes, can you point me to the details of Ballard’s financial mismanagement? All I’ve seen so far is a post circulating about how they funneled money through the Elizabeth Smart Foundation until they got up and running on their own, and that their budget for personnel rescuing kids in foreign countries is predominantly spent on (wait for it) personnel and foreign travel. Not exactly shocking, so I’m wondering if there’s something else.
I had wondered at the overnight spike in posts about trafficking. The first post I saw was about Tim Ballard losing a large portion of (presumably liberal) donors after supporting the wall, so I assumed this was the backlash to the backlash against him. This makes more sense, though.
This was not a subject I was familiar with. I read Stephen R. Marsh’s post, the Deseret News article he cited, and the comments with great interest. As to Angela C’s comment about people’s willingness to swallow ludicrous conspiracy theories, I offer the following:
1. There’s a sucker born every minute (P T Barnum).
2. It is a pity that God limited man’s percipience, but not his stupidity (Konrad Adenauer, a respected anti-Nazi and West Germany’s first post-war Chancellor)
3. To think that two and two are four,
And neither five nor three,
The heart of man has long been sore,
And like ‘‘tis long to be (A E Housman)
The whole thing is dismaying. Bravo to the people bringing this ugly thing to light.
I find it curious that so many leftists are so eager to discredit the Save the Children movement. I’ve heard many claims that it was born out of opposition to draconian COVID policies and push back to BLM (an avowed Marxist organization) riots. These same people have tried to discredit it by labeling it as a conspiracy theory. Labeling someone or something as a “conspiracy theorist” or “theory” is a convenient way to dismiss them and push what they are saying aside. Successfully labeling something a “conspiracy theory” absolves one of critical thinking and debate and allows them to push the ideas aside because they must be too ridiculous to even discuss. Keep in mind that Jeffrey Epstein’s rape island was once considered a ridiculous ‘conspiracy theory’ that was conjured up in the mind of Alex Jones, now every major news outlet has given at least some level of credence to its existence.
Discrediting Tim Ballard seems equally curious to me, especially from people who support the BLM organization which is unabashedly anti-family and openly Marxist. I haven’t done much research on him, but the goals of the organization certainly seem much more noble than the destruction of the nuclear family, the 1619 revisionist history agenda, and the complete destruction of the Free Enterprise system.
Many of you who have labeled this a “conspiracy theory” have also bought into the Russian Collusion hoax, believe the earth is going to end in 11 years (AOC made the 12 year doomsday statement a year ago), and treat Dr. Fauci’s council as gospel. Hell, if the CDC told you to wear Mickey Mouse ears I’m sure half of you would do it without a second thought. Anyway, I’m not about to be lectured by any leftist about believing outlandish ideas.
Worst case scenario the claims of Q and Save the Children are embellished, but sex trafficking does happen and I’m happy to see it confronted. If there is any cause that people should latch onto I think it should be child protection. I think what worries many people on the left is that this new zeal on the right for combating sex trafficking will be weaponized in the same way the left has weaponized issues of race. I don’t think we should loosely label everyone we disagree with as a ‘pedo’ or even say that they’re complicit with it; we’ve seen how these tactics have worked on the left and it is bad for debate and dialogue. Anyone who has been falsely accused of being racist or supporting racists know that this is a horrible tactic, so it shouldn’t be replicated with child protection advocacy. Ultimately this is a cause that should get bi-partisan support and should not be controversial.
What has caused this sudden vulnerability of the Mormon demographic to crazy conspiracy theories that sort of merge political and religious themes? I’d say the relentless dumbing down of the LDS curriculum has something to do with it. Paired with the steady erosion of rational thinking in LDS discourse, replaced by fideism. We see it in the Gospel Topics essays too, where the LDS apologetics of the 1960s and 1970s, which straightforwardly argued for historicity and actual translation, has been replaced by pragmatic arguments for utility and goodness and emotional feel-goodism. The new version of official LDS apologetics seems to be that it might not be true in the literal or standard sense of the word, but it’s good and useful, so stick with it. Result: The average Mormon will believe almost anything these days.
For those of us who lived through the Benson and Skousen conspiracy theories of the 60s and 70s, this vulnerability of the Mormon demographic is not new or sudden. It seems to have had, however, something of a resurgence in popularity, probably due in part to the factors Dave B. identifies. But it was always there to some degree. I think it is only short series of steps from millenialism to apocalyptic thinking to conspiracy theories and seeing “Gadianton robbers” everywhere — bolstered, of course, by the BoM and rumored prophecies.
Dave B and Wondering are right. There is, at the core of Mormon culture, if not Mormonism itself, a valorization of a kind of uninterrogated credulity combined with a really dangerous paranoia. Coded language such as “become as little children” or “don’t be hard-hearted” or “whether by my own voice or by the voice of my servants it is the same” is designed to keep Mormons in a constant state of being willing to believe even the most outrageous claims the church and scriptures make, which has the secondary effect of rendering them particularly vulnerable to whatever wacko conspiracy theory is peddled by whatever (especially conservative) random websites or other “news” sources they come across.
And as Wondering points out, there’s a lot of personal and political stuff that happens in the B of M and in mid-20th century teachings and conference addresses that leads to a kind of righteous paranoia. Lots of older people in my ward use the default Mormon phrase “secret combinations” to describe anything that makes the hard right in this country nervous. LGBTQ people wanting equal rights? Secret combinations. Barack Obama being elected president (twice)? Secret combinations. Black Lives Matter? Secret combinations. The B of M and Mormonism itself both facilitate and justify the out of hand dismissal of anything that makes conservatives nervous . Add to that the fact that most older members of the church (and my ward) were already adults when President Benson gave his “A Witness and a Warning” conference talk in ’79 and we see that a strong undercurrent of both religious and political paranoia was a part of the church’s program for a long time (and still is, IMHO).
Do y’all think that the concept of the Gadianton Robbers predisposes us to believe in conspiracies?
Oh. I just read the end of Wondering’s comment.
I agree that people can get tangled up in conspiracy theories. Extremism of any kind can be very dangerous. I remember in the 1980s when photos of missing children were printed on milk cartons. As it turned out, most of these kids had been taken away by noncustodial parents rather than by “Stranger Danger.”
But the Book of Mormon warns against dissenters, kingmen, secret combinations and Gadianton Robbers. The violent rioters are today’s version of dissenters in my opinion. They are tacitly supported by mayors and governors who restrict or discourage the police from arresting them. Some mayors and city councils have even voted to defund the police, such as Seattle and Austin.
Elder Bednar recently warned about our religious freedoms being curtailed due to the pandemic and government orders. https://news.byu.edu/faith/elder-bednar-says-pandemic-is-a-wake-up-call-for-religious-freedom
Those of use who are Americans need to remain vigilant and work to uphold the Constitution.
“Some mayors and city councils have even voted to defund the police, such as Seattle and Austin.”
Here is from local Seattle news, King5:
“Budget measures approved Monday will trim about $3 million of the department’s $400 million annual budget this year. The cuts could reduce the police department by up to 100 officers through layoffs and attrition. Seattle has about 1,400 police officers and the reductions fall far short of the 50% cut to the department that many Black Lives Matter protesters were seeking.”
From Texas Tribune:
“Austin City Council votes to cut police department budget by one-third, reinvest money in social services”
Exaggerations and misleading statements like the one you made are the bedrock of the conspiracy theories you claim to oppose, Tom. The city councils’ votes reflect the will of a good number of people in those cities as expressed through protest, which is a constitutional right. It’s democracy in action as far as I can tell. Nothing unconstitutional about protest and reallocating resources.
Movements like this can run both ways. Take Elisa’s comment above,
“Yes, human trafficking is a problem. But it seems like it’s being used to push conservative agendas (everything from building a wall to opposition to masks) and distract from other social issues like Black Lives Matter (which would force us white people to actually self-reflect on our own part in white supremacy and sit in that discomfort rather than just proclaim that trafficking — something we aren’t personally involved in — is bad, which is pretty non-controversial). It’s also pushing a ton of very questionable statistics and fake stories as scare tactics.”
You can change it to read the following from a conservative perspective – it could read
“Yes, police violence is a problem. But it seems like it’s being used to push liberal agendas (everything from defunding the police to reparations) and distract from other social issues like child trafficking and black on black crime (which would force us to actually self-reflect on our own part in systemic child abuse, the sex trade (via pornography), the destruction of the nuclear family (especially those of black families) and sit in that discomfort rather than just proclaim that the police — something many people agree should exist — are bad, which is pretty non-controversial). It’s also pushing a ton of very questionable statistics and fake stories as scare tactics.”
Both sides have their extremes and both sides have their straw men arguments. A lot of this depends on where one lives, the individual’s politics and what one views as the major social issues of the day. For many it is BLM and systemic racism, for others it is abortion and the right to life, for others it is immigration and the lack of stable employment. Just these three issues seem to have extremes on both sides with very little room to be in the middle.
Defunding by any amount has a serious impact on police morale and leads to police officers leaving on their own. Seattle’s current police chief, Carmen Best, is a well respected African-American woman. She just announced her retirement due to the “lack of respect” from the Seattle city council. This is not just about money. City leaders effectively tie the hands of the police to the point that there is little that the police can do to stop the mayhem. Some courts have “zero bail” policies such that those arrested are immediately released. District and state attorneys are declining to prosecute violent protesters in many cases. I live near Seattle. My wife and I participated in a “support the police” rally at Seattle City Hall last Sunday. We were met face-to-face by Antifa people who shouted obscenities at us. They stopped short of physically assaulting us because there were some police officers nearby. This stuff is real. If writing about it makes me a conspiracy nut, then so be it.
Tom, I think there’s a middle ground on the police issues that most of us would agree to, and I would hope that nobody serious about it honestly believes that we should either do nothing to address the systemic problems in policing nor that we should allow violent rioters to infiltrate peaceful protests and go unchecked. Likewise, nobody is in favor of child sex trafficking. The conspiracy theories that are getting passed around claiming that it’s a deep state Hollywood / Democrat Political Machine conspiracy to use pizza restaurants as a front for a huge trafficking ring or other such “deep state” conspiracies, that’s what the Church is cautioning against in the article Stephen posted. Good for them for doing that! I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve seen quite a lot of Church members willing to swallow any crazy theory the GOP throws their way.
As for Bednar’s article on Religious Freedom, what a flaming pile of poorly thought out garbage that was. It was very vague and full of conservative dog whistles that are just pathetic fearmongering. Honestly, he needs someone to keep him in check. It was not well written, nor well thought out.
This topic – conspiracy theories – is the #1 reason I signed up for this site. I have lost sleep over this very topic over the last year or so. To me, the widespread belief in unsubstantiated nefarious views represents a decay of our society and perhaps the church’s social fabric. The beliefs weaken us and distract us from real and important issues.
I found these posts hugely helpful:
(https://wheatandtares.org/2020/05/06/mormons-conspiracy-theories/) by https://wheatandtares.org/author/hawkgrrrl/.
Also, https://wheatandtares.org/2020/07/16/once-there-were-mormons/ by S. Marsh.
These have given me a very helpful perspective and helped me think through what might be current Mormon culture versus an unfortunate dimension of only my active family members’ lives.
I am extremely grateful to those who post on this site. The entries are well-reasoned and compelling. Thank you!
Forgive me if this entry is long, writing it has been therapeutic. My thoughts below.
– JH
I have been deeply concerned about my family members who are active in the church. It seems that over the last 3 to 5 years they have been taken over by a way of thinking that seems, at least to me, way off and unhealthy.
I have not been active in the church for decades. I left in the mid 1970s for various reasons. A major issue was the church not allowing blacks in the priesthood. But the more basic reason is that LDS theology did not click with me at the time. I married and raised kids outside the church. I am in my early 60s now and don’t intend to become active. However, as a result of my own spiritual growth over the years I am, ironically, much more sympathetic with LDS theology. Regardless of my own beliefs, I have always had a warm spot in my heart for the church, church members, and my dozens of active family members.
I was first aware of conspiracy theories in the mid 1980s. A work colleague (non-member) was sure that major government leaders were murderers. He was emphatic but had no evidence. He was what we would now call alt-right. Over the years, I have encountered many others with conspiratorial beliefs on both the right and left ends of pollical spectrum. But the folks on the right have been more persistent in their conspiratorial beliefs. Perhaps this is because their beliefs are so heinous (murder, child trafficking) and difficult to prove/disprove. Those on the left seem to lose interest. Their beliefs have been less heinous and fade away over time (e.g., Bush 2/Trump propping up the stock market). C theory believers I know on the left now seem focused on c theories about 5G causing illness/covid and some QAnon beliefs. But I would say most of my non-member acquittances are just now waking up to the presence of c theories.
I don’t doubt the there are bad actors doing bad things and that child trafficking does, sadly, take place. I know that people lie and cheat.
But the idea that these things are done by cabals, well organized and well hidden, and done by major political figures over long periods of time seems so off.
I am troubled by these elements:
1) The views are based on little evidence and the lack of real evidence is used by believers as an example of just how well managed the cabal is.
2) The believers seem OK to simply to believe that these heinous things take place and not take action. If I believed child trafficking were taking pale at Wayfair, in a pizza parlor, etc., I would not sleep until the relevant law enforcement authorities did something to take care of it or it was disproved. There seems to be too much comfort in assuming that offending parties (Democrats in the QAnon case) are so evil and controlling that it exists but nothing can be done about it. It is as though people are fine giving up their ability to influence outcomes and are sufficiently comforted in the belief that they know the “real story.” Belief is not enough. One must act.
3) My family members who believe in conspiracy theories seem to forget the 9th commandment about bearing false witness and innocence until proven guilty. There is way too much comfort asserting 100% guilt without evidence. They seem to tolerate a big gap between our ideals what they perceive to be taking place.
As you can see, I am very troubled by what I am seeing. I am concerned for my family members. I wonder how to deal with them. I am concerned for the church as it grows and matures. I am concerned for our national society – we have plenty of issues that need our attention more than chasing these monstrous ideas.
The new representatives in Congress who openly believe in QAnon may bring this issue to a head. Perhaps they can find evidence or simply let it go. Although as I write that statement, I see that it might be too optimistic.
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading this. I look forward to hearing comments and different perspectives. Again, I truly appreciate the strong thinking that I see on this site and those who make this happen!
Gilgamesh, There is an assumption in what you say that the progressive, and conservative ideas are of equal value, and that neither has morality on its side. Its just a matter of opinion or taste.
The original post is pointing out that lies are being used to push the conservative agenda, and promote Trump (the world champion liar)
Article 13
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men;
Your last paragraph again says both sides are equivalent. No they are not, because at present most of the lies are coming from the right.
You then list 3 priorities BLM and racism. Is this a real problem that needs addressing YES. Is Trump going to address this helpfully NO
Abortion and the right to life. This is a real problem, but the Republican solution is a lie. Making abortion illegal does not reduce it and republicans policies do not reduce abortions. Democrat policies do reduce abortions
All of the rates below are the number of abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15-44, and come from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Ronald Reagan 1981 – 1989
Abortion rates hovered at 24-23 per every 1,000 women between the ages of 15-44, ending at 24 in 1989.
George H. W. Bush 1989 – 1993
Abortion rates fell from 24 to 23 per every 1,000 women.
Bill Clinton 1993 – 2001
Abortion rates fell from 23 to 16.2 per every 1,000 women.
George W. Bush 2001 – 2009
Abortion rates hovered at about 16 per every 1,000 women for most of Bush’s time in the White House, then dropped from 15.8 in 2008 to 15 in 2009.
Barack Obama 2009 – 2017
Abortion rates plunged from 15 per every 1,000 women in 2009 to 12.5 in 2013, the latest year for which we have data. The abortion rate is now the lowest on record since 1971, two years before Roe v. Wade established a woman’s right to choose. It is also half the rate in 1980.
Immigration and stable employment. Again voting for Trump will not fix this one.
I will add the virus to the moral questions of the day. Had Trump not undermined the scientific advice at every turn, you could have had between 100,000 and 150,000 less deaths. On this one you can count the consequences of your position in American lives.
So you can claim that where you stand on these is not consequential, but on all these issues you raise, the Republican position is a lie and the Democrat position works to help the people.
I would add Universal Healthcare,
And a more equitable distribution of wealth,
And climate change
to the moral problems that the Democrats are offering solutions for, and the Republicans have only lies.
Geoff-Aus – I am not really arguing that both are equal. I am positing that both sides believe their truth is more valid than the other side. That the other side is lying and that their facts are the real and true facts. The priorities were just examples. You go on twitter or other social media and the vitriol of the right and the left is evident. It is hard to find the actual facts because the news media is politicized as well. You can’t trust the government stats because if it comes from a Dem than the right feels they are skewed numbers, if it from the Repubs than the left sees it as skewed. Both sides believe the other side is lying, evil and set to destroy the country, if not the world, When it is mentioned to one side or the other, they tend to respond with, “but my side is merely using rhetoric, the other side is serious.”
So are you unable to find the truth? There are people who factcheck, can you believe them? Do you have a moral responsibility to find the truth?
If in fact one side specializes in lies as I laid out above does it help you choose?
Trump has now tried his birther thing on Harris as he did on Obama, and he will no doubt repeat it. Is it obvious to you it is a lie? Is there a Democrat equivalent?
Is it really that difficult to find truth if you try?
I realise America is incredibly divided after 4 years of Trump.
You seem to be saying thats just how it is. It is your responsibility to use your moral judgement to change the situation.
Tom, the issue is that you need to refine what you say. Compare;
1. “Seattle and Austin city councils voted to defund the police”
2. “Seattle and Austin city councils voted to cut some of the police budget and reduce the number of officers”
The first sounds sensational. The second is less sensational, but a more accurate depiction of what really happened.
As to your other points: are there violent crazies at the protests? Absolutely. Should they be arrested and face charges? Of course. But let’s give this some context. Some 15 to 26 million people participated in the protests, the largest in the US, ever. They were mostly peaceful. But with any protest movement, you’re going to get a minority of bad apples. This protest being on the scale that it was, police departments were overwhelmed. Jails, prisons, courts are all overwhelmed by this. This was an unprecedented and exceptional series of protests. At the end of it, people still have a constitutional right to protest.
To tie this in to the OP. Let’s not get carried away with boiling down complex phenomena into molds that fit our preexisting political, or ideological biases, as you appear to be doing. I almost feel like conservatives love that they George Floyd protests happened because it gives them a chance to appear as more of a victim and to make the liberals look like a bunch of crazies. And it is in the victimhood complex and the caricaturization of the opponent that Trumpian conservatism has derived its power. It feels good to be a victim. Conspiracist circles are the same. They claim everyone is out to get them for telling the truth and then proceed to construct a boogeyman that they attack.
Geoff-Aus
You obviously have your truth, I am seeking for mine but I think this is an argument that I cannot win. I live in a fairly conservative part of California. I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have very liberal friends and very conservative friends. I like them both and recognize that both sides are scared of the future. Some feel their comfortable way of life is being personally attacked and theIr freedoms of speech, assembly, worship and their heritage are all threatened. Others feel they finally have a voice and a seat at the table but their ability to be accepted as an equal are threatened by a regressionary cultural movement in the White House. Both sides have their reasons for their positions , some are valid, some are not. One side fears Communism the other fears Fascism. Both are bad and until each side recognizes that the other is not an enemy and maybe truths are not absolute, we will remain divided. The amazing thing is when we work together and serve our fellow humans together, the politics seem to go by the wayside at least for the time being. Most people don’t want harm to come to others, but they may be willing to cause harm if it in their own defense. When we attack each other as being ignorant, or unable to see truth, or told that a personal beliefS are lies, it stops dialogue and bridge building and causes more division,
Kamala Harris was wonderful when asked about her attacks on Biden in the debates. She reiterated her support of Biden and reminded the interviewer that “it was a debate.” That is what happens at debates. It wasn’t personal but it was a disagreement. Biden’s selection of her as VP proves he is also able to see past those differences. All Republicans and not evil, nor are all Democrats. We have our differences with each other, but we have forgotten that each side consists of Children of God who still have fears, sorrows and hopes and desires.
I’ll bow out of this discussion. It is only causing more division.
Gilgamesh that’s a fair point. One of the craziest things about politics / society right now is an inability to agree on a common set of facts. It’s one thing to disagree about how to solve a particular problem but quite another to feel like we literally live in a different reality than folks on the other side of the aisle, and while you’re right that the news media is really polarizing I think Facebook and other online platforms giving voice and legitimacy to total craziness and putting that craziness on an equal playing field with traditional media outlets is a serious issue. Makes it really really hard to even communicate. FWIW, I generally dislike extremism on either side as I think many issues are nuanced and gray.
In any event, my comment was specific to the sex trafficking obsession I’ve noticed in my LDS friends and my discomfort with that. So that was my example. That said, I’m sure I’m biased here by my own political orientation but I just don’t see *as much* crazy conspiracy theory on the left than I do on the right (and none among Mormons).