#exmo — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #exmo, aggregated by home.social.
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@eff/117094943414263877
As someone raised #Mormon #LDS #TCOJCOLDS, I agree. In #Utah, it's more than a church. It's a culture. It's even got a lot of power in our politics. Now, #ExMo #ExMormon, how can I self-identify if I can't name that cultural norm?
In Utah, when you say "the church", everyone knows which one you're talking about and it ain't Catholic. In fact, there were "I am a Mormon" ad campaigns around the time of the #2002Olympics. Then the last president of the church tried to take back the "Mormon" name and change our culture to say it was offensive and even a slur, but too little too late, my guy. Very few but him felt that way. Many tried to change their language to obey the religious leader, but "Mormon" is still in common use.
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@eff/117094943414263877
As someone raised #Mormon #LDS #TCOJCOLDS, I agree. In #Utah, it's more than a church. It's a culture. It's even got a lot of power in our politics. Now, #ExMo #ExMormon, how can I self-identify if I can't name that cultural norm?
In Utah, when you say "the church", everyone knows which one you're talking about and it ain't Catholic. In fact, there were "I am a Mormon" ad campaigns around the time of the #2002Olympics. Then the last president of the church tried to take back the "Mormon" name and change our culture to say it was offensive and even a slur, but too little too late, my guy. Very few but him felt that way. Many tried to change their language to obey the religious leader, but "Mormon" is still in common use.
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Remember what I was saying the other day about your niggling feelings? Those things that everyone else seems to never question but you?
It feels like pressure because it is.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2026/08/11/fewer-students-are-marrying-lds/
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Remember what I was saying the other day about your niggling feelings? Those things that everyone else seems to never question but you?
It feels like pressure because it is.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2026/08/11/fewer-students-are-marrying-lds/
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@emptywheel.bsky.social I feel like it should say, Politics, Purity Culture, & The Patriarchy- not powerlessness. I left the Mormon church for all of those reasons, but also- because it's not true! 😆 #exmo #exmormon #exLDS
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@emptywheel.bsky.social I feel like it should say, Politics, Purity Culture, & The Patriarchy- not powerlessness. I left the Mormon church for all of those reasons, but also- because it's not true! 😆 #exmo #exmormon #exLDS
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Two @sltrib @sltrib.com stories in my @newsblur RSS reader.
Shot. Chaser.
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Two @sltrib @sltrib.com stories in my @newsblur RSS reader.
Shot. Chaser.
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Everybody's excited to get to the torture scenes in the film version of this wholesome religious story.
(No shade on Mormon Land. They're just reporting, and their podcast is somewhat nuanced.)
#exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #ReligiousTrauma #DeathCult
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Everybody's excited to get to the torture scenes in the film version of this wholesome religious story.
(No shade on Mormon Land. They're just reporting, and their podcast is somewhat nuanced.)
#exmo #exmormon #exvie #exvangelical #ReligiousTrauma #DeathCult
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The only "missionary position" in Mormonism is gay position (with your companion).
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The only "missionary position" in Mormonism is gay position (with your companion).
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A man walks up to a podium and says, "I know about this topic. That is why I am here." And everyone sits back and listens.
A woman walks up to a podium, and says, "I know about this topic." The audience says, "Prove it." So she lists her credentials, experience, and cites her research. "Ah, you can be here," they say. "You think you're better than everyone else."
That summarizes what's happening when Matt gets to the last 3rd of Britt's video.
It's infuriating.
It summarizes my own career in IT and later as a writer and researcher in religious recovery spaces. Constantly having to prove it.
It summarizes major themes in therapist Natasha Helfer's life that I wrote about it in her memoir, where men given authority at age 12 simply because they were men, grilled her hard-earned knowledge and authority, found it lacking, and so excommunicated her.
It's stuck in my craw.
It's a control technique that cult researchers call a double-bind.
Britt will never be allowed to have enough authority in some people's eyes, no matter how much science she cites, no matter how well she explains her position, no matter how much education or experience she gains. There is no winning move for her against someone like Matt, where reality isn't the measure, but the size of his own (uneducated, as he admitted) ego.
Matt simply had to leave his church and get a microphone and that's why we're supposed to take him seriously. That's always been enough for him to be taken seriously.
It will never be enough for Britt.
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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A man walks up to a podium and says, "I know about this topic. That is why I am here." And everyone sits back and listens.
A woman walks up to a podium, and says, "I know about this topic." The audience says, "Prove it." So she lists her credentials, experience, and cites her research. "Ah, you can be here," they say. "You think you're better than everyone else."
That summarizes what's happening when Matt gets to the last 3rd of Britt's video.
It's infuriating.
It summarizes my own career in IT and later as a writer and researcher in religious recovery spaces. Constantly having to prove it.
It summarizes major themes in therapist Natasha Helfer's life that I wrote about it in her memoir, where men given authority at age 12 simply because they were men, grilled her hard-earned knowledge and authority, found it lacking, and so excommunicated her.
It's stuck in my craw.
It's a control technique that cult researchers call a double-bind.
Britt will never be allowed to have enough authority in some people's eyes, no matter how much science she cites, no matter how well she explains her position, no matter how much education or experience she gains. There is no winning move for her against someone like Matt, where reality isn't the measure, but the size of his own (uneducated, as he admitted) ego.
Matt simply had to leave his church and get a microphone and that's why we're supposed to take him seriously. That's always been enough for him to be taken seriously.
It will never be enough for Britt.
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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Oh snap, you know what this reminds me of?
"We already have a definition for marriage. Find your own word."
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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Oh snap, you know what this reminds me of?
"We already have a definition for marriage. Find your own word."
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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I'm probably not going to post his video. You can find it on YouTube.
Even though I don't like the energy it's brought up in me or how obsessed I've become thinking about it, I still think it's possible she'll reach him. (Growing less likely. If he were open at all, I'd think she would have reached him by now, the halfway point.)
But the thumbnail title is, "Did I screw up?" so I hope that's not just clickbait. So I'll keep watching. I'm always really interested in seeing people change their minds. That's the main reason why I watch shows like The Line — not for the ownage, but to see why some people stick to their guns in the face of irrefutable arguments, and why some change.
So that's a hook enough for me.
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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I'm probably not going to post his video. You can find it on YouTube.
Even though I don't like the energy it's brought up in me or how obsessed I've become thinking about it, I still think it's possible she'll reach him. (Growing less likely. If he were open at all, I'd think she would have reached him by now, the halfway point.)
But the thumbnail title is, "Did I screw up?" so I hope that's not just clickbait. So I'll keep watching. I'm always really interested in seeing people change their minds. That's the main reason why I watch shows like The Line — not for the ownage, but to see why some people stick to their guns in the face of irrefutable arguments, and why some change.
So that's a hook enough for me.
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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But here's the real crux. If I may indulge in a little armchair psychological analysis...
Matt clearly has baggage about the term "spirituality." It's not the *term's* baggage as he repeatedly states. It's HIS baggage. Some of us have dropped that baggage but you want us to pick it back up. NO.
Because as Britt says repeatedly: no one is asking him to use the term, only to lay off other people who find the word useful. ("Too bad!")
His baggage is made plain by how he argues this. Religion still has its hold on him. He has not let go of the religion's rules, its control over this venue. Spirituality is theirs and he refuses to grab it back or even let anyone else grab it back.
He hasn't unpacked this enough to realize HE HAS POWER TO MAKE THE WORD MEAN ANYTHING HE WANTS. And with his amount of influence, he could tip the balance and the word would be ours to all but fully define.
Some of us have freed ourselves, along with this concept, from Christianity's controlling grasp over our natural human requirements for symbolism, narrative, purpose-seeking, ritual, community, awe, transcendence, fulfillment, moral framework, interpretation, etc. We have come to realize these concepts are more flexible than our religious abusers presented them. That we can create for ourselves our own meaning, even while not taking it too seriously and not buying the whole kool-aid factory. [fixed perfect typo: "kook-aid"! 😂]
He thinks that if you claim any stake in this territory, you have to make objective, supernatural, authoritarian claims about subjective experiences, and that SIMPLY ISN'T TRUE.
He projects these claims onto Britt repeatedly even though she gone out of her way to say that's not how she uses this term.
It's one single hangup. One single point of false assumptions he keeps making as he refutes her points. (tbf to Britt, he also continually assumes she doesn't know what she's talking about in a gross, condescending way.)
Like, that's your shit, man, on both counts. That doesn't have to be the community's shit. Unless, of course, you're taking on outsized authority for a job that needs doing that you're not actually super experienced in... placing your authority above an experienced and educated woman...
...for some reason. 🤔
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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But here's the real crux. If I may indulge in a little armchair psychological analysis...
Matt clearly has baggage about the term "spirituality." It's not the *term's* baggage as he repeatedly states. It's HIS baggage. Some of us have dropped that baggage but you want us to pick it back up. NO.
Because as Britt says repeatedly: no one is asking him to use the term, only to lay off other people who find the word useful. ("Too bad!")
His baggage is made plain by how he argues this. Religion still has its hold on him. He has not let go of the religion's rules, its control over this venue. Spirituality is theirs and he refuses to grab it back or even let anyone else grab it back.
He hasn't unpacked this enough to realize HE HAS POWER TO MAKE THE WORD MEAN ANYTHING HE WANTS. And with his amount of influence, he could tip the balance and the word would be ours to all but fully define.
Some of us have freed ourselves, along with this concept, from Christianity's controlling grasp over our natural human requirements for symbolism, narrative, purpose-seeking, ritual, community, awe, transcendence, fulfillment, moral framework, interpretation, etc. We have come to realize these concepts are more flexible than our religious abusers presented them. That we can create for ourselves our own meaning, even while not taking it too seriously and not buying the whole kool-aid factory. [fixed perfect typo: "kook-aid"! 😂]
He thinks that if you claim any stake in this territory, you have to make objective, supernatural, authoritarian claims about subjective experiences, and that SIMPLY ISN'T TRUE.
He projects these claims onto Britt repeatedly even though she gone out of her way to say that's not how she uses this term.
It's one single hangup. One single point of false assumptions he keeps making as he refutes her points. (tbf to Britt, he also continually assumes she doesn't know what she's talking about in a gross, condescending way.)
Like, that's your shit, man, on both counts. That doesn't have to be the community's shit. Unless, of course, you're taking on outsized authority for a job that needs doing that you're not actually super experienced in... placing your authority above an experienced and educated woman...
...for some reason. 🤔
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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There are also many points where he names some logical fallacy on some minor non-load-bearing side point, just while she's describing something, and it's like he thinks this is just a game and ding-ding! you won some skeptic points in a game Britt is not playing! Good for you! There's some fellow nerdy white guys who saw you do that with great aplomb and completely failed to see your own similarly placed logical fallacies (I saw that argument from analogy my man)!!! You get a star! 🏆
Meanwhile folks like Britt are putting in the work to give post-religionists new tools to fill a gap that no one is filling using words they can relate to and taking back concepts that were colonized away from us so that unsatisfied religious folk have a serious alternative to the woo you so hate.
Work which, two hours into a one hour video, you still continue to make ignorant, invalid, and embarrassingly obtuse assumptions about.
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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There are also many points where he names some logical fallacy on some minor non-load-bearing side point, just while she's describing something, and it's like he thinks this is just a game and ding-ding! you won some skeptic points in a game Britt is not playing! Good for you! There's some fellow nerdy white guys who saw you do that with great aplomb and completely failed to see your own similarly placed logical fallacies (I saw that argument from analogy my man)!!! You get a star! 🏆
Meanwhile folks like Britt are putting in the work to give post-religionists new tools to fill a gap that no one is filling using words they can relate to and taking back concepts that were colonized away from us so that unsatisfied religious folk have a serious alternative to the woo you so hate.
Work which, two hours into a one hour video, you still continue to make ignorant, invalid, and embarrassingly obtuse assumptions about.
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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There was a moment when I literally gasped and then started yelling. She is talking about how there aren't any better words than "spirituality" to cover the range of topics it covers, and he pauses and literally says:
"Too bad."
Uhm, like dude who made you the father of atheist spaces and are allowed to forbid her?? There's a word for men who act like patronizing fathers of adult women they don't know..... 🤔
He also repeatedly says, "Then come up with a better word." No, sir. SHE doesn't have a problem with this word. Nor do many other atheists, including prominent atheists which she cites. YOU have a problem with the word, so the burden of coming up with a better word is on YOU.
He actually starts to suggest one a couple of times and fails. "Psychology! Ok... I guess psychology and sociology." My man, that is two words and now you're bumping up against the problem that Britt and many others like myself have independently solved to help people proactively recover from religious trauma while you were off uselessly debating creationists.
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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There was a moment when I literally gasped and then started yelling. She is talking about how there aren't any better words than "spirituality" to cover the range of topics it covers, and he pauses and literally says:
"Too bad."
Uhm, like dude who made you the father of atheist spaces and are allowed to forbid her?? There's a word for men who act like patronizing fathers of adult women they don't know..... 🤔
He also repeatedly says, "Then come up with a better word." No, sir. SHE doesn't have a problem with this word. Nor do many other atheists, including prominent atheists which she cites. YOU have a problem with the word, so the burden of coming up with a better word is on YOU.
He actually starts to suggest one a couple of times and fails. "Psychology! Ok... I guess psychology and sociology." My man, that is two words and now you're bumping up against the problem that Britt and many others like myself have independently solved to help people proactively recover from religious trauma while you were off uselessly debating creationists.
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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I am now halfway through Matt's 4-hour live reaction/rebuttal video, in which he at times pauses so many times (without rewinding) that he's entirely missed the context of some of her points and continues to hold her to things she didn't actually say that he would know that if he hadn't paused 3-4 times per sentence.
He pauses to rebut at least a dozen times in the first 3 minutes of the intro! Before she's completed a single point!
His major hang up seems to be one of semantics, and he's treating her like an average caller to The Line and not a professional woman with years of education and experience in this space. As if she hasn't thought it through herself.
AND as if he's in charge of how words are used in this space.
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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I am now halfway through Matt's 4-hour live reaction/rebuttal video, in which he at times pauses so many times (without rewinding) that he's entirely missed the context of some of her points and continues to hold her to things she didn't actually say that he would know that if he hadn't paused 3-4 times per sentence.
He pauses to rebut at least a dozen times in the first 3 minutes of the intro! Before she's completed a single point!
His major hang up seems to be one of semantics, and he's treating her like an average caller to The Line and not a professional woman with years of education and experience in this space. As if she hasn't thought it through herself.
AND as if he's in charge of how words are used in this space.
🧵
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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"I'm not trying to make atheism less rational. I'm not trying to smuggle in the woo. I'm trying to make atheism less emotionally illiterate."
Everything Britt says here are things I've been saying for nearly twenty years, only she says it better and brings receipts.
This is what I mean when I say I'm a spiritual atheist.
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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"I'm not trying to make atheism less rational. I'm not trying to smuggle in the woo. I'm trying to make atheism less emotionally illiterate."
Everything Britt says here are things I've been saying for nearly twenty years, only she says it better and brings receipts.
This is what I mean when I say I'm a spiritual atheist.
#exmo #exmormon #ReligiousTrauma #atheism #philosophy #deconstruction #spirituality
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I got to the end of Amazing Digital Circus.
One of the background characters is canonically exmormon!!
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I got to the end of Amazing Digital Circus.
One of the background characters is canonically exmormon!!
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@volts.wtf
#Mormons still remember and talk about the Missouri Governor saying something similar, but none of the #GOP politicians are going to speak up about this attack on a religious group that similarly doesn't drink alcohol and has every day religious clothing.
#utpol #uspol #LDS #exmo #ExMormon #TCOJCOLDShttps://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/extermination-order?lang=eng
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@volts.wtf
#Mormons still remember and talk about the Missouri Governor saying something similar, but none of the #GOP politicians are going to speak up about this attack on a religious group that similarly doesn't drink alcohol and has every day religious clothing.
#utpol #uspol #LDS #exmo #ExMormon #TCOJCOLDShttps://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/extermination-order?lang=eng
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So don't just jump to the obvious, pre-packaged option. It's certainly *easier*. There's less dissonance there, too.
But curiosity also resolves dissonance. It's a consonant feeling, maybe the only time a lack of or contradiction of information causes a good feeling. Step into that, and out of the box.
It's a cycle. Question everything. Come up with answers. But don't settle there. Keep poking. Dig deeper. Keep open-ended the answers you do find.
Otherwise you're still just being run by your conditioning.
/🧵
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction
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So don't just jump to the obvious, pre-packaged option. It's certainly *easier*. There's less dissonance there, too.
But curiosity also resolves dissonance. It's a consonant feeling, maybe the only time a lack of or contradiction of information causes a good feeling. Step into that, and out of the box.
It's a cycle. Question everything. Come up with answers. But don't settle there. Keep poking. Dig deeper. Keep open-ended the answers you do find.
Otherwise you're still just being run by your conditioning.
/🧵
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction
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One example of a false dichotomy capitalism offers is how it links itself to commerce.
Commerce, or trade, has ALWAYS existed, even before humanity did.
So pro-capitalists have a hard time letting go because they think they'll have to throw out the ability to buy and sell things, to run small businesses and such.
Anti-capitalists who haven't unpacked this lie get mad at small shops posting Etsy links or selling books they wrote. They get upset at anyone who makes a living in a world where you have to make a living or die. The worlds they imagine try to design unwieldy bartering systems that never address the underlying problems of power and the fact that anyone who abuses power will ALWAYS find a way into positions to amass it, no matter what system you design.
By working within the false framework, their alternatives are not very appealing and don't solve the real underlying issues, which isn't money or commerce itself, but a certain mentality who will always leverage what they have available to coerce and rule.
🧵
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction
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One example of a false dichotomy capitalism offers is how it links itself to commerce.
Commerce, or trade, has ALWAYS existed, even before humanity did.
So pro-capitalists have a hard time letting go because they think they'll have to throw out the ability to buy and sell things, to run small businesses and such.
Anti-capitalists who haven't unpacked this lie get mad at small shops posting Etsy links or selling books they wrote. They get upset at anyone who makes a living in a world where you have to make a living or die. The worlds they imagine try to design unwieldy bartering systems that never address the underlying problems of power and the fact that anyone who abuses power will ALWAYS find a way into positions to amass it, no matter what system you design.
By working within the false framework, their alternatives are not very appealing and don't solve the real underlying issues, which isn't money or commerce itself, but a certain mentality who will always leverage what they have available to coerce and rule.
🧵
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction
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This is the process I used to get where I have on capitalism and whiteness. Always stepping back and 🤔
As we deconstruct capitalism and western colonialism, don't spend too much time in the "just do the opposite" phase. That's a resting place.
There ARE better ways to run a society!
And I fully believe we don't know what those are yet.* But we can't figure that out while working strictly within the limiting framework given to us BY capitalism and whiteness!!!
🧵
* Quick note without spiraling intoa whole different rant: I believe people who lived before us (or trying to survive alongside us) know at least some of the puzzle that humanity should learn from. But we're not going to be able to go back to exactly how it was unless billions of people die, and then the whole ring is valuable to the next colonizing culture rises up. Whatever better system comes, it'll have to be, to some extent, something new.
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction
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This is the process I used to get where I have on capitalism and whiteness. Always stepping back and 🤔
As we deconstruct capitalism and western colonialism, don't spend too much time in the "just do the opposite" phase. That's a resting place.
There ARE better ways to run a society!
And I fully believe we don't know what those are yet.* But we can't figure that out while working strictly within the limiting framework given to us BY capitalism and whiteness!!!
🧵
* Quick note without spiraling intoa whole different rant: I believe people who lived before us (or trying to survive alongside us) know at least some of the puzzle that humanity should learn from. But we're not going to be able to go back to exactly how it was unless billions of people die, and then the whole ring is valuable to the next colonizing culture rises up. Whatever better system comes, it'll have to be, to some extent, something new.
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction
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In fact, curiosity is a great example of what I'm talking about.
My cult framed doubt as the opposite of unquestioning faith. This is an example of the control technique called Black & White Thinking, or polarized thinking. We're trained to think in binaries. This quality is all good, while that quality is all bad.
So once I discover my group is bad, and faith is bad, I might start to think doubt is all good. I might lean into doubt as my new replacement value. We start to see some of the outlines of the skeptic community, and the toxic behaviors of a certain subset of atheist thought.
At first, doubt is my only choice. Because I'm still operating under cult conditioning!!! where it's either full-on faith or doubt as a service.
Doubt makes for a terrible value. It isn't a goal! Skepticism by itself doesn't LEAD anywhere. It can't be a destination! Eventually, all that can be debunked, is. Then what?
I can surely bring a balance of skepticism into my life to help me check the answers I come across. It's a nice tool for moving towards *something*.
But step outside the false dichotomy.
Curiosity IS a value. Never one promoted by my cult, though. Isn't that interesting? Why is that?
Because curiosity does lead places. Endlessly. It NEVER runs out. It's difficult, if not impossible, to ideologically control someone who is constantly practicing curiosity.
You can't hold unquestioning faith and curiosity at the same time. In fact, it wasn't doubt that got me out of the cult in the first place. It was curiosity.
So this is just one of hundreds of examples of how we can step outside the framework, the binaries our conditioning provided us. True free thought means always stepping back from what is "known," always wondering if if this or that foundational assumption needs to be revisited, retested, redefined, reassessed.
[ed: typos]
🧵
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction
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In fact, curiosity is a great example of what I'm talking about.
My cult framed doubt as the opposite of unquestioning faith. This is an example of the control technique called Black & White Thinking, or polarized thinking. We're trained to think in binaries. This quality is all good, while that quality is all bad.
So once I discover my group is bad, and faith is bad, I might start to think doubt is all good. I might lean into doubt as my new replacement value. We start to see some of the outlines of the skeptic community, and the toxic behaviors of a certain subset of atheist thought.
At first, doubt is my only choice. Because I'm still operating under cult conditioning!!! where it's either full-on faith or doubt as a service.
Doubt makes for a terrible value. It isn't a goal! Skepticism by itself doesn't LEAD anywhere. It can't be a destination! Eventually, all that can be debunked, is. Then what?
I can surely bring a balance of skepticism into my life to help me check the answers I come across. It's a nice tool for moving towards *something*.
But step outside the false dichotomy.
Curiosity IS a value. Never one promoted by my cult, though. Isn't that interesting? Why is that?
Because curiosity does lead places. Endlessly. It NEVER runs out. It's difficult, if not impossible, to ideologically control someone who is constantly practicing curiosity.
You can't hold unquestioning faith and curiosity at the same time. In fact, it wasn't doubt that got me out of the cult in the first place. It was curiosity.
So this is just one of hundreds of examples of how we can step outside the framework, the binaries our conditioning provided us. True free thought means always stepping back from what is "known," always wondering if if this or that foundational assumption needs to be revisited, retested, redefined, reassessed.
[ed: typos]
🧵
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma #cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction
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The extreme opposite of a bad thing isn't necessarily a good thing.
This is only an extension of cultist / colonialist / capitalist conditioning.
I see this with people who have left cults. Their first instinct is to go all out opposite of what they were raised with.
We go through a similar process as we deconstruct wider society.
This phase is a bad place to land permanently, because you're still operating within the false, unhealthy framework that the conditioning offered you. It should only be a temporary step in the deconditioning process while you get your bearings and open up to be ways of thinking.
Look for balance and nuance. Never stop questioning, especially any new worldview you find yourself adopting.
Curiosity is a destination in itself, an ongoing value, a tool in the neverending process of understating reality and morality.
🧵
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma
#cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction -
The extreme opposite of a bad thing isn't necessarily a good thing.
This is only an extension of cultist / colonialist / capitalist conditioning.
I see this with people who have left cults. Their first instinct is to go all out opposite of what they were raised with.
We go through a similar process as we deconstruct wider society.
This phase is a bad place to land permanently, because you're still operating within the false, unhealthy framework that the conditioning offered you. It should only be a temporary step in the deconditioning process while you get your bearings and open up to be ways of thinking.
Look for balance and nuance. Never stop questioning, especially any new worldview you find yourself adopting.
Curiosity is a destination in itself, an ongoing value, a tool in the neverending process of understating reality and morality.
🧵
#AbuseCulture #ReligiousTrauma
#cults #atheism #exmo #exmormon #deconstruction -
Oh, Christians are oppressed and persecuted all right.
By Christian leadership!
#ReligiousTrauma #AbuseCulture #exmo #exvangelical #exmormon #exvie
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Oh, Christians are oppressed and persecuted all right.
By Christian leadership!
#ReligiousTrauma #AbuseCulture #exmo #exvangelical #exmormon #exvie
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Investing the "I Am A Mormon" ad campaign:
At least a hundred million dollars.
Ditching the campaign to avoid another victory for Satan and ensure everyone knows that your central god is the Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ:
FREE (plus 10% of your income)
Helping Donald Trump lock in the US presidency, twice:
[SECRET COMBINATIONS]
Having Trump's military eject you from Christianity anyway:
PRICELESS
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Investing the "I Am A Mormon" ad campaign:
At least a hundred million dollars.
Ditching the campaign to avoid another victory for Satan and ensure everyone knows that your central god is the Lord and Savior, even Jesus Christ:
FREE (plus 10% of your income)
Helping Donald Trump lock in the US presidency, twice:
[SECRET COMBINATIONS]
Having Trump's military eject you from Christianity anyway:
PRICELESS
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@LeslieBurns
They're approved. They're just not included as Christian.The LDS believe the godhead are three distinct beings. That's the sticking point.
#LDS #Mormon #exMormon #ExMo #TCoJCoLDS #utpol #uspol #Hegsethhttps://www.sltrib.com/religion/2026/06/06/lds-church-left-off-defense/
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@LeslieBurns
They're approved. They're just not included as Christian.The LDS believe the godhead are three distinct beings. That's the sticking point.
#LDS #Mormon #exMormon #ExMo #TCoJCoLDS #utpol #uspol #Hegsethhttps://www.sltrib.com/religion/2026/06/06/lds-church-left-off-defense/
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Also, since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints insists, I've taken to painstakingly spelling out their full name when it's connected to their criminal activities.
You can change what you call it but the stink still follows. By their fruits and all that. Jesus can come down and take issue with them if he wants.
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Also, since the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints insists, I've taken to painstakingly spelling out their full name when it's connected to their criminal activities.
You can change what you call it but the stink still follows. By their fruits and all that. Jesus can come down and take issue with them if he wants.
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Oh yeah, these chumps have nothing on the wealth controlled by President Oaks, crime boss of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Oh yeah, these chumps have nothing on the wealth controlled by President Oaks, crime boss of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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It's popular to call The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a corporation, but I think that's completely wrong.
I think it's much closer to a crime syndicate:
1. Controls regional government, police, and courts. Outsized influence in national legislature, bureaucracy, law enforcement, and executive branch.
2. Sets up various fronts for committing crimes and laundering money.
3. Child sex rings that have run undetected for over a century.
4. A finger in dozens of exploitative businesses that aren't quite legal or wouldn't be legal if they didn't control the state and national legislature. A finger in dozens more "legit" and very successful, influential businesses.
5. Openly ran several kidnapping rings in the US in the mid-20th century until today.
6. "Family" style secrecy pacts, loyalty tests, and ritualistic inductions.
7. Literal protection racket that scares victims into paying billions of dollars with nothing in return.
8. Largest bankroll of any "religion" in the US.What am I forgetting?
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It's popular to call The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a corporation, but I think that's completely wrong.
I think it's much closer to a crime syndicate:
1. Controls regional government, police, and courts. Outsized influence in national legislature, bureaucracy, law enforcement, and executive branch.
2. Sets up various fronts for committing crimes and laundering money.
3. Child sex rings that have run undetected for over a century.
4. A finger in dozens of exploitative businesses that aren't quite legal or wouldn't be legal if they didn't control the state and national legislature. A finger in dozens more "legit" and very successful, influential businesses.
5. Openly ran several kidnapping rings in the US in the mid-20th century until today.
6. "Family" style secrecy pacts, loyalty tests, and ritualistic inductions.
7. Literal protection racket that scares victims into paying billions of dollars with nothing in return.
8. Largest bankroll of any "religion" in the US.What am I forgetting?
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It's fair to say at this point that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest organized crime syndicate that has ever existed in the United States.
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It's fair to say at this point that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest organized crime syndicate that has ever existed in the United States.
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I did not expect the Lego heist to have a Mormon element.
But there it is.
It's THE element.
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I did not expect the Lego heist to have a Mormon element.
But there it is.
It's THE element.
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It also just really chafes me when any entity tries to claim PUBLIC DOMAIN IP as their own. The Mormon church didn't make the Christus statue. It was made in 1833 by a Lutheran. Stealing or borrowing is one thing, but then claiming it's exclusively yours... that's just about the lowest thing.
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It also just really chafes me when any entity tries to claim PUBLIC DOMAIN IP as their own. The Mormon church didn't make the Christus statue. It was made in 1833 by a Lutheran. Stealing or borrowing is one thing, but then claiming it's exclusively yours... that's just about the lowest thing.