🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️

@tokensandsigns.org

Bedaubed by Aunt Peggy in the glory of the Telestial Kingdom. Mormon by heritage, if not by devotion. Friend to the "snakes in the pews." https://tokensandsigns.org

1.2K followers329 following3.9K posts

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

the idea that empathy is dangerous has been permeating right-wing spaces for a while, but it's not an actual element of their ideology as much as it's a defense mechanism against confronting the reality of their cruelty

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🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

So excited and honored to be a part of this new podcast!

Sunstone is launching a new podcast about weird #Mormon history, folklore, literature, and conspiracy theories, hosted by @hendrixkomoto.bsky.social, @lhamiltonwriter.bsky.social, Grace Pool, and some goofy dude. I guess I'll listen.

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

By terminating research grants like Kelton's to censor views it doesn’t like, the NIH is blocking scientists from work that would advance public health for all of us. We're pushing back. Tell Congress to demand the NIH restore the grants and stop its censorship campaign at aclu.org/nih_censorship_

As someone who believes AI is a blasphemous simulacrum of the divine image that is human consciousness, having to sit through a keynote presentation by the university's AI institute on how and why we should be using AI in our research is religious persecution.

Now someone is presenting on developing an AI chatbot that has empathy for therapeutic purposes. Stop! Shut it down. Chatbots do not feel. They do notthink. They are not conscious. They do not and cannot feel empathy. At best they can simulate a mockery of genuine human empathy.

Now someone is presenting on using AI robots to detect weeds and selectively apply control methods to dramatically reduce herbicide use. This is an acceptable use of AI. It's not a chatbot. It's designed to improve human well-being without mimicking and replacing human social functions.

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

Ammon Bundy and Trevor Lee arrested. Tim Ballard going scorched Earth on the Mormon church. Tough few days for guys who fly replica Title of Liberties in July

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

I learned yesterday that my church made a $1 million dollar donation to fight Idaho's Prop 1 (which would change the state's draconian abortion laws). The donation tells us a lot about how my church views morality. None of it laudatory toward church leader's constrained moral vision.

bycommonconsent.comOn Morality and "Significant Moral Consequences" - By Common Consent, a Mormon BlogAbout three weeks ago, I wrote about a letter from the North America Central Area Presidency to members in Idaho, encouraging them explicitly to vote against

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

The LDS church's prior support of Tim Ballard is giving this vibe rn

Ballard says LDS leaders “had plenty of reasons to make sure” he didn’t win U.S. Senate race and that the church’s case against him was based on “an angel from hell.” https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2026/10/08/lds-church-kicked-me-out-silence 

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

A child in an Idaho faith-healing family died of a treatable condition. Then another died — and another, and another. Idaho’s child abuse laws contain such broad religious exemptions that authorities didn’t intervene — before or after the deaths.

propublica.orgFour Kids in One Faith-Healing Family Died. Authorities Could Do Nothing.An exemption in Idaho law shields faith-healing parents from criminal prosecution for conduct that otherwise would be charged as neglect. It also keeps police and social workers from stepping in to pr...

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

This is a direct reflection of LDS doctrine. Telling members that they are supposed to "gather Israel" to the US leaves them more accepting of multiculturalism. Explicit anti-LGBT and pro-life teachings/policies being a core feature of Mormonism leaves them more conservative on these issues.

Interestingly, while LDS Republicans are more socially liberal on matters of immigration and racial and religious diversity than non-LDS Republicans, they are more conservative on abortion and acceptance of homosexuality. These things might be more connected than one might suppose.

A deeply fascinating report by @prri.org on demographic trends among Latter-day Saints in the US shows that fewer raised in the faith are retained as adults, whereas more are converts and immigrants. Meanwhile, LDS religiosity is decreasing and more are endorsing socially liberal ideas and policies.

pewresearch.orgTradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S.Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are still highly religious and conservative, but signs point to demographic and social change.
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I do find it a little surprising that the most outward of the religiosity measures—weekly church attendance—is the only one not significantly higher among Mountain Mormons. I would have guessed social pressure in highly dense Mormon communities would drive that especially higher.

Life-long Latter-day Saints are more White, more college educated, and more Republican than converts. But both are equally conservative. That's an interesting observation. I would guess that converts are far more likely to be immigrants. I wonder how that factors into each of these trends.

A deeply fascinating report by @prri.org on demographic trends among Latter-day Saints in the US shows that fewer raised in the faith are retained as adults, whereas more are converts and immigrants. Meanwhile, LDS religiosity is decreasing and more are endorsing socially liberal ideas and policies.

pewresearch.orgTradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S.Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are still highly religious and conservative, but signs point to demographic and social change.
View full thread

Latter-day Saints remain among the most heteropatriarchal of major US religious groups. This despite marked shifts in the past decade. Equal rights for women and queer people remain sticking points that drive a lot of LDS alignment with Republican politics.

I am fascinated by how regionally concentrated LDS Mormonism remains. Over half of US Latter-day Saints live in the Mountain region of Utah and neighboring states. Nearly a third live in Utah alone. And Mountain Mormons are generally more devout than those living in "the mission field."

A deeply fascinating report by @prri.org on demographic trends among Latter-day Saints in the US shows that fewer raised in the faith are retained as adults, whereas more are converts and immigrants. Meanwhile, LDS religiosity is decreasing and more are endorsing socially liberal ideas and policies.

pewresearch.orgTradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S.Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are still highly religious and conservative, but signs point to demographic and social change.
View full thread

Current Latter-day Saints remain highly conservative and politically Republican. Notable, however, is that where this is least apparent is on matters of immigration and multiculturalism. Given the current administration's loud and violent anti-immigration stance, this is striking.

Interestingly, while LDS Republicans are more socially liberal on matters of immigration and racial and religious diversity than non-LDS Republicans, they are more conservative on abortion and acceptance of homosexuality. These things might be more connected than one might suppose.

A deeply fascinating report by @prri.org on demographic trends among Latter-day Saints in the US shows that fewer raised in the faith are retained as adults, whereas more are converts and immigrants. Meanwhile, LDS religiosity is decreasing and more are endorsing socially liberal ideas and policies.

pewresearch.orgTradition and Change Among Latter-day Saints in the U.S.Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are still highly religious and conservative, but signs point to demographic and social change.

The retention downside is well documented and general to US Christianity at large. This is probably the least surprising observation of the study. While 54% retention is among the best of Christian groups, it also represents a major caveat on official LDS-reported membership numbers.

The increase in racial and ethnic diversity among Latter-day Saints is quite interesting. For some time now, the LDS church has been growing faster abroad than in the US. The increase in immigrant membership seems a logical reflection of that trend. This raises several political questions.

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

Let the record show: We’re launching a new podcast! On each episode, our hosts Shereen Marisol Meraji and Mr. Beat discover the people, places, and narratives behind major court cases from U.S. history.

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

Sen. Susan Collins helped steer millions in federal defense contracts to Navatek, whose CEO illegally funneled thousands of dollars to her campaign. The FBI sought to launch a probe and was eyeing Collins and other lawmakers. Then Trump gutted the unit in charge. THREAD 🧵

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

NYT has now independently corroborated all the major allegations against Susan Collins in the ProPublica report, including that investigators were prepared to move against her and then Trump intervened to shut it down. This put Trump in a position of exceptional and extortionate leverage over her.

nytimes.comF.B.I. Shut Down Inquiry Into Top Ally of Senator Susan CollinsThe inquiry was closed last year because senior bureau officials questioned the veracity of a campaign donor’s account, according to current and former officials.

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

Biomedical researchers are on edge after news broke over the weekend that the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) director clashed with President Donald Trump over a White House plan to turn over the agency’s final grant decisions to a new board co-chaired by Trump’s budget chief, Russell

science.orgWhite House move to seize control of NIH grant decisions upsets senators and scientistsBudget chief Russell Vought reportedly wants more power to veto DEI-related funding

When the LDS church drops the guise of political neutrality it is always in one direction. Choose the Right, indeed.

Kristine A@kristinea.bsky.social

I am seriously so pissed right now. The next 2 weeks in idaho the LDS church is reading a letter across the pulpit telling folks to vote no on Prop 1 in idaho. Which overturns our draconian abortion restrictions thatve led to 37% loss in idaho OBGYNs. The hubris of men.

🐝🐍The Grand Scoobah🔮🧙‍♀️ reposted

I am seriously so pissed right now. The next 2 weeks in idaho the LDS church is reading a letter across the pulpit telling folks to vote no on Prop 1 in idaho. Which overturns our draconian abortion restrictions thatve led to 37% loss in idaho OBGYNs. The hubris of men.

Listen, I'm no CES Letter fandog, but calling it a Gish gallop to dismiss it out of hand is just lazy. It's a print document. A Gish gallop is a spoken debate tactic that relies on the constraint of time that simply does not apply when you have all the time and space in the world for your response.

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When I read the CES Letter as a faithful Latter-day Saint, it shook me and sent me down a path of research lasting well over a year. That included reading all of FAIR's responses. What broke my faith was that research, not the CES Letter (which makes mistakes). Hardly the Gish gallop they decry.

Listen, I'm no CES Letter fandog, but calling it a Gish gallop to dismiss it out of hand is just lazy. It's a print document. A Gish gallop is a spoken debate tactic that relies on the constraint of time that simply does not apply when you have all the time and space in the world for your response.

View full thread

Listen, I'm no CES Letter fandog, but calling it a Gish gallop to dismiss it out of hand is just lazy. It's a print document. A Gish gallop is a spoken debate tactic that relies on the constraint of time that simply does not apply when you have all the time and space in the world for your response.

Just because it presents a lot of arguments in a concise format does not make it a Gish gallop if you have unlimited space to respond to each of them, point by point. Which FAIR has. Multiple times. Which makes it weird to claim "Gish gallop" when your own behavior refuses the claim.