They do teach the bible, but not in the same way. The Book of Mormon is an addendum/supplement to the bible, and they use it to help "understand" what the bible "really" means, and they use the bible to clarify things in the BoM as well.
It's Brian Heywood, a rich fuck who moved to WA state from California because he is a dumbfuck who thought that WA was further to the right than CA. He abuses the ballot initiative process by flooding the zone (the ballot, in this case) with controversial ballot measures with the hope that one will pass.
Careful, the user you responded to shits on WA state's legislators for every action they do or do not take. In the past, they also claimed that blue states deserved what was coming to them with ICE because of gun control.
It's definitely possible, yeah, but I don't think they came up with the idea of being offended all on their own. They had seminary next door to the school and would go there every day as part of their schooling (don't even get me started). Even the middle schools had seminary. I guess my point is that these kids at least partially understood their religion, as they had to go to seminary daily AND go to church on Sunday. I would be surprised if that idea was something that they organically thought of on their own, especially because it wasn't just one or even two kids with that line of thinking. I fully believe that someone was telling them to think that way.
That's fair, for sure. However I would also argue that they already feel like they have a right to be heard in politics, and are already engaging in plenty of corruption and lobbying.
I had this experience with multiple people in high school, actually. Maybe it was just where I grew up? I was fairly close to Utah county (although, thankfully, not in it) which could have changed things.
The first time I had someone get offended over it, I kind of brought it up in a joking but curious manner. They explained that they don't consider themselves Christian and that the bible should never be used on its own (meaning it should always be supplemented by the Book of Mormon). While that's definitely just the base of the Mormon religion, they very much explicitly told me that they were not Christian, and were not very happy at all. This was especially confusing to me because they do use the bible, just not as their primary text.
Another time in high school, it somehow came up in a conversation with a few (Mormon) of my peers, and while this time they weren't unhappy to my face, they did the whole fake, friendly smile thing (the same one they used when they made fun of me for not being Mormon) and laughed at me, basically saying that "no, silly, we are not Christian."
It was a long time ago and the exact details are fuzzy, but I do remember several times where they did not appreciate being called Christian.
Never forget that the LDS church is one of the biggest real estate holders in the US. They own billions and billions of dollars worth of real estate, all tax exempt. They make tons of money off of that, along with the 10% minimum tithe. They're probably one of the richest organizations in the US.
Definitely. I think Mormons excel at this however, I don't fully know how to explain it though. Growing up non-Mormon (a gentile, as you say, lmao) in that area was... interesting. I was sometimes bullied for it, not in a physical sense but they would definitely make fun of me, to my face but mostly behind my back. In a way, it was almost more insidious than normal bullying, because they'd be all cheery and happy to my face and then they'd make fun of me when I wasn't around or when they thought I couldn't hear them.
Utah is a huge bubble, and most people there don't end up leaving, even when they become adults. The primary way Utah Mormons experience the world outside of their bubble is through their missionary programs and other church functions. Where Christians are pretty much everywhere in the US and don't have a "home base" bubble, Mormons are the opposite. This makes them feel super empowered to put themselves above the other religions, if that makes sense.
This is hilarious because when I was unfortunately living there (and generally speaking here, of course), if you called a mormon a christian, it was seen as an insult. At least back then, they typically thought of themselves as better than (with a lot of things, but in this case, better than christians). Now that the christian fascists are in charge of the country, the mormon church suddenly wants in on the grift and they claim that they were always christian.
This is Brian Heywood absuing the ballot initiative process again. Brian Heywood is a rich fuck who left California for Washington State because he's dumb as fuck and thought WA was further to the right. He moved his entire business here and is now using his wealth to flood the zone with shitty, fucked up, misleading, and pointless ballot initiatives in an attempt to make WA what he originally (and stupidly) thought it was.
Brian Heywood should take his dumbass to Idaho, where they're happy to bend over while he goes to town.
We really should be slowing down and looking at the effects of AI. It has too much potential to fuck everything up to not think about it a bit, especially if recursive self-improvement is on the horizon.
This is Anthropic's entire marketing strategy: get people thinking that LLMs can do more than they actually can through fear. This is what they constantly do and have done for at least the last two years. They also tend to stretch or bury the truth in their "studies" with these goals in mind.
Fear, especially of the unknown, is very powerful. If you fear it the way they want you to, that feeling will convince you that the LLMs are going to take over any day now, and once enough people think that, it pumps Anthropic's valuation.
I do agree that we should slow down, but not necessarily because of any recursion (they claim they can already do this with "agents", another term they stole to make LLMs seem more capable). I think we should stop because it's a huge bubble, and the more we pump into it the louder the pop will be. Not only that, but is a monumental waste of resouces, all to generate half-baked slop most of the time.
What a gross comment.