Mr. Beast + LDS (conceptually) is laundering the Mormon reputation to the upcoming generation. It just is. And if there is any religion more in a position to pull America into a “Christian” Theocracy, it’s the Mormon cult. I’m feeling the same twinge I did when a Donald Trump presidency felt possible, but worse. I cannot stress enough how 100% cooked we are if this cult gets traction. If homosexuality is seen as a sin, and the church is the government…your neighbor will turn you in in 2 seconds because you are blaspheming God. It’s no longer a culture war. Non-conformist will be eradicated as an evil to be purged, to fulfill God’s plan.
The way Christianity is practiced, in almost any denomination, flirts with cult-like behavior. Probably any of the Abrahamic religions, really. I’m saying this because fundamentalist Christian’s would find a familiar vibe within LDS. The parts that are cultish to an agnostic or critical observer will not look like red flags. Whether it’s born again evangelicals promising salvation, or Catholics with their centuries-perfected rituals, it’s all in the same language – homogeneity, loyalty to kin and church, obedience.
So this otherwise horrifying cult with a romanticized mid-century all-American veneer, is primed to suck conservative Christians in. The one thing really standing in the way of them doing that is their reputation, particularly online. If they can make people doubt the ridicule, it’s scary how fast I can imagine their influence cascading. Like a pyroclastic flow from a volcano, 100 miles an hour, nowhere to run.
Let me pivot to the lighter, or at least more optimistic side of my recent thoughts—
I was at a large local park with my mom and dad, probably the most popular one in the area. It was a Friday evening, and it was full of families. Kids of all ages. Not a phone in sight, genuinely. Kids giggling and screaming (non-derogatory), running and playing. I live in a doing-pretty-ok middle class suburb, and…I was going to say white people were in the minority, but that’s the wrong framing. When brown people are not viewed as a monolith, you see we just had a smattering of all different groups. Hispanic, black, Indian, middle eastern with hijabs – that’s something that even within my lifetime has become much more normalized, as we get more distance from 9/11 and the reactionary Islamophobia.
If a picture of that evening at the park was in a brochure, I can imagine a conservative saying it was DEI, woke, probably fake AI bullshit. But it’s real. This idea that we need to accurately reflect the reality of a white majority just…does not hold up to simply walking outside and opening your eyes. Unless you live in one of those wealthy, waspy gated neighborhoods where the parks are completely private, I suppose.
I remembered something a friend told me when we were at this same park some months ago. “When I go outside, I see so much joy and human connection around. The problems are real, but the bleak, hellish picture painted online – I don’t think it’s as real as this. There is a wonderful life available to us right now, and we can enjoy it while still working to preserve it.”
Also anecdotally, I’ve seen less phone usage. When I was at the airport to go to Chicago, most people were chatting with each other, and those alone were often standing, just disassociating, instead of scrolling. (Maybe that’s a sign of another kind of bad….but still.) the psychic damage might finally be too much. It’s cutting through the addiction. Billionaires and tech companies may have gotten lost in their own hubris, seeing the masses as only drooling sheep they have 100% control over. Not quite.
That’s the case with Roblox too, it would seem. The shareholders and whoever above them must have assumed the dumb kids would accept just anything. They may have waited too long, in this case – those 9 year olds are 19 year olds now, and they have a much greater capacity to smell shit when it is served to them. They are also not nearly as loyal or trusting. The big content creators abandoning the game would do so much to subvert Roblox’s intentions. And if everything we’ve talked about wasn’t enough to convince you this company is rotted to the core – there were 6 kidnappings related to Roblox LAST MONTH. If our government is too dysfunctional to do anything but be evil right now, at least this game should have a reputation that reflects reality – it’s a hub for child predators, asking for your child to have the mic and camera on at all times, with a chief safety officer who for months frequented an erp server, and a ceo who said predators were “an opportunity.”
W Charlie. So glad he continues to cover this.
Don’t let the title fool you – the biggest piece of good news is that a Roblox employee went out of his way to fix Kreekcraft’s specific head. Important update at~7:40 on the implementation of generative AI for asset creation and world building. It’s about as terrible as you might imagine. Not to evoke another doomer rabbit hole, but if you’ve noticed a shit ton of terrible video gaming news recently, particularly about layoffs – it has everything to do with the new AI model google just launched. CEOs and Tech Bros are salivating at the thought of an employee-less money printing machine. Ai spitting out games with more and more blatant gambling mechanics, dopamine hack slop. Between that and the rise of Kick streaming, how normal must gambling be to kids these days….
Actually effective satire, imo. Especially starting at 4:12. The kids are alright.
This was supposed to be lighter. Fuck. BUT. It is, in the sense that there are things we can do. This is the proto stage. Ironically, the word that’s coming to mind, as a counter narrative I would want to instil, is freedom. Freedom of thought, of expression, of faith, the freedom that comes from privacy. All of this, but that word… it’s associated with a country I have been embarrassed to be born in since I was 13. Since Bush was re-elected. Scream-singing Green Day’s American Idiot, watching clips from The Daily Show on the family computer. The word “freedom” was a conservative aesthetic, divorced of any meaning. And yet, the philosophical writing contained in our country’s founding documents has immense good. There are echoes of that in our culture still. But we need to remember how to read words and know their meaning, not just the sound. Don’t let the preacher tell you what that book of rules “actually” says. Don’t let him convince you the book is all or nothing. The mantra of a free thinker – “take what resonates, leave what doesn’t.”
Finally, a little reflection on my fear of sounding too conspiratorial.
>>robyns_ramblings 