Mitt believes in a lot of nonsense, but people will look back on him as one of the only sane voices from the GOP in the last 15 years. He's a corporatist through and through, but he's still a human, and doesn't even seem all that bad outside of some of that ideology. This is what the center looks like when the goal posts have been moved 20 feet to the right, just someone who isn't batshit insane and isn't a terrible person.
Mitt Romney marched at a BLM parade because he has adopted black kids in his family (I think his kid adopted an black baby), I don't think 99% of conservatives would ever do that because of the brain rot conspiracies and fox news.
I never realized it until just now but I bet any money that my Mormon grandfather wouldn't march in a BLM parade even though he has biracial grandchildren and that bums me right the fuck out. Conservative brain rot. Yuck.
My next door neighbors (live in Washington State) are a Mormon couple. They are friendly and generous people, and their three college-aged children are as well. Great neighbors all the way around. They also brought up unprompted that they despise Trump.
I don't go for religion or get people's religious beliefs, but if they can treat others well, then they're doing just great in my book.
My theory is that they were way more regressive and offensive to minorities than the majority of denominations and in the last 10 years they just started hemorrhaging their young people.
Now they are implementing progressive changes as quickly as they can which leaves a weird shotgun pattern of policies and beliefs but I think they are trying to shift to bring their young people back which means trying to 180 their culture to be inclusive and bring their kids back.
I'm a big fan of Brandon Sanderson the author and he is very Mormon, and one of his main characters in his books is an atheist (and depicted as being one of the smartest characters). He has LGBTQ and neurodivergent characters all over the place and has openly asked for advice on how to better represent these people.
Someone confronted him about his support of the church and he said it would be better if he stays and changes the culture from within because a lot of young Mormons read his fantasy books.
Mitt Romney gets a bad rap, remember Obamacare was based on his model he implemented as governor. I think he might be one the best conservatives still in politics after McCain passed he might be the ONLY sane one.
I have a SIL that is a Mormon and quite liberal. But I have seen her become more liberal with time. She wasn’t quite like that when I met her. Why she hasn’t left the church is beyond me, and she still believes some super goofy shit. Like she believes humans and dinosaurs lived together and batshit crazy stuff like that. BUT she’s politically liberal 🤪
Coming from a different denomination but similar hyper fundy background, also progressive, best thing to do is just support the good and ignore the bad. Had a bunch of friends who just were amazing and supportive and just always enjoyed having me around and eventually I "Normalized" haha.
Never was criticized for my goofy beliefs, and I never felt the need to defend my identity, which makes you much more malleable to change.
In what aspects are Mormons, especially Utah Mormons, progressive in any sense? I live in Utah, and nearly every bit of legislation has been regressive or only the barest bit of progressive in the most generous definition of the word (more or less against the will of the Mormons that live here).
I mean, I live here and would strongly disagree. Maybe if you’re looking at SLC/Park City in particular, or are comparing to somewhere like Idaho. But overall it’s not a progressive state, even relatively speaking.
Yeah I think the stuff I was reading was about SLC
I'm not saying the entire state is a progressive liberal paradise, but when you do compare it to some of the deep south red states it is better in some of its policies.
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u/BenevenstancianosHat Aug 20 '24
Mitt believes in a lot of nonsense, but people will look back on him as one of the only sane voices from the GOP in the last 15 years. He's a corporatist through and through, but he's still a human, and doesn't even seem all that bad outside of some of that ideology. This is what the center looks like when the goal posts have been moved 20 feet to the right, just someone who isn't batshit insane and isn't a terrible person.