crysler

Here's one of the ones you hear less often:

See, like many other Christian sects, the Mormons really do believe that the existence of Christ obviates the existence of Judaism. Judaism was just a placeholder until the "real" church could be established by Jesus.

And the Mormons in particular believe, dead ass, that the entire inheritance of Israel has been given to them, because the Jews failed to recognize the Messiah when he was on Earth. They really do. They have this whole system where people are given a "divine revelation" about which of the Tribes of Israel they're a member of (don't worry, they decided that most people belong to the two tribes that are willing to "adopt" people. Only the most specialest boys and girls are members of the original ten).

Let's sum up so far. The Mormons believe that they are the people of Israel, chosen and protected by God. If Jews want to get back in on that party, they can always repent and convert to Mormonism, the one true church to which God gave all the rights and blessings that were originally bestowed on Abraham's house.

But it doesn't stop there!

The Mormons also believe, in all seriousness, that all Indigenous peoples of the Americas are descended from a small group of Jewish people who left just before the fall of Jerusalem (~600 bc iirc). Their entire weird-ass extra bible is a chronicle of those people's history in [unspecific part of America]. At the very beginning of the book, two brothers in the original family turn away from god, so they and all their descendants are cursed with dark skin, so that the good Nephites (who remain "white and delightsome") will always be able to tell themselves apart from the wicked Lamanites.

So, you've got supposedly Jewish people running around the Americas. And the "good" ones are white, and the "bad" ones are brown. Then, ofc, Jesus comes to visit them (I guess supposedly that's part of what he was doing during his dirt nap? Or possibly after he left again, it's not clear), and they all convert to Christianity, which they think is clearly the natural evolution of Judaism. Well, at the end of the book, all of them become wicked, in a kind of weird pseudo-apocalyptic series of events. They are all cursed with dark skin, until such time as they repent for their ancestors sins and return to the gospel.

But of course, Mormons being the good and kind people they are, they want everyone to receive the blessings of God and be brought into the houses of Israel etc etc. And it isn't the fault of those poor little Indigenous children that their distant ancestors turned away from God and became wicked.

So what's the natural answer? Well, Mormons are real big on missionary work, as we all know. But apparently that wasn't enough in this case.

Because the Mormon church has been one of the big players in abducting as many Indigenous children as possible, in order to indoctrinate them into being good Mormons, so that they can turn white again and be blessed. My mother remembers hearing talks about this in the 70s and 80s. The church literally had a "Lamanite Adoption Program," where families in the church were encouraged to get as many Indigenous children as possible away from their families and not let them be reunited until they were fully assimilated and ready to go back and proselytize about how wonderful the church is.

The church leadership literally talked about how wonderful it was to see these children becoming whiter. Actually whiter. Like, saying that when they finally saw them with their families again, it was beautiful how much paler they were.

I'm pretty sure this program has been officially ended, but it doesn't take a genius to speculate about who might be behind the curtains on the movement in the western US to gut the ICWA....

Anyway, I just wanna add that the main branch of mormonism today does not practice polygamy anymore. Now they preach marriage is between one man and one woman. But it's true that in Joseph Smith's time, they practiced polygamy to increase their numbers, have more mormon-born and raised practitioners.

Also I wanna add that the church is super fucking misogynistic to no one's surprise. Women are expected to be baby-factories, get married at 19 and be devoted to their husbands. It's more nuanced than that but basically all the leaders of the church are men and women aren't allowed in any of the high positions like bishop, etc. Why? Cause they're expected to raise 8 children at home while the husband does all the high church work. Anyway dumb shit.

Also, a lot of mormons today don't know about many bits of history about the church. The church tries to hide it because they care about their image a lot. Others will deny it happened or minimize how bad it was. It's really infuriating. Try talking to a mormon about the dark side of their church's history, they will gaslight u.

A. Women don't want to play chess with males bc male chess players sexually harass, threaten, and verbally abuse female chess players. Males, including "transwomen" and "nb" men, just generally make the environment nauseatingly unwelcome at best and abusive at worst for women and girls to be in. We live in PATRIARCHY, which privileges all males, regardless of how they fucking identify, and encourages them to believe they're smarter than women and girls. We live in PATRICARCHY, which ensures men and boys have more resources and opportunities in every field, including chess. Women and girls deserve to have a space apart from men and boys, where we can flourish without harassment and enjoy equal access to resources. Men and their allies are the only ones who actually think men are better at chess than women; there is zero evidence of this.

B. Beauty contests exist to award women in patriarchy; they are both a facet of oppression and an opportunity for women and girls. Winners of these pageants receive opportunities and resources, sometimes ones that patriarchy makes it very difficult for women and girls to get, such as educational scholarships and the ability to travel. It's an inherently misogynistic and, therein, demeaning contest that, nevertheless, does provide some benefits. What's truly insane is for some autogynephilic creep to feel he has any right to larp as a woman and participate in the degradation of an oppressed class and compete over resources WHEN HE IS A MEMBER OF THE OPPRESSOR CLASS. You can't fucking identify out of privilege. Men complaining about not being able to participate in beauty pageants is like when white men complain that they can't easily find work as housecleaners or nannies. Like, I'm gonna fucking murder y'all. And no real feminist is at all concerned with a medical experiment of a man being deemed more beautiful than a women, especially when the judges are a bunch of misogynistic men.

C. Most sports have been created in patriarchy, and so favor the male body over the female body. What this means, is that the types of physical things that women tend to be better at than men (endurance, lung capacity, agility, flexibility) are seen as lesser forms of strength than the types of things that men tend to be better at (brute strength, bone density). So, this creates a situation in which men will always dominate in the sports they created for their own body types. If women want to play those sports, we must do so separately from men, in order to have an equal footing against our competitors. Only a moron judges a fish by how well she rides a bicycle. I'd personally like to see women create our own sports just for us, but until then, women and girls require female-only sports for fairness of the game and physical safety. Additionally, as always, men and boys sexually harass, threaten, and verbally and physically abuse women and girls when they are allowed in female sports; this is a fact. We are an oppressed class; it's enough for us not to want to be around our oppressors. WE DON'T NEED A FUCKING REASON OTHER THAN THAT. But, of course, we have very serious and well-evidenced reasons, in fucking abundance.

But I guess where we disagree is that I believe trans women are welcomed in those spaces. I'm a bit disappointed and sad by the way you refer to trans women if im being honest. My reasoning for supporting trans women is:

1. gender is socially constructed, so we can do whatever the fuck we want with it, it doesn't matter. Though obviously that does not mean that our sex assigned at birth is irrelevant, like yes, being born female or male or intersex is pertinent information in certain situations such as with a doctor, even a psychologist, etc. I would say the relevance of being trans in competitive sports is a bit nuanced bc of testosterone and whatnot and I haven't really dived into researching that yet so Idk about that yet but I'll admit I'm inclined to want to find a way to include all women no matter their identity.

2. At the end of the day, we're just human. I've personally met a lot of trans women and heard a lot of their stories, and yeah, when they're perceived as women, they are just as in danger being around men as cis women are. Yes, trans women experience different things when it comes to their bodies, yes cis women have periods, can make children (though, a scientist recently successfully transplanted a uterus in a trans woman's body), but this isn't oppression olympics. Like i dont expect a trans woman to know exactly what it's like to be a cis woman, but she still deserves to be treated nicely and we still need to understand that they are in danger. Men don't care if someone is trans or not when it comes to misogyny, let's be real. They see something that looks like a woman and will be abusive. They don't think trans women are equal to them. The numbers don't lie, trans people are most likely to die when found out about being trans. It's really horrifying. I wish all women could include all women even if they don't personally understand their experiences. And my heart breaks when i see women so divided on this. We don't need to understand someone to include them.

3. People can do whatever they want with their bodies. It's not mutilation otherwise we'd start calling getting one ear pierced mutilation, all surgeries mutilation, etc. Like shit. Anyway, let people enjoy things and yes that extends to gender.

4. Truth be told, if trans women were men, then they wouldn't try to be a woman. Sorry but men live amazing lives in constract. Obviously trans women dont choose to be trans otherwise theyd wanna be cis cause that's less complicated and u get less prosecuted. Like being trans is very dangerous and scary in this world. If u were born male and could choose ur gender, you would stay male cause the world treats u better. Hence why, it's not a choice. Trans women are women and their experiences are valid :)