Ben Park is Targeted by the Mopologists Yet Again

[GiordanoBruno]

Many in the Church would like to more fervently embrace the teachings of Ezra Taft Benson and Cleon Skousen. Additionally, they would like to see Ammon Bundy lead the Church. If Dr. Peterson agrees, the hecklers at Sic et Non will give Ammon their blessing.

The only way this can be accomplished is to reduce Church membership to the truest one million.

I asked on a bycommonconsent thread why the Church had not publicly taken action on Ammon Bundy and his father (as well as on Bruce Jessen, briefly bishop of a Spokane ward, for designing the CIA torture program) . Someone responded that Bundy had quietly withdrawn his membership some time back, which could still make him available for a call to lead the Church.

[Doctor Scratch]

To be clear: I don't have any problem with people taking issue with Park's apparent misreading of the statistics. It seems harsh and problematic to depict Park as someone who's "doing harm" to the Church, though. And perhaps the biggest hypocrisy of all is the fact that Lindsay, DCP, and other "Interpreter" Mopologists are going after him over statistics at the same time that they're hosting Rasmussen's ridiculous and dishonest abuse of Bayesian statistical analysis, which basically amounts to a variety of lying to gullible Latter-day Saints.

[Canadiandude2]

I keep wondering why on earth Peterson is kept up late at night by ?Shades (I think it’s Shades) when it’s people like Dr.’s Brooks, Petrey, and Park that seem to really cut into the historical and contemporary issues within the church that really make us re-evaluate things.

These folks and folx manage to shake the powers that be *and* remain pretty decent while doing it.

Well, maybe Peterson takes posts by ‘nobody’s’ such as I more seriously than I thought!

It wasn’t an invitation you dolts!!

Honestly, no wonder why Peterson can’t bring himself to defend Park’s MI status. Peterson is likely more obsessed & jealous of Dr. Park than he’d care to admit.

[Kishkumen]

To be clear: I don't have any problem with people taking issue with Park's apparent misreading of the statistics. It seems harsh and problematic to depict Park as someone who's "doing harm" to the Church, though. And perhaps the biggest hypocrisy of all is the fact that Lindsay, DCP, and other "Interpreter" Mopologists are going after him over statistics at the same time that they're hosting Rasmussen's ridiculous and dishonest abuse of Bayesian statistical analysis, which basically amounts to a variety of lying to gullible Latter-day Saints.

Numbers that make the Church look good are good no matter how fallacious. Numbers that make the Church look bad are noxious no matter how accurate. If they are proven inaccurate, then all the better to show how all criticism is unwarranted.

[Gadianton]

Parks is worried about fundamentalist, evangelical, and right-wing white Americans who seem to be the bogey man for COVID, failing to recognize that the data shows black Americans and some other minorities are among the most vaccine hesitant. And the reasons they have for not being super trustful of the US government should not be ridiculed.

Oh wow, talk about a desperate response from Lindsay. Well yes, there are some legit reasons for minorities along with some illegitimate reasons, but all of the reasons for 'hesitancy' among Mormons are completely stupid and absolutely deserve ridicule. whether or not ridicule is the best policy is another matter.

Ben Park is absolutely right that Mormon hesitancy is explained by its unhinged adoption of right-wing politics. You can't compare the hesitancy found within zones of deep American poverty with the hesitancy of well-educated Mormons who should know better but have found their God in right-wing sloganeering. In addition to the garbage that has come to me via a lifelong devout Mormon friend of mine who is an unhinged right-winger, I've slowly been getting reports from family who have up until recently been quiet about things, and the fever of abject anti-vaxx stupidity among well-educated Mor(m)ons who should know better is reaching the melting point.

The Church leaders absolutely are in part responsible for their weak leadership, and following their own God of real estate and Mammon over the last fifty years, and finding themselves completely out of touch with the membership.

If Lindsay had any integrity, he'd join Park in condemning his nutcase peers and inept leaders.

[Philo Sofee]

The Mopologists, being the brethren's lapdogs, will usually be as out of touch with reality as those they emulate, ululate, and obey. So say it very powerfully Gad.

[Alphus and Omegus]

Parks is worried about fundamentalist, evangelical, and right-wing white Americans who seem to be the bogey man for COVID, failing to recognize that the data shows black Americans and some other minorities are among the most vaccine hesitant.

In this sentence, Lindsay makes the exact same error that A&R Skabelund accuses Park of.

The error, just to remind, is to compare different total populations to each other in terms of covid vaccinations when one of the populations contains a significant number of minors who are either ineligible for vaccination (under 12) or only recently became eligible. Due to Utah having a much younger overall population due to more minors than the average state, it makes sense to only use adult statistics.

But in referencing the black population of the United States, Lindsay has engaged in the very same error. The white population in the U.S. is an older population in comparison to the Hispanic and black populations. Anyone can see this via 2019 Census Bureau data.

https://www2.census.gov/programs-survey ... asr5h.xlsx

We find once we crunch the numbers that 21.8% of White Non-Hispanics are under 20. By comparison, 30.3% of the Black population is under 20. Among White Hispanics, 33.9% are under 20. Thus, it is highly misleading to use total population comparisons when looking at different racial groups.

When we do an apples to apples comparison of only those over 18 years of age, it is obvious that Lindsay has erred. In a July 15-27 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 23% of Republican respondents said they would "definitely not" take a covid vaccine. By comparison, 16 percent of black respondents said the same.

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-1 ... july-2021/

A June survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 14 percent of black respondents were "refusers" of covid vaccines. It found that 19% of Mormons were. 24% of white evangelicals were refusers. Even more stunningly, it found that 46% of people identified as watching "far right" television news channels were refusers.

https://www.prri.org/research/religious ... ccination/

Very clearly, Jeff Lindsay is mistaken. I presume he will be taking his own advice then?

Scholars make mistakes all the time, just like medical experts do. The appropriate scholarly thing is to own up to it and make a retraction. The appropriate political thing, however, if your purpose is pure politics driven by data-free zeal, is to continue acting with zeal while ignoring the real data because the end justifies the means and "progress" is all that matters. I'm looking forward to seeing whether this particular professor will choose scholarship over politics, now that the blunder has been made known. Here's my wish that he and Washington Post will issue a correction that gets at least as much visibility as the error did, though such a thing is rare in the increasingly politicized media.

[Moksha]

... but all of the reasons for 'hesitancy' among Mormons are completely stupid and absolutely deserve ridicule.

So most likely we can disregard that story about COVID and milk strippings?

[Moksha]

The Mopologists, being the brethren's lapdogs, will usually be as out of touch with reality as those they emulate, ululate, and obey. So say it very powerfully Gad.

If nothing else, this episode has demonstrated to the Maxwell Institute the importance of cozying up to the Brethren by showing their loyalty - at least as much as the Interpreter Foundation. Perhaps publishing an anti-LGBTQ article would bolster their favor with the Brethren, and foil the Interpreter's plans for a Reconquista coup.

[Kishkumen]

Ben Park is absolutely right that Mormon hesitancy is explained by its unhinged adoption of right-wing politics. You can't compare the hesitancy found within zones of deep American poverty with the hesitancy of well-educated Mormons who should know better but have found their God in right-wing sloganeering. In addition to the garbage that has come to me via a lifelong devout Mormon friend of mine who is an unhinged right-winger, I've slowly been getting reports from family who have up until recently been quiet about things, and the fever of abject anti-vaxx stupidity among well-educated Mor(m)ons who should know better is reaching the melting point.

Yes, it was among Mormon family and fellow ward members that I heard:

1. That Roosevelt allowed the bombing of Pearl Harbor and definitely knew about it in advance.

2. That MLK was a communist.

3. That the Civil War was definitely fought over states rights.

4. That ERA would bring the dreaded "unisex bathroom."

5. That taxation is unconstitutional.

6. That Joseph Smith was "the greatest American ever."

7. That the Clintons definitely murdered Vince Foster.

8. That Nixon did nothing worse than other presidents and should not have resigned.

9. That ionized bracelets improve your health and well being.

10. That following a diet where you eat only the same single colors of food for a period of time in succession would give you a further endowment of the priesthood (Joseph's coat of many colors).

11. That balancing your magnetic field by sweeping arms around you in pyramid shape will improve your health and strength.

12. That Obama is the anti-Christ prophesied of in the scriptures.

I could go on and on and on and on . . . .

But, yeah, you get the picture, and it ain't pretty.