You can't give a second example before you give a first example. This is a form of denial that dovetails with gaslighting. Remember, here was the first "example":The Blm [sic] movement is my second example of liberalism potentially capitalising on the cult-like characteristics of Mormonism.
These two statements are not only false, they completely misrepresent what Hassan's blog post actually says. By failing to acknowledge his past misrepresentation (denial) and asserting that he has provided a first example when, in fact, all he has done is blatantly misrepresented his only source (gaslighting), we again see the classic elements of trolling: never acknowledge error and when caught misrepresenting facts, change the subject and pretend you were right all along.This is an article by Steven Hassan that explains how left-wing cults trick people into believing crazy ideologies that are often rooted in marxism. Very impressive and very worrying.
***
I linked to an article written by a liberal hero who acknowledged that liberalism has cult-like tendencies just like conservatism and Mormonism.
Now, we're presented with what purports to be a personal anecdote. It's a safe tactic -- nothing to fact check. As tempting as it might be to dismiss the anecdote because we've already seen that we have an unreliable narrator, I suggest using the principle of generosity and take the story at face value. If we do, the low energy nature of the trolling almost jumps out of the page. The conclusions drawn reflect a complete absence of effort or interest in trying to understand why a BLM rally might resemble a religious service in some ways.
All it takes to understand why the narrator saw a resemblance is to expend minimal efforts on the internet. Just Google "Civil Rights Religion" for enough information to clearly show that the Civil Rights movement was a much a religious movement as it was a political movement. Note the involvement of clergy and religious organizations, not only from historically black Christian churches, but from other denominations and faith traditions. Religion is in the DNA of the civil rights movement in a way that I don't think has an equivalent in the U.S. That is the culture and tradition in which BLM is grounded. Again, for a minimal investment of time on the internet, anyone can observe the intertwined relationship of BLM and religion.
But, beyond that, the religious culture of black, protestant congregations is completely unlike the Mormon culture that our narrator says they are a part of. I've attended a couple of services at an AME church in my area a couple of times. It in no way resembled any experience I'd had in Mormonism. It reminded more of descriptions of an old-time revival meeting than anything else. It was a good reminder to me that the religious culture I grew up in was very different from other religious cultures.
But such is the nature of low-effort trolling. Our narrator clearly has one hammer, and he simply assumes everything is a nail. Anyone with the slightest curiosity would have made some effort to try and understand why they had seen what they saw. But the point of low effort trolling is to get the most bang (emotional response) for the buck (time invested). Those who troll in this manner aren't interested in learning anything because they already know the answers.
