wow i sure wonder 🤔🤔 what the new layouts supposed to look like 🤔🤔🤔🤔 its a mystery

Don’t forget y’all that there’s a much better way for us to let Tumblr know what we think about specific changes, rather than @ ing staff or wip, and it’s sending in a support ticket and choosing feedback!

Tumblr reverted some of the asinine app decisions they made after a concerted feedback effort! So make sure to use this form! It’s what it’s for, but it’s not well advertised!

Which is why it’s important to not be mean.

Their cult teaches them that the world is full of scary monster people who hate them for being so good and loved by god. If you swear at them and call them names or get in their face you’re just doing the cults work for it.

I’m not saying you have to listen to their presentation or try to debate them (and really getting into a debate without thoroughly understanding what they’re being taught will just make things worse)… I am just saying to be polite and say no thank you like if they were trying to hand you a flyer for something you don’t care about.

It’s easier for them to see the world outside their bubble as less scary if they see everyday people just going about their business and being as nice to them as you are to everyone else. This goes doubly for anyone who happens to dress modestly, not swear, and not drink or smoke because whatever you believe, they’ll see you as a “good” person who happens to strangely have no interest in their “message”, and that might be enough to get some curious about the possibility of themselves living in the real world.

It’s sometimes hard to be nice to people who seem to represent something you dislike. Just remember these “elders” are sheltered young men, some of which are getting their first real contact with people of other/no faiths.

They are not your enemy. They are victims.

They aren't being sent out to actually convert people, they are being sent out hoping that they will be harassed and treated poorly so they view those outside the cult as dangerous and evil and stick to the safety of the familiar group.

You being mean to some teenager isn't sticking it to anyone, you're doing exactly what their church elders want to happen.

PLEASE READ THIS.

Please read this.

Don't do the church's work for them.

yeah as an ex-mormon and former missionary i can confirm, the whole premise of the cult thing is to isolate people and convince them that the outside world is big and scary and mean, and make them feel like the only place they're safe and accepted and can relate to anyone is within social spaces controlled by the cult.

full-time missionaries (the young folks in office clothes wandering the streets trying to talk to people) are like the extreme level of that. all mormons are constantly expected to be trying to convert people around them (and getting rejected because nobody else wants to join their incredibly oppressive and unappealing church). but with missionaries, it's literally just non-stop high-intensity no-breaks indoctrination and self-torture, all day every day for 2 years straight. (again, take it from me, i've been through it firsthand.)

the whole point is to drill it into them SO THOROUGHLY that the world hates them, that they carry that trauma for the rest of their lives, and ideally pass it on to their children too (since the way the organization ACTUALLY increases its numbers is by encouraging members to have a ton of kids and raise them within the church).

you don't have to listen to their talking points. you don't have to indulge their weird off-the-cuff personal questions. you definitely don't have to agree to sit down with them for "lessons" about their religion. but you SHOULD try to be kind to them. sooner or later they WILL figure out that people can be kind and good without being mormons, and it'll happen a lot faster if you don't reinforce their notion that anyone who lacks "the gospel" is a grouchy rude asshole who hates them.

obviously circumstances may vary! avoid them entirely if you're the type who worries about saying no to people, or getting roped into things, or you don't feel safe doing/saying anything that might encourage a stranger to engage with you in conversation. i get it! i know the kinds of tactics we were taught for approaching people and i also know how it feels to be on the receiving end. but if you CAN help them in this small way, just by setting an example of a good polite non-mormon person? please do. at the end of the day, they're just scared kids in a very bad situation and under absurd amounts of pressure, and they need all the help they can get.

This is the thing. If there are only so many people they can profit from, and they demand to see profits go up every year, they will have to steal more out of the pockets of the little people each year, either by paying less, or by charging more. And that is the problem. Because that is exactly what is happening. And the rich get richer. And the poor are getting so poor that it is coming to a crisis point. They seem to have forgotten what happens at the crisis point though: people who have nothing to lose, will rise up and fight.