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This. This is exactly right. And I am tired of the weird talking donkey people coming after us 😉

Brilliant and true. Jonah Goldberg’s thoughts about Mormons after the Michigan massacre: “…. to the extent I can be “pro” a large demographic group without running afoul of my classically liberal aversion to talking about groups in blanket ways, I am pro-Mormon. Not for what they believe theologically, but because of how they behave morally and culturally. What I find particularly fascinating about extreme anti-Mormonism is that it is overwhelmingly theological and abstract. I am not dismissing theological distinctions as “mere abstractions.” Abstractions can be extremely important. But there is something distinctly off-putting—one might even say evil—when theological differences morph into hatred toward a whole class of people solely for doctrines and not for what they actually do in service to those doctrines. This is different than most hatreds that try to claim—often dishonestly, but not always—to link the beliefs to actions. Racists and antisemites will make claims about what “the blacks” or “the Jews” do. I will often disparage Communists for their beliefs, but my argument for doing so hinges on the things Communists actually do, have done, or want to do in the real world because of those beliefs. A Marxist poet who minds his business might amuse me, but who cares? Think of it this way: If there were no such thing as Islamist terrorism, far fewer people would have a problem with Islam. Of course, animosity toward Islam because of terrorism can be very unfair to Muslims who are not terrorists and—again, as a classical liberal on these matters—treating peaceful decent Muslims as if they are responsible for the terrorist acts of others is wrong. Yes, the question of “support” for terrorism makes things muddier, but we’re going to stay clear of that rabbit hole. The point is that Mormon haters can’t point to “Mormon terrorism” or make specious and invidious guilt-by-association claims the way racists and antisemites routinely do. Jews don’t use the blood of Christian babies to make their matzoh—a centuries-old blood libel—but at least that lie is a claim about something Jews supposedly do. Mormon haters don’t talk about “Mormon crime” or Mormon welfare cheats the way racists will talk about blacks. Heck, I think the Amish are “wrong” about all sorts of things, but beating up an Amish person because of those disagreements strikes me as just about the dumbest thing imaginable. But even anti-Amish bigotry, to the extent it exists, seems to rest at least pretextually on things like Amish being conscientious objectors during wartime and, I dunno, slowing down traffic with their buggies. I struggle to think of what Mormons do that justifies disliking them, never mind hating them. And yet there are a lot of Mormon haters out there. I was at National Review when we endorsed Mitt Romney for president in 2012, and the amount of email I got from self-professed evangelical Christians spewing the rankest bigotry against him, and Mormons generally, stunned me. Except for a few nasty jokes about undergarments, these notes were all about heresy, demonic this, antichrist that, and various theological “crimes”—but not anything that Mormons actually, or even allegedly, do. They just believe the “wrong” thing. In this way, I think extreme anti-Mormonism may be the most reactionary form of hatred in America, because hating people solely for what they believe is the closest we get to ideas that powered the wars of religion in Europe, not to mention atrocities like the Albigensian Crusade. It’s premodern, tribal, reactionary, and evil.” thedispatch.com/newsletter/g…

A fascinating phenomenon I have personally experienced