So strange. I had never heard of. Go ask Alice, and then last week I was listening to a 5-year-old podcast episode of "I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats" and they were talking about it.
A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
31–40 of 104 posts
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#32> Utah, reputed to be the fraud capital of America; the state is estimated by some to boast a Ponzi scheme for every hundred thousand people Small tangent, but does anybody in Utah have insight into why this might be? This is bewildering to me.
I live in Utah and was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the dominant church in Utah -- which often bleeds into the culture). In my opinion, the large amount of former missionaries (who often participate in door-to-door sales-like evangelizing) in Utah provides an ideal workforce willing to participate in difficult sales. Many of my friends and family went into sales after their missions as an easy way to make a lot of money. I think this is a large piece to your question.
Additionally, as another comment has said many of the stay-at-home mothers I know who are members of the Church become huge advocates for these pyramid schemes and push them onto friends and family.
This is just anecdotal data so I apologize for the lack of sources other than my own, subjective experience.
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#33> Utah, reputed to be the fraud capital of America; the state is estimated by some to boast a Ponzi scheme for every hundred thousand people Small tangent, but does anybody in Utah have insight into why this might be? This is bewildering to me.
Utah has the strongest legal protections for MLMs/Pyramid Schemes/etc. in the country [1].
The demand for that safe harbor and the political will to pass it is largely a result of Mormonism. The hierarchy of the church discourages anyone from criticizing the next level 'above' them. There is also strong societal pressure for Mormon wives to be stay-at-home mothers, but the economic reality means they often need to find some way to make additional money. Add that to the Mormon mission system, and you have a vast number of people comfortable making cold calls (whether for Elohim or doTERRA).
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#34> Utah, reputed to be the fraud capital of America; the state is estimated by some to boast a Ponzi scheme for every hundred thousand people Small tangent, but does anybody in Utah have insight into why this might be? This is bewildering to me.
I live in Utah and was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the dominant church in Utah -- which often bleeds into the culture). In my opinion, the large amount of former missionaries (who often participate in door-to-door sales-like evangelizing) in Utah provides an ideal workforce willing to participate in difficult sales. Many of my friends and family went into sales after their missio…
I asked for anecdotes! Thank you for sharing.
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#35> Utah, reputed to be the fraud capital of America; the state is estimated by some to boast a Ponzi scheme for every hundred thousand people Small tangent, but does anybody in Utah have insight into why this might be? This is bewildering to me.
So as someone who grew up with lots of Utah Mormons (mother was a convert) I believe there was a strong evolutionary selection pressure for naivety to both become a Mormon and then remain Mormon through all of their “trials and tribulations” in the mid 1800s. If you thought it was all horse shit you wouldn’t have moved 1000 miles to Utah in the middle of nowhere.
While members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints can be exceptionally intelligent people, there’s also an air of childish gullibility I don’t see in the general population.
I’m not super confident with this theory and have no skin in the game but it’s something I’ll posit to friends over a drink if Mormons come up.
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#36Not exactly a new phenomena. Remember "A Million Little Pieces"?
Go Ask Alice predates A Million Little Pieces by more than 3 decades.
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#37As a few ex-Mormons have pointed out, Sparks was not the first Mormon to publish a text ostensibly based on an original source that the rest of the world did not get to see. Hah!
TFA is blatantly wrong: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/th... https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/ei...
They only saw them with their "spiritual eyes".
https://read.cesletter.org/witnesses/#second-sight
Former member, it hurts seeing everything that I " knew" to be true turn out to be complete falsehoods. I encourage you to read the sourced and cited first-party quotations.
I'm sorry, and I hope nothing but the best for you and yours.
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#38> Utah, reputed to be the fraud capital of America; the state is estimated by some to boast a Ponzi scheme for every hundred thousand people Small tangent, but does anybody in Utah have insight into why this might be? This is bewildering to me.
I live in Utah and was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the dominant church in Utah -- which often bleeds into the culture). In my opinion, the large amount of former missionaries (who often participate in door-to-door sales-like evangelizing) in Utah provides an ideal workforce willing to participate in difficult sales. Many of my friends and family went into sales after their missio…
Wasn't good old Orin Hatch a protector of MLMs and things like snake oil vitamins and supplements in the Senate?
edit - wow - ok he wrote a law exempting them from regulation apparently (https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-hatch...)
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#39> Utah, reputed to be the fraud capital of America; the state is estimated by some to boast a Ponzi scheme for every hundred thousand people Small tangent, but does anybody in Utah have insight into why this might be? This is bewildering to me.
Major source of income for Mormons, who run the state
Re: A Mormon housewife turned a fake diary into an enormous best-seller
#40Very interesting article and it's worth considering how even though we can easily recognise these stories as being laughably fake these days, it's worth keeping in mind that fearmongering stories like this continue to be peddled to people with certain prejudices, and the only thing that's really changed since then is its shape and approach
Be careful with dismissing the general idea that drugs can lead to a miserable life since drugs can lead to complete misery. I was going down the street at my downtown the other day. I looked to the side, the side of the sidewalk, and saw someone that had lost all control of his life and was barely hanging on. He was sticking a needle in his arm and was shooting up. He looked like life had chewed him up and spit him out. Up to that point I had only seen it on TV or the movies. This was the first time I had seen it in real life. It was much uglier than I had ever thought it would be. It was shocking to see it. It's very sad that addiction can lead to such circumstances.