20 Year Societal Gauge

[laronius]

In the October 2003 General Conference Elder Ballard made the following statement:

Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up.

How would we rate society right now compared with Elder Ballard's assessment of almost 20 years ago? 

[JohnsonJones]

4 hours ago, laronius said:

In the October 2003 General Conference Elder Ballard made the following statement:

Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up.

How would we rate society right now compared with Elder Ballard's assessment of almost 20 years ago? 

I feel that media is getting much more brazen on it's attacks on the family and it's portrayal of immorality.  It still tries to do it under the guise of "family friendly" in many cases (for example, Disney's animated movie, "Strange Worlds"), but in others it has become much more blatant and obvious.

[Vort]

10 hours ago, laronius said:

In the October 2003 General Conference Elder Ballard made the following statement:

Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up.

How would we rate society right now compared with Elder Ballard's assessment of almost 20 years ago? 

I rate Elder Ballard a prophet.

[NeuroTypical]

11 hours ago, laronius said:

Often media’s most devastating attacks on family are not direct or frontal or openly immoral. Intelligent evil is too cunning for that, knowing that most people still profess belief in family and in traditional values. Rather the attacks are subtle and amoral—issues of right and wrong don’t even come up.

As I raised kiddos and helped them do art and whatnot, we went online to find places to hang out with other artistic kiddos who liked to post and talk about music/art/stories of this or that type, this or that fandom.  We still hang out in a few places where young adults share their creative creations.  I've become a huge fan of undiscovered/unpublished talent, I've got a continually evolving playlist full of songs I've downloaded from bandcamp and snagged from Youtube, and a hard drive full of creative memes created by young folk.  (I'd tell my bishop that I have a DeviantArt account, but I think it would only confuse him, and waste his time describing what that means and why it's not really a problem.) 

Anyway, on the discord servers where these mostly-secular-millennials get together to talk shop, I notice they also are concerned with self-care, mental health, living a good life, etc.  The subforums will occasionally have names things like "wholesome" or "TheGoodFight" or "recharge", which is where folks go to share good things and be supportive of good things in general.  A huge percentage of what qualifies, is pro-LGBTQ stuff, spreading love, examples of dismantling patriarchical systems, advancing the cause of socialism and marxism.  These kiddos associate love and wholesomeness with breaking down barriers and changing the system so that anyone can be any gender they like, and the historically marginalized alphabet people are celebrated and supported.  The most beloved classes have stories of fleeing their repressive church-loving parents, getting out of their murderously transphobic states, breaking out of their racist patriarchical toxic masculinity mindsets to be able to just love freely.  There's no talk of discipline, nobody wants to get married.  Talk of career and spouses and whatnot exist, but it's a tiny minority in such spaces, and relegated only to people sharing their own lived reality without pushing it on anyone else.

You tell me how I should rate society compared with Elder Ballard's assessment. 

[Ironhold]

Right now, the United States comic book industry is in a de facto civil war. 

On one side, you have the mainstream comic book industry. Marvel. DC. IDW. Archie. Dark Horse. Image. A large number of mid-tier and vanity houses. All of them have become divorced from reality, with "woke" writers, artists, and editors putting message over even making money and generally making a hash of once-valued and cherished franchises. 

On the other side, you have the vox populi. These are writers, artists, indie houses, and fans of all ages who are sick of being told "We're making this, so you'd better like it or you're a Nazi" by the mainstream industry. Large swaths of people are voting with their wallets, abandoning these corrupt establishment houses in favor of foreign publishers, indie publishers, and publishers of non-traditional fare who they feel are more responsive to what the public is after and who they feel are providing material more in the classic spirit of the art. 

The end result? 

Japanese titles like "My Hero Academia" and "Spy X Family" are massive smash hits in the United States despite being PG-13 at best. 

Graphic novel series like "Dog Man" and "Captain Underpants" are making more money individually than many mainstream comic book publishers are. 

High-profile indie creators like Richard C. Meyer, Ethan Van Sciver, Eric July, and Nerd Wonder can easily clear half a million on crowd-funding projects. 

The Comicsgate consumer revolt movement is now more racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse than many of the mainstream houses that proclaim their commitment to diversity. 

IDW is on death watch after its stock was de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange.

Et cetra. 

If enough people are willing to rise up and say "No, I don't want it, and you're a fascist for trying to force me to want it", and these people are willing to hold their ground, then it *will* add up over time and begin forcing the culture to change accordingly.

[scottyg]

1 hour ago, Ironhold said:

Right now, the United States comic book industry is in a de facto civil war. 

On one side, you have the mainstream comic book industry. Marvel. DC. IDW. Archie. Dark Horse. Image. A large number of mid-tier and vanity houses. All of them have become divorced from reality, with "woke" writers, artists, and editors putting message over even making money and generally making a hash of once-valued and cherished franchises. 

On the other side, you have the vox populi. These are writers, artists, indie houses, and fans of all ages who are sick of being told "We're making this, so you'd better like it or you're a Nazi" by the mainstream industry. Large swaths of people are voting with their wallets, abandoning these corrupt establishment houses in favor of foreign publishers, indie publishers, and publishers of non-traditional fare who they feel are more responsive to what the public is after and who they feel are providing material more in the classic spirit of the art. 

The end result? 

Japanese titles like "My Hero Academia" and "Spy X Family" are massive smash hits in the United States despite being PG-13 at best. 

Graphic novel series like "Dog Man" and "Captain Underpants" are making more money individually than many mainstream comic book publishers are. 

High-profile indie creators like Richard C. Meyer, Ethan Van Sciver, Eric July, and Nerd Wonder can easily clear half a million on crowd-funding projects. 

The Comicsgate consumer revolt movement is now more racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse than many of the mainstream houses that proclaim their commitment to diversity. 

IDW is on death watch after its stock was de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange.

Et cetra. 

If enough people are willing to rise up and say "No, I don't want it, and you're a fascist for trying to force me to want it", and these people are willing to hold their ground, then it *will* add up over time and begin forcing the culture to change accordingly.

After years and years of banking money, these companies can afford to show their true colors and push "the message" over profits. The adversary doesn't really need any more money...he as as much as he needs to further his mission. Same thing in hollywood - all they need to do is have 2-3 big hit movies each year, and affords them the breathing room to have a bunch of garbage films that appease the hokey pokey wokies.

Sadly, comics and other forms of sci-fi are not what they were when I was a kid...and that wasn't very long ago.

[Traveler]

Sometimes I think we unknowingly get caught up in worldly thinking and not realize what can distract from light and truth.  For example, how many parents have told their children that with hard work and determination they can become whatever they want.  We think this in part even applies to worldly things like becoming a doctor, a husband and father, a wife and mother, a wealthy CEO, or the president of a country.  In reality, not every child born can become or accomplish certain things.  Not every boy can be a husband and father only if there is a wife and mother that together can a family be accomplished – it is not just the accomplishment of an individual.

Regardless of determination and effort, a healthy young girl cannot (and should not) ever physically sire children as a biological father in a family setting nor can a young man ever physically give birth to children as a biological mother in a family setting.  No one can accomplish all things with determination and desire alone.  There are things to which we are born (reality) that govern what any individual can accomplish.

Religion can set a stage for a loss of touch with reality – and historically often has.  I believe that it is even possible to achieve and accomplish things that ought not be pursued.   For example, it is not a good idea to lie even if you can develop such expertise that everyone (including the liar) would believe it. 

It can be difficult to decipher what one ought to do from what they can do, and it can also be difficult to decipher what one even ought to consider doing.  My point is that we cannot always see in advance what seeds we sow will eventually germinate or evolve to under extreme conditions.  Currently many believe that the use of various energy possibilities will destroy humanity yet find it impossible to believe that the alterations of reproductive behaviors can have any effect in maintaining our species.

For the LGBTQ+ community to survive beyond a current generation two things must be accomplished.  First – the current generation of humanity must give birth to a new generation which can only be accomplished through heterosexual relationships (non-LGBTQ+).  And second the LGBTQ+ community must have enough influence on the new generation to convince some or part to break with the concept of biological family (to which they were born) and join the LGBTQ+ community.

 

The Traveler

[NeuroTypical]

On 5/23/2023 at 11:32 AM, Ironhold said:

On one side, you have the mainstream comic book industry. Marvel. DC. IDW. Archie. Dark Horse. Image. A large number of mid-tier and vanity houses. All of them have become divorced from reality, with "woke" writers, artists, and editors putting message over even making money and generally making a hash of once-valued and cherished franchises. 

On the other side, you have the vox populi. These are writers, artists, indie houses, and fans of all ages who are sick of being told "We're making this, so you'd better like it or you're a Nazi" by the mainstream industry. Large swaths of people are voting with their wallets, abandoning these corrupt establishment houses in favor of foreign publishers, indie publishers, and publishers of non-traditional fare who they feel are more responsive to what the public is after and who they feel are providing material more in the classic spirit of the art. 

I've noticed this happening not just with comic books.  Starting around 2020 (when our cities were burning), a frantic frenzied atmosphere took over, and everyone believed if they didn't start shoehorning black and alphabet characters into their productions, they would somehow get labeled as participating white colonizer institutional racism and transphobia.  Star Trek Discovery began crowbarring a virtue-signalingly, plot-destroyingly large amount of minority representation into their last 2 seasons.  Entire episodes consisting of little more than watching random main cast members smiling supportively as the new transgender character learned lessons of growth and self acceptance.   RWBY (The absolute finest Japanese Manga to ever come out of Austin Texas) had two of the main characters turn into each other's lesbian love interests 7 years after the show started.  Disney gave us Encanto, and pop culture really pushed how cool it was because of the total lack of any white people in it.   Every streaming service except Disney+ as far as I can tell, added "black stories" and "LGBTQA+" to their list of genres, and often started showcasing them.  Correcting the collective guilt of centuries of racism and homophobia by boosting the signal of 'historically marginalized' groups.   In some circles, if you didn't go see Black Panther and The Woman King and Wakanda Forever, you better have a pretty dang good reason why not. 

I don't give a crap about minority representation in media - if that's what people want to do, that's fine.  But you start sacrificing plot and character development in order to preach your agenda so hard you lose sight of what you're doing, then you lose your audience.

[Traveler]

On 5/26/2023 at 10:57 AM, NeuroTypical said:

I've noticed this happening not just with comic books.  Starting around 2020 (when our cities were burning), a frantic frenzied atmosphere took over, and everyone believed if they didn't start shoehorning black and alphabet characters into their productions, they would somehow get labeled as participating white colonizer institutional racism and transphobia.  Star Trek Discovery began crowbarring a virtue-signalingly, plot-destroyingly large amount of minority representation into their last 2 seasons.  Entire episodes consisting of little more than watching random main cast members smiling supportively as the new transgender character learned lessons of growth and self acceptance.   RWBY (The absolute finest Japanese Manga to ever come out of Austin Texas) had two of the main characters turn into each other's lesbian love interests 7 years after the show started.  Disney gave us Encanto, and pop culture really pushed how cool it was because of the total lack of any white people in it.   Every streaming service except Disney+ as far as I can tell, added "black stories" and "LGBTQA+" to their list of genres, and often started showcasing them.  Correcting the collective guilt of centuries of racism and homophobia by boosting the signal of 'historically marginalized' groups.   In some circles, if you didn't go see Black Panther and The Woman King and Wakanda Forever, you better have a pretty dang good reason why not. 

I don't give a crap about minority representation in media - if that's what people want to do, that's fine.  But you start sacrificing plot and character development in order to preach your agenda so hard you lose sight of what you're doing, then you lose your audience.

A side note - Joseph Goebbels (Hitler's Propaganda minister and considered the father of brainwashing) once said that the best method to change someone's thinking and behavior is through entertainment - especially humor.  That anything that someone would laugh at they will eventually embrace and think they have always believed it.

 

The Traveler

[Anddenex]

I would say Elder Ballard was accurate. I would also say, we have moved from the subtle intelligent evil in some areas, and while in other areas intelligent evil is still subtle.

If the report is accurate, the young father who received a restraining order due to the girlfriend dressing their son up as a girl is evidence of intelligent evil being more blatant. This is a disgrace to the human race. A child is not old enough to smoke. A child is not old enough to do many things, but a life altering drugs and potential surgery -- old enough.

EDIT: The father seeking to protect his son is the one with the restraining order, now their is some irony and blatant evil.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Anddenex