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Mormonism and Multilevel Marketing Companies

(www.cambridge.org)
139 points cdepman | 1 comments | 18 Jul 20 15:30 UTC | HN request time: 0.204s | source
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al2o3cr[dead post] ◴[18 Jul 20 16:12 UTC] No.23882363[source]▶
Turns out the people who'll believe a 19th-century conman's story about reading magic plates from a magic bag using a magic rock are likely to believe other pitches.
derefr ◴[18 Jul 20 16:19 UTC] No.23882423[source]▶
In my experience, people who end up as [insert niche religion] because they grow up hearing such stories before they form the faculties to doubt them, aren't necessarily gullible people. They just have cached beliefs, and haven't had cause to prioritize rooting around getting rid of those cached beliefs. (When the cached beliefs don't actually make any predictions that would cause someone to change their behavior, they don't really tend to come into opposition.)

But yes, if you're the sort of person who consciously joins a niche religion in adulthood, you're probably the same sort of person who will believe other pitches.

replies(2): >>23882527 #>>23882540 #
1. lcall ◴[18 Jul 20 16:30 UTC] No.23882527[source]▶
FWIW, I'm (very gratefully) a member of the Church being mentioned here (more in my profile link, no product sales or JS at my simple site, but I explain why I am a believer in some I hope skimmable detail), and I have precisely 0.00 interest in MLMs.

Edit: A few times in my life someone has given me a pitch, someone I knew, but it never seemed to use "position" as leverage, and there are policies against such things I've heard announced at various times, like an ongoing policy against using membership lists for marketing, buildings for business ventures, etc. But it's not surprising that if someone joins such a business they are asked to pitch to those they know.