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Avi Krishna's avatar

this was nice to read! very heartwarming.

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Kenneth's avatar

that south park episode sounds fire. if mormonism is about kindness and trains that sounds a lot better than, certain others. maybe we (as a society) should stop bullying them so much

i get what you mean about kindness being a cloy though, and maybe thats why i have 0 mormon friends.

also going out and talking to random people sounds like a good idea, but how tf does one just walk up to a stranger and say ‘tell me your life story’?

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Claire Wang's avatar

the episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_About_Mormons :). Also interesting (posssibly blasphemous) mormon youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3BqLZ8UoZk.

LOL we literally walked up to someone and said "we're travelers and want to learn more about the area + people with interesting stories" and see how they responded

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Janet!'s avatar

this is so moving – i love people-watching through your eyes :) there's so much nuance and tenderness that i think we miss when we talk about middle america.

i think the profiles that you make capture some of the spirits of these people, and i love how fair your assessment is, i think. you don't pander to a romanticized version of the midwest, you bring your own coastal girl judgements, but there's respect for the way they live their lives.

i also love the small town horror + kindness observation. it reminds me of chinese communities a lot; one thing that i talked about with a friend is how high trust communities tend to have stronger us vs. them perspectives, such that every community will almost always have their own little flaws.

good post

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Claire Wang's avatar

yeah. for the longest time i just couldn't imagine living in the midwest, this sort of unfair bias because of the culture I grew up in. and 100% chinese communities — didn't actually think of them in the small town horror concept, but yeah it's just as cloying and seemingly oppressive sometimes (but maybe less of the fake kindness and more directness?)

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agniv's avatar

living there this summer :} thanks for hyping it up

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Nina Khera's avatar

such a well-written post!

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