[–] Joe_McCarthy 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
I'm mostly approaching this from a 'what works' perspective. The Amish or even the FLDS have real cultures based on sincere belief. I've witnessed them personally. And they are impressive after a fashion because they are real and withstood the test of time and even tribulation.
[–] Quaestorr 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
This is al true. But personally, I'd only be able to see them as real persons if they'd confess to me, even if only in private, a whisper in my ear maybe: "I don't literally believe, but I appreciate all that in an allegorical way". Until that, I mainly see them as well-functioning depositories of Europid genetics.
[–] Joe_McCarthy ago
Well, in the case of the FLDS we're dealing with polygamous, fundamentalist Mormons. Their community on the Arizona-Utah border might be the most insulated in America. You would indeed find them alien. I even do.
I view Mormonism as something of a scam to get girls - or at least that is what it was originally, and the FLDS is true to the original Mormon faith. But one might genuinely believe in a god that grants him twenty good looking wives.
Certainly that community is ignorant enough of the outside world to believe their own bullshit as it were. They'd sort of have to believe it to continue on against a hostile larger society.