androidsixteen 🌲
@androidsixteen.eth
Why would Utah lawmakers jeopardize the oral health of their constituents and show wanton disregard for the esteemed American Dental Association? https://apnews.com/article/utah-fluoride-ban-43f67153beb3e06ada9d782655fb15de
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Caden
@cbxm
aaagghhhhh, tough q to answer, but i'll try. utahns are... pretty radical. in a lot of ways. utah mormons are a very sneaky, low-key type of far-right. highly cultish, physically non-violent, but socially violent. the primarily mormon legislature weaponizes their influence against the non-mormon population to tax vice and suppress behavior. non-mormons become radicalized in their opposition as a result. it's a culture war, through and through. this is the /reframing that i think most people miss: utah mormons truly do believe their faith is a shield against harm. they truly do believe that they can inflict mass harm on non-believers in the name of righteousness and god will protect them from the fallout. there is (and has been for a long time) a pervasive anti-science, anti-establishment sentiment amongst utah mormons, bc people also forget that utah's founders wanted it to be its own country ("Deseret"). weakening the federal government and fracturing the US could be seen as a manifest destiny for them.
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Caden
@cbxm
i wish i could share a thousand more words on this, but a quick final note: the utah legislature is particularly malicious, in ways i don't even comprehend, tbh. they definitely don't represent the wills of their constituents, but manifest destiny and capitalism aren't even always functional lenses to understand their behavior.
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