In a display of total disconnect that would put Canadian lawyer Bob McCue to shame, along comes “Aleksandr Zinkovsky, head of the department of psychiatry at the Tver State Medical Academy,” who says that Latter-day Saints “have a low level of intelligence” because “they practice inbreeding.”
While this slur might impress neo-Communists in Tver, Russia, it is entirely unconvincing to better-educated people, like the readers of the Financial Times, which in 2006 rated the business programme at LDS flagship Brigham Young University as the 45th best–in the world.
Furthermore, people familiar with former Governor Mitt Romney [R-MA] may wonder how any rational person could label a man who simultaneously graduated–with honours–from two of the most rigourous academic programmes on earth (Harvard’s business and law schools) as an idiot.
What does this insult say about the Russian attitude towards their decades-long allies, the Muslims, who “inbreed” even more than Latter-day Saints? Does Zinkovsky attack “Mormons” rather than Muslims because he has more to fear from the latter?
Of course, this slam is typical of bullies, who refuse to “pick on somebody their own size.” Moreover, insulting others in so blatant a fashion implies a contempt, not only for his target, but also for his audience. But then, that is also true of demogogues.
This is news to me. Until now, I never knew I was guilty of inbreeding.
I suppose the “low level of intelligence” doesn’t extend to BYU’s animation program.
http://byunews.byu.edu/archive08-Mar-animationevent.aspx
Well…… you know…… if ya can’t beat em with facts, beat em with innuendo.
This is what happens when not only the media, but also some exceedingly misguided Latter-day Saints, refuse to distinguish between members of the Church and practicing polygamists. It confuses the heck out of the academic world.
Last time I actually looked at polling data on Russian attitudes in the 1990s, the vast majority view was that all Chechens were drug dealers and that handicapped people should be euthanized.
Great thing they got going on over there.
Hi James!
It’s news to me, as well. The majority of us are CONVERTS.
It seems to me that these people would prefer to think that the news of LDS intelligence is nonexistent.
Hi Kerry! Long time, no cyber-see!
Why use innuendo if you can get away with outright whoppers?
š
Hi Veronica!
It’s not just the polygamist cultures that practise “inbreeding.” In the “Redneck” culture of the US South, marrying cousins are not uncommon. The marriage of US singer Jerry Lee Lewis to his 13-year-old cousin [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lee_Lewis] illustrates this phenomenon nicely.
Moreover, while I am all for obeying the law, I am unprepared to damn polygamy, per se, as that wouold mean damning such people as the Patriarch Abraham.
Hi Seth!
That intelligence tells me that I wouldn’t want to be a Muslim or a Mormon in Russia!
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