Hey everyone! If you liked this video, consider checking out my bonus content on Patreon! 💙
You can check out my Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/thoughts-on-alex-141441354?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

I feel like the “hey girl” messages out of the blue are always either MLM or “your partner is cheating on you”

I work in FDA labeling, and you’re correct that the reason that they don’t have any specific health claims is because they can’t make effectiveness claims. Even if a product says “FDA CLEARED” that only means it’s cleared for safety, not effectiveness.

The most terrifying words to me are:  “I’d like to talk to you about a business opportunity.”  I’ve been stuck in a van with an Amway lady for HOURS on a Cub Scout day trip.

Some lady cornered me in a thrift store with her child in the cart and pretended to be interested in befriending me for ten minutes only to drop the shameless MLM recruiting attempt.

I think that women losing money in mlms also helps to reinforce the idea that women aren't able to handle money. It reinforces the idea that only the man should be in charge of the money.

Herbalife also came under scrutiny for specifically targeting spanish speaking communities because there's less info about how harmful mlms are in spanish.

When I learned about the relationship between MLM‘s and Mormonism it didn’t surprise me one bit. MLMsand  housewives have always gone hand-in-hand, and when you’re taught to be trusting of members of the same church, it can leave you vulnerable to these kind of predatory business practices from members of the church.

This is the intersection of my two “hate” special interests: cults and MLMs! Thank you Alyssa!

what’s interesting is that i have had family members get sucked into so many mlms, mary kay, pampered chef, etc and my family isn’t even mormon. it’s the hustle culture and productivity mindset that makes people feel like they have to monetize every little bit of their life. i started crocheting and the only thing i get after “oh that’s so cute” is “you should start selling your items!” and i’m extremely resistant to monetizing a hobby that’s meant to bring me peace. it’s really ingrained that anything that you can do to bring in money, you should do that.

Something that’s always stuck out to me since i started researching and learning about Mormonism is how much naïveté the religion produces within its members. The “doubt your doubts” and thought stopping processes that the church depends upon to keep its members from questioning anything really diminishes the development of critical thinking skills and leaves them vulnerable to harm.

I like to imagine Joseph Smith up there in the celestial kingdom cursing himself for not coming up with pyramid schemes when he was alive.

Clarification: I do not believe in an afterlife. Celestial kingdom is a Mormon concept, this is about Mormonism. I'm just staying on brand.

MLMs seem to be very popular here in the Southern US among sects of Christianity as well. There is a woman who attends the same church I do, and she is now on her 4th Mormon company, although she is insistent that THIS one is not an MLM! It cracks me up because each one she claims has found the secret to weight loss and all aspects of health improvement, and a lot of the church members jump on board and seem to lose weight, stop taking actual medications, etc, and suddenly the products stop working. Then she quickly moves on to the next 'miracle' company on the list! I don't understand how they all keep falling for it every time, but they do. She even stated that this recent one was not Mormon affiliated, but it took me all of three seconds of a Google search to find the founder was Mormon.

It is not just inventory based MLMs that can cause reps to loose money. Some MLMs will have monthly quotas or annual fees for their sellers. The primary customers of MLMs are the reps. Most people will never earn the start up cost back, and if they do, they make pennies per hour of work they put in.

I abandoned so many friendships because their mlm was their life and religion.

11:36 when I was 19, a lot of my highschool friends started reaching out to me. I was excited because I left in-person schooling in 10th grade to have my son. I thought everyone forgot about me! Well, they did until they needed someone to sell their essential oils to

The call center/sales portion of this video reminded me of something a friend who works in DC told me - that Mormons are disproportionately represented in high-level national security work, especially overseas. Not only are they usually bi- or even tri-lingual thanks to their mission, they're also intensely patriotic, and the drug-free religious lifestyle makes security clearing them a breeze. I've always found it fascinating how religion can indirectly affect people, and how a seemingly random religious norm like a two-year mission leads to an abundance of call center reps and CIA agents among that religion's members a century later.

im still learning english, so i didnt think MLM could mean anything but "men loving men" :D (thank you for your videos, by the way, they're wonderful)

I'm so glad that you pointed out how MLM moms are often just looking for identity and finacial stability outside of their husbands and children. I also feel really put off by people who make fun of these women when why the end up in these situations is really understandable.

My grandmother, who is not Mormon (I have no family or friend ties to LDS), but she is very Catholic, has been a victim of multiple scams over the years. She also has an esophageal reflux disorder, and was experiencing a lot of digestive distress. One of her friends told her not to see a doctor, instead, take this essential oil everyday, and it will heal it “naturally”. Well, fast forward some years later, and she is having all kinds of serious swallowing problems, choking on liquids never mind solid food. She finally listened to us and saw a doctor. She had such severe scarring in her esophagus, that the max diameter was 10mm. That is absolutely tiny, in case it wasn’t clear. She had to go through multiple procedures where her esophagus was stretched to give her more functionality. She had to be extremely careful what food she ate, and had to take an acid reducer. It took a long time for her to be able to swallow somewhat normally. If she hadn’t been duped into believing that essential oils would “cure” her issues, she would not have had to go through so much pain to undo years of stomach acid damage to her esophagus. It’s probably obvious, but I hate these awful “snake oil” selling MLMs. They do so much damage, and are rarely held accountable. There are people who have died because they took some fake “treatment” instead of actual medicine prescribed by a doctor. Despicable.

I have been fascinated by this content. From the outside, the LDS Church looks so very culty. It so manipulative and dangerous. I really appreciate learning so much that has always been unavailable previous to finding this channel.