So long as young Mormons believe that the rest of the world is against them, that they must continuously "be on guard against persecution from the gentiles" (aka martyrdom of Jos. Smith.)
They are taught to fear those who would persecute them for having the "real faith."
Yes. Apt cultural discernment there re: Mormons.
It's a rather interesting Mormon dichotomy approach re: history.
More important to Mormons than July 4 is July 24 -- Pioneer Day...corresponding with the Mormon settlement of Utah.
As FR poster Zakeet can tell you, Mormons killed many more from its Utah base than any few victims the Mormons could actually round up by name and recount for history purposes.
So, here, 90% of Mormon longevity has been operative from its base in Utah, yet Mormons somehow want to both highlight Pioneer Day, yet focus on about less than two years' worth of time in what happened in MO and Nauvoo in the first 10% of Mormonism's life span.
And even then, Mormons overdramatize how long the persecution lasted in Missouri:
* It was about 100 days in Jackson Co late spring/early Summer & early fall of '33;
* Another month or so-- maybe 40-45 days in Sept/Oct 1838 -- violence all occurring in Oct...and even THEN it was two-way violence with Mormon militia instigating some of it!
* All told in MO, 'twas less than 5 months actual real time.
Once you look under the hood, in the first 100 of those days in 1833 MO it was done by less than 50 people in 1 county (400-500 did attend a council in mid-July but we have no record of how many in attendence of a mtg acted upon it...showing up at an event doesn't make you an oppressor or persecutor ...and the committee who then attempted to foist themselves upon the Mormons were only 12 men...(Joseph Fielding Smith, Essentials in Church History, p. 133-134) --- out of a state-wide/co-wide pop of how many?
Joseph Fielding Smith says mob of 500 (p. 135) no violence but threatened it July 23, 1833. Smith says "about 1200 members forced to leave Jackson co." (p. 209) but the committee which forced them out only specified 11 families according to Smith earlier in the book. They forced 9 of 11 families to leave within a few mos. warning -- and the two remaining would finish up their business goods (Smith, p. 135).
Of course, some things happened in Nauvoo in 1844-1845...But Nauvoo was essentially Mormon run up through 1844 -- including its entire city council!