Rules of Patheos: Midgley appears to violate TOS 10x

[_Dr Moore]

Exactly, Lemmie.

Where exactly did Jesus give his followers the right to judge others? Where exactly did he authorize vigilantism?

[_Paloma]

Here’s a bizarre justification:

Louis Midgley DanielPeterson 9 hours ago

https://disqus.com/home/discussion/danp ... 4638150665

Wow. I am thinking less and less of Midgley’s character. His integrity is completely contingent on which side he thinks is involved. This also explains why he constantly fishes for real life details. It doesn’t matter about facts or truth, it only matters whether he can define a person as a friend or enemy to his religion. If they are deemed an enemy, then the attacks begin.

And this would seem to also apply to Daniel Peterson's approach to the "guests" on his blog. If they treat him and his friends (Midgley and Kiwi) well, then they're welcomed and considered an asset. If not, they are unworthy of consideration and compassion. Do Peterson, Midgley and Kiwi not recognize their own extreme partisanship?

Is it really honourable, and is it true friendship, when they fail to hold each other accountable, but band together no matter how cruel and callous the behaviour of any one of their "own" team?

[_Lemmie]

Tonight, I saw a claim asserted in the same region of the Internet, quite out of the blue, that my friend and colleague Louis Midgley, who served a youthful mission in New Zealand and then returned there decades later with his wife to direct the LDS Institute of Religion in Auckland, must surely have disdained the brown skinned Maori among whom he served and must have held them in arrogant contempt.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... maori.html

Is this Peterson’s way of bypassing the documentation here of Midgley’s stunning lack of character, on exhibit constantly in his SeN comments?

Midgley uniformly defames and personally attacks anyone he considers not on his “side.” Peterson is responsible for allowing Midgley’s behavior to continue on his Patheos site.

[_moksha]

I asked a question of Dr. Midgley on that Maori thread. Hope I don't get booted off SeN.

[_Philo Sofee]

As I have been studying Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Or, How You Will, for an essay I think is important for messageboards of folks who feel lost after Mormonism, I have found a few ditties that most graciously apply to two important posters on Sic et Non. Sorry Kiwi57, there is no room on the bus for you, you have to climb up on top and bear with the wind. Keep yer mouth shut or bugs will plat on your teeth.

Malvolio has arrived at the room where Sir Toby Belch, the Clown and Marie are staying up let making noise (like they do in the comments at Sic et Non). Malvolio intones loudly (he speaks for posters here the exact sentiment to impart to Lou Midgley and Dan Peterson) "My masters are you mad?...Have you no wit, manners, or honesty, but to gabble like tinkers...is there no respect of place, persons, nor time in you?" (2. 3. 81-85)


For Lou Midgley, Marie says to Toby and Andrew "Observe him for the love of mockery; for I know [his posting on Sic et Non comments] will make a contemplative idiot of him." And "The man is tainted in's wits." (3. 4. 11)

I find so much in Shakespeare apropos as I study that fit so well with Dan and Lou's excellent adventure over at Sic et Non. I may as well use it eh?

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I asked a question of Dr. Midgley on that Maori thread. Hope I don't get booted off SeN.

DanielPeterson Mod -> Moksha • 3 hours ago • edited

You're welcome here. It's certainly a more diverse, good humored, and substantive place, and I can understand why you would want to come.

But I ask you to please not bring over here the personal hostilities and obsessions that dominate the place from which you're coming.

Oh, no need for that Mr. Peterson! You do a fine job of obsessively following this board, commenting obsessively about this board on your blog, and creating as much hostility as possible between the two! It's quite psychologically fascinating.

- Doc

[_Dr LOD]

Tonight, I saw a claim asserted in the same region of the Internet, quite out of the blue, that my friend and colleague Louis Midgley, who served a youthful mission in New Zealand and then returned there decades later with his wife to direct the LDS Institute of Religion in Auckland, must surely have disdained the brown skinned Maori among whom he served and must have held them in arrogant contempt.

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... maori.html

Is this Peterson’s way of bypassing the documentation here of Midgley’s stunning lack of character, on exhibit constantly in his SeN comments?

Midgley uniformly defames and personally attacks anyone he considers not on his “side.” Peterson is responsible for allowing Midgley’s behavior to continue on his Patheos site.

Just like Dan said I read the articles by Midgley, I didn't see anything blatantly racist. Especially they type of stuff I see out of they typical self assured Mormon elderly male would say. Somewhere along the way in his writings or a blog comment he did say something about Maori being "nephite" which is a load of BS that was only used to make his mission easier and make him feel more important. So at least he has that one redeeming quality.

Overall it is quite fascinating on what doing Mormon apologetics can do do a persons judgement of what is right or wrong. Or maybe he thinks the ends justify the means, and that he feels that his bad actions defend what he sees as a good purpose. I really don't think Midgley matured much past his early mission emotionally or morally.

[_Gadianton]

Somewhere along the way in his writings or a blog comment he did say something about Maori being "Nephite" which is a load of BS that was only used to make his mission easier and make him feel more important

Are you sure about that? I took one for the team and reviewed one of his essays here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50452&p=1157313

It goes something like this: According to Midgley, Newton claims that the Maori Mormons have long believed themselves to be remnants of the Lamanites and the Book of Mormon is "their book". But "DNA evidence" has forced the Mopologists to invent the Limited Geography Theory, which has been officially adopted by the Church, and so the credibility of the Maori's myth about themselves erodes..Migdley counters two parts of this alleged claim. First, he contends that the Moari don't view themselves as literal remnants of the Lamanites

The Book of Mormon was read by the older Māori I knew in 1950–1952 as “their story” in the sense that it was a tribal history whose  narrative was very much like their own

Remember, the apologists first serve the Limited Geography Theory.

[_Doctor Scratch]

The attempts to resuscitate Midgley's reputation are embarrassing. You can't point to his colonialist exercises in New Zealand as an excuse for the truly horrific ways that he's treated people online. That seems like straight-up colonialist exploitation: "My horrible behavior is okay, because, hey: I was really nice to these brown people in New Zealand!"

Louis MIdlgey is one of the most singularly evil, awful, most sadistic people that Mormonism has ever produced.

[_Lemmie]

Midgley:

Some of the most valuable things go on out of the view of people bent on quarreling with each other. We each prosper when we seek the good in others, and hence also seek to bless the lives of others.

https://disqus.com/home/discussion/danp ... 4638860873

Unless, of course, they are, for example, jcwo, and have committed the crime of disagreeing with midgley:

jcwo.... was clearly venting his hostility to what has to be his former faith. Now he has explained that he did this to avoid "real world repercussions." This seems to be his way of wanting not to have his clients, employer, Bishop or Stake President, or husband or wife, or family members know his real opinions, since doing so would change things. To do this is clearly to lack both courage and probity, especially given that he blasts away at his former faith under a false name. It seems obvious that one who comes to no longer have faith in God, and who is paid with tithing funds ought to immediately resign and find different employment. Or they simply lack even a semblance of courage and probity.

https://disqus.com/home/discussion/danp ... 4636475822

Every word of that ugly accusation is speculation. Midgley has speculated in a similarly disgusting manner about many, many posters. Midgley seeks no good in anyone whom he perceives to be, in his childish, black and white definition, not on his “side.”

As an aside, in my own experiences in the academic world, I have never seen such a bizarrely immature person granted such freedom as Midgley has on Peterson’s blog. Oh sure, eccentrics abound, and they have been well-represented in my field. I recall an emeritus professor, still seen frequently on campus but seemingly out of the academic exchange who slept through nine tenths of every presentation, always rousing himself at the end to ask an extremely penetrating question, while brushing the ever-present crumbs off his shirt front. (His Nobel prize was awarded a year or two later.) Eccentricities like that got innumerable eyerolls, but while the human being behind the unique brain might ignore social niceties, they were never thought intolerable, because they never took delight in being ugly and mean-spirited, as the ignominious Midgley obviously does.