DiscussMormonism.com

Scratch started a thread that touched on this earlier (http://mormondiscussions.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25736&hilit=downward+spiral), but I enjoyed reading Runtu's take on Lou Midgley's essay on C.L. Hanson for the Mormon Interpreter. It's available on his blog: http://runtu.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/lou-midgley-gets-two-tens-for-a-five/

Here are two passages I particularly liked:

Runtu wrote:I do wonder why Midgley is hostile to niceness and tact; I suppose atheists should be more genuine about their evil intentions. In some ways I understand Midgley’s fear of the nice and tactful; I’ve been told I’m one of the worst types of anti-Mormons because I try to be kind and fair. Apparently, my behavior is a ruse to ensnare the unwitting in the devil’s clutches. Perhaps Midgley disdains her efforts at promoting civility precisely because he has no need for it himself.

Runtu wrote:The sad part of all this is that she has offered the hand of friendship to people like Midgley, and he has slapped it away angrily. I applaud C.L. Hanson for attempting to build bridges, but I suspect she will have to look beyond people like Midgley, who are too busy planting dynamite around the footings to be bothered with kindness.

for what it's worth, I know that Grant Palmer reached out to Midgley as well and he refused to talk to him. I guess he doesn't wish to allow common human decency to influence him by getting to know a person and hearing their point of view before authoring a hit piece on them. Heaven forbid!

Lou Midgley is a character. I think he's the greatest guy. He's just who he is; doesn't threaten anybody really.

I love the fact that he was fired from BYU for being a suspected communist sympathizer. He rocks in my view.

Yahoo Bot wrote:Lou Midgley is a character. I think he's the greatest guy. He's just who he is; doesn't threaten anybody really.

I love the fact that he was fired from BYU for being a suspected communist sympathizer. He rocks in my view.

That's awesome: character assassination and misrepresenting another person's position are just signs of being a character. That you think such behavior "rocks" doesn't speak highly of you, particularly since you went after Everybody Wang Chung for some ill-considered statements about someone's family.

I have no need for people like Midgley or people who justify his behavior.

Bob Loblaw wrote:

Yahoo Bot wrote:Lou Midgley is a character. I think he's the greatest guy. He's just who he is; doesn't threaten anybody really.

I love the fact that he was fired from BYU for being a suspected communist sympathizer. He rocks in my view.

That's awesome: character assassination and misrepresenting another person's position are just signs of being a character. That you think such behavior "rocks" doesn't speak highly of you, particularly since you went after Everybody Wang Chung for some ill-considered statements about someone's family.

I have no need for people like Midgley or people who justify his behavior.

I assure you that I am not assassinating Bro. Midgley's character, nor do I sign on to everything he does. I like Santa Claus, but don't agree with everything he does. Lou is a character in a constellation of church characters. I see no need to defame him.

Yahoo Bot wrote: ... Lou is a character in a constellation of church characters. I see no need to defame him.

Damn. So Runtu can't post the stuff I just made up about and sent to him about Midgely eating babies?

Oh well, if he can't defame Midgely, I suppose Runtu will just have to stick to making observations of a critical kind about his published work. Yahoo Bot is fine with that, I'm sure.

Ah, yes Le Midge.

He is a sorry excuse for a human being. Perhaps he is The Worst Mormon Of Them All.

What you say? How can he be worse than George A. Smith or William Dame? Or that creep Ernest Wilkinson? Not to mention Old Boss?

Because he's still alive.

I wish the "Midge" would go gently into that good night.

He won't.

Bob Loblaw wrote:That's awesome: character assassination and misrepresenting another person's position are just signs of being a character.

Bob is a idiot lawyer who is an aggressive bully for massive cultic organizations like NXIVM who run open Ponzi schemes. Midge is right up his spineless alley.

Yahoo Bot wrote:I assure you that I am not assassinating Bro. Midgley's character, nor do I sign on to everything he does.

I'm assuming your misreading was intentional.

I like Santa Claus, but don't agree with everything he does.

Does Santa go after someone for merely daring to suggest ways for people to reconcile?

Lou is a character in a constellation of church characters.

After reading his attack on C.L. Hanson, I would say a rather nasty character.

I see no need to defame him.

Who is defaming him?

Maybe to Bot the definition of defame includes "express public disapproval of what a person has actually done." So, to call Jeffrey Dahmer a serial killer would have been defamation. To call Hitler a genocidal madman would have been defamation.

You get the idea.