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Huh. With the beard, he looks a bit like Christopher Lee as Count Dooku from the prequel Star Wars films.



You will donate to Interpreter, or you will pay my vacation expenses!

I don't understand why this guy likes travel so much (except for the money he probably gets from travel lady? ... or the supposed prestige he thinks he gets?). I just got back from a trip back east and it was horrible ... endless waits in airports, forced to buy expensive food/drinks and then the jet lag. I can only take so much when the stay is so short and I have to go through the nonsense over again to fly back. However Dr. P obsessively needs to travel, staying in places for short time periods ... so it seems ... for some reason.

I've been around the world a few times and ... who cares ...

Is it for the sic et non fan-club posters/lurkers? Travel to the same places over and over again? ...

For me, there is no cache in travel logs, but some may think it is amazing, like his groupies ...

Dr Exiled wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 12:30 am

I don't understand why this guy likes travel so much (except for the money he probably gets from travel lady? ... or the supposed prestige he thinks he gets?). I just got back from a trip back east and it was horrible ... endless waits in airports, forced to buy expensive food/drinks and then the jet lag. I can only take so much when the stay is so short and I have to go through the nonsense over again to fly back. However Dr. P obsessively needs to travel, staying in places for short time periods ... so it seems ... for some reason.

I've been around the world a few times and ... who cares ...

Is it for the sic et non fan-club posters/lurkers? Travel to the same places over and over again? ...

For me, there is no cache in travel logs, but some may think it is amazing, like his groupies ...

I think you are on to something, Dr. Exiled, and think that your observations have an important bearing on Mopologetics. For starters, in Dr. Peterson’s defense, I think he genuinely enjoys traveling. And that’s great.

But the problem has to do with his need to *talk* about his travels. First of all, his “travelogues” positively suck. He has no eye for detail and it often feels like he’s rehashing material from Wikipedia. Reading his accounts, you get no sense of what the place is like or why it’s worth visiting: these travelogues are mainly written to show the reader that Dan Peterson travels a lot, and by golly, isn’t he *fancy*? Or, he inserts endless, trite and boring academic material that merely shows that he read something—and not that he actually observed or thought about anything. There is a certain insulting quote about Henry James that he’s fond of, and yet he doesn’t seem to realize how thoroughly it applies to himself.

So there is an element of condescension in the travel posts that’s similar to the old Mopologetic concept of the “Sister in Parowan.” That old, offensive idea—for those who are unfamiliar— was that the “dumb” clueless old ladies in southern Utah needed the apologists of FARMS to show them the correct path. Likewise, the posts on SeN are meant to demonstrate to the “piss-ants” that Mormonism pays off—because look! Here’s globetrotting Dan Peterson! They can all look up to a fellow Mormon who has access to this sort of thing.

It’s really nauseating when you think about it, but it is what it is.

Clearly he has been instrumental in shoring up the belief of a few hundred Canadian Mormons with tales of grape growing and NHM.

"Look, this super smart guy still believes, what's your problem?"

drumdude wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 22, 2022 3:49 am

For all those interested:


The 2022 edition of the annual FAIR Conference is rapidly approaching. It will be held in Provo, Utah, on 3-5 August. We invite you to take part in the conference and, if possible, to do so in person. If you can’t come in person, though — and, strictly speaking, even if you can — streaming will be free this year because of a generous anonymous donation.

I'm sure we'll all be accused of malicious stalking once again simply for tuning in.

I’ve heard that he’s actually speaking on the topic, “Musings of a Mormon Movie Mogul.”