Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

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Doctor Scratch
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Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Doctor Scratch »

Boy, things sure have been busy here at DiscussMormonism lately, haven't they? Lots of new (and old "new") posters showing up--there is a real buzz in the air! Meanwhile, I don't know if you caught it, but there have been multiple mentions about a potential split between Dr. Peterson and his longtime host, Patheos. The latest lament seems to have come about due to Midgley's attempts to bribe DCP into banning the powerfully effective poster named "Chapstick"--a ploy that was met with protest from "Chewbarker":
Chewbarker wrote:Louis, are you seriously offering money to Dan if he bans a poster? Why not just put CS on ignore instead of attempting to get Dan to violate the rules of Patheos?
LB wrote:It is my recommendation that Professor Peterson should move his blog off of Patheos precisely because it has lax rules against trolling.
Daniel Peterson wrote:I'll be seriously looking (when I find a moment or two) at some alternatives.
Very interesting! You can practically cut the acrimony with a knife. Of course, "Sic et Non" has always been a problem. For one thing, the content basically sucks: the most interesting thing about it is the comments. And I'm sure that DCP and his "posse" have been something of a headache for the Patheos admin team: it's a safe bet that they were the ones behind DCP's apology over the lynching images that he posted as an ill-conceived "joke." In addition to that, there've been threats of lawsuits, plus lots of (alleged) plagiarism, and many other gaffes and screwups. And now we have him openly saying--yet again--that he's looking for a new place post his drivel. I think this is a smokescreen, though.

First, Dr. Peterson recently said that he's sticking with Patheos until the debut of the "Witnesses" movie (which, by the way, still seems to be denying people the ability to write reviews), but that he's perhaps going to take a hike afterwards. Second, he's mentioned from time to time that he's been summoned to "meetings" with Patheos's admin team, the purpose of which was apparently to "rejuvenate" his posting. That, apparently, was the rationale behind several "changes" that were made to his posting style. Well, none of that has seemed to work: the entries are as moribund as ever, with the majority of them being cut-and-pastes from other authors' works, or else he's just posting abstracts from "Interpreter." (Hey, why have one blog when you can recycle the content and have *two*!) I would imagine that the Patheos leadership is none too pleased about this, and how can you blame them? This is laziness of epic proportions.

All of which to say: I wouldn't be surprised if they are thinking about bringing the axe down on him. He may try to portray this as something that he decided all on his own--i.e., that he's fleeing the site so that he can find a blogging platform with more draconian banning capabilities. Except you know that that's nonsense. Dr. Peterson lives for conflict and for fighting with critics. I don't doubt that he's got that streak of anger, where he lashes out and bans people who frustrate or enrage him. (He's done it many times in the past.) But there's no way he's going to go somewhere and disable comments. Nor is he going to set up an "echo chamber" that consists purely of Midgley, Hoggan, Kiwi, and the rest of the "bootlicks." He's going to want critics, so that he can fight with them.

Well, whatever the case may be, I sense that a "messy divorce" may very well be on the horizon. There is one month to go before "Witnesses" debuts, and we are approaching the 9th anniversary of the Mopologists' expulsion from the Maxwell Institute. Maybe, to kick off the end of the pandemic, we'll get a sequel, with Patheos putting the kibosh on "Sic et Non"? It would make for one hell of a show, that's for sure.
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Gadianton
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Gadianton »

I'll be seriously looking (when I find a moment or two) at some alternatives.
Translation: "I have no plans to change blogs".

DCP does what he wants to do when he wants to do it. If he wants to spend a week in Cairo, he'll drop everything and be on a plane in the morning. Whenever he's ever said he'll get back to somebody on something, or he'll look into something when he has some free time, it means he's putting the request on hold indefinitely.

At any rate, this is a stunning development. One thing that Midgley and Kiwi57 have had wrong for all these years, is that Sic et Non is not Dan's living room. It's Patheos' living room. And when they get rude with guests, it's the guests of Patheos they're treating poorly. Being rude with your own guests is uncool for sure, but it really says something to get nasty in somebody else's living room with somebody else's guests.

If he really needs another blog, I can't speak for Dr. Shades, but if there's still a blog feature for phpBB, I'll set up one for him on this board. Not sure if it would allow for comments. But with the free speech policy here they'd be free to be pretty much as nasty as they want.
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Kishkumen »

Well, damn. I love dropping by Dr. P.'s blog. It is a convenient place to visit when I want to know something about what he has been up to. I hope that he continues to post there for years to come. If he does move away, I hope he alerts us to his new address so we can visit him there.
“If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about the answers.”~Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by drumdude »

DCP would have you believe he would be just as happy posting his thoughts to himself, he's not in it for the attention at all.

You know that he's a very busy very important man. Running The Interpreter: A Journal of Quantity not Quality takes up most of his time, and he would be perfectly happy not interacting with the fine folks here.
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Moksha »

I thought Patheos offered Dr. Peterson a great deal of latitude. They have allowed Midgely and Kiwi great latitude with their behavior. Other religious boards would have curtailed that behavior.
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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

After Patheos kicks DCP to the curb, there are not many places left that will welcome him.

DCP has burned bridges at The Maxwell Institute, BYU, The World Table, Mormondialogue.org and several other forums/places.

If any of you remember the old Incredible Hulk series, at the end of every episode (after Bruce Banner inevitably destroyed a town) he would be shown leaving the town never to return. For various reasons, I can’t help but think of DCP when I think of Bruce Banner.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=33izVlIOgnQ
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Philo Sofee »

Everybody Wang Chung wrote:
Fri May 07, 2021 11:33 pm
After Patheos kicks DCP to the curb, there are not many places left that will welcome him.

DCP has burned bridges at The Maxwell Institute, BYU, The World Table, Mormondialogue.org and several other forums/places.

If any of you remember the old Incredible Hulk series, at the end of every episode (after Bruce Banner inevitably destroyed a town) he would be shown leaving the town never to return. For various reasons, I can’t help but think of DCP when I think of Bruce Banner.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=33izVlIOgnQ
awwwwwwwww... we would welcome him here. Heck we'd even let Midge tag along.....
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Everybody Wang Chung
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Everybody Wang Chung »

Philo Sofee wrote: awwwwwwwww... we would welcome him here. Heck we'd even let Midge tag along.....
Agreed.
"I'm on paid sabbatical from BYU in exchange for my promise to use this time to finish two books."

Daniel C. Peterson, 2014
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Doctor Scratch
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Doctor Scratch »

I notice that Dr. Peterson has been posting his entries from Maui lately. Good for him! Except then you realize that his rate of posting and commenting has increased considerably. I think there are a few different ways to read this. Perhaps the simplest is that he's celebrating his retirement from BYU. If so: great! Congratulations! Except why is he doinking around on his stupid blog rather than enjoying his vacation? You can stare out at the crystal blue waters and smell the tropical air, or you can do yet another waste-of-time blog entry where all you do is post abstracts from the "Interpreter" blog.

But there are other ways to read this, too. Perhaps the lead-up to the "Witnesses" movie has him on edge. Maybe he's starting to fear that it won't make back the $1 million that they sank into it, and critics will mock him. Maybe he's getting anxious about the inevitable reviews that will start rolling in. Sure: he's confident that critics have already made up their minds without having seen the film, but they haven't seen the film. When they first released the trailer, somebody failed to do their due diligence. This is *it,* though. If there are any screwups, someone will pay dearly for their errors.

Or, maybe we'll see history repeated, and Patheos will "give him the boot" via email while he's traveling, just like what happened with the Maxwell Institute? I.e., there were weird tensions between him and Patheos admin, and they had a "meeting" where he left feeling as if things were great, and then: WHAMMO! Here comes the email!

In any case, at least Dr. Peterson is doing a great job of making sure we all know he's in Maui. Such an interesting place! I know that when I want to contemplate lava flows, ecology, the geological record, and the history of leprosy, that Maui is the first place that comes to mind!
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Re: Is Patheos Thinking of "Canceling" Sic et Non?

Post by Moksha »

Dr. Peterson has already announced that he will be a regular columnist at Meridian Magazine (the place where Uranus testifies).
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