Response To Criticism and the Road Ahead

[_Pokatator]

This is not a joke.

It doesn't sound like a joke it sounds like a threat.

[_cinepro]

Ultimately, GoodK, I think the question that needs to be answered in all this is what your endgame is? What is the "road ahead"?

You could make this all go away pretty easily by just stopping your participation on this board. Message boards have notoriously short memories. Within a few months, the whole situation would just be a footnote in the history of MD. While your identity may be able to be ferreted out with judicious use of the "Search" function, it certainly isn't an obvious piece of information to board participants. Heck, Shades would probably edit the few posts where your true identity is revealed, and that information would be lost to the ether forever.

I'm not telling you to stop posting or anything; I'm just saying that from a (hopefully) objective outside point of view, the whole situation doesn't seem to be heading towards a positive conclusion for you or anyone else, let alone a conclusion that will give you some peace-of-mind. You just keep seeming to dig a hole that gets deeper and deeper, but for no purpose. What are you fighting for?

Are you looking for an apology from rcrocket and Dan Peterson? An admission that what they did (whatever it was) was wrong? Do you just want them to stop participating on this board? Or do you just want the whole situation to go away?

There are several other Mormon-themed message boards where rcrocket and DP don't participate. You could easily join one of those under a new name and they would never know. If I were a matchmaker for online ex-LDS and forums, I might recommend the "Further Light and Knowledge" forum as being particularly well suited for you.

[_marg]

As far as your Utah Boy's Ranch quest is concerned, I wish you the best of luck in your quest. I was "gulag'd" as well for two years starting at age 16. But, I just don't believe your story in many, many respects. I started commenting upon it when I tired of you constantly bringing it up and seeing folks here lap it up like its gospel truth. I apologize for criticizing a subject matter dear to your heart and thinking that you're just not telling many truths there.

Read the article I posted Bob. The sort of abusive behavior modification program for teens which Westridge appears to have was not around approx. 40 years ago at the time you would have gone. It was in the 80's that they started to take off. It's really an insult to Eric to suggest you went to a similar institution when you've acknowledge you don't even know what the program at Westridge involves. It is very doubtful you went to one which used techniques for the purpose of breaking your will in order to reprogram you.

by the way, you are again taunting Eric, by claiming to apologize for calling him a liar but then also saying "I just don't believe your story in many, many respects." You have yet to be specific on this, even though I've asked you twice. I've been willing and wanting to listen to you on this but all you've responded with is personal attacks on Eric, nothing specific to warrant calling him a liar.

[_Inconceivable]

Posters here should understand that, if I'm obliged to defend myself, everything and everybody connected with this board is potentially liable to factor into the ensuing litigation..

This is not a joke.

I feel that I owe everybody here a warning, so that they're not caught by surprise when and if they're dragged into this situation. Again, I regret it.

You are threatening this board and it's participants. This is a thinly vieled fear strategy you hope will put pressure on Eric to drop his lawsuit against you. Shame on you!

Now I like you even less.

This is between he and you, "gun to my head" drama queen.

I think that you are quite miserable, pretty much all by yourself on this one.

[_Ray A]

C'est la vie. I cannot read GoodK's mind, nor feel what he feels. The OP was very articulate and shows a very determined mind. I've been through legal battles myself, of a different kind, and they can drag on for years. Another thing to bear in mind is that lawyers are in this for money, not love. I learned the hard way, by persuing legal avenues (seeking justice) that eventually cost me dearly. If I could do it over again I would never have involved lawyers, and most certainly would not have ended up insolvent, which is technical bankruptcy.

[_Pokatator]

Ultimately, GoodK, I think the question that needs to be answered in all this is what your endgame is? What is the "road ahead"?

You could make this all go away pretty easily by just stopping your participation on this board. Message boards have notoriously short memories. Within a few months, the whole situation would just be a footnote in the history of MD. While your identity may be able to be ferreted out with judicious use of the "Search" function, it certainly isn't an obvious piece of information to board participants. Heck, Shades would probably edit the few posts where your true identity is revealed, and that information would be lost to the ether forever.

I'm not telling you to stop posting or anything; I'm just saying that from a (hopefully) objective outside point of view, the whole situation doesn't seem to be heading towards a positive conclusion for you or anyone else, let alone a conclusion that will give you some peace-of-mind. You just keep seeming to dig a hole that gets deeper and deeper, but for no purpose. What are you fighting for?

Are you looking for an apology from rcrocket and Dan Peterson? An admission that what they did (whatever it was) was wrong? Do you just want them to stop participating on this board? Or do you just want the whole situation to go away?

There are several other Mormon-themed message boards where rcrocket and DP don't participate. You could easily join one of those under a new name and they would never know. If I were a matchmaker for online ex-LDS and forums, I might recommend the "Further Light and Knowledge" forum as being particularly well suited for you.

Good questions and suggestions, Cinepro, all of them. I, too, am curious as to what GoodK hopes to get out of this. It's hard to get blood out of a donut even if you are right.

If GoodK would accept, the least impact solution would be apologies but what is the chance that either DCP or Crock would apologize (and mean it)? In my memory I have not seen either do it (and mean it).

After all they are Gods in embryo and Gods don't apologize. They don't need to at least in their minds.

Unfortunately, I think that in most cases like these the attorneys are the only ones to win.

[_Some Schmo]

Posters here should understand that, if I'm obliged to defend myself, everything and everybody connected with this board is potentially liable to factor into the ensuing litigation..

This is not a joke.

I feel that I owe everybody here a warning, so that they're not caught by surprise when and if they're dragged into this situation. Again, I regret it.

You are threatening this board and it's participants. This is a thinly vieled fear strategy you hope will put pressure on Eric to drop his lawsuit against you. Shame on you!

Now I like you even less.

This is between he and you, "gun to my head" drama queen.

I think that you are quite miserable, pretty much all by yourself on this one.

No kidding.

Anyone who doesn't know you or GoodK's would have a completely worthless testimony in court. It could be anyone posting as you/him. How would I know? And how could you prove that anyone read anything between you and him? Posting to a thread or even quoting from a thread is not proof that the poster read the thread.

It's just a bogus, transparently shallow threat.

[_TAK]

This is not a joke.

It doesn't sound like a joke it sounds like a threat.

I expect that is what it was intended to be..

[_bcspace]

Before I officially announced to my parents that I would be "retiring" from early morning seminary class I was forced to sit through Mormon mythology classes at 6:00 A.M before school every morning

We affectionately call it "cemetary".

in a classroom with a lovely young lady who shares his last name.

Count yourself lucky if the girl you are sitting next to can look lovely at 6 am. Heck, I thought some of the girls I was sitting next to all those years ago looked lovely with colored oatmeal on their faces and curlers in their hair. Is waking up at 5:30 am like drinking alcohol?

[_Calculus Crusader]

Of course I respect the opinions of powerfully insightful posters like...Some Schmo...

You really were hit over the head with a lead pipe in the Mormon Gulag, weren't you?