Apologists Erupt over Runtu's Top 10 List

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Hello,

Please forgive me for the churlish nature of this post, but I have a few more suggestions that are sure to be rejected:

1) Rubes Who Attended University Testify

2) Generally Overweight Caucasian Men with the Token Minority Testify

3) Many Employees of the Church Educational System Testify of Their Own Volition. No. Really.


Very Respectfully,

Doctor CamNC4Me

[_Yoda]

3) Many Employees of the Church Educational System Testify of Their Own Volition. No. Really.

LOL!

[_cinepro]

"It's Not a Lie if You Believe It"

PERFECT!!

I think that #9 and #2 are my favorites!

9. Smarter People Than You Who Believe

2. At Least We're Not Defending Bigfoot

As I pointed out in that other thread, if they had gone with #2, then they couldn't put Jeff Meldrum on the site :(

[_beastie]

runtu's list was hilarious and clever. However, of course apologists are going to take offense at it! No one should be surprised at that.

[_Runtu]

As I said over there, I tend to make jokes about the church and its apologists when I'm in a bad mood about things Mormon. Over the weekend I had a rather unpleasant encounter with a priesthood leader who said some pretty unkind things about me and my family. I'm not making an excuse, as I really hate it that I keep getting sucked back into the whole thing just when I think I'm getting on with my life.

Anyway, I was surprised that so many people took such offense at what I thought was just a silly little joke. I know a lot of the folks over there really hate me, and I don't blame them. They see me as a hypocritical douchebag, and sometimes I can be that. But that stupid little list was pretty tame, I thought. I think I'm getting past the need to be liked, which is a good thing, so I'm not really troubled by some of the things that people have said (I can read the thread if I log out).

I figured I'd get banned, but suspension is apparently the order of the day. Doesn't really bother me. MAD really brings out the worst in me, and vice versa, I think.

Correction: I am just prohibited from starting a thread over there.

Another correction: I'm allowed only 8 posts a day.

It's kind of ironic. I don't post there for more than a month, and then I respond to someone dragging my name and my post over there, and then I get restricted.

[_beastie]

It was a silly little joke, albeit a very witty one, but the problem is that you cut to the core of the problematic nature of apologia. As Shades helpfully observed long ago, MAD is really about defending apologists and apologia, and less about defending the church. So they were naturally going to react in a very heated manner to a joke that touched a very sensitive nerve.

[_Runtu]

It was a silly little joke, albeit a very witty one, but the problem is that you cut to the core of the problematic nature of apologia. As Shades helpfully observed long ago, MAD is really about defending apologists and apologia, and less about defending the church. So they were naturally going to react in a very heated manner to a joke that touched a very sensitive nerve.

I don't think the list was a big deal, but it was a huge mistake to go back on MAD (where I hadn't posted much in the last couple of months) to try and defuse the situation. I'm not really surprised by the reaction of some people, as I do have a history with some of them. Oh, well.

[_beastie]

It wasn't a big deal, especially considering the nature of some posts on RFM, so I suspect DCP brought it over there because he knew it was you. You're a wolf in sheep's clothes, don't forget. ;)

[_thews]

10. Great Moments in Cognitive Dissonance

This is by far the best one in my opinion and I actually laughed out loud a few times today when it crossed my mind again... classic.

[_Doctor Scratch]

It seems that I've been paged:

"DCP implied later on in the thread," says [Doctor Scratch], "that he'd only brought the list over so that the TBM posters on MAD could mock and deride 'substrate' (a.k.a. Runtu) and the other RfM participants."

I have -- literally -- no more idea what he's taking about than he does.

Can anybody direct me to any passage here where I "implied" such a thing?

Thanks in advance.

Here:

As for me, I'm neither insulted, offended, nor enraged. Pretty indifferent, actually. I thought the piece was amusing, but almost certainly not in the sense that our friend intended.

You're welcome!

Volgadon, my dear, "crazy Israeli" friend:

Since Scratchy is such a keen denouncer of anti-Semites, can we expect him to turn his attention on noel00?

I do think that noel00's remarks were clearly over the line and uncalled for. Shame on him. On the subject of anti-semitism, though---in order to find a parallel with what you're observing on RfM, you'd have to find Jewish critics of Judaism---somebody like Philip Roth, for example. The TBM outrage over lists like Runtu's is remarkably similar to the outraged Rabbis who denounced Roth's fiction.

And by the way, volgadon, I think this material is awfully inflammatory, too:

12. You can burn crosses on the n*****s lawns.

Quite disgusting, imho.