\u201cAn amplifier for gossip,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0I commented on\u00a0an anecdote, pseudonymously posted on a mostly atheistic ex- and anti-Mormon message board, that reports someone\u2019s\u00a0alleged exchange with me and puts me in quite a bad light. \u00a0I questioned the accuracy of the anonymous anecdote, observing that it doesn\u2019t reflect my actual position. \u00a0While I expect\u00a0that the narrator of the anecdote honestly thinks his narrative about me entirely accurate, I\u2019m inclined to think\u00a0that it actually reflects the truth of an insight from the late Fawn M. Brodie: \u00a0\u201cA man\u2019s memory is bound to be a distortion of his past in accordance with his present interests, and the most faithful autobiography is likely to mirror less what a man was than what he has become.\u201d<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In any event, the denizens of that message board have reacted with pleasure that, despite my denials of ever looking in on their efforts, I\u2019ve now plainly demonstrated that I do<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once again, though, their claims are inaccurate. \u00a0I\u2019ve never denied that I look in on the place fairly often. \u00a0(Heck, I used to post<\/em> there, until I finally decided, quite a few years ago now, that doing so was pointless and merely exasperating.) \u00a0To the contrary, I\u2019ve repeatedly said that there are basically two anti-Mormon sites that I look at almost daily, and certainly check in on weekly. \u00a0This is one of them. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because, as I\u2019ve candidly said many times, I find them weirdly fascinating. \u00a0They seem to me borderline pathological. \u00a0I don\u2019t read every thread, let alone every post, but I check in from time to time because . . . well, because I\u2019m intrigued. \u00a0(Also because, once in a while, it\u2019s useful to see what\u2019s agitating the hive.)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
That said, though, I really don\u2019t need to monitor this particular board very closely, because one of the participants there keeps me apprised of much of what happens there \u2014 at least when, as it often does, it concerns me<\/em>. \u00a0(Several people assured\u00a0me for a long time that if I simply stopped posting there, the board\u2019s residents would tire of commenting obsessively about me. \u00a0I was confident that their assurances were wrong. \u00a0Which has now been abundantly confirmed: \u00a0I stopped posting there roughly\u00a0a decade ago, and the strange obsession with me continues unabated.) \u00a0This anonymous fellow has been sending me obscene and insulting emails \u2014 scores and scores and scores and scores of them, anonymously and by various identity-concealing routes \u2014 for a number of\u00a0years now.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t need to go searching for the recent anecdote about me because my anonymous source quoted<\/em> it for me\u00a0in an email that he sent to me at 1:48 \u00a0PM yesterday afternoon. \u00a0Then, having quoted it, he appended a bit of his\u00a0signature wisdom:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
you\u2019re a filthy liar by omission fat f**k.\u00a0\u00a0that\u2019s your sorry a**ed\u00a0mo ya shifty shifting b*ttplug. \u00a0ya give scholarship a bad name. \u00a0ya should retire<\/span>\u2026..slink off and have a year long gorge fest\u2026.fatter and\u00a0fatter till ya pop.\u00a0\u00a0a**hole.<\/span><\/div>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Apparently, though, he realized this morning that his eloquent commentary hadn\u2019t sufficed. \u00a0So, at 10:20 AM, he\u00a0sent me an important addendum to yesterday\u2019s message:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
p.s.\u00a0\u00a0i\u2019 m\u00a0\u00a0 s a t a n\u00a0\u00a0y o u\u00a0\u00a0m i s e r a b l e\u00a0\u00a0p r **\u00a0k<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure that he imagines that\u00a0his notes upset and wound me. \u00a0Presumably, that\u2019s why he\u2019s been sending them to me for so long (sometimes more than once a day).<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But they don\u2019t. \u00a0To me, they\u2019re just further illustrations of the weird social psychological pathology that I find so oddly fascinating. \u00a0I sometimes even read them to my incredulous wife, who, I\u2019m afraid, finds them much less amusing than I do.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I think, in such contexts, of the striking passage in Alma 14:21, when some of the less savory residents of Ammonihah visit Alma and Amulek in prison in order to revile and mock them:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And many such things did they say unto them, gnashing their teeth upon them, and spitting upon them, and saying: How shall we look when we are damned?<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alma and Amulek could, I think, have fittingly answered those who posed the question that they would look no different when they were damned than they did at that very moment.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ye shall\u00a0know\u00a0them by their\u00a0fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? \u00a0Even so every good tree bringeth forth\u00a0good\u00a0fruit; but a\u00a0corrupt\u00a0tree bringeth forth\u00a0evil\u00a0fruit. \u00a0(Matthew 7:15-16)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 (Please don\u2019t read further if you strongly dislike being exposed to foul language. \u00a0I\u2019ve obscured the words used, but I haven\u2019t tried to make them even slightly unguessable.) \u00a0 Yesterday, in a blog entry titled \u201cAn amplifier for gossip,\u201d\u00a0I commented on\u00a0an anecdote, pseudonymously posted on a mostly atheistic ex- and anti-Mormon message board, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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