Dan Peterson is awesome. He has spent years earning the nickname Slander Dan and he continues to add to his resume.
Slander Dan eagerly follows the scriptures, thinking this is an admonition instead of a condemnation: "take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor..." (2 Nephi 28:8)
Recently on his blog he posted excerpts from a brief Facebook post by Rian Nelson in which Rian described his belief in a conspiracy theory. Rian made the post in response to an accusation from an anonymous person that he was anti-Semitic. Rian foolishly fell for the bait, posted his response, and then removed it.
But one of Dan's henchmen screen-captured Rian's post and sent it to Dan so Dan could publicize it to the world in an effort to slander all Heartlanders.
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| Slander Dan speaking at FAIRMormon |
People sent me Dan's post, of course. I hadn't seen Rian's post previously, and hardly anyone else had, either. Like the rest of the world, I would never have known about it if not for Dan's post.
FWIW, I think Rian's post was dumb. His conspiracy theories are delusional, IMO, and I've told him that many times. But people are complicated, lots of people think crazy things, and normally that doesn't matter because we recognize that none of us is perfect.
After all, I'm fine with Dan and the rest of the M2C/SITH citation cartel believing and teaching what they teach. I happily associate with people regardless of disagreements about particular issues of religion, politics, science, etc. True, I criticize the citation cartel for their censorship, elitism, and repudiation of the teachings of the prophets, but only because they create obstacles for people to make informed decisions. I've said for years that the nanosecond they embrace full disclosure, comparisons of alternative viewpoints, and serious scholarship I would cease all criticism of their work.
But Rian's post gave Slander Dan an opening.
Dan and his cronies and followers are so insecure about their SITH and M2C dogmas, which they cannot defend openly on their merits, that they resort to such a desperate tactic as capturing a momentary Facebook post and publishing it to the world to falsely slander a group of fellow Latter-day Saints.
Rian, as an individual, is fair game. He can speak for himself.
But he doesn't represent Heartlanders who are a diverse group of Latter-day Saints who have a common belief in the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. They have a variety of beliefs/opinions (multiple working hypotheses) about Book of Mormon settings beyond Cumorah, about interpretations of Church and secular history, as well as about politics, science, sociology, music, art, literature, and every other human interest.
But for Slander Dan, painting them all with Rian's conspiracy theory is just ordinary business.
He and his followers delight in taking the advantage of one because of his words and digging a pit for their neighbor.
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Jordan Peterson described this conduct recently.
I'd like to say a word in Dan's defense. He is also pretty vigilant in adhering to the scriptural injunction which says to "make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought." (Isa 29:21)
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