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Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.—Eric Hoffer


One of the main refrains from the President of the Interpreter Foundation is the idea that the vast majority of the labor involved in keeping the project afloat comes from volunteers. “I *could* take $500!” DCP explains. “But I never do.” In fact, he nearly always adds, he and his wife are donors to the organization!

But Dr. Peterson gets a lot out of this arrangement. Speaking engagements. Cruises. Free travel, lodging, airfare, and meals. And a loyal fan base that greedily laps up the repetitive material he serves up at “Sic et Non.”

But the recent revelations about Mike Parker’s role as the author behind “Neville-Neville Land”—an astonishingly obsessive smear blog that has been going on with steady regularity for 4 years—raise some difficult questions. Sure: DCP clearly benefits in various ways from Mopologetics. What about the “volunteers,” though? Allen Wyatt, Jeff Lindsey, and yes: the bushy-eyebrowed Mr. Parker, have all given many hours of their lives—*for free*—ti support Mopologetics, and in Parker’s case, a lot of this was done primarily in defense of Daniel Peterson. You kind of have to ask: Why?

The Mopologists’ reprehensible behavior has driven off a lot of people over the years, including many formerly close allies. David Bokovoy helped to establish Interpreter. Blair Hodges was, at one point, a staunch defender of Dr. Peterson. And what about Bryce Haymond? He was crucial in terms of helping to get Interpreter off the ground, but now he seems totally “out.” These were all “volunteers,” in a sense, but they have all since “moved on.”

So, what about Parker? There really is something quite sad and pathetic about him when you think about it. His FAIR Mormon bio notes that “He is a returning student currently pursuing a BS in Business Finance from Dixie State University in St. George, Utah.” On the one hand: Good for him! I hope he’s completed the degree. On the other hand, surely he’s read enough of the Mopologists’ unguarded comments to know that they probably think he’s a loser. No degree? And the lone degree he may or may not have is from Dixie State? Does this guy even exist for somebody like Lou Midgley? And what about Dan Peterson, who has said, in effect, that he “gets chills” when he sets foot on the campus of Harvard. These guys venerate status. And so where does Dixie State rate in comparison to Harvard or Oxford?

Does Parker not get this? Either he is clueless about how little they value him, or he is the ultimate Mopologetic foot soldier—the best bootlick they have ever had: someone who will spend hours and hours doing things in their service. I guess Parker is, rather heartbreakingly, seeking validation from DCP’s approval? Does he not realize that, once he ceases to be a “useful idiot”—mindlessly posting endless hit pieces on the Heartlanders, and even lying about being a Black apologist (evidently)!—that he will be no different from Haymond, Bokovoy, Hodges, and the many others?

Make no mistake: the Mopologists’ friendship is conditional. The second that Mike Parker wavers in his role as “cannon fodder,” he will be discarded into the trash bin.

In MMO video games, groups of players who want to win the best endgame items - gear and weapons - will join together in what they call instance raids. These are special encounters that no single player could defeat. You need a team to beat the mobs and bosses. Otherwise, no loot.

What would-be raiders figure out real quick is that it isn’t enough to just have a group of good players. You need role players, or else the instance mechanics will “wipe” (kill) the whole group. Over and over.

The easiest roles to fill are the damage-dealers. These are generally simple roles to play. Just smash buttons to cast damage skills repeatedly until the mobs or boss are dead. DD’s are abundant, forgettable and fungible. The most popular class of DD is the ranged damage dealer. They don’t have to get up in the messy melee area. They stand safely at a distance, pew pewing away. Parker is a ranged damage dealer.

One of the most important, and difficult, roles to play and therefore to find in MMOs is the tank. The tank’s job is to get and keep the attention of all mobs or bosses in the instance. They take all the damage, while healers prop them up and damage dealers burn the enemies. Dan Peterson is the self styled main tank of Mopologetics. He gathers and keeps the attention of all “enemies” and takes most of the incoming damage from those enemies. This allows fungible, ranged damage dealers like Mike Parker do their stuff with little fear of drawing the enemy’s ire for long. If Parker does, as now, draw some attention, all Dan needs to do is drop a few predictably dishonest or illogical blog posts and wham, the “aggro” is back on the main tank, where everyone involved wants it to be.

Tanking is very much a choice. Some people love it. Most players find it to be too much work. I think Dan loves every minute of it.

This leaves one unanswered question: who are Dan-the-tank’s healers? Well, duh. It’s the clunkheads like Kiwi57 and Midgley who worship him in public, the volunteers and donors at Interpreter who worship him in private, the guests on cruise lady adventures who fawn over him, and ignorant congregants at Dan’s firesides. Take them all away, and Dan would drop his tanking addiction immediately.

This analogy I think is pretty much spot on. Anyone who has ever played World of Warcraft will recognize it.

Dr Moore wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 4:07 am

In MMO video games, groups of players who want to win the best endgame items - gear and weapons - will join together in what they call instance raids. These are special encounters that no single player could defeat. You need a team to beat the mobs and bosses. Otherwise, no loot.

What would-be raiders figure out real quick is that it isn’t enough to just have a group of good players. You need role players, or else the instance mechanics will “wipe” (kill) the whole group. Over and over.

The easiest roles to fill are the damage-dealers. These are generally simple roles to play. Just smash buttons to cast damage skills repeatedly until the mobs or boss are dead. DD’s are abundant, forgettable and fungible. The most popular class of DD is the ranged damage dealer. They don’t have to get up in the messy melee area. They stand safely at a distance, pew pewing away. Parker is a ranged damage dealer.

One of the most important, and difficult, roles to play and therefore to find in MMOs is the tank. The tank’s job is to get and keep the attention of all mobs or bosses in the instance. They take all the damage, while healers prop them up and damage dealers burn the enemies. Dan Peterson is the self styled main tank of Mopologetics. He gathers and keeps the attention of all “enemies” and takes most of the incoming damage from those enemies. This allows fungible, ranged damage dealers like Mike Parker do their stuff with little fear of drawing the enemy’s ire for long. If Parker does, as now, draw some attention, all Dan needs to do is drop a few predictably dishonest or illogical blog posts and wham, the “aggro” is back on the main tank, where everyone involved wants it to be.

Tanking is very much a choice. Some people love it. Most players find it to be too much work. I think Dan loves every minute of it.

This leaves one unanswered question: who are Dan-the-tank’s healers? Well, duh. It’s the clunkheads like Kiwi57 and Midgley who worship him in public, the volunteers and donors at Interpreter who worship him in private, the guests on cruise lady adventures who fawn over him, and ignorant congregants at Dan’s firesides. Take them all away, and Dan would drop his tanking addiction immediately.

This analogy I think is pretty much spot on. Anyone who has ever played World of Warcraft will recognize it.

Unfortunately for Mopologosts, they’re stuck as level 5 noobs. Their evidence bar is perpetually empty. They keep spamming the disingenuous argument button which misses the target every time. It’s super ineffective!

They’re in a PvP match against the 99.95 percent of the non-Mormon world and there’s no level sync to save them.

I really think Mike Parker is getting paid either from the More Good Foundation or the Interpreter to run his attack blog, nevillenevilleland. I can't imagine that Mike would be doing this for the last four years without compensation.

Mike Parker pictured here at the last Interpreter meeting:

Doctor Scratch wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 2:44 am

But the recent revelations about Mike Parker’s role as the author behind “Neville-Neville Land”—an astonishingly obsessive smear blog that has been going on with steady regularity for 4 years—raise some difficult questions.

Indeed. One of them is, "Why is his left eyebrow so much higher than his right one?"

Dr Moore wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 4:07 am

Dan Peterson is the self styled main tank of Mopologetics. He gathers and keeps the attention of all “enemies” and takes most of the incoming damage from those enemies.

Okay, what of the role of players who enter the unguarded Shades Fortress to distract the Shadesian ranged damage dealers with their "enough already" pleas, or the sock puppets with multiple identities who create havoc through their wild melees?

Dr Moore wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 4:07 am

In MMO video games, groups of players who want to win the best endgame items - gear and weapons - will join together in what they call instance raids. These are special encounters that no single player could defeat. You need a team to beat the mobs and bosses. Otherwise, no loot.

What would-be raiders figure out real quick is that it isn’t enough to just have a group of good players. You need role players, or else the instance mechanics will “wipe” (kill) the whole group. Over and over.

The easiest roles to fill are the damage-dealers. These are generally simple roles to play. Just smash buttons to cast damage skills repeatedly until the mobs or boss are dead. DD’s are abundant, forgettable and fungible. The most popular class of DD is the ranged damage dealer. They don’t have to get up in the messy melee area. They stand safely at a distance, pew pewing away. Parker is a ranged damage dealer.

One of the most important, and difficult, roles to play and therefore to find in MMOs is the tank. The tank’s job is to get and keep the attention of all mobs or bosses in the instance. They take all the damage, while healers prop them up and damage dealers burn the enemies. Dan Peterson is the self styled main tank of Mopologetics. He gathers and keeps the attention of all “enemies” and takes most of the incoming damage from those enemies. This allows fungible, ranged damage dealers like Mike Parker do their stuff with little fear of drawing the enemy’s ire for long. If Parker does, as now, draw some attention, all Dan needs to do is drop a few predictably dishonest or illogical blog posts and wham, the “aggro” is back on the main tank, where everyone involved wants it to be.

Tanking is very much a choice. Some people love it. Most players find it to be too much work. I think Dan loves every minute of it.

This leaves one unanswered question: who are Dan-the-tank’s healers? Well, duh. It’s the clunkheads like Kiwi57 and Midgley who worship him in public, the volunteers and donors at Interpreter who worship him in private, the guests on cruise lady adventures who fawn over him, and ignorant congregants at Dan’s firesides. Take them all away, and Dan would drop his tanking addiction immediately.

This analogy I think is pretty much spot on. Anyone who has ever played World of Warcraft will recognize it.

I have not played WoW, but the analogy makes a lot of sense to me. One question, though: at the outset of your post, you mentioned “loot” that players receive for defeating the enemies. Is this “loot” distributed evenly? Or does the “tank” receive a larger portion?

And, of course, the other thing that needs to be pointed out here is that in this latest instance, the enemies being targeted are other Latter-day Saints.

Everybody Wang Chung wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 5:48 am

I really think Mike Parker is getting paid either from the More Good Foundation or the Interpreter to run his attack blog, nevillenevilleland. I can't imagine that Mike would be doing this for the last four years without compensation.

That’s a very interesting idea. I tend to think that there are a lot of sad-sack types in DCP’s orbit—guys who hang out on his social media because they look up to him in one way or another. (Wade Englund’s recent rhapsodic posts are a good example of what I mean.)

But if the More Good Foundation or Interpreter were *paying* Mike Parker to run a smear blog for 4 years??? That would be one of the most explosive revelations in the history of Mopologetics.

Dr. Shades wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 7:53 am

Doctor Scratch wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 2:44 am

But the recent revelations about Mike Parker’s role as the author behind “Neville-Neville Land”—an astonishingly obsessive smear blog that has been going on with steady regularity for 4 years—raise some difficult questions.

Indeed. One of them is, "Why is his left eyebrow so much higher than his right one?"

It’s a quizzical reaction: he’s saying, “Really? Me??!? You want *me* to pretend to be a Black apologist from Alabama?”

Doctor Scratch wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 1:41 pm

Everybody Wang Chung wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 13, 2023 5:48 am

I really think Mike Parker is getting paid either from the More Good Foundation or the Interpreter to run his attack blog, nevillenevilleland. I can't imagine that Mike would be doing this for the last four years without compensation.

That’s a very interesting idea. I tend to think that there are a lot of sad-sack types in DCP’s orbit—guys who hang out on his social media because they look up to him in one way or another. (Wade Englund’s recent rhapsodic posts are a good example of what I mean.)

But if the More Good Foundation or Interpreter were *paying* Mike Parker to run a smear blog for 4 years??? That would be one of the most explosive revelations in the history of Mopologetics.

Indeed it would. Look at Mike Parker’s output on the Neville-Neville Land hate blog:

https://www.nevillenevilleland.com/2022 ... eview.html

The end of 2022 brings to a close the fourth year I’ve been publishing this blog. What started as something of a lark has developed into a full-blown escapade.

This year I published 48 posts examining the iconoclastic beliefs and assertions of Jonathan Neville and his associates in the so-called “Heartland” Book of Mormon movement. That’s down from 72 in 2021 and 74 in 2020.

I doubt he’s being paid, but he does make a good point that his blog, for one person to run with regard to content, would be a Herculean effort, hence my suspicion he’s in a collaboration with Mopologists who can feed content, edit pre-publication posts, whatever. But, it’s not like some people haven’t produced prodigious amounts of content for a hobby topic they’re passionate about.

It is interesting, though, that the following happened:

Among the significant developments this year in Neville-Neville Land, I would include the following:

The most impactful event was the publication in the journal Interpreter of Spencer Kraus’s reviews of Neville’s two recent books, A Man That Can Translate: Joseph Smith and the Nephite Interpreters and Infinite Goodness: Joseph Smith, Jonathan Edwards, and the Book of Mormon. Neville’s theories on the origins and translation of the Book of Mormon have long needed to be examined in a detailed manner, and Kraus delivered the goods in two excellent essays.

The editors of Interpreter graciously gave Neville the opportunity to respond to Kraus, and he did so in a 3,600-word response they published—after which he had the temerity to claim that Interpreter and other scholarly Latter-day Saint organizations “refuse to permit alternative faithful interpretations [of Book of Mormon geography] on their websites” and implied that these organizations are responsible for the declining growth in Church membership.

Spencer Kraus responded to Neville in Interpreter, on his own blog, and in an interview with Robert Boylan, ably demonstrating that Neville misunderstands and misinterprets original sources and the arguments of those who criticize him.

This smacks of a coordinated effort by Mopologists to attack what they feel is a

… brand of belief [that] is exclusivist, fundamentalist, closed-minded, nationalistic, jingoistic, and deeply lacking in responsible scholarship and science. (See the previous posts on this blog for dozens of examples of this.)

- Doc