Should I write Midgley's biography?

[I Have Questions]

I’m looking forward to the Gina Colvin chapter. Perhaps she would be willing to write the preface? Maybe a quote from a Holocaust survivor or relative about his “up the stack” reference?

I’m surprised you are wasting your time on someone that deserves no respect.

[Gadianton]

I'm sure Midgley would love to have a hagiography written by his pals. Midgley absolutely should do the interview with Shades. Even in that case, the chance that Shades would publish the book is still not very high. Plenty of other interviews would be needed. And if I know Shades, his standards would be very high. But if he kept on the path, and kept the signaling going, then his pals would eventually panic and scramble to write their own biography on Midgley to counter Shades' upcoming book. Messages for donations would appear, claiming that the Lord's chosen people are now under attack by anti-Mormons. It wouldn't take a whole lot of money, and they have enough contacts they could pump something out in a couple weeks. Nobody would read it, but that goes for everything else they publish also. Mdgley just needs to play the victim a little (which shouldn't be hard for an apologist) and give his pals reason to think the book could be on its way.

[Dr. Shades]

You're right. While we're at it, the fact that Midgley himself is apparently uninterested in his own biography is a sad commentary.

Imagine it were reversed. That DCP was offering to write a biography about you, Shades. You might also have similar doubts about his objectivity.

Perhaps. But I would make sure to have everyone I know assist him in any way possible so that he would be unable to discount the real, true facts.

But if DCP publicly stated (as you have) that his goal is to keep it positive and not be a smear job, it seems to me a no brainer.

Indeed.

It must mean that Midge, and his friends, don’t exactly have a large pool of positive things to say about the man. That is indeed very sad.

It is. Everybody Wang Chung may have called it: DCP knows what Midgley's true nature is, so he doesn't want it to be known to anyone. (I hold out hope that Everybody Wang Chung is wrong, though.)

I’m surprised you are wasting your time on someone that deserves no respect.

That has been communicated to me by several others--more than I would've expected--but you can say I'm like Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi--I know there is good in him. I'm on a quest to discover it; I only hope my quest is not a Quixotic one.

Midgley absolutely should do the interview with Shades. Even in that case, the chance that Shades would publish the book is still not very high. Plenty of other interviews would be needed. And if I know Shades, his standards would be very high. But if he kept on the path, and kept the signaling going, then his pals would eventually panic and scramble to write their own biography on Midgley to counter Shades' upcoming book.

The idea that they would need to "counter" a book that simply tells the truth is, itself, a sad commentary.

Messages for donations would appear, claiming that the Lord's chosen people are now under attack by anti-Mormons.

If they consider the truth to be an "attack," then that says a lot about their mentality.

Midgley just needs to play the victim a little (which shouldn't be hard for an apologist) and give his pals reason to think the book could be on its way.

I hope Dr. Midgley knows that telling the truth isn't "victimizing!"

[Moksha]

The whole idea that Shades will throw a bucket of water on Midgley and melt the entire apologetic enterprise seems both ludicrous and delightful at the same time. Powerful enough to have the flying monkeys patrolling Orem.

[drumdude]

I participated on the Obsession Board for a few years in an attempt to correct falsehoods that were continually being posted there about me. But it was hopeless. It was worse than hopeless. It put me in mind of the famous (now quite unfashionable but nonetheless wise) Uncle Remus story about the Tar Baby. I left the the place many years ago because I had abandoned any hope of ever having a serious conversation there without being personally attacked, libeled, mocked, lied about, gleefully and routinely misrepresented, and so forth. It became insufferably boring. Why don't I go back? Because I'm arguably not insane.

I guess telling positive stories about his friend is flirting with a dangerous “tar baby.” Seems a little overly paranoid to me.

[Philo Sofee]

I participated on the Obsession Board for a few years in an attempt to correct falsehoods that were continually being posted there about me. But it was hopeless. It was worse than hopeless. It put me in mind of the famous (now quite unfashionable but nonetheless wise) Uncle Remus story about the Tar Baby. I left the the place many years ago because I had abandoned any hope of ever having a serious conversation there without being personally attacked, libeled, mocked, lied about, gleefully and routinely misrepresented, and so forth. It became insufferably boring. Why don't I go back? Because I'm arguably not insane.

I guess telling positive stories about his friend is flirting with a dangerous “tar baby.” Seems a little overly paranoid to me.

He also lies in proposing "Why don't I go back?" He has never left. He non stop continually updates himself on what is being said here, but he can't take it, so he writes from a distance. THIS has been HIS LIFE & CONVERSATION for decades upon decades. He didn't choose to write books like Hugh Nibley or Truman Madsen or Jack Welch or John Tvedtnes. He chose to read this message board and respond non stop to it for years and years and years. He's disingenuous that he left here. He may have stopped posting here, but he most certainly did no such thing as leave here.

[Gadianton]

I see. So he didn't join in order to give honest conversation about issues a try? Just to defend himself? Normally that's not going to work.

[Moksha]

You guys would draw Dr. Peterson in like a tar baby and he would get stuck in the briar patch of impossible-to-answer questions about Mormonism.

Best to remain in the SeN Zone where he can shove aside the hard stuff and simply make apologetic pontifications.

The chapter entitled Inter-Continental Ballistic Mormonism would be fascinating.