Fairmormon's T. I. T. S.

[honorentheos]

"Thanks for your message.

These videos are targeted at youth of the Church who do not consume any other type of content we have produced, and they are watching and being inoculated from misleading and deceitful messages from the CES Letter in large numbers. They were also created by youth using our information etc. The results of our reach to these groups is remarkable. We have evidence that youth that once accepted the CES letter as accurate are now doubting their doubts.

These are not for everyone, and we realize that. But we are very much open to specific suggestions for improvement, so we welcome your insights.

... You will recall that Christ called people liars, hypocrites, vipers, whited sepulchurs, and sported a whip to cleanse the temple. We are simply sporting wit and humor.

Best

John L."

For starters they could reacquaint themselves with the meaning of "wit" and "humor".

Outside of that, I find it more interesting than enraging. What evidence do they have that youth who were questioning the church are now doubting their doubts? A Reddit post? Mentions on Instagram? The guy playing a student of anthropology in Oregon had a clause in his contract offering an extra $20 for posting an in character Tiktok saying he now doubted the CES letter?

This is one of those moments where I personally feel like letting the own goal make it into the back of the net. Why yell at Fairmormon they are going the wrong way? Let them kick it in and celebrate while they can. Heaven knows they don't have much else to celebrate.

[Gadianton]

I think he deflected my response and then shifted the conversation to make me look like I didn't even watch them.

Boy did you nail it.

Now take this, and extrapolate for every concern you will ever have that you might take to a mopologist. You never understood the gospel in the first place. You never understood the Book of Mormon or the Book of Abraham, and so on.

[malkie]

Welcome Mixman. I hope you enjoy being here.

What do you think about the response you received?

I think he deflected my response and then shifted the conversation to make me look like I didn't even watch them. I find it gross that he thinks the videos are doing good to the youth of the church. If teaching them to be mean spirited and bullying towards other who don't think like them is "helping youth" the church has more problems than I thought. I also notice that absolute belief that the CES letter is all lies, which I can refute. But he doesn't seem to want to hear about that. Also I really don't like his example of using Jesus' actions of calling "people liars, hypocrites, vipers, whited sepulchurs, and sported a whip to cleanse the temple." If we assume Jesus is who the church teaches he is, then HE has the authority to do that. His followers do NOT. Especially, non-sanctioned apologist of the church. His response to me is self-righteous and deflective.

There's also the implication in his response that there's nothing misleading or false in the videos.

[dastardly stem]

Juliann over at MD&D said the Book of Abraham TITS video was really good. So, in hopes to see something good or new on the topic I went to YouTube located the TITS Book of Abraham video and watched. It was not only distractingly annoying, but it was incredibly terrible. Admittedly I don't know what Runnells said about the Book of Abraham, but I don't think he said anything near what they think he said...overall. Also, I don't think Steve Smoot is being very helpful. He mentioned Ulishem, yes...the tired piece of no help which even Dr Gee has started to question. They mentioned the names that John Gee came out with identifying ancient gods that might have somehow fit...which don't in any sense, from what I've seen. They mentioned the items that someone came up with, I think Nibley years back, that appear in the Book of Abraham, Joseph couldn't possibly have known about, but also appear in extra-biblical myths about Abraham--at least to some linkable degree. And the two dudes hosting? They had no idea about any of that anyway. They were too stuck complaining that Runnells called out the "written by his own hand upon papyrus" thing.

If that was the best they have, then they really have nothing.

But I noticed why FAIR is so in love with them and will probably keep using this. The views count, in their first weeks, week or days outnumber the views counts of all other FAIR videos. It seems like Fair is feeling a little trapped--"do we keep posting these videos that are getting us attention to the degree we've never seen or imagined? Or do we cut ties because a few whiney Mormons can't stand the mockery?"

hmm...judging by the response Mixman got, they are going all in on keeping these for their added exposure if nothing else.

[consiglieri]

These videos are targeted at youth of the Church who do not consume any other type of content we have produced, . . .

I.e., everything we have tried to keep youth from leaving the church hasn't worked.

So we had to give the keys to the asylum to Kwaku and Co.


Thanks for providing the exact type of admission I was expecting and looking for, Mixman!

[honorentheos]

There's a certain irony in watching Kwaku get mentioned so often. It makes me think of the early church when it was a collaboration between Smith, Cowdery, and the Whitmers. In 1829 it seemed Smith was a face but still only one of a handful of people working on this Golden Bible project. And hardly the most important one at that. Likewise this StoneXIV project is hardly about Kwaku, and he is just a personality in the videos. But hey, five years from now it will be Missouri all over again and Kwaku will be rolling in spiritual wives while the other folks involved write angry letters only a handful of people read or try to pick up with a new life as far from it as possible.

[Mixman76]

RFM here!

Just wanted to pop in to welcome Mixman76 to the board.

In my past two RFM podcasts, I have publicly announced the existence of this board and suggested to my listeners that if they want to rub shoulders with some of the best informed and most articulate thinkers in post-Mormonism, this board is the place to be.

Glad to see some of my listeners accepting the invitation!

Thank you RFM for directing me here! I'm glad I can contribute something to this conversation. I'm donating what used to be some of my tithing to RFM to keep you "broadcasting behind enemy lines!" Your podcast has been extremely helpful to me. Thank you.
And thanks Malkie for the link, I'll check it out and try to get my facts straight before I attempt to formulate a response, if I even decide to do so. I don't think anything I ever say will change anyone's mind over at FAIR, but it would be nice to point out their manipulation. Even if it's just to get them to think about how they respond to critics.

[Kishkumen]

There's a certain irony in watching Kwaku get mentioned so often. It makes me think of the early church when it was a collaboration between Smith, Cowdery, and the Whitmers. In 1829 it seemed Smith was a face but still only one of a handful of people working on this Golden Bible project. And hardly the most important one at that. Likewise this StoneXIV project is hardly about Kwaku, and he is just a personality in the videos. But hey, five years from now it will be Missouri all over again and Kwaku will be rolling in spiritual wives while the other folks involved write angry letters only a handful of people read or try to pick up with a new life as far from it as possible.

Well, he has more of a brand going.

[honorentheos]

There's a certain irony in watching Kwaku get mentioned so often. It makes me think of the early church when it was a collaboration between Smith, Cowdery, and the Whitmers. In 1829 it seemed Smith was a face but still only one of a handful of people working on this Golden Bible project. And hardly the most important one at that. Likewise this StoneXIV project is hardly about Kwaku, and he is just a personality in the videos. But hey, five years from now it will be Missouri all over again and Kwaku will be rolling in spiritual wives while the other folks involved write angry letters only a handful of people read or try to pick up with a new life as far from it as possible.

Well, he has more of a brand going.

It helps to be assigned as the face in a party if ones goal is notoriety.

[Dr Moore]

For something so important as this seems to be to Scott and the FairMormon team, why on earth are they hiding comments and upvotes/downvotes?

They’ve left voting and comments active for all of the other FairMormon videos.

Sure sends a message that they are not at all proud of this experiment.