Church members are just as bad at doing it as their leaders are... suppressing the idea of free speech.
I recently spent several hours on blogger searching for LDS couples. They are just blogging about their lives and are not necessarially trying to promote the church. I found 10 blogs maintained by LDS people. Then I went to their comment section and left a simple comment:
"Has it ever occurred to you that the LDS church might not be true? http://mormon411.blogspot.com/"
My purpose is two fold. 1) To get some more activity here on my blog, but more importantly 2) to conduct a little experiment. I want to see how many of these 10 bloggers will supress my right to free speech. After one week, eight of the 10 have deleted my comment. Of the two that are left, it appears that they haven't checked their blog, because the post I commented on is still the newest post.
So obviously they think that it is okay for them to flood the world with their pro-Mormon crap, but anyone who voices any opposition must be silenced immediately.
The only comments I delete from this blog are from spammers. Everyone else gets the right to express themselves freely. Even people who are very rude and condescending get to have their voices heard. Just because I disagree with someone, doesn't mean that I go and edit them whenever I feel like it. But obviously my view on the matter is not shared by Mormons.
If it agrees with them, then they love it. If it disagrees with them, then they must get rid of it. But doesn't that just reinforce what I've been saying all along? They think the world needs to have their religion shoved down their throats, while anything that opposes them is "angry, not good enough, weak, full of self pity," etc.
Oh, apparently they do believe in free speech... as long as it's in favor of them. However, no one else is allowed to voice their opinion because the other opinion is of the devil. It's okay for them to send out thousands of missionaries. It's okay for them to invite their friends and family to church. It's okay for them to broadcast "warm and fuzzy" ads. But it's not okay for me to have a blog and to leave a simple comment on their blog. They want the whole world to stop and listen to their message, but they completely refuse to listen to anyone elses!
And when they are occasionally exposed to our anti-Mormon "lies", they respond in rage and anger. They accuse us of forcing our opinions and beliefs on everyone else. But let me ask you this, have you ever had an ex-Mormon or an anti-Mormon knock on your front door? Well, I guarantee that almost everyone in the world has had a Mormon knock on their door.
So shut up, you whiny Mormon babies who can't stand the thought of anyone who is not like you! How many of you are going to respond to this post and again accuse me of being angry, when in reality, all I'm doing is calling it like it is.
Did I force you to click the link? Did I force you to visit my blog? Did I force you to read it? Did I force you to agree with me? Did I force you to leave a comment accusing me of being full of anger? "No" to all of the above, and yet you react like I've done something horrible.
Eight out of ten deleted my comment! And I suspect that it will be ten out of ten as soon as the other two check their blogs!
4 comments:
I believe that if you look into history, any successful, long lasting government or religion, has used this same practice (the US doesn't count under "long lasting" yet as it's very new in comparison to most others). As the easiest and most effective way to counter dissent is to stop it before it makes a coherent argument, it is used most often.
Also, as many people can't think on more abstract levels, their philosophical defense and offense is almost nil and often involve shouting matches.
I have found that the only times that a topic is truly looked into on the rare occasion that someone actually does, is to find the holes in it (sadly this applies to myself as much as the next person).
I'm also sure that you'll admit that most people that dissent against the mormon religion don't use logical arguments such that you are attempting to use and prefer to simply throw insults at their target (this of course applies to all religions/governments).
To be perfectly honest, I'm not much of a history buff. But I have no doubt that you are correct.
There are many anti-Mormon websites and blogs which disucss the history and problems with Mormonism. While I discuss them as well, my main focus is just to get people thinking. I take a logical, common sense approach to appeal to people. I'm not sure how well it has worked.
Yes, there are some anti-Mormon bloggers who prefer the insults. I know of one personally. But in my experience, it is usually the Mormon believer who responds to us with insults and anger. You would think that such would not be the case. But it is more often than you might realize.
To be perfectly honest, the most stimulating discussions I have had are with non-Mormons. It seems that Mormons just don't know how to face any type of scrutiny. They literally view a person like me as an agent of the devil and so any defense tactic is fair game. I've only known a very few LDS believers who are even capable of having an intelligent conversation. Very sad actually.
Dude, what you were doing is spamming. Your trying to drive visitors to your blog by posting unrelated links on their blogs. I'm surprised that only 8/10 deleted your comment. I'd delete your comment too and come back and make fun of you on your own blog.
It's rude. If you want to drive visitors to your blog, engage with them on their own websites by leaving constructive/funny/appropriate comments. Otherwise, your just a spammer with less technological know-how.
I'm tempted to delete your comment, but that would be wrong since everyone is entitled to their own opinions.
Did you read the entire post? or just the first little bit? I clearly stated that my main purpose was to see how Mormons would respond. 8 of 10 deleted my comment, which was what I was expecting. In other words, it was an experiment. But whatever, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
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