Kwaku, FAIRMomon, and terminating Dehlin

[moksha]

Hey, I have been reading about this hot story on a couple of sites? Has anyone else heard about it?
If so, can you tell us?

[Just This Guy]

I have been half following this over the weekend.

My understanding of the story so far.

Kwaku El & Cardon Ellis put out a video as part of the FAIRMormon group where he added names to various characters in the infamous baseball bat scene in Quintin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards. He labeled the bat after his apologetic Youtube channel and labeled the people who get clubbed to death in the scene John Dehlin and Jeremy Reynolds. It's not a safe for work video, so be careful looking it up.

Lot's of internet outrage.

Bill Reel and Sam Young have both condemned this video.

David Bokovoy is calling for all academics to boycott FAIRMormon due to the allowing this video to be released under their name.

Jeremy Reynolds is rporting a large spike in interested in the CES Letter. He stated he is seeing a large increase in downloads and sale of print copies of his letter.

John Dehlin has filed charges against Kwaku for threats against him. Kwaku pulls out the race card saying that he is being attacked because he is black.

This will be interesting to watch. Time to make some fresh popcorn.

[jfro18]

Kwaku El & Cardon Ellis put out a video as part of the FAIRMormon group where he added names to various characters in the infamous baseball bat scene in Quintin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards. He labeled the bat after his apologetic Youtube channel and labeled the people who get clubbed to death in the scene John Dehlin and Jeremy Reynolds. It's not a safe for work video, so be careful looking it up.

John Dehlin has filed charges against Kwaku for threats against him. Kwaku pulls out the race card saying that he is being attacked because he is black.

This will be interesting to watch. Time to make some fresh popcorn.

So the video was *not* released by the FAIR Mormon series TITS (This is the Show), but was tweeted by some random DezNat type to Kwaku and others, and Kwaku retweeted it saying "now THIS is something" and then the director of TITS replied to ask for his info so they could talk, seemingly impressed by it.

On one hand, it's not a death threat anymore than any other DezNat replies are, but it's still really disturbing and the fact that Kwaku and the "director" of TITS endorsed it is awful.

Kwaku apparently tweeted out some things about Dehlin calling the police but I believe he took them down? Not sure on that one.

These TITS videos are an absolutely abomination, but that's where FAIR Mormon apparently wants to go.

[Hagoth]

Kwaku El & Cardon Ellis put out a video as part of the FAIRMormon group where he added names to various characters in the infamous baseball bat scene in Quintin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards. He labeled the bat after his apologetic Youtube channel and labeled the people who get clubbed to death in the scene John Dehlin and Jeremy Reynolds. It's not a safe for work video, so be careful looking it up.

That's pretty bloodchilling. Who is StoneXVI?

[Red Ryder]

Why does this sound so super crazy?

TITS?

I can see the thursday apostle meetings going like this?

Elder Gong: we are losing the youth.
Elder Oaks: what do you suggest we do Garret?
Elder Gong: we could throw some memes out.
Elder Oaks: what’s a meme??
Elder Gong: it’s an internet thing the youth do.
Elder Oaks: let’s do it!

Elder Gong calling FairMormon:
Send some promising youth over.

Kwaku and Hannah: what is wanted?
Elder Gong: make us proud kids!
Kwaku and Hannah: yes sir!

Internet Mormonism: who the hell are these clowns?

Kwaku and FairMormon are single handedly the best anti-Mormons right now.

Let the strange times continue!!

[jfro18]

The TITS videos are absolutely awful. Not only are they just terrible apologetics/scholarship, but they are beyond cringey.

I would imagine they are helpful to those who have never read the CES Letter to distrust it, but at the same time the moment you dig into this stuff you'll see that they are flat out lying about a number of important points.

Why FAIR attached themselves to TITS I have no idea, and the ensuing drama is certainly welcomed by Kwaku (who is an entertainer spreading COVID around Utah), but I can't imagine that it's something FAIR wants to have attached to them.

The inmates have taken over the asylum at FAIR.

[Yobispo]

Kwaku also stoked the flames after John brought attention to the threat with stupid comments about John's "grave". My opinion: Kwaku is engaging in parody, but he's missing the key ingredient that parody needs, which is truth. When Thinker put out the fake apology a while back, it was clever. You can hate what he did, but the parody at least made sense because it pointed out the sad fact that the church has never apologized for their blatant racism. Again my opinion, but I think Kwaku sees himself as clever and funny. But he is neither, so it just comes across as crass and mean.

He also takes no responsibility. There are nutjobs out there who might actually be violent towards church critics, and this hip-cool-edgy parody might be taken seriously by a nutso. Again to Thinker, he actually listened to the criticism and made an apology. (Which I didn't think he needed to do, but I digress)

Lastly, Kwaku is a wannabe-celebrity jerk. He's done stand-up, religious videos, parties and now this garbage. He just wants to be the popular kid and to make a living off being that guy. If he could wear a tu-tu and juggle bowling pins while making fun of people and get more likes/clicks, he would shift gears and do that. He just happens to have found a place where his stupid schtick is getting attention. 5 years from now he's as relevant as Mr. Belvedere.

[Red Ryder]

So help a 40+ year old guy out here.

Their plan is to mock the CES letter so the little Mormon children will distrust it? But their going to do it with over the top lunacy, booby acronyms, and death threats?

Where’s the Mormon leadership watching this? Seems the reputation of the church could be at stake here?

Or is that the idea, you know for plausible deniability?

This really is a circus. F*cking Mormonism....

[Just This Guy]

So the video was *not* released by the FAIR Mormon series TITS (This is the Show), but was tweeted by some random DezNat type to Kwaku and others, and Kwaku retweeted it saying "now THIS is something" and then the director of TITS replied to ask for his info so they could talk, seemingly impressed by it.

On one hand, it's not a death threat anymore than any other DezNat replies are, but it's still really disturbing and the fact that Kwaku and the "director" of TITS endorsed it is awful.

Thanks for the clarification. As I said, I have only been partially following this.

Their plan is to mock the CES letter so the little Mormon children will distrust it? But their going to do it with over the top lunacy, booby acronyms, and death threats?

The problem is they forgot about the Streisand Effect*. This is something that many church apologists miss. They more they try to put something down, the more interest that people have in it. Jeremy Reynolds is saying he has seen a large uptick in interest in the CES Letter since they all started going down.

So in a backwards way, the more they attack the CES Letter, the more harm it does to the church. In a way, the church is in a danmed-if-you-do,-danmed-if-you-don't position. If they ignore something, then they will be attacked for hiding their history and people who encounter it are blind sided and unable to process the info when they do find out about it. If they attack it like they do here, more people will look into it and have the same reaction.

Of course, the one thing that would solve the problem is for the church to take owner ship and address these problem head on with honesty and transparency. But we know the church will not do that because they neither accept or give apologies.


On another note, I wonder how TBMs handle this sort of stuff. Between an acronym like TITS and using footage from a very R rated movie, how would they feel about something that they probably should not be looking at if they really followed Mormon standards?

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

[2bizE]

I’ll be honest, I’ve haven’t ever looked at any TITS on YouTube before.

[jfro18]

Again my opinion, but I think Kwaku sees himself as clever and funny. But he is neither, so it just comes across as crass and mean.

I think Kwaku sees himself as an aspiring actor and entertainer, and he saw a niche to jump into with the DezNat apologetic type. I don't know how sincere he is or is not, but I do think he saw that opportunity and figured it could help him build a brand, much like we've seen with Hannah Seriac and FAIR.

He also takes no responsibility. There are nutjobs out there who might actually be violent towards church critics, and this hip-cool-edgy parody might be taken seriously by a nutso. Again to Thinker, he actually listened to the criticism and made an apology. (Which I didn't think he needed to do, but I digress)

Lastly, Kwaku is a wannabe-celebrity jerk. He's done stand-up, religious videos, parties and now this garbage. He just wants to be the popular kid and to make a living off being that guy. If he could wear a tu-tu and juggle bowling pins while making fun of people and get more likes/clicks, he would shift gears and do that. He just happens to have found a place where his stupid schtick is getting attention. 5 years from now he's as relevant as Mr. Belvedere.

He doesn't care. I don't want to get into politics here, but Kwaku is very similar to the current political climate in that he saw the DezNat kind of Mormons who crave this kind of approach and he wanted to create material that would appeal to them. What we're seeing is that those DezNat types are willing to say awful things and he finds any feedback fulfilling because he wants the attention for his brand.

And that's the problem that we see over and over again, starting with Joseph Smith. Bad climates incite bad people to say or do bad things, and some people see that more as an opportunity to build a following than they do a chance to reflect and calm things down.

I did a write-up on their seer stone video and I can't imagine doing another one unless it's just a copy and paste type thing- the content is so dishonest that on some level it's just hard to even deal with, and the tone and attacks really speak for themselves, which is why TITS was trending on the "Cringe" subreddit a few days ago.

[wtfluff]

...
Jeremy Reynolds ** is saying he has seen a large uptick in interest in the CES Letter since they all started going down.
...

** Jeremy Runnells

Nothing against you or your phone spelling Jeremy's name wrong JTG, it's just driving my fluffy brain nuts looking at it associated with the CES Letter.

[Hagoth]

Kwaku also stoked the flames after John brought attention to the threat with stupid comments about John's "grave". My opinion: Kwaku is engaging in parody, but he's missing the key ingredient that parody needs, which is truth.

And wit. Acting like you're witty and funny is not the same as actually being that way.

[Hagoth]

I wrote to FAIR to thank them for finally helping me make up my mind about their claims of commitment to scholarship. I asked them how they feel about attaching themselves to these clowns who just demolished all of their hard work in one fell swoop.

[Wonderment]

I have always found FAIR to be an extremely toxic group. Toxic people latch on to other toxic people, which is why Kwaku and Cardon Ellis got involved.
Dehlin is reporting that his family is very worried about what might happen to them, and that's why he called the police. I think he was right to notify law enforcement, as he's trying to protect not only himself, but his family. It's a very serious situation, and if Kwaku and Ellis thought they were being entertaining by jumping on board as a means of clickbait, they are entirely mistaken. JMO -- Wndr.

[slavereeno]

It seems to me that they are loosing enough in the 15-30 age bracket that they are willing to sacrifice anybody who might find this objectionable.

Is this a "Hail Mary" to try to stem the tide?

[Just This Guy]

...
Jeremy Reynolds ** is saying he has seen a large uptick in interest in the CES Letter since they all started going down.
...

** Jeremy Runnells

Nothing against you or your phone spelling Jeremy's name wrong JTG, it's just driving my fluffy brain nuts looking at it associated with the CES Letter.

Doh!!!

Thanks for the correction. That's what I get for trying to write this quickly while at work.

...if Kwaku and Ellis thought they were being entertaining by jumping on board as a means of clickbait, they are entirely mistaken. JMO -- Wndr.

My guess is he is trying to break into YouTube stardom and he is trying anything he can to get views. If you remember the hoopla a few months ago when he doxed RFM, the videos that were the topic then only have a thousand or so views. My guess is his normal work only get a few hundred views. The best way to get views is put up something controversial. All the ex-mo views where they check it out to get outraged over the childish content are more than he can normally hope to get. That's views and possible income that he normally won't get with his largely completely forgettable channel. So yeah, build a brand through any means possible. And if he can get brownie point by defending his faith, then all all the better. Maybe he can get a church leadership roll to help him build his brand. If it works for MLM's, why not Young-Dumb?

Of course, every time someone says the name of Kwaku's entertainment company, I can't help but think of the Weird Al song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVuzz4q68E4

[shrugged]

Have you seen the indie movie he helped write and star in in 2018? Its on Amazon Prime, Seven Hundred Miles. Doesn’t seem very Mormon. Is this guy really a TBM??? I almost get the impression he’s pulling some Borat-style prank on the church.


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[Hagoth]

Have you seen the indie movie he helped write and star in in 2018? Its on Amazon Prime, Seven Hundred Miles. Doesn’t seem very Mormon. Is this guy really a TBM??? I almost get the impression he’s pulling some Borat-style prank on the church.

I think he has found an audience and is milking them for all he can get. Don't forget this is the same guy who charged $10 a head for large rave-style parties in defiance of health recommendations "due to us not being little b****es."

[Hagoth]

I commented on the FAIR facebook page about my concern that T.I.T.S is destroying FAIR's hard work at looking respectable and got erased immediately. The only comments left are gushing praises for the T.I.T.S videos.