I am Ryan McKnight.

I'm Kara Santa Maria.

I am Christopher Smith.

Hi, I'm Andrew Torres.

This is Naked Mormonism.

The Serial Mormon History Podcast. Haters gonna hate.

People often say that as, like, an absolute defense against criticism, regardless of

whether or not the criticism is founded, you know, there is some criticism that's, you know,

it's not worth engaging.

Hecklers, trolls, you know, people who are just trying to make your life harder for the sake of dragging somebody into a, you know, a similar place of misery that those people are experiencing.

Yeah, sure, those cases, haters are going to hate.

However, there are legitimate criticisms that people in the public eye will have lobbed at them

that are quickly dismissed with that throwaway when they should be heated or listened to.

You know, if you're a dick and you refuse to accept that fact, and then when people call you

out on being a total dick and you ignore their criticisms by just saying haters going to hate,

you loop those people with legitimate criticisms in with people who are just being annoying, and suddenly the baby and the bathwater are out the window.

Even though criticisms can be couched in a detrimental or a destructive fashion, if there's a nugget of truth at the foundation of a criticism, it should be considered.

A person in the public eye will always

draw critics, but critics are the people who point out when something is awry. For example,

if not for critical scholarship, Joe's 1842 account of the first vision would be the agreed upon

historical truth. Through critical scholarship, you know, criticism, as many as seven previous accounts before

that 1842 version have surfaced revealing many inconsistencies among those different narratives.

...