It is a cult is the correct answer. My attempts to understand it will always be futile b/c it is a cult. People try to correct me when I say it truly is a cult. Invariably, I discover they know someone who knows someone who used to know someone who was baredly a Witness. Ordinary Witnesses are sad but the WTBTS is venal.
My father was an absolute brute. When he started college, my brother became a Maoist. It was the same garbage. The same break with reality. The total isolation from all others. The shouted slogans. Crazy hours trying to convince others. My brother lived in utter poverty despite being very bright. Mao did not live in abject poverty in the Forbidden City.
It is a cult! Amen.