A Cult Tactic: Removing Guilt By Dehumanising Others

by pale.emperor 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Iamallcool

  Good Topic! (Bookmarking)
• 

  FedUpJW

  "Heaven forbid that the Jehovah's Witness see's us as loving, caring, empathetic beings that care for them and who have the same ups and downs in life as they do."

  Agreed. One of my in-laws who is DF'd was the ONLY person who helped me care for my dying father until he passed away a few weeks ago. Now the congregation he was ignored by is shunning the rest of the family for having let her help care for my dying father. The fact their refusal to offer any help was one of the reasons we gladly accepted her help is lost on those idiots! After my father died one of the elders stopped by to offer his "condolences" and I was proud to tell him, "You screwed him over when he was alive, you screwed us over when he was dying, and now SCREW YOU! I want to see nothing of you except your back as you get the f--k out of here!"

  The last living reason for me to have been inside a KH is gone. And so am I!
  
• 

  Simon

  Seriously? We're going to try to equate "mommy didn't invite me to the family BBQ" to what the Nazis and Japanese did in WWII???

  I think this is a stretch beyond belief. The WTS try to paint us as "the enemy" because to them, we are. It doesn't really come anywhere close to the barbarism that has happened in history.
• 

  mentalclarity

  There are all kinds of scenarios I can think of in the real world where people "shun" their family members. Lots of high control groups- orthodox jews, mormons, amish, muslim, etc. What about families who disagree with a family member being gay or dating someone of a different race? And that's in the "real world".

  I thought when it said "dehumanizing" in the post you were going to write about prisons, monasteries, and institutions that actually strip away at individuality by shaving heads, giving uniforms, rigid routines, etc like what was done in the holocaust. I just don't really see the correlation here, sorry.
• 

  pale.emperor

  The post is about dehumanizing.

  The Nazi ideology was able to convince people to do things they wouldnt normally do by dehumanizing another group.

  The Japanese were able to do what they did without feeling repulsed by dehumanizing.

  Cults are able to get their followers to do what they do by dehumanizing.

  Nowhere did the post say Nazi and Japanese concentration camps are on par with shunning. Im simply explaining a method of psychological manipulation.
  
• 

  caves

  Simon- It doesn't really come anywhere close to the barbarism that has happened in history.

  Considering that the number of disfellowshipped per year is around 30,000 or abouts since the 80's thats over a million people, Id say its comparable.

  I highly doubt an ex jdubs life would be completely destroyed over not being invited to family bbq.
  

  Edit: comparable was a bad choice of wording on my part. It doesnt compare to mass killing off of entire lots of people.

  Am grumpy this morning.
• 

  Tameria2001

  When Simon said and what the OP said, it brought back a memory of what my JW mother told me. She said if it was not for the law of the land, and she would go away for murder, she would have no problem stoning me to death. This goes way beyond not being invited to the family BBQ.
  
• 

  OneEyedJoe

  Seriously? We're going to try to equate "mommy didn't invite me to the family BBQ" to what the Nazis and Japanese did in WWII???

  I think this is a stretch beyond belief. The WTS try to paint us as "the enemy" because to them, we are. It doesn't really come anywhere close to the barbarism that has happened in history.

  I'm trying to understand where you're coming from posting something like this. This is a forum specifically for victims of a cult...you know this better than anyone. Are we not going to talk about shunning and the psychological manipulation that the cult uses to get people to shun family members in defiance of what is typically the strongest social bond that we form? If you accept that it's natural for us to discuss the mechanism behind that, then why is it not natural to look at the extremes that can happen when people use these techniques to turn one group of people against another? Your use of the word "equate" is dishonest. No one equated shunning (which I think you well know goes FAR beyond not being invited to the family bbq, especially for those who are recently leaving the cult and have absolutely no support network outside the group).

  Obviously the mass incarceration and murder of innocent Jews during the holocaust was a far worse atrocity than anything that the JWs have done. Pointing this out is not helpful in any way. The fact that former JWs are not Jews in the holocaust in no way makes their situation any easier. People come here struggling to understand what was done to them, how it was done, and how their family can possibly treat them the way they do. Discussing human nature and showing the extremes to which it can be taken is extremely instrumental in this endeavor for many.

  I'm really confused by your post. You're the last person I would've expected to have such a drastic misunderstanding of what PE was trying to do with his post that I find it difficult not to think that you either didn't read it or that you're intentionally trolling. I hope there's a third possibility that I'm missing, because both of those options are very surprising coming from the person that created a forum that I had long assumed was here primarily to help cult victims to heal.
• 

  caves

  oneeyedjoe- I'm really confused by your post. You're the last person I would've expected to have such a drastic misunderstanding of what PE was trying to do with his post that I find it difficult not to think that you either didn't read it or that you're intentionally trolling.

  Well Simon cant cuddle and burp us all.

  I found his comment off putting but also count it as a guard against sensationalism. Where this post could easily go. (or might still go)

  I agree with just about everything everyone has said here viewing it through multiple lenses. Doesn't mean I have to like it.
• 

  Finkelstein

  Is it any wonder then, that the indoctrinated Jehovah's Witness

  has a knee-jerk reaction to treat ex-members with hate, fear and loathing?

  Yes true from sociological perspective but the overall assertion by others is bit over the top dont you think ?

  Jws will indeed shun you but wont promote or impose physical harm to those who leave.

  Its a cult tactic to cultivate devoted followers by creating an us verse them conscious self assumed identity, the righteous in comparison to the unrighteous, the faithful to the unfaithful and so on.
  

  But once one reflects that many of the doctrines created by the WTS was unscriptural and not Biblicaly supported through this organization's agenda to proliferate its literature, it shouldn't be surprising.

  There was too much power and money cultivated to let the top controlling men let go of it.