I Will Give President Biden Credit

by minimus 39 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Vidiot

  Rocketman123 - "I think the Canadian style of federal government is better that the US for there appears to be more open debate and criticism from various parties toward the polices that the in power government are making."

  A big difference is that we generally don't take a winner-take-all approach, and/or try to stymie the opposition's efforts even when they have sound ideas.

  The zero-sum-scorched-earth-humiliate-and-utterly-destroy-the-competion approach to politics might be viscerally satisfying to some, but IMO, it gets in the way of the job of governance.

  That's what many of us seem to forget.

  A political position is - first and foremost - a fucking job.
• 

  kramer

  “Many ex-JWs (including those on this site) are atheists and most atheists in the USA are politically and socially progressive/liberal, so one would think that there would be many more political posts on this site that are favorable of politically progressive/liberal policies, than is currently being posted onto this web site.”

  its likely that there is such a right wing conservative bias on this Xjw group as people identifying as Jehovah’s Witnesses are some of the least educated church goers, and in the lower socio-economic groups. Similarly Trump gained more support amongst lower educated , white working class groups. The JW bigots are now xjw bigots, and make up a significant proportion of opinions in the group.

  
  
• 

  kramer

  And once again mickbobcat is talking so much crap, I don’t expect anyone to go through all that nonsense point by point.
• 

  LoveUniHateExams

  its likely that there is such a right wing conservative bias on this Xjw group as people identifying as Jehovah’s Witnesses are some of the least educated church goers, and in the lower socio-economic groups. Similarly Trump gained more support amongst lower educated , white working class groups. The JW bigots are now xjw bigots, and make up a significant proportion of opinions in the group.

  ^^^ Stop calling right-wing people dumb.

  Engage with people's arguments.

  Thank you.
  
  
• 

  minimus

  I’m conservative and still believe in God. But that’s just me. Regarding politics, if you like Biden, I really don’t comprehend it but I won’t lose sleep over it. For many years in the USA , politicians and their supporters could believe what they wanted without worrying about being canceled. It’s a shame we can’t coexist and respect our differences. On the other hand if we are told as a conservative group that we are useless morons who have no right to speak about our convictions, we will defend ourselves.
• 

  Rocketman123

  The zero-sum-scorched-earth-humiliate-and-utterly-destroy-the-competion

  approach to politics might be viscerally satisfying to some, but IMO, it gets in the way of the job of governance.

  Yup politicians who spend most their time trying to build backing support around themselves by tearing down their opposition to what they are doing, is most likely not doing a very good job in their positions in the first place.
• 

  Disillusioned JW

  Vidiot, thanks for your answer to my question. I agree with your statement of '... the WTS is -by and large - an fundamentally conservative organization, and just because some JWs leave the WT, doesn't mean they leave conservatism per se. Not to mention that the conditioning to distrust "The World" can be somewhat difficult for some to grow past.'
  
  I guess because I very rarely ever heard active JW's express their political views (as JWs are told by the WT to be neutral politically), because I live in a politically liberal geographic area, and because of my inclination to be progressive minded on social and environmental issues, and in some other ways, it did not occur to me (till I read your reply to my question) that a very high percentage of JWs are conservative on political matters (of those JWs that allow themselves to have political views). When became a baptized JW I begrudgingly accepted a number of the teachings of the Bible and the WT.
  
  Kramer, you are right regarding the degree of education (if you mean the percentage who have college education) among JWs. After all, the WT has strongly discouraged (on many occasions) JWs from attending college and obtaining 4-year degree, and to read writings (and listen to ideas) that are critical of the WT's teachings and of the Bible. That influence of the WT even caused me to decide to avoid taking any courses (while I was in college) that would teach: evidence and reasoning in support of the theory of evolution and in support of the reliability of radiometric dating (including carbon dating), criticism of the Bible, and argements against the existence of God (any god).

  I wish I hadn't let the WT's influence cause me to avoid courses that provide such information. I wish I had instead taken an introductory course in each of the following (or at least purchased a used college textbook on such while I was in college): physical anthropology, historical geology, biology, problems of philosophy (where arguments against the existence of God are considered), philosophy of religion (where arguments against the existence of God are considered and where teachings of non-WT doctrines of religion would be taught), and the Bible as literature (which might teach the Bible was not inspired by a god and which might say some of the biblical events never happened). However, during the years I attended college I did purchase a scientific book and science magazines which did have articles in support of evolution and I did read those articles and I did wonder, while reading them, if evolution is true.
  
  Polls of religious people report that JWs in the USA have the lowest (or next to the lowest) percentage of members who have completed college and who consider evolution to be true, of all the other religions in the USA. In contrast, Jews and Hindus have the highest. The polls also say that of all the religions in the USA the JWs have the lowest (or next to the lowest) average income, whereas Jews and Hindus have the highest. In each of these categories the two groups ranked at the bottom are JWs and Baptists.
• 

  minimus

  Just because the Wt. is considered conservative, it doesn’t mean ex JWs will remain that way as evidenced by the differences of political opinions with the ex JW community.
• 

  Anony Mous

  Just because we left the JW does not mean we remain uneducated. Many of us are highly educated, I work in higher education, together with various top evolutionary neuroscientists, I even have my name on scientific papers and included with accolades on many dissertations. I am a social liberal and I do not support racism or classism, thus I cannot vote for Democrats, I vote with conservative Republicans although I do not support religion either, but at least Republicans know they cannot make a state religion, which is what Democrats are trying to do with wokism.

  As said above, conservative Jews and Hindus are likewise highly educated so it’s not religion in and of itself that makes people poor or uneducated. Most highly successful people are conservative in politics as well, you have people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and most of the top 500 CEO, they may not outright be staunch Republicans but they’re libertarians, not at all in support of the socialist agenda. What makes people successful, and this is scientific research, is having 2 parents, not having a kid before you are married and not doing crime - and that is not political at all, or religious, even though the religious more often promote those ideals, but just those 3 elements is what predicts success 95% of the time, especially amongst minorities, but Democrats haven’t promoted that since at least the 1960s, because they are racists and want to keep people in the Democratic plantation.

  A large portion of the masses aren’t far left or libertarians either, they’re somewhere in the middle, hence we have people voting for Trump one year and Biden the other. This is where the media comes in, they do have sufficient influence on the people in general. The average person thinks about politics on average 1 hour per week. And the rest of the time, whether Trump is getting peed on by hookers or whether Biden has dementia does not phase them one bit, they don’t care.

  The thing they do care about is jobs, taxes and their kids, and on those spectrum, the left will get defeated once again in the near future. Hence why the left right now is going crazy to implement their agenda, they know it’s not palatable and they only have 2 years to do it.
• 

  Rocketman123

  I lean to more conservative politics than liberal and I'm a ex-jws atheist .

  I support politicians that present purposeful and helpful polcies to the greater public, done so with compassion, honesty and intelligence.

  I dont support politicians that are deceitful, lying, unintelligent and corrupt who make polices strictly for small interest groups which are not generally good for the greater population as a whole.

  I had that from the leaders of the JWS religion, so I have an innate conscious awareness about these people and their actions.