I guess my sense of "fun"is different.
I never realized how FRAGILE factual knowledge has become in our modern world and how susceptible to disruption and mistrust we become if we aren't on guard.
http://www.space.com/20514-apollo-moon-landing-hoax-poll.html
20 percent of Republicans believe that President Obama is the Anti-Christ, compared with 13 percent of Independents and 6 percent of Democrats who agree. -
Still, about 7 percent of Americans polled in the study think NASA did indeed fake the Apollo moon landings, the study found. Seriously...7 percent.
This Flat-Earth and Faked Moon Landing movement exists mostly among young college age persons who weren't alive when the moon landing took place.
Young people have little life experience. They are highly susceptible to "inside" information.
What do cults and conspiracies have in common?
The Governing Body is what? It is a SECRET SOCIETY with special inside knowledge unavailable to everybody else.
Guess what? We fell for this crap!
The 'anointed' the 'faithful and discreet slave' and the 'remnant' were spooky terms I'd never heard before I began studying with my friend Johnny in 1959.
It all sounded silly. It WAS silly. But after I had heard it a thousand times and began to associate with people at the Kingdom Hall who accepted it as true---the novelty of the stupidity vanished.
Have you heard the old saying, "Perception is Reality"?
That should scare us into vigilance.
These documentary-style propaganda videos on YouTube I posted are manipulative and interestingly so. Maybe not to you--but to plenty of others.
WHY?
Because, if you just let a tiny doubt creep in that you have been lied to--it triggers a survival mechanism!
Us vs. Them kicks in.
Who lied? What else did they lie about?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/20/flat-earth-believers-youtube-videos-conspiracy-theorists
A New York magazine piece on flat-Earthdom is skeptical of some who claim the mantle: “The line between actually believing the theory and enthusiastically entertaining is unclear. Being a Flat Earther exists in the same online space as chemtrails and the notion that 9/11 was an inside job: there are some who believe it sincerely, and magnitudes more who entertain the notion ironically.”
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How does this happen?
Gradually, insidiously and on purpose.
Asking one simple question after another which undermines authority and trust disables our certainty and balance and triggers curiosity about more and more.
Vetting sources and doing research is NOT easy if you are diligent, tireless and thorough. But, if you are lazy, you fall prey to false information and go down the rabbit hole with the rest of the low-hanging fruit,.
You see, lots of very "trustworthy" leaders are j-u-s-t fake enough to lie about a little all the time. If you call them on it and they cover- it- up, you never trust them again.
If we are not wary, once we leave the JW's we can easily become drawn into the next swindle and the next cult and the next phony cause or conspiracy. How?
Our brains have been wired to do so by years of habit!!
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Remember this, to current JW's the "apostates and their videos" are exactly the same as Flat Earth believers!
We are all bent, twisted and messed over in some way as a result of our meat-grinder experience among the Dubs.
It's all too easy.
Being an individual rather than part of a 'belief group' is difficult for many of us.
Every day outside a Control Group is a test.
Like quitting any other habit or addiction, maintaining healthy skepticism without becoming a nutjob just ain't easy! :)
