Posts by OneEyedJoe

51

Please Switch Off Your Critical Thinking

by pale.emperor in

i have an uneasy feeling inside that something is coming this year or the next.

perhaps a new big announcement that turns jwdom on it's head.. we've seen the statement in the watchtower november 15th, 2013 which said:.

watchtower november 15th, 2013 - page 20, paragraph 17.. .

OneEyedJoe

I don't expect that there will be any huge changes (though I guess we could argue over what constitutes a huge change....we've seen big changes in the last several years, but I don't think anything has been on the order of what the OP is talking about) To me their pattern seems to be big talk and then small actions - they prep people with sweeping statements like that and then the changes are relatively small. The reaction they seem to aim for is something like "Oh they don't want us to kill ourselves ala jonestown, they just want us to sell a kingdom hall and merge a few congregations, I was silly to have even worried about it."

The no-blood policy is even like this in a lot of ways - granted tens of thousands have died from it, but for most JWs it's a big ask that never actually comes to fruition. Then they're more likely to yield on smaller things since they've already implicitly yielded on something big (even if they never actually have to act in most cases).

The "adjust your thinking" type phrases have been around forever in the cult...that's standard cult fare - putting on the new personality, training your conscience, model yourself after Jesus (and the GB/CO/pioneers) etc etc.

43

Gun Nuts...

by silentbuddha in

anyone here into guns.

i know alot of the euros here hate the idea but i wonder if there are any other members who are collectors or who are into hunting, target shooti g etc.. no shame zone?.

OneEyedJoe

I saw the topic title and was terrified that this was going to be a new product from the makers of truck nuts. Finding out that it was not gave me a great sense of relief about where the human species is headed.

That's all I have to add. Carry on.

18

Eldub that get stuck on a word or phrase!

by DwainBowman in

eldub that get stuck on a word!.

over the years i have been around a few, that if a "big" or "unusual" word or phrase is used at the assembly or by a co/do, to stress a point.

then eldub "somebody" will use it at every meeting, if they can find a way to squeeze it into a part or commit.. most of them get over it after a few meetings.

OneEyedJoe

I can't think of a place in which I have suffered through more egregious errors in grammar (or just generally thinking through what you're saying) than a kingdom hall.

Some of the more memorable:

In the context of god bringing on armageddon "The question you should be asking yourself is not 'Will he?' it's 'When he?'"

Another speaker used the phrase "in the world" waaaay too much, which lead to the rather unfortunate "There are over 100 billion stars in the world."

48

2018 Convention videos leaked by brave insiders

by Room 215 in

jw
friends

anopther coup for cedars: http://jwsurvey.org/cedars-blog/leaked-2018-convention-videos-celebrate-anti-lgbtq-bigotry-unquestioning-obedience-doomsday-fear-mongering

OneEyedJoe

You know the answer to that already NY44m! Conventions are a $$$$$$$ maker! Plus the gathering motivates the people just by riling them up.

Not just the money - conventions are great for applying social pressure to get people to accept some of the more extreme indoctrination. A lot of these videos are things that an average, unthinking JW would object to were they to view it privately. They then might seek out someone else that they know who is of like mind to discuss their objections. Having JWs all view these together prevents this - they're sitting there with tons of other JWs around, all nodding along (or, at least, failing to make a fuss about it) so they do the same. They see other people listening (even their friend that they might otherwise assume would have similar objections to theirs) and outwardly going along with it so they have to silence their concerns. The fact that they then don't speak up triggers cognitive dissonance (it's wrong but I didn't do anything about it) that influences them to adjust their opinions (well I didn't do/say anything about it...so maybe it's not wrong).

Even if they managed to make up for the direct financial losses of doing without conventions, I suspect they'd end up with a greater rate of attrition of members as they move to viewing these in small groups or alone and discussing with people that might be more open in their thinking. If they're smart, they'll never get rid of conventions. At most they might go to 2-day conventions, but I suspect that's a bad move on their part (they'd lose all those great experiences about people being fired for taking friday off and then getting a higher-paying job with less hours on the same day!). The one-day assemblies made sense because many assemblies are held in their own buildings and doing one-day assemblies would probably allow them to consolidate/sell many buildings. But they wouldn't get the same benefit from reducing the length of a convention until they, too, went to a one day, and most conventions are held in rented facilities anyway. Anyway...bit of a tangent there.

18

Is it ethical to have children?

by joey jojo in

this was a news article recently in an australian newspaper that caught my eye.. the premise was that to have a child is to inflict an extra human being onto the world and also, to inflict the world (with all its problems) onto the child.. there is a lot to say about this but from jw point of view, i have always believed it to be incredibly hypocritical that jw's have children in 'this system'.

all my life at the meeting i heard how little time we have left, how sick the world is, how i was probably going to be persecuted and end up in a jail cell for being a jw.

why would anyone want to become parents in this situation, particularly if they are confident there is only 'a short time left'?.

OneEyedJoe

Sam Harris did a podcast with David Benatar not too long ago where they talked a good bit on the topic of anti-natalism. I'm not particularly sure which way I swing, but I don't plan to have kids anyhow so I guess it doesn't matter much in my case.

17

Tattoos?

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

if seems to be quite fashionable nowadays for ex-jws to get a tattoo or a series of tattoos to symbolize either their time spent in the watchtower or their escape, and i kind of don't get it.

i don't understand why someone would want a constant reminder on their body of such a horrible period in their life.

on another forum, one woman shared that she was getting 25 bees tattooed all over her body to represent the 25 years she spent in the org.

OneEyedJoe

Eh. Everyone has their own way of recoiling from their time in the cult. Getting a tattoo releases a lot of endorphins (for some, for others it's just painful) and getting one to commemorate a bad experience is a way of making that bad experience good in a way. It can also help one to see that even the bad things are a part of who they are, which can help someone accept the past.

Personally I got a tattoo shortly after my exit. It wasn't related to the cult in any way except that it was a bit of an F you to the rules under which I used to live. Sometimes I get out of the shower and see it having forgot it's there. It's a nice reminder that I can now too whatever the F I want. It's not for everyone, but I also think too much is made of the permanence of a tattoo. It's not that big of a deal.

12

Did you become more antisocial after waking up?

by paradiseseeker in

jw
friends

i've been shy my whole life, but during my teenage years and early 20s i managed to be more comfortable socializing and made many friends in different parts of my country (jws of course).

that was before i woke up, because i saw myself being a jw for the rest of my life and thus i made an effort to meet new jw friends.

however, after i woke up, i lost interest in meeting new people because knowing that when i leave they will be gone... feels like a total waste of time and energy.

OneEyedJoe

Yeah, I think it's inevitable that, in your situation, you're going to be much less inclined to be social with JWs. Not just the fact that most of the acquaintances you make will quickly abandon you when you make an exit, but also the mental and emotional stress of having to hold part of yourself inside to do it. There's always an undercurrent of JW nonsense in any group of JWs (at least in my experience) and having to repress yourself in order to not rock the boat or out yourself as an apostate before you're ready can take an enormous amount of effort. What's more - that habit of repressing yourself is very unhealthy and (I'm finding) can really come back to haunt you in future relationships even after you've left the cult entirely.

As someone who's very introverted myself, I empathize with your plight. I'd suggest that you really try to make an effort to make friends with non-JWs. You might even try being open with non-JWs about your current situation. I wouldn't open with it, but once you've both opened up about your personal life a little, it could be appropriate. I've found that I've consistently been surprised by the empathy and compassion I've received when doing that, and it can help you to train yourself to be more open and authentic, which will only help you make more friends. You're in a difficult situation, and you're likely to need some support system at some point - better to start building it now.

21

Watchtower May 2018

by Listener in

the may 2018 watchtower is now out and thought i would make a few observations.in this article we get a story about gb sam herd.

the recurring theme throughout is the struggles he has had as a black man.he was born in 1935 in a one roomed log cabin in liberty indiana.

his mother raised him in the baptist church.

OneEyedJoe

One thing that stood out to me from the beginning of this story, that I don't think anyone has mentioned:

One day, two JW girls [...] waved him over as he was driving his red convertible through town. He promised the girls that he would think about attending a book study.

[...] In 1958 [...] he married one of those young ladies that invited him to the book study, Gloria.

Were his eyes opened by learning that Jehovah was god's name, or was that just a detail that he picked up in the study in order to impress Gloria with how much he'd payed attention because he was hoping to hook up with her? This is one of the most common methods of cult recruitment out there - pull people in with attractive members of the opposite sex. Granted, JWs don't seem to do this on a coordinated basis, but the proportion of members that originally joined this way (along with those that originally joined after some traumatic experience - death, breakup, illness, etc - or after moving somewhere that they know no one) is quite telling. If it really were the truth, you'd think that people (especially ones that eventually find their way to the very top) would be joining out of sheer love of truth, not to hook up with a pretty girl or to make friends after they've relocated, etc.

35

The Constant Mindchatter After You Leave

by pale.emperor in

i've been out almost 2 years now and consider myself wide awake to watchtower propaganda and well on my way to recovery from the mental abuse we've all experienced.. one thing that just will not go is that i constantly think of jwism and watchtower and get myself all annoyed at their lies and blatant twisting of facts in their broadcasts and magazines.

it's so bad that it's the first thing i think of when i wake up, then i have these mental arguments in my head proving the jw teachings false and then getting annoyed because no jw will listen even if you tried to tell them.

i call this constant thinking and mental reasoning and mental arguing "mindchatter".

OneEyedJoe

I tend to take a practical approach combined with a bit of the idea behind the alcoholic's prayer - change the things you can, accept the things you can't change. So if you can't change something (i.e. that your family is in the cult, that the cult exists, etc) you just have to accept it and move on and force yourself not to dwell on it. If it doesn't have any tangible effect on anything, then why worry about it at all?

If you find yourself dwelling on some aspect of the cult, just ask "does thinking about this affect anything?" or "If I figure this out, how would it change my behavior?" and if it doesn't matter (i.e. dwelling on the flaws in the cult's argument about the 144k being literal or not, if you see the bible as a whole as having no divine value) then you just move on. Try something akin to mindfulness meditation - allow the thoughts to pop up, but don't entertain them. With practice you'll dismiss things quickly and not dwell on worthless cult stuff that has no bearing on your day-to-day life anymore.

14

Jehovah's witnesses in bible prophecy

by godbless in

good day to all on this discussion board.

i am "godbless" and i am new to this discussion board.

i live in westmoreland, jamaica.

OneEyedJoe

Before you go jumping headlong into a cult, you should probably check out jwfacts.com and freedomofmind.com. There's plenty of information out there on how cults use social pressure to gain undue influence over their adherents to control and take advantage of them.

The JW religion is not, nor was it ever, "the truth" as they claim. Their being involved with the UN is a mere drop in the bucket of problems with the "religion."