3rdgen - you make an excellent point when you state, " So no, I won't accept that I was that stupid . I was lied to. " EXACTLY ! And therein lies the crux of the matter. We as ex Jehovah's Witnesses have to be kind to ourselves and put the blame on where it belongs - leaders of the WT Society who lied and CONTINUE lying to 8 million people and other potential non-JW converts.
As Steve Hassan mentions in his books on mind control - the tactics of mind control can be successfully used to manipulate ANYONE'S mind . It doesn't matter how " smart " or allegedly " intelligent " someone thinks they are. It's about an unscrupulous high control organization using deceptive and persuasive tactics to appeal to important things in people's lives - never dying, never getting sick, perfect health, possibly living forever - all of these things are an illusion in reality - but if the WT Society and other mind control cults can use guilt and fear to pull converts in hook, line, and sinker- then WT leaders have accomplished their goal of controlling more lives to suit WT organization purposes and enable the WT organization financially through donations and time stolen from what SHOULD have been normal human lives. Now totally wasted.
The best revenge against the WT Society is living successfully and happily after exiting the JW cult. Then the WT Society loses the influence in us and life begins again for us. Then we essentially give WT leaders a slap in the face and can say, " this is one life you didn't continue to steal ! " And we do that when we forgive ourselves for having been in the JW's in the first place and realize it was NOT our fault- we were lied to , duped, controlled, and manipulated with false illusions and false hopes. Then put blame on WT leaders, they are the guilty party