The WTS fighting the internet is like the United States fighting the Viet Cong. Using all their resources in an all out battle, like Watchtower vs. Quotes, nobody stands a chance against them. But in our own grassroots community, where any JW in good standing can be an apostate, they can't stop us. There's too many of us.
Is the Watchtower Society strong enough to win this war with the internet?
by jack w 76 Replies latest jw friends
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Quentin
No...the Internet is to big...they may have an ungodly amount of money and strong arm a few web sites, doesn't matter they don't have enough...as said, they'll make it a DF offense for the R&F...only thing they can do...circle the waggons and take pot shots here and there...
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Mysterious
They don't do it out of confidence that they will win, they do it out of desperation because they know they are losing. Freedom of information is the scourge of all high control organizations. As we have seen with Quotes site I think you will find that the more they shut down, the more that pop up; an exponential battle has no chance of being won.
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AuldSoul
It's obvious they aren't just going to lay down.
Ahhh! The hooks are in their jaws...if they get dragged out it will be the end of them. Maybe not by the Internet, but they will be dragged out by something. Eventually. Do you think they know it? Probably. But their rage will eventually be aroused to the point where they cannot help themselves from plunging headlong to their ruination.
And I will smile.
AuldSoul
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calico
As far as the WT saying that they never said something--there is no way they could destroy all of their past publications! It's amazing what people save!
You never know when you might inherit a bunch of books from a pack-rat relative!
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free2beme
They win in the sense that much like people not admiting to reading apostate literature as active Witness, active Witnesses will be very careful about admiting what they read online.
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trevor
There seems to be a mirror site that has replaced Quotes. It comes up under - Watchtower Quotes Site Map. There are also many other sites. The WTS will never be able to stop the advancement of truth.
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Gozz
The WTS will win some battles, but evening winning a few court battles is effectively losing, as they're fast learning from their recent brush with Quotes.
A JW caught the Quotes news from nowhere, sent a mail to a group, and I replied with the details; the others in the group have never heard of the Quotes Site, and have been arguing that it's impossible for the WTS to shut down a site that offers no criticism of JW doctrine; it'll be interesting to see how it ends, this ongoing discussion. Even the WTS can surprise the most zealous, seemingly brain dead JW . They can run, but they can't hide.
P.S.: does anyone know if Quotes (Peter Anthony Mossier) was ever a JW ? Was he disfellowshipped or did he dissociate himself? I need this information as one of the JWs has asked to know. I wish to supply the correct information; obviously, he won't be checking the "work" of an apostate... the only snag is that there's nothing original by Quotes himself, they're all the WTS words; we'll soon get round to that argument...
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greendawn
There isn't much they can do, if they managed to close some sites it was because they exploited copyright infringement laws and most sites against them (i've got 170 of them bookmarked)don't fall foul of this law, they use many other ways to prove their point against the WTS. As long as what they say is true and provable there is nothing the WTS can do.
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JT
A poster stated :
“They will make using the internet a reason to DF a person”
While I understand you point I hardly see this happening, and the reason I simple, currently the service dept is moving dfing offenses over to daing offense category, the reason is no legal liability yet they can get the same results, shunning
The wt is currently using the same tactic with the net that they used with college, the wt never said that a jw could not go to college, instead they went a step further, they demonized college to the point where any mature Christian knew better than to go to college they went after the jw mind and how they think and reason
Today that is the same approach they are taking with the net and I see it increasing with more talks, CO talks , wt articles,, etc
Consider this – currently jw know to never mention while in a group of jw that they were using the net for the purpose of seeking “Biblical information”
Yes they can go to CNN.com, but to publicly state while in a group of jw that they were up on the net doing some research on so and so about the bible will never happened
The wt has successfully created a mindset that if a jw mentions they frequent the net, the other members will think – he must be seeing porn or apostates site
\can you see any jw during the wt on Sunday say”
“I was up on the internet last night and found an interesting point”
even if the point AGREES with the wt, the congo would start to wonder why is he always saying”I read so and so from the net, instead of of I read the wt publications”
so by demonizing the net among jw- as oppose to an outright out ban, prevents the wt from having to deal with legal issues that a judicial committee presents
The problem of course is that the net allows jw in the privacy of their homes to surf the net unknown-
Consider even the most dyed in the wool Pro WT supporter that you can find on any debate forum, would be in deep DO DO if the CO found out that they were in such sites filled with dfed daed and apostates- even if they are defending the org, they would still be in deep trouble
The wt has state that NO JW should \put up any sites, even PRO JW sites
But the net as everyone has mentioned is a different animal and the wt has never had to account for it long paper trail of goofy dogmas and half bake claims of this info is food from god-
I think the wt put it best about quotes:
“That stuff on Quotes is embarrassing”
if you look at the sites the wt has shut down you will see the same common thread- go after the legal copyright stuff position.
I think we will see a combination of the following things happen
1. those who set up sites will modify their sites to comply with fair use laws and will then be out of reach of wt
sites will be setup in countries where the laws are different
and I can see the day that someone will host a jw site on a large corp ISP- say for example a corp the size of VIACOM
who will not be afraid of some legal suit from some religious group pissed off cause someone is showing embarrassing documents about them
you see the wt risk actually creating greater attention, just suppose that VIACOM says:
“Hell NO we aint shutting down a paying customer site”
then they decide to turn this over to their news division who wants to make a story out of : “Goliath tries to shut down David”
all of a sudden you got both NONJW and JW interested in see what is all the fuss about and end up hitting this site from users around the world to a tune of a few hundred million hits
and everyone is now reading how the wt stated that it was Gods law that if a woman caught her husband Banging the family dog, she could not divorce and remarry-
the way human nature works is the more noise the wt makes the greater the chance of attention being drawn to what they are trying to hide in terms of embarrassing and goofy dogmas
so the net is an animal that even gov can’t stop- look at the most died in the wool countries and yet folks still can get to info-
in fact it often times makes the desire to see and read the info even greater, which is the opposite results they want
while I have seen older jw in fear of the net, the new generation of jw youths will view the net the same way we view the tv, phone or microwave, just another tool to use in our daily lives
so no wt will not win
consider, with a losing message as seen by the billions of hours and zero growth-
a membership that is getting old ,tired, worn out and bored with just meeting and field service,
now we see an info source --the net-- that is becoming an integral part of our lives
how can they win-
while they maybe able to keep the jw in from fear of reading apostates sites, due to fear of disregarding the instructions of the FDS
but for NONJW they will have no affect
consider that today before folks purchase many items, what is the first thin they do----- CK the NET for pros and cons
well after awhile that process will be the common practice of practically all persons on all issues, including religions
you see the biggest challenge a nonjw faces is knowing what questions to ask a jw, by the time they know what questions to ask they are baptized and told to keep their mouth shut
being that jw can’t defend the wt paper trail, imagine each week when the jw returns for the bible study the person has printed out a ton of wt quotes and wants the jw to address them
no jw can withstand that onslaught- they simply are not prepared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!