I got into fisty cuffs with my uber JW brother a few days ago. Not over doctrine, but the inevitable side effects of the Borg. You know, lack of love, manipulation, utter disregard for anyone's interests other than your own. Culty, culty culty!
In my brother's eyes, I'm now disfellowshipped... and why? I disagreed with him. The incredible part about the whole discussion, is I saw right through every trick he tried to pull. The circular reasoning, the threats regarding the 'consequences' of my actions. He argued semantics, my tact and threw in a ton of righteous indignation, but not ONCE did he mention the issue at hand. The fact that his wife used tears, manipulation and outright lies to cheat my cousin and save herself a few bucks. It was classic! I stayed calm and focused the whole time. Challenged his big words and corrected his misquotations and definitions. He tried to convince me that the conversation my cousin had with his wife was hearsay! What? I told him hearsay is testimony from a third party, not someone involved in the conversation but he wouldn't budge. I almost brought up the two witness JC rule as an example but held my tongue.
In the end, he wasn't able to spin a convincing argument, and ended by... 1) Repeating how 'shocked and stunned' he was. 2) Saying "So you think my wife uses manipulation to get what she wants?" Yes, sir! Out of your own mouth.
Before I would have been emotional, and easily swayed off topic. With all the advice and experiences I've read here, I was able to stand my ground. Thanks guys. It feels great!