Our fears and loyalties were manipulated and exploited to make us accomplices in maintaining our own ignorance

by free @ last 19 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Ding

  Today I've been knocking myself on the head trying to figure out what the hell took me so long!!

  Fear... programmed and reinforced year by year and day by day by the WTS.

  Even after people leave the organization they still think apostates are evil and churches are dens of demon worship.

  These fears are so strong and so ingrained that you don't stop to think about where they came from and whether they have any basis in reality.

  It takes a long time to realize that those thoughts are the result of propaganda designed to keep JWs thinking that the WTS is the only safe place and to isolate them from any outside sources of information or support.
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  poppers

  Your thread title says it all very succinctly. Welcome to freedom.
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  rocketman

  I've been out a nearly a decade, but one thing I haven't done is start using foul language. I do think the occasional 'f-bomb' is funny, when properly placed (not used every-other-word). I've just decided not to curse. Interestingly, a female relative of mine who is a staunch jw uses foul language, and I heard plenty of it when I played sports with jw men back in the day.
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  sizemik

  Don't think my brain is working this morning. What does KLASS mean?

  LOL . . . I have this bad habit of substituting letters unnecessarily (sizemik = seismic) Hence, Klass = Class . . . as in being a bad boy and swearing will get you banned if you persist.
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  LongHairGal

  Free at Last:

  Welcome to the board!

  You are certainly right that our fears and loyalties were manipulated in order to maintain our own ignorance. Yes, the religion wanted us to keep the wool pulled over our eyes voluntarily so that we would not see the truth about the religion. Interesting though about the word "loyalty" because the religion used it frequently.

  Obviously they had something to hide and JWs in the past already found out about these hidden things and left the religion. Once a person's eyes were opened to the bad or negative things about the religion, their "loyalty" would be tested. And why would it not be? It is an insult to your intelligence really to imagine you would be "loyal" to something once you find out it is not what it purported to be.
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  free @ last

  Actually RocketMan I tend to agree with you. . . . I've always avoided foul language because well that's what I was taught and that's how my family has always been. To this day I can honestly say that I haven't heard anyone in my family use coarse language. . . . well maybe just one sister who tries to be funny by mimicking others . . . but never ever heard any swear words out of them from anger and I come from a pretty large and accident prone family. I always felt that cursing was the verbal or written equivalent to littering; but really much worse since you can pick up litter but you can never pluck a curse word out of your listener's ears.

  But my point was that maybe I just need to get over my prissy self and enjoy or at least be more tolerant of the more colorful side of the English language. . . . I used to take personal offense at every curse word I heard and give scolding looks to strangers who cursed, now to be frank it feels good to at least type one or two here and there and to read some of the funnier posts seasoned with a few expletives. Don't really know where I stand on so many issues now. . . . so I'll probably swing back and forth between my JW born-in ways and the ways of 'the world' before I find my true self.

  My apologies SizeMik perhaps I confused some of your posts with those of Outlaw. . . I will still pay attention to you though and learn from your moderation.

  But really this thread is about how we became complicit in our ignorance. . . .

  LongHairedGal - You hit the nail. . . . They most definitely have something to hide. Why else pepper every meeting and assembly part with warnings against the internet and apostates who else but the guilty try to silence their opposition with so much gusto. They have young and old living in fear of being exposed to anything remotely contrary to their spiritual baby food.

  I saw this at work tonight in two separate conversations with my siblings. . . . just any thought that doesn't toe the GB line is a total conversation and thought stopper. They are so afraid of coming into the light. A friend sent me this link today. . . . much food for thought http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html

  Thanks for the welcome ChaRikLo and all the rest.

  f@l
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  LongHairGal

  Free at Last:

  Thanks, I read that book a long time ago but remember that story particularly. This is probably the reason the religion doesn't want anybody to study philosophy, among other things. They want to keep everybody in the dark, pure and simple.

  They want a bunch of dumbed-down, silent, submissive, unthinking, mentally-crippled slaves sitting in the seats. It is really laughable when you think about it. Any organization with this type of agenda could not possibly survive in the real world. I never fit in and faced a constant swimming against the tide with this moronic mindset.

  So glad to be out of there.
• 

  trillaz

  Welcome F@L, and if you want more research on swearing check out Andrew Dice Clay, Sam Kinison, Eddie Murphy, Katt Williams or someone who banged their foot on a bed leg.

  Whoa, what about Richard Pryor and George Carlin. If any comedian mastered the art of making light of normally socially taboo

  vernacular, it was these two. Probably the funniest too IMHO.
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  OnTheWayOut

  I was going to post about how, maybe we are crazy freaks. But welcome and I will stay on the serious side.

  Yes, you are correct. WTS training made you an accomplice in your own remaining ignorant of the truth about "the truth."

  Many here were certain they were going to die at Armageddon for some time after they left until they learned otherwise. Many were out and back in once or more than once.

  p.s. as a born-in this is my first week using swear words........ how am I doing?

  While I was still a JW, I had this co-worker, an upper boss, who made it his goal to break me down and get me to swear. I told him they were just words. Of course he didn't understand why I would not use certain words if they were just words. I basically said "Because I used to use those words way too often and breaking myself of that habit was good for me." (I eventually used an F*bomb to make him happy, but it was years later.) Now that I am not JW, I will occasionally use those words, but just when I really think they are proper for emphasis, like when I was talking about JW's or my past to close friends and discussed how I was "mind-fu*&ed."

  Use the words very sparingly. That's my point. I am okay with people that use them, they are just words, but it's refreshing to hear people talk and save the attention-getting words for places they belong.
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  MrFreeze

  I try not to swear and Im very careful who I do it around. Welcome to JWN.