Silly, maybe. Stupid, definitely.
Their doctrines may be absurd. But, they are not enforced lightly--break one, and your life may be ruined by the hounders at their discretion.
They also ruin lives with their stupidity. They keep people from making friends outside their organization. They make people afraid of holidays to the point where they are afraid of things that tangentially pertain to such. (I could probably start something that would make strawberries and kiwi fruits a disfellowshipping offense in the congregation, if I was a hounder.) Children cannot participate in after-school events, and many parents are guilted out of letting their witless children participate in field trips. Vacations are wasted pio-sneering. College and other pre-career training are as good as banned. These short-sighted doctrines and viewpoints actually ruin people's lives and ensure destitution and stagnation in old age.
As for silliness, all it takes is one person to suggest that eating strawberries and kiwi fruits is celebrating Christmas in New Zealand and mention it to a hounder on a power trip, and you have the New Zealand Christmas celebration banned in that congregation. Even if that congregation is in the northern hemisphere. That is "silly". Everything else is stupid to malicious.
