"I always felt apostates were bitter angry evil people."
You are exactly right. SOME are. When some people find out they've devoted decades of their life to a lie.....the resulting feeling is more than just agitation. it is downright contempt and anger. Not at individual witnesses......but at the leaders that perpetuate the lie and keep 7 million people in a self created bubble.
Back when I was an uber witness....I wondered the same thing. Why are former witnesses so seemingly angry? And then I fell for a typical logical fallacy that witnesses use all the time. One elder told me "See? The governing body KNOWS how all apostates will act. The fact that they KNOW that apostates will act a certain way is even more proof that Jehovah is directing the organization forward while weeding out the bad apples". I thought this logic was brilliant......until I was able to think critically about it.
Of course former members are going to be angry! If I worked for Enron Corp in the 1990s and vested all my retirement into company stock.....I'd be livid at the leaders of the company for selling me a lie and ruining my eventual retirement. It is natural to feel angry when you find out you've wasted your life/time because of something you believed that isn't true.
Here is a parallel. Many years ago I got sucked into a pyramid scheme when I was an active JW. This pyramid scheme paralleled the society in many ways. It was taught that the leaders of this particular businesses new everything there was to know about the business. Just do what they tell you and you'll succeed [the governing body is directed by God......always listen to them]. They gave you material to read, sales presentations to memorize, and tapes and disks to listen to and watch that were designed to build your confidence in the company. You were encourage to continually read and listen, read and listen. [the society likewise keeps you busy with 5 meetings per week, field service, personal study, study for meetings, preparation for field service, reading the magazines, reading the text etc]. If you developed any doubts or frustrations, you had a "team leader" (who was naturally higher up on the pyramid) that would encourage you to keep going. If need be, he would listen to a tape with you or go through your presentation with you. The idea was to keep you going [if you are feeling down in the society....you are encouraged to go in service more....do more study. An elder might even study with you. the idea - keep yourself busy. The busier you are the less time you'll have to think critically} With this pyramid scheme....you were to spend 80% of your time dealing with people that are considered ripe. 20% of your time with people that were green. and 0% with people that were rotten! Who are rotten? Anyone that is a former associate or that is critical of your involvement with the scheme. [within the organization....who is rotten? Anyone that is disfellowshipped or critical of the organization. All they are trying to do is ruin your relationship with God. They are evil]
The parallels are stunning. And amazingly......the leaders of this pyramid scheme "knew" the same things that the governing body "know". They "knew" that former members are "angry" and that those critical of your being involved in the "business" are only seeking to "ruin your dreams". Hmmmm....Sound familiar?
If god is directing the governing body to "know" the overall attitude of former Jehovahs Witnesses (being rather perturbed at the borg). Then god must be similarly directing the leaders of this pyramid scheme to "know" the same. Cause ya know......it couldn't possibly be LOGICAL that former members might carry a bit of agitation with them when they realize they've been had.