Dave,
I started to send this to you via email. Then I figured: since our feud has played it out publicly, maybe it can end the same way.
So, deciding to go public, I started to create a new thread for what I'm about to say since voices have been wailing for days that this thread has been "hijacked." As far as I'm concerned, this thread was dull from the git-go. I'll never understand why any ex-JW cares what one-dimensional, intolerant, dull JWs talk about. "hey everybody, look at the stupid, asinine, close-minded things the Dubs are saying NOW!!" when **we all** know good and well that, not long ago, we were one and all saying the exact same things.
So, I'm saying it here. Screw JWZone.
Overall, I think you are a good person. I think you mean well. I think you care--are passionate about--people and would do whatever was in your power to help someone if you could. I have little doubt that if I happened to meet you at some apostafest down the line, we'd quickly find that we have much in common. To be honest, the ire that exists between us, for the most part, has come from you. But, that's cool. You're not the first person (here or elsewhere) to not take an immediate liking to me.
One thing about you, though... you come across very condescendingly and that is something that I simply cannot stand... as though you KNOW and everybody else (or those who disagree with you or have a different viewpoint) are somehow 'less than.'
Yeah, I dredge up the Danni Affair when maybe I should let that debacle rest, but I do it only to show that even you are dead wrong sometimes. So, I'm wondering: where do you get this arrogance I sense from you all the time? As much as you might hate to admit it, you (nor I or anyone else) don't hold any high moral ground here.
I didn't care for your attitude back then, an attitude that smacked of,
"Hey, y'all, Dave's here!! Step back, peons!! Everything's under control. Here's the deal. Here's the opinion you all should have.What? You don't have the same opinion as The One I just offered? Then, you're a fool and you pander to JW pedophiles. I'm done with you."
I have to tell you... a hand full of the posters here have never been JWs, but for the most part most of us have paid a heavy price due to our involvement with the Society, most of us for many, many years. (I don't think I need to elaborate on what the price is and has been.) What I wanna know is: why it is that some of us foist some of those same evil behaviors that were done to EACH OF US on people who have already been mentally, spiritually, and psychologically abused? It's a common human behavior--abused people become abusers--that I have a very hard time understanding.
And, to me, that is what you do.
You berate people that don't agree with you... you call people silly names like "ass wipes", call them "puppies" and let it be known (jokingly, perhaps) that your comments to certain ones is only a demonstration of your stooping to offer such degraded ones--so far beneath you--your simple words of wisdom, e.g. "kibbles and bits."
I'm here to tell you: I'm forever through with that bullshit. I lived that kind of life already, suffered that sort of ridicule (and seen it done to others when I had no voice to help them) long enough.
Let me offer you a reality bite: Dave isn't better than ANYBODY. Teejay isn't better than ANYBODY. Neither is Prisca, LDH, JanH, AlanF, Simon... the list goes on and on. We're all on the same level, my friend. I don't know how that tidbit of information registers with you, but for me it means that whenever, and I mean WHENEVER I see someone... as they say in the 'hood': perpetratin' ... actin' like they "somebody" when they really AIN'T ... sorry, but I'm coming with the both barrels blazing, Dude.
For those in *my* life (whether 'real' or cyber), *I* will be the one to break the cycle of pain. I'm strong enough and I want to. I'm thinking: shouldn't every ex-JW feel the same?
Like I said, the only problem and I mean the ONLY problem I've *ever* had with you is this--a feigned elitism, perfected to a high art by the gb and repeated all to often by us. Other than this, we got no problems. None. Zero.