In my opinion, sometimes people get stuck in the anger part of leaving and never move on. Again, my opinion is take care of getting yourself right, then worry about helping others. It's a long, painful process to untangle yourself from the cult, and sometimes people don't take the time to care for themselves first.
Some apostates are coming across as crazed psychopaths
by jambon1 46 Replies latest jw friends
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flipper
JUST FINE - I totally agree with this - " sometimes people don't take the time to care for themselves first " . VERY true. Thanks for that insight
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Simon
I think the EX-Jw's that go crazy don't realize that cramming information down someone's throat without giving them a chance to DECIDE on their own - is a detrimental thing to do and not effective. At least not effective if you're honestly trying to reach these JW's.
This is so true. Some think that JWs are still JWs because they don't have the right (or enough of the right) information but it's very often not the case. You can't often convince people through reasoning that their beliefs are wrong. First off, they often block it out either physically by refusing to listen or engage or mentally.
What convinces people to leave is personal experience - when shit gets real and starts affecting them.
Which leads to the next part ...
sometimes people get stuck in the anger part of leaving and never move on. Again, my opinion is take care of getting yourself right, then worry about helping others. It's a long, painful process to untangle yourself from the cult, and sometimes people don't take the time to care for themselves first.
This.
People eventually get hurt enough to wake up and see the lies. Then they can go one of two ways - try and help others or try and hurt the WTS. Sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don't. Sometimes people claim they are doing the former but really want the latter. Sometimes they become dangerous and people see "hurting JWs" as the same as "hurting the WTS", they are not.
Of course there is also the delusion. Not only do people think they will hurt the WTS, they believe they will FINISH and DESTROY the WTS. Yeah, all the people who have gone before them didn't do enough: "now they have messed with the wrong marine!"
Welcome to the club, get in line.
It's not going to happen. The best we can do is ensure that information is available for those leaving (and to help prevent people joining) and provide guidance and community to make leaving easier.
It's not a case of "if we publish more, we'll be successful". The WTS can't convince people to become JWs despite ridiculous amounts of published literature and propaganda being spread by volunteers ... and neither can we make them leave.
Sure, there are blips of publicity that help reach people, but it's a long game, not a sprint. And there's no finish line - the religion, in one form or another, is there because it appeals to people. It's an opiate. They just need help weaning themselves off it, but not every addict is going to get clean all at once.
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Mad Irishman
There are crazy witnesses and good witnesses and everything in between. That in turn means there will be crazy ex-witnesses, good ex-witnesses, and everything in between.
This is how it usually works for any group of people. And unfortunately no one can control anyone else; and most people don't listen to reason now-a-days so there are always going to be aggressive people who make themselves look like idiots.
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GrreatTeacher
I've really enjoyed this thread. It's made me think.
And, what I'm thinking is that sometimes your audience is ex-JWs and sometimes it's not.
And that's okay. We don't have to be perpetual anti-JW educators.
Sometimes it's just us, with our own complicated feelings, trying to make sense of it all and heal.
And I would think that would be a very individual process.
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Vidiot
Finkelstein - "Since I found many JWS to be crazy psychopaths, its not surprising there are a few who can be identified as such after leaving the Borg."
Makes you wonder if the scariest "apostates" were originally the most rabid JWs... :smirk:
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Vidiot
Seriously, though, the only one I ever encountered was this odd guy with a placard quietly "demonstrating" outside the entrance of the local Assembly Hall.
I actually felt a bit sorry for him, all alone in the rain.