Like Jehovah’s Witnesses, when we decided that something wasn’t right we researched. We didn’t take for granted what we were told. Just because the government says we should do this or that it doesn’t mean that is the case. And that refers to either Republican or Democrat. We need to be exposed to all different types of views. But just as we left the witnesses, we don’t need to continue reading the watchtower to make sure that we know we made the right decision.
My Prediction: Trump Wins Big
by minimus 193 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
LoveUniHateExams
I think Trump will win but I'm not sure he'll win 'big'.
It's obviously up to the American people but I'd personally like Trump to be re-elected.
The Democrats are currently f**king crazy, there's no other word for them, lol.
-
Driveby
When you have one major cable news program that is polar opposite to virtually all the others, then that should be a clue that something is not right. Yet, this wasn't always the case. I used to watch Fox almost exclusively for the first several years of its existence. It was certainly conservative biased but mostly accurate with supported facts. In fact there are still a few fair minded presenters on there yet, but it switched gears some years ago and turned into a conspiracy mill. The crazy tabloids we used to laugh at when cuing for checkout at grocery stores has come to TV.
-
Driveby
Like Jehovah’s Witnesses, when we decided that something wasn’t right we researched. We didn’t take for granted what we were told.
Your research was limited to only approved materials. That is how cults thrive. They limit your information. We see this today in the USA when our POTUS says all of the major news outlets are fake news. Only cult followers would believe such a thing. Sure, they may be opinion biased but that is not the same as distributing false information and unsupported conspiracies.
-
LoveUniHateExams
Your research was limited to only approved materials. That is how cults thrive. They limit your information. We see this today in the USA when our POTUS says all of the major news outlets are fake news - not really the same situation.
Watchtower forbids its members from looking at outside resources on pain of separation from friends and family. Trump, for all his faults, does no such thing to the American public.
Everyone can watch different news outlets and media and make their own mind up about current affairs.
-
Driveby
Watchtower forbids its members from looking at outside resources on pain of separation from friends and family. Trump, for all his faults, does no such thing to the American public.
Everyone can watch different news outlets and media and make their own mind up about current affairs.While some cults thrive by imposing absolute control, others, perhaps less clearly defined, can be self imposed. The methods may vary but the results are identical.
-
Carmichael
Like Jehovah’s Witnesses, when we decided that something wasn’t right we researched. We didn’t take for granted what we were told.
But like Jehovah's Witnesses, cults are filled with people who admire personalities. All I hear on this thread is stuff like...
Watchtower forbids its members from looking at outside resources on pain of separation from friends and family. Trump, for all his faults, does no such thing to the American public.
Trump has indeed been physically separating families, first at the American/Mexican borders. This was far more violent and at higher numbers than the Governing Body ever did to us. But it is easy "newsspeaked" away by those, who like others in cults, admire Trump to the point at acting with the same type of confirmation bias, anger, hate, and engaging in the same type of debate people in religion cults do.
Religious cults may have a list of approved materials, but cult members aren't forced at gunpoint to these lists. They do so by choice. They believe they have chosen the right side, so the close themselves off to all other input because they think only their leadership is holy. We who were once JWs remember how we used to do this because we thought we were once so smart for making this choice.
One is only see something when they take in information from both sides at once, not just from one source, remember? This is true from politics. Both sides throw mud. The mud just doesn't throw itself.
If people here are admiring once political person over another, it's because they drink their brand Kool-Aid, nothing more. Don't be fooled, no matter what they tell you.
Besides, truth be told. If the current POTUS was so great, no politcal party could have stopped him from building his wall, stopping unrest, and putting in a successful plan to run the country in the face of a pandemic and bring it to an end. Real leaders have the power to vanquish enimies. They don't complain about them.
One last thing: it has not been proven that previous cult members can't be seduced again.
-
cofty
I really detest when people accuse exJWs who have suffered to escape the cult of behaving like a JW.
It is smug, lazy and cowardly. It ought to be taboo in an exJW community.
-
Carmichael
And I want to make this very clear that this is NOT an ANTI-TRUMP comment I've posted above (since I can see I am gathering negative dislikes already).
I am an American and have been a Republican for many years. My family has been supporters of Trump and though some have changed their tune others have definitely not.
While I am very happy exJWs can now be involved in politics and get involved in such speech, what I am speaking of is what people on Reddit and other exJW sites have mentioned, namely a troubling amount of speech that is far from the subject of leaving the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses and has turned to idolize Trump.
I may find myself expelled from this site like I was expelled from the JWs (the governing powers always expel those who speak out--after all, they do own they place whether it is the religion or the forum, so they do have the right), but in the vacuum left by the cult of religion, it seems some have filled it with something else.
You have every right to do that, of course. But are you going to bite another hand that tries to aid you a second time, especially when some of you just might have fallen from the frying pan into the fire (not all of you, of course).
Support of Trump is an American right and privilege. But honestly, outside of the American voting stage, besides some talk about it, there shouldn't be such uncompromising fervor for the man on a site filled with ex-cult members from around the world. Wouldn't you at least think twice that ex-cult members--especially non-American ones, who have such powerful devotion to Trump, might have a little a bit of their cult mentality still intact?
Cult mentality doesn't always stay behind in the cult we leave.
And it's definitely not lazy, Cofty. I've known too many exJWs who went into other cults, like the LDS, for example, just to realize that they were in need of professional help. Don't be insulted if you are not one of those I am speaking about. It can't be taboo in an exJW community because you can look in other threads here where you speak about people feeling they have to join religion after leaving the exJWs as a sort of crutch or something to that effect.
-
cofty
you can look in other threads here where you speak about people feeling they have to join religion after leaving the exJWs as a sort of crutch or something to that effect
No you can't and that is not my position.
In fact I have threads that extol the value of religion even if the content of the faith is not objectively true.
There are of course exJWs who are looking for something to fill the void, that is true. What I am railing against is the endless accusations by people on very side that exJWs they disagree with are behaving 'like a JW'. THAT is smug and lazy.
By the way, just for the record, I think Trump is unfit to be president (faced with the choice Americans have in November I would vote for him)