Sometimes it's the little things....

by dubstepped 35 Replies latest jw friends

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  dubstepped

  I'm listening to a podcast where a former elder describes how another elder conducted the Watchtower study about hyperbole. The elder called it hyper-bowl. Soon the whole congregation called it hyper-bowl. A little culty, no? One man says a word wrong and everyone does it.

  It made me think about how sometimes the brother in sound would play the wrong song but how many drones would sit there trying to make the words fit the wrong tune, and how embarrassingly long it would go on. Yep, a little culty.

  I had a friend that insisted on saying Isaiah, not as eye-zay-uh, but as eye-z-eye-uh because that's how the brother on the Bible tapes said it. After all, we were supposed to look to them for how to pronounce things. I brought out that the brother also said zeb-ra instead of zee-bra as we would say and that he just had a different accent. Still, he was sticking with the tapes, getting others to follow along with him. Again, a little culty.

  So, got any other little examples like that? Sometimes we can see just how much we were sheeple or mindless followers through these small things. I had never thought about it before and found it interesting.
• 

  scratchme1010

  I agree. Something that I actually fight about the negative influence of the WT is that I never related to the blindly obedient follower. Instead, I used to identify with the selfish, yet charismatic leader. That's part of the reason I fight tooth and nail against let that organization shaping who I am.

  I remember once I did an experiment like that. It was in a HIV/AIDS prevention forum. People were talking about they typical ways of infection and the most impacted communities. Purposely, I mentioned heterosexual men, bisexual men, gay men, and then I added "trisexual men".

  People started and continued using the word "trisexual" in the conversation without a second though! I could not believe that once I established myself as a respected source of information, I could get away with mentioning anything I wanted and they wouldn't question it.

  When people are conditioned to accept the words of a charismatic leader, rarely do they feel the need to question, sometimes even if it's something totally illogical or off-the-wall.

  I have known of things that other cult leaders have talked their people into doing, some are simple and funny, but some have come at the cost of other people's lives.
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  TD

  I started a thread a few years back when there were a handful of apologists here. It was kinda sad.....
  

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/195895/thought-control-simple-test-jws
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  sparrowdown

  I remember the WT reader pronouncing simony as sy - mon - ee and everyone else including the WT conductor folowed suit even though he had been pronouncing it simony up til that point.

  Yes groupthink, consensus trance and parroting stock responses is one of the most frustrating things about being part of a group that insists everyone think and speak the same, and dare I incur the wrath of the intolerant by saying we even suffer from here sometimes.

  ps Our elder was Macedonian and pronounced hyperbole "hyper-balls"!!!
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  Diogenesister

  Er...isn't it hyper-bowl, Zeb-ra and Eye-z-eye-a ????

  I've been saying it wrong all theses years?😉
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  stuckinarut2

  YES!

  Great thread Dubstepped.

  We had an elder conducting the group study with the Revelation book once who said "Eye-Slave" (instead of a healing ointment "eye-salve")

  Everyone started saying "eye-slave" as well.
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  steve2

  To be fair, this is how unusual words - or those that are not in common usage - come to be mispronounced and misused within even literate and educated circles: A news-reader or reporter misuses or mispronounces a word, while editors, lead anchors or producers do not notice (or care) and the general population now mispronounce the word.

  But forget unusual words - which because they're unusual are not in common usage. I am most irritated by the mispronunciation of common words. Vocalizing all syllables in common words is a widespread failing of those who speak English. For example, the word "interest" is correctly prononuced with only two syllables (not three) as in'trist, not in-ter-rest - yet it is astonishing how many people use three syllables and mispronounce it.

  Here's a test for you guys on possibly two of the most mispronounced words: "Indefatigable" and "reparable".

  Mispronunications include in-de-fatigue-able and repair-able. Correct pronounciation? "In-d'fat-igable" (a real tongue twister) and "rep'ra-ble".
  
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  TD

  Well to be fair to those of us living in the U.S., most of our dictionaries give the three syllable pronunciation of "interest" as the correct one and list the two syllable pronunciation as an alternate.
  
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  _Morpheus

  Please. Pronounce “laurel”
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  dubstepped

  @Morpheus - Yanny :)