by dunsscot 48 Replies latest jw friends
:Only too true! He had the temerity to say he's never sold magazines from door to door! He also tries to give the impression that the elders in his KH see him as a wise scholar, rather than as just another unpaid saleperson doing the rounds.
I repeat: I have never sold magazines from door to door. No JW has ever "sold" magazines from door to door. Jesus said: 'You received free, give free.'
Duns the Scot
Semantics
: Anchor, you thinking mechanism shut down. [SIC]
: His documented mental problems
It is not my thinking mechanism that has shut down, it is your Christianity and your moral compass. Have you no shame? At long last, have you no shame?
Supply the documentation or stand before us as the liar you are.
-A
Edit: On second thought, I have no further interest in watching Mishnah/Duns preen any more. I'm out of here.
With reference to the issue of "selling" magazines, Naeblis writes:
:Semantics
Oh really? Let us see. The online AH Dictionary has the following for "sell":
TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent. 2. To offer for sale, as for one's business or livelihood: The partners sell textiles. 3. To give up or surrender in exchange for a price or reward: sell one's soul to the devil. 4. To be purchased in (a certain quantity); achieve sales of: a book that sold a million copies. 5a. To bring about or encourage sales of; promote: Good publicity sold the product. b. To cause to be accepted; advocate successfully: We sold the proposal to the school committee. 6. To persuade (another) to recognize the worth or desirability of something: They sold me on the idea.
INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To exchange ownership for money or its equivalent; engage in selling. 2. To be sold or be on sale: Grapes are selling high this season. 3. To attract prospective buyers; be popular on the market: an item that sells well. 4. To be approved of; gain acceptance.
NOUN: 1. The activity or method of selling. 2. Something that sells or gains acceptance in a particular way: Their program to raise taxes will be a difficult sell. 3. Slang A deception; a hoax.
Now if Steph took the Humpty-Dumpty route and made words mean whatever he wanted them to mean, then I guess he could somehow define the verb "sell" in a way that supports his silly contention about JWs selling books from door to door. But if the word "sell" is employed in the way we normally use it when we talk about peddling products or when we use the term salesman, then Steph has no case. Jehovah's Witnesses do NOT sell magazines from door to door.
As far as your comments about semantics (the branch of linguistics concerned with meaning) are concerned, I think you are again mistaken. Semantics usually implies a signifer, a signified, and maybe even an extramental referent. We are not simply splitting lingual hairs here. In harmony with the basic principles of semantics and semiology, I submit that Stephanus' signifer may have a signified. It has no extramental referent, however.
Duns the Scot
Not anymore. Did you not in past years exchange said magazines for a set fund? Yes or no? Whether it was for "publishing" or not. Did you or did you not exchange magazines for money?
No JW has ever "sold" magazines from door to door. Jesus said: 'You received free, give free.'
As a JW, I know only too well that we JW's have always been willing to "leave Jesus out of it" - - as well we should and so should you. That, uhmm...stuff, in the WT & Awake has very little congruency with the "free stuff" Jesus was...selling.
Perhaps you weren't around, but JW's indeed used to "sell" our literature by exchanging it for money. Even now, we are encouraged to get a contribution for the magazines and literature. Don't lie and say otherwise. We have not been encouraged, since the donation arrangement began, to ask for the contribution at doors were we merely had a conversation. We have been encouraged to consider whether or not the householder donates in deciding if we will continue leaving them literature.
Also, we "sell" even now in the sense of "5a. To bring about or encourage sales of; promote: Good publicity sold the product. b. To cause to be accepted; advocate successfully: We sold the proposal to the school committee. 6. To persuade (another) to recognize the worth or desirability of something: They sold me on the idea."
All wishful thinking aside, for most JW's, the magazines are the frontline to the "product". In fact, virtually all JW doctrine is put forth in the WT.
Why does dunsscot support those for whom hatred has become a way of life? Anger? Fear? Stupidity? Some deep scornful urging of his soul? The answer cannot easily be found, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, which is more than he's ever given anyone else. For practical reasons, I have to confine my discussion to areas that have received insufficient public attention or in which I have something new to say. No matter how much he squirms and wriggles, he will never escape the fact that a great many thoughtful people share my concerns about him. I put that observation into this post just to let you see that the facts as I see them simply do not support the false, but widely accepted, notion that what I call anal-retentive hatemongers are inherently good, sensitive, creative, and inoffensive. All of this once again proves the old saying that vandalism, death threats, and slander are typical tactics used by dunsscot's bootlickers.
:Not anymore. Did you not in past years exchange said magazines for a set fund? Yes or no? Whether it was for "publishing" or not. Did you or did you not exchange magazines for money?
Yes we exchanged magazines for money most of the time. But I can also remember giving plenty of magazines away to interested persons who had no money. The money covered the printing cost of the literature. We were not peddling magazines. When one thinks of a sale, he or she normally thinks in terms of profit and personal enrichment. That is what the dictionary does not tell us, namely, the pragmatic (the implicational) aspect of selling.
Duns the Scot
Whether the money covered printing or covered vacations in the Poconos was not the issue. The issue was sellign magazines, which you admit you did. Goodday.
:Whether the money covered printing or covered vacations in the Poconos was not the issue. The issue was sellign magazines, which you admit you did. Goodday.
No I did not admit I sold or presently sell magazines. As Paul stated, we are not peddlers of the word. Recouping the cost for the production of a product is not technically "selling" in my book. When I go and purchase a music CD in a store and pay $13.99 or more for it, that is selling, in the sense Steph talked about. But if the record companies only charged what it took to make the CD, I do not think I could genuinely say they were selling CD. Then the CD would probably be about 79 cents. Big difference.
Duns the Scot
