Terry

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Posts by Terry

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  40

  Liberal vs. Conservative mental health study - what do you make of it?

  by Brock Talon in

  1. social
  2. current

  a pew study from 2020 (but one i just now came upon myself) reported that the more liberal you are, the more likely you are to have a mental health condition.

  the worst suffering group are white females, ages 18-29 where over 56% have admitted to be described by their own doctors as having a mental health condition.

  conservative females of the same age group suffer at less than half that number (27%).. while women tend to have more mental health problems than men (don't be mad at me for saying it, this is what the study reports) it is notable that liberal men have a higher percentage of mental health conditions than conservative women in the same age group.

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• 

  Terry

  There appears to be a cross-over point on motivating push-back in political discourse when the issue is less important than the "idiots you hate".
  Who can doubt the Trump vote was a vote AGAINST Hillary rather than a delectable
  affirmation of the man himself?
  
  For each party, it is the OTHER side to be vilified, despised and demonized AD HOC.
  Whatever the other side is FOR motivates an automatic AGAINST.
  
  The election of Biden conversely was a cry of "anything and anybody (even Biden) rather than four more years of 24/7 negative Trump coverage".
  
  The election of Trump was kryptonite for the Left, a classic bête noire

  
  
• 
  21

  A "killer" question for Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here is a 'killer' question for jw's.

  which description best describes how you see yourself and how you feel?which would you choose?

  are you: 1. a christian 2. a jehovah's witness here's the scenario.

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• 

  Terry

  Definitely a patchwork, cut-and-paste theology from Rusell's days.
  Pastor Russell took the buffet approach, walking through Adventist-style doomsday writings and placing on his lunch tray whichever items tickled his bias.
  Rutherford was like the villain two-face. He turned Western theology inside out.
  He was the Rebel without a Cause who created his own causes. painting a target on rank and file JW's so they'd be always in the cross-hairs of controversy, then
  hold the persecution up as a billboard advertising his brand of Jehovah-style home cooking.
• 
  21

  A "killer" question for Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here is a 'killer' question for jw's.

  which description best describes how you see yourself and how you feel?which would you choose?

  are you: 1. a christian 2. a jehovah's witness here's the scenario.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Terry

  J.F. (Judge) Rutherford used "Jehovah's Witnesses" as a
  disambiguation branding for a very good reason.
  So many fractures among Russell's followers (schisms) challenged his
  power and leadership.
  Under C.T. (Pastor) Russell, congregations were autonomous self-governing entities who subscribed to Russell's dogma.
  After he died, Rutherford ran roughshod. He ignored Russell's Last Will and Testament rather brazenly under a fig leaf. The Bible Students under many different names spoke up and challenged Rutherford's rude takeover and policies.
  Rutherford undertook a way of controlling them and guiding them from inside under their local roof, so to speak.
  Slowly and insidiously he tightened his grip. The identity of loyal followers
  (of Rutherford's bully pulpit style) was an amorphous fog of "who" exactly?
  As a part-time Judge and lawyer, the term "witness" had a legal ring to it.
  Jehovah's Witnesses was the new brand name and Rutherford boldly launched
  a series of schemes to make that brand stand for something completely contrary to mere Bible Students or Christianity.
  Rutherford was so fanatical about it - he directed a non-religion uniqueness separating the language of Christianity into a shadow of normal language.
  Church into Kingdom Hall
  Grace into Undeserved Kindness
  Cross into torture stake
  Christmas and Easter and etc into Pagan rituals
  and on and on and on.
  Jehovah was far more important to Rutherford's brand than was Jesus.
  Today's JW's are barely Christian at all.
  Christ means Anointed but JW's only have very few living anointed and all the rest aren't CHRISTian they are Jehovah's etc.
  Very confusing choice the average JW would have to make if those two questions were presented as an EITHER / OR decision.
• 
  40

  Liberal vs. Conservative mental health study - what do you make of it?

  by Brock Talon in

  1. social
  2. current

  a pew study from 2020 (but one i just now came upon myself) reported that the more liberal you are, the more likely you are to have a mental health condition.

  the worst suffering group are white females, ages 18-29 where over 56% have admitted to be described by their own doctors as having a mental health condition.

  conservative females of the same age group suffer at less than half that number (27%).. while women tend to have more mental health problems than men (don't be mad at me for saying it, this is what the study reports) it is notable that liberal men have a higher percentage of mental health conditions than conservative women in the same age group.

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• 

  Terry

  This dovetails perfectly into Brock's opening paragraph.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc
• 
  10

  MIDNIGHT MASS on Netflix is extraordinary (horror)

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i will post a **spoiler** in a few minutes.a 7 part horror movie on netflix titled midnight mass blew me away and i thought i mightrecommend this limited series (only seven parts.first of all, there is a word never ever mentioned by anybody in this horror drama.that is for a good reason.

  a very good reason.

  i won't mention it either or i'd ruin part of the build-up inside the plot.suffice to say, this horror story is a very fresh take on a well-trodden path we've all been down many times (if we are fans.

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• 

  Terry

  The thing about fiction is (drumroll please) it is inconsistent with reality.
  Logic, per se, is optional.
  A Zombie, for instance, has an appetite for brains and yet - does not poop.
  If we insist on consistency and rational consequences (as in the real world) we
  have to give up watching Zombie movies.
  
  Superman "flies" by having originated on a planet with greater gravitational force.
  In the source comics, his propulsion was a leap. Yet that leap has disappeared from movies and - how does he steer or accelerate? At some point, the audience must give up the tenuous hold on reality to participate in the enjoyment.
  
  Religion is many things to many people and those who are OCD often become Puritanical and insist on cleansing rituals and tests of Orthodoxy. There are 40,000

  denominations of Christianity - each with separate nitpicks (enough to separate themselves from other Christians into a defined group.)
  
  What is my point?
  
  We bring to a work of art preconceptions and neuroses of our own personality with built-in expectations and do one of two things:
  1. Park our sense of logic at the door and "suspend disbelief" or we...
  2. Demand a perfectionist view of tightly plotted Agatha Christie-style puzzle solving.
  
  Certainly, none of us can say what's right for others but, in my 74 years of experience, those who do not or cannot suspend disbelief are unhappy most of the time.
  
  Religion (for me) borders on mental illness but can in some instances keep lunatics contained in a tightly bound environment and instill a measure of reward and punishment existence "enough" to make them less dangerous :)
  
  Scripture is not fact and is certainly devoid of science or reality and cannot be used to enforce rules on fiction or especially Horror.
  Adam's rib had male DNA and if EVE were made from that DNA ...well, the story of Eden is one of Adam and Steve after all :)
• 
  21

  A "killer" question for Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here is a 'killer' question for jw's.

  which description best describes how you see yourself and how you feel?which would you choose?

  are you: 1. a christian 2. a jehovah's witness here's the scenario.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Terry

  Christianity and Jehovah's Witnesses have (deliberately) nothing in common.
• 
  10

  MIDNIGHT MASS on Netflix is extraordinary (horror)

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i will post a **spoiler** in a few minutes.a 7 part horror movie on netflix titled midnight mass blew me away and i thought i mightrecommend this limited series (only seven parts.first of all, there is a word never ever mentioned by anybody in this horror drama.that is for a good reason.

  a very good reason.

  i won't mention it either or i'd ruin part of the build-up inside the plot.suffice to say, this horror story is a very fresh take on a well-trodden path we've all been down many times (if we are fans.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Terry

  I saw the twist as the V's being the ACTUAL intent of Scripture!
  Not just the delusion of a priest misidentifying a V as an angel.
  
  The thrust of religion (Christian or otherwise) is a rigid dichotomy of:
  JOIN US or ya gotta perish!
  Living eternally - either way - is a reward that comes at a heavy price.
  
  To be Christian is to take up his "cross" and die the martyr's death.
  (Notable was the absence of cringe by the V's in the presence of the crucifix.)
  A man's enemies will be members of his own household, etc., etc.
  
  So - in that view - I had only praise for the commitment of the plot as the INVERSE
  of religion as we know it.
• 
  10

  I revisit an old Jehovah's Witness friend from long ago...

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  goodbye old friend; someday we'll meet again ….

  the ghost with the fine china cups.

  my last memory of her… a friend from long ago.. julie was a startling beauty, a blue-eyed, natural blonde; a model, guitar player, a singer with glowing purity of tone, a talented writer, and possessed of a wicked sense of humor.. she was too young to be dating and yet she was a natural flirt.

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• 

  Terry

  Diogenesister: I'm kinda surprised they included you, Terry! If you don't mind my asking, how old are they on average, would you say?
  ____________________
  
  All of these Brothers are at least 74 years old and some older. (I'm 74)
  I was 20 when sentenced under the Youth Corrections Act.
  AMAZING as it sounds - none of these old-timer JWs goes on the internet for research or makes Google Searches about apostates because they've been warned off so many times.
  At the last minute, I did not log on and appear with the ZOOM meet-up.
  Why?
  I didn't want to misrepresent myself to these guys. It didn't feel right.
  I have spoken to 3 of them privately on the phone.
  I'd characterize most of them as "on auto-pilot". Waiting on Jehovah.
  What other life do they know but the always changing rough waters of Governing Body churn?
  I detected a wee bit of awareness that 'reservations' are held in their private opinions but fear of exposure (maybe) pulls them back from expressing it.
  I'm gobsmacked anybody could live the JW life for over 50 years and without going insane.
• 
  21

  A "killer" question for Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here is a 'killer' question for jw's.

  which description best describes how you see yourself and how you feel?which would you choose?

  are you: 1. a christian 2. a jehovah's witness here's the scenario.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Terry

  As I recall, in the early 1970s the Watchtower publications began for the first time
  using the phrase, "Jehovah's Christian Witnesses", but it didn't last very long.
  Does anybody else remember that?
  It was around the time of the failed prophecy.
• 
  21

  A "killer" question for Jehovah's Witnesses

  by Terry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  here is a 'killer' question for jw's.

  which description best describes how you see yourself and how you feel?which would you choose?

  are you: 1. a christian 2. a jehovah's witness here's the scenario.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  Terry

  Here is a 'killer' question for JW's.
  
  Which description BEST describes how you see yourself and how you feel?
  Which would you choose?
  ARE YOU:
  1. A Christian
  2. A Jehovah's Witness
  
  Here's the scenario.
  It's the Day of Judgment.
  You only have to pass one test to make it through to the other side of Armageddon. How do you answer?