hybridous

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Posts by hybridous

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  33

  Besides Everlasting Life What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Offer To Anyone?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been thinking... why would anyone want to join the religion or actually stay in the organization.

  i understand that people don’t want to lose their loving family and dear friends so some stay in.

  but what does anyone really ever get because they are jehovah’s witnesses??.

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  hybridous

  It also strikes me that what we have here is some kind of perverse symbiotic relationship between the jovie converts and the jovie faith. The jovie faith needs the converts just as much as the converts need the faith,

  This also explains the great sense of loss that a jovie feels when they leave the jovie sewer.

  Great insight, here. I am seeing a parallel to individual relationships that are abusive, but tolerated. The abused party's internal calculus concludes that it's somehow better to be abused, then to not be in the relationship at all. Thus, it continues on.

  The WT, like an abusive partner, makes sure that there's a high price for leaving. It's been mentioned a million times - the WT can't be reformed. The DFing is an essential tool of control for the
  
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  21

  They are Still preaching against careers!

  by LongHairGal in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i saw on another forum a post somebody made about the melbourne assembly.

  it seems the religion is still knocking full time jobs/careers and saving for retirement.. you would think at this point in time - after thousands of bethelites were sent home; many thousands of rank & file jws are at or near retirement age with no preparation - that the religion would change its tune, but no.

  they are still stubbornly sticking to their guns on this issue.. i’m sorry for any young jws who listen to this.. i’m just glad i never followed their advice and certainly would not want to be in any congregation surrounded by these desperate people!.

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  hybridous

  Once again, the WT seems firmly committed to generating for itself precisely the kinds of people

  who can least bear the financial and intellectual burdens of actually maintaining this thing.

  It's thinks like THIS that make me pause and consider the possibility that they actually believe their own nonsense,

  This cult is on a slow but steady march toward its own demise. I kinda wish it would speed up, though. I'm tired of this crap.
  
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  19

  Impeachment hearings ...

  by mikeflood in

  1. social
  2. current

  watched a little bit the famous impeachment hearings....the witness sometimes when they were put on oath were with a smiled in their faces, others insecure, and the rest rightly totally outraged.... i turned it off.

  too much time on the media for nothing.

  it's like the russian thing didn't work to oust trump, and now ukraine maybe.

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  hybridous

  No, the House can pass Articles of Impeachment by a majority (of those present to vote). The Democrats could pass the articles now.

  Yes. I was wrong about the height of that bar. It's even lower than I thought. And it's not happening, which I think lends credibility to the notion that...

  (not UN-like military interventions in the 3rd world).

  There's more to be gained by execution of the process, than there is from a final conclusion derived from said process.
  
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  33

  Besides Everlasting Life What Do Jehovah’s Witnesses Offer To Anyone?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been thinking... why would anyone want to join the religion or actually stay in the organization.

  i understand that people don’t want to lose their loving family and dear friends so some stay in.

  but what does anyone really ever get because they are jehovah’s witnesses??.

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  hybridous

  They offer simple answers to the BIG life questions.

  And the prospect of (certain forms of) love and friendship to awkward folks, as long as you follow the rules. This can be really powerful for people who have difficulty making friends on their own.

  Sometimes, people know that their understanding of reality is suspect. So when some unapologetic-ally prominent assertions are confidently made, all of a sudden the sense of responsibility shifts: from the person to the group. The freedom to be wrong can be terrifying.
  
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  19

  Impeachment hearings ...

  by mikeflood in

  1. social
  2. current

  watched a little bit the famous impeachment hearings....the witness sometimes when they were put on oath were with a smiled in their faces, others insecure, and the rest rightly totally outraged.... i turned it off.

  too much time on the media for nothing.

  it's like the russian thing didn't work to oust trump, and now ukraine maybe.

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  hybridous

  I'm not yet convinced that this impeachment endeavor will progress to the US Senate.

  Prior to that, it must pass through the House by a 2/3 majority.

  The sweet spot of effectiveness of impeachment as a political tool for the Democratic Party lies somewhere between NO effort to impeach, and Full Senate Trial to remove Trump - IMO. In other words, having the Trial to Remove, and being unsuccessful in such is WORSE than not having anything happen in the first place, because it serves as a indicator of pettiness, and impotency at even that.

  In the absence of any real power to remove Trump, the utility of impeachment hearings is to keep allusions and innuendo of wrongdoing freshly in the MSM, on a continual basis. But perhaps this is also subject to laws of diminishing returns, insofar as the more fluff and nothing folks hear, the more weary they are of the story...and the more frustrated they are with lack of meaningful political action on their behalf...

  Until/unless they have the numbers, why would the Democrats want the vote?
  
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  16

  Just for fun...

  by Vidiot in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  …(and for the very first time), i thought i'd post a new topic completely non-wt-related... about a subject matter i have a particular affinity for.... ..i'm a major movie geek (most people here already know that), but one of the many things i especially like are what i call "middle-finger victory lines".. they are memorable (and extremely quotable) moments of dialogue, wherein the protagonist says an extremely cool or badass comment to a very deserving defeated opponent.... ...usually (but not always) said when victory has just been literally snatched from the clutches of certain defeat, and serving as a tall, proud, and victorious flipoff to the often (but not always) shocked-at-the-sudden-turn-of-events enemy.. my ten favorites:.

  "smile, you sonofabitch.

  "sheriff brody to the shark......just before firing his last bullet into a scuba tank lodged in the charging shark's open jaws.jaws (1975).

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  hybridous

  "My sons were better men."

  Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) - The Patriot (2000)
  
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  52

  How Much of the WT Teaching Did You Believe?

  by Ding in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  some people on this forum have said that they never really believed any aspect of wt teaching, that they couldn't wait to get free of it all.. others seems to have been really gung ho, believing it all until something happened that got you questioning "the truth.".

  i would say my own high water mark was about 50%, which put me squarely on the fence, trying to decide if i should be in or out.. how about you?.

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  hybridous

  Probably about 75 to 80%. Varying constantly, though.
  
  

  Once I realized that the religion is an 'all-or-nothing' proposition, I think it helped force me out.

  If Jehovah were content to destroy me at Armageddon for doubting even <1% of 'The Only True Religion', and I knew my remaining 20-25% an insurmountable obstacle...really, why bother at all?!

  In this way, the cult makes moderation untenable. The only way I could remain in would be to either force myself to believe (is this even really possible?) every remaining last bit of nonsense...

  Or else, practice deceit and subterfuge by pretending to. And still probably die at Armageddon, because Jehovah is a reader of hearts...

  And even though I could fool my family and the congregation at large...Jehovah would really know I was faking...

  Might as well head out into the world, and enjoy whatever days you have...
  
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  49

  If I was still PIMI, I'd be terrified

  by neat blue dog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  just looking at the pictures in tomorrow's wt study makes me think of the nightmares i used to have as a child.

  and nowadays the pictures are sometimes more realistic, so for any who are truly mentally in, this has a terrible effect on them and even their life choices.

  looking in as a pimo or pomo it seems almost comical that adults would believe in this sci-fi bible fan-fiction, but it's not funny when we remember that all ages of the r&f are being manipulated by the gb by these cheap and evil means.. .

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  hybridous

  Spirit creatures with facial hair?? Why do spirit creatures need hair to keep them warm, and prevent sweat getting into their eyes or .....nether regions etc? 🤔

  Remember, the WT ORG fancies itself an earthly counterpart of a spiritual, heavenly arrangement.

  That said, I'm rather surprised that spirit creatures with facial hair are granted privileges (like slaughtering most of humanity) in the heavenly arrangement....

  I can only figure that Jehovah isn't really worried about who might be stumbled by the beards of his heavenly sons...
  
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  150

  Cause of Mass Shootings Mental Health?

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been sad to see so many groups and individuals say that the cause of these events are the mental status of the shooters.

  i have looked over the backgrounds of these shooters, and few had medically identified mental health issues.

  it is too easy to think that people shoot or kill other people because they are mentally ill.. actually, many or most people with real mental illnesses are most likely to be the victims of others.. i have been a volunteer with the organization called nami (national alliance of mental lillness) for 25 years now.

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  hybridous

  If you have a mentally unstable person living with you, and you leave a gun on the kitchen table and go to work, only to come home and realize this person went out and killed 25 people, you can't just shrug your shoulders and say ... " well it's not the gun's fault, it's the mental disease". Of course it's the mental disease, but you made it incredible easy for this to happen and that's part of question.

  Yes. Of course, with every right comes a responsibility, and in a scenario like that, whomever that gun belonged to would incur massive (criminal, even?) liability for failing to secure their weapon.

  No one is suggesting that we start passing out weapons to the Trick-or-Treaters.
  
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  150

  Cause of Mass Shootings Mental Health?

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have been sad to see so many groups and individuals say that the cause of these events are the mental status of the shooters.

  i have looked over the backgrounds of these shooters, and few had medically identified mental health issues.

  it is too easy to think that people shoot or kill other people because they are mentally ill.. actually, many or most people with real mental illnesses are most likely to be the victims of others.. i have been a volunteer with the organization called nami (national alliance of mental lillness) for 25 years now.

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  hybridous

  If society is honest and historically accurate, the only question that has any relevance to the gun control debate is,

  "Do you trust those in government, now and forever in the future, to not take your life, liberty, or property through the force of government?"

  If the answer to that question is "no," the gun control debate is over. - KrisAnne Hall