JRK - "Narcissism, thy name is Rick Fearon."
Rick Fearon is the Alex Jones of the XJW community (he even looks a bit like him).
SixScreens is therefore its PrisonPlanet equivalent.
Posts by Vidiot
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118What is happening to JWN ?...So many topics not relating to Jehovah's Witnesses!
by koolaid-man innote the home page..wow how it has changed.. jehovah's witness discussion forumthe place to discuss anything relating to jehovah's witnesses and the watchtower bible and tract society... or just make new friends!.
many of the posts have nothing to do with with jehovah's witnesses and new ones coming on this board would be turned off by the content of many of these off color posts.
foul inappropriate language which is not proper or suitable for exiting witnesses to visibly inspect.
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Something's been on my mind...
by Vidiot in..., and while i usually contribute in a thread that's already been created, i thought this particular topic might warrant it's own.. like many of you, on friday i was persusing the "concerned elder speaks" thread about higher-ed and the gb's ross/rachel relationship with it, and a couple of posts caught my eye:.
room 215 - "that's it, boys; alienate the remaining elders, drive them to resign and exacerbate the shortage already underway.".
baltar447 - "it's like they want fewer elders and servants.".
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Vidiot
..., and while I usually contribute in a thread that's already been created, I thought this particular topic might warrant it's own.
Like many of you, on Friday I was persusing the "Concerned Elder Speaks" thread about higher-ed and the GB's Ross/Rachel relationship with it, and a couple of posts caught my eye:
Room 215 - "That's it, boys; alienate the remaining elders, drive them to resign and exacerbate the shortage already underway."
Baltar447 - "It's like they WANT fewer elders and servants."
I used to think that this was most likely to be a tactical error on the GB's part (as I've said before, it will potentially leave them with a worldwide body of morons), but then I read this post:
Meeting Junkie no More - "I'm beginning to think this is what all the recent changes have been implemented for - to wake the majority up and have them leave on their own accord. A lot cheaper than having to answer to all those that stick around until the WBTS closes shop, which shouldn't be too long in coming now. A perfect storm is brewing - tax changes in country after country/pedophile scandals/disfellowshipping/human rights abuses etc. Billboard adverts/everything will come spilling out of the closets soon - to the point that remaining Witnesses will start being embarassed to be associated with this religion. If you can get the majority to leave before that pitiful moment, the fallout will be less severe."
This really got me thinking; is it actually possible that - assuming Junkie and many others are correct and the WTS's death toll is starting to ring - one or more GB2.0 members are actually starting to grasp (at least subconciously) the way the wind is blowing?
I don't think these guys are stoopid.
Theories about secret bunker complexes notwithstanding, many of us have already grasped intuitively that the advent of the Information Age has compelled the WTS to batten down the hatches more and more; however, stemming information flow - according to Julian Assange's WikiLeaks agenda - inevitably cripples any authoritarian regime's ability to properly function.
They've moved upstate into a semi-rural location, they're down to 2 meetings a week, Metatron has reminded us that increasingly marginilized authoritarian groups become increasingly extreme in their actions, Miseryloveselders (I think it was him, anyway) has stressed how much GB2.0 are full-on True Believers (TM), and said GB has been steadily dailing up the submission-to-the-FDS/GB rhetoric and suggesting that weird or inexplicable instructions may be in the pipeline.
Their predecessors have already demonstrated that they'll write off large blocs of their membership if they feel it's necessary (Malawi). Considering how much they appear to resent 21st Century human society in general, and the fact that it stubbornly refuses to follow their eschatalogical script in particular, Junkie's suggestion, I think, should be seriously considered.
Not so much because GB2.0 actually suspects that it's going to close up shop - the new HQ is a multimillion dollar investment, after all - but that placing increasingly draconian restrictions and requirements on the R&F will more quickly weed out the fence-sitters, apostate-sympathizers, and generally any other individuals on the fringes who associate, but don't actively support the WTS and its survival, thusly making the selection of figurative or literal WT "ark" candidates that much simpler.
Or am thinking with my ass/reading too much into it?
Please post your thoughts.
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Parallels between Jonestown and WT org?
by skeptic1914 inhow many saw the recent "jonestown-paradise lost" on the history channel?
i realize the suicide/murder of over 900 in jonestown, guyana on novemebr 18, 1978 may be old news but i've always been interested in how cult leaders hold power over their believers.
i've been reluctant to classify jw as a cult but some obvious parallels struck me:.
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Vidiot
kwr - "I don't see any parallels at all...JW's have a non-violent theology..."
A recent study done by Canadian law enforcement on authoritarian high-control groups demonstrated that when a group reaches a certain level of marginilization, the leadership feels compelled to physically withdraw from the rest of society. Later stages often include criminal activities, and I agree, it's hard to imagine the WTS becoming involved with that, but still, "goin' up to the country" is - more often than not - stage 1 of a descent into bona fide extremism.
Recently, the WTS has sold off the Brooklyn properties (or is in the process of doing so), and moved HQ to upstate New York in a semi-rural setting. Make no mistake; this will have raised red flags at the DHS, FBI, and other three-letter agencies.
As to their official pacifist stance, I agree, it is an anomoly for a high-control group; I would argue that it's a big reason why they've survived so long; most of the nastier extremist groups crash and burn before too long.
The important thing to remember is that the longer this "Old System" lasts and/or fails to follow the WTS's unique prophetic script, the more the cash flow is reduced, the more young people are leaving (or are never even getting baptized, FTM), the more they are percieved as an anachronism by the rest of society, and the more marginalized they will feel, the WTS will take increasingly more extreme steps to survive.
Not all here agree, but some of us suspect that they might be attempting to construct some kind of underground shelter complex at the new HQ, for example.
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The responsibility of the governing body
by Star tiger inhello friends,.
it has recently occurred to me the awesome responsibility of the seventeen or eighteen members of the governing body have for the lives of the six million active members of the jehovah's witnesses community plus interested persons and how easily they determine peoples lives and deaths with their ill thought out biblical reasoning, i wonder has any body ever sued them because of wrong advise!
i would be interested if any body knows of a legal example of this taking place!.
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Vidiot
Star tiger - "...cannot get the GB thoughts of armaggedon out of my mind at present..."
Stay in school, dude.
The more I learned about climate change, Peak Oil, unsustainable population growth, and dwindling resources, the more I realized that if the Earth ever experienced a "real" apocalypse, the WTS wouldn't have a prayer (no pun intended).
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My Mother-In-Law is seeing the light!
by brotherdan ini posted this on another thread because i was unable to start a new one, but now i can.
here is the post:.
i have been corresponding with my mil as many of you know.
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Vidiot
cantleave - "The UN thing was a big thing for me, because I saw the "library card" letter as an elder, and when I became of the real level of their membership and what that meant in terms of the support the WT had to give to the UN, I saw that they were a false religion by their own definition."
Yeah, I see what you mean.
Reminds me of the other thing about having to sign a document upholding the US Constitution - in effect, swearing loyalty to a "worldy" government - in order to get a passport to travel overseas and preach against "worldy" governments.
Maybe the GB1.0 genius behind the NGO decision was thinking that they were acting as secret agents or something.
BTW, won't you have to change your username, now?
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Call me paranoid, but its possible that this 30 hour initiative is a weeding out process....a cull if you will...
by miseryloveselders inwe've discussed a few potential reasons why the wt is promoting april 2011 as a month of special activity.
reasons include manipulating statistics, and trying to provide some kind of spark to increasingly apathetic and discouraged congregations.
i'm sure there are others i'm missing too, feel free to include those.
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Vidiot
Band on the Run - "Why is field work, going door to door, so important?"
A) Back in the 50's, it WAS the most effective means of recruiting members.
B) GB1.0 assumed that that success indicated that the door-to-door work had God's blessing.
Not so much nowadays (for A, at least), but still;
C) It's a means of keeping the R&F busy.
D) It's a method by which the R&F display their loyalty to the WTS.
E) It's a means of emotional manipulation; if one goes door-to-door but recieves almost constant rejection/abuse, one theoretically stays humble and thusly more amenable to direction. In reality, it can leave significant scars on the psyches of sensitive individuals. This might just be why the Apostle Paul advised that only those with a particularly compatible disposition should do it.
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Bethel have just DENIED Jehovah's Witnesses shun ex members!!!
by Amelia Ashton ini can't believe it.
probably haven't been out long enough to know they lie like this.
now i just heard it with my own ears.
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Vidiot
sabastious - "Witness children are trained to become blank slates."
Kinda counterproductive, seeing as how behavioral science has pretty much thoroughly debunked the idea that any child is a "blank slate". Humans may be sentient, but we're also still just as much subject to instinct as African Mountain Gorillas.
No wonder so many of the more sensitive JWs are on antidepressant cocktails, seeing shrinks on the down-low, or having psychotic episodes; fight against the current of hundreds of thousands of years of natural selection, and you'll lose.
Every time.
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My Mother-In-Law is seeing the light!
by brotherdan ini posted this on another thread because i was unable to start a new one, but now i can.
here is the post:.
i have been corresponding with my mil as many of you know.
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Vidiot
sabastious - "I don't like the whole 'UN argument'. They were just an NGO."
You're right, being an NGO isn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things; it's more embarrassing (to the WTS) than anything else.
However, if a JW counters the accusation of hypocricy with the equivalent of "pshh, so what?", one could ask them what would happen (judicially speaking) if they themselves did something like that.
Leaders unwilling to perform tasks that they expect of their followers are unworthy of leadership. By that logic, leaders who perform actions that they are unwilling to allow of their followers are also unworthy of leadership.
They may possess a position of leadership, but that does not mean that they are worthy of it.
As far as I'm concerned, this conclusion is virtually impossible for anybody with a shred of common sense to refute.
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Call me paranoid, but its possible that this 30 hour initiative is a weeding out process....a cull if you will...
by miseryloveselders inwe've discussed a few potential reasons why the wt is promoting april 2011 as a month of special activity.
reasons include manipulating statistics, and trying to provide some kind of spark to increasingly apathetic and discouraged congregations.
i'm sure there are others i'm missing too, feel free to include those.
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Vidiot
sabastious - "They take on no challenges that don't come with a picture handbook."
Some people require visual aids.
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Faith In Action DVD... A tribute to Freemasons
by Alfred invery few people actually know this but the watchtower dvd faith in action is actually a tribute to freemasonry.
this dvd presents illustrations of several famous freemasons such as john coustos (a portuguese grand master from lisbon circa 1740).
the dvd actually presents two illustrations of coustos being tortured by the clergy while the anonymous narrator denounces historic abuse from the clergy.
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Vidiot
alfred - "... I don't think I've implied or mentioned anything about them taking over the world or executing any other "secret agenda"... "
Sorry, dude.
Just tired of all the paranoid/right-wing Freemason/Illuminati Alex Jones/prisonplanet wingnuttery that keeps popping up like the targets in a Whack-a-Mole game.
It's startin' to get to me.
Oy vey.