Posts by TonusOH

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

Evans: "...if you insist on having a problem with the concept of someone being a professional anti-cult activist and not doing the work I do for free, I feel you ought to explain why you don't also have a problem with others who make a living from bad situations."

It continues to amaze me that he doesn't understand how bad this kind of stance makes him look. He tries to word it to put the onus on his critics, by saying that they are the ones who "have a problem" with him and not with other activists. Who says that his critics don't also have a problem with others who monetize their activism? What if their problem isn't with him making a bit of money from activism, but that he's a greedy asshole who mistreats others and seems to care more about his wallet than their needs?

Also, you have only to make a simple substitution to point out another problem with this approach:

"If you insist on having a problem with the concept of someone being an abusive spouse, I feel you ought to explain why you don't also have a problem with others who abuse their spouses."

The idea that you need to condemn everyone in order to condemn one person does not invalidate the accusation. It also means that, if someone does take the position he requests, they are now able to condemn him and he would have to answer to them, since they met his criteria. Is he okay with that?

17

How many still getting boosters?

by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

either you think the governing body was correct giving direction to be fully vaccinated and do you will keep getting the boosters, or.... if you don’t think the boosters are safe and you decide not to keep getting them then you are admitting that the direction was wrong.. if the direction was indeed harming brothers and sister who kept going to get these injections because of the covid updates then this is a huge wake up call?.

how could this direction from the gb who are i doubt jehovah give such harmful direction?.

TonusOH

I got the original shots, as my employer required it at the time. I haven't gotten any of the boosters, mostly because I'm lazy about it and am not worried. I did get COVID about eighteen months after the shots, and it zapped my energy for a bit less than two days and I was fine.

My doctor still recommends that I get the boosters, but he does insist and does not appear concerned that I haven't gotten any. He is the person I depend on, not the GB or the media, or random cranks on the web.

10

What is spiritual warfare.

by Hellothere in

what is spiritual warfare to you?

i experienced a situation that i could clearly say was spiritual warfare.

but that was something i could only see years laters.

TonusOH

As I recall, the term "spiritual warfare" covered stuff like lying to authorities to protect fellow JWs. I think they intended it to mean that you could do stuff that ordinarily was a sin (lying, for example) but it would be okay if it was done to help the organization.

43

What novels would you recommend?

by LoveUniHateExams in

i used to have a large-ish novel collection but my current collection is scaled-down because i was forced to move back to bolton 4 years ago and didn't have enough room for them all in my suitcases.. i currently own just 9 novels.. salem's lot (stephen king).

three by john ajvide lindqvist:.

let the old dreams die.

TonusOH

If you like some of King's work, his short story collections are enjoyable. More hits than misses, and if you don't like a story you can move on to the next one. Clive Barker's Books of Blood is also a good set of short stories. A very different (and much more polished, IMO) writing style than King's, but lots of intriguing ideas.

But short stories are not everyone's cup of tea, and King has often remarked that they're not nearly as popular as his novels. I tend to prefer short stories, so I have enjoyed his collections. Jerusalem's Lot, from the Night Shift collection, is one of my favorites. More Lovecraft than vampires, though.

12

Over 1,000 Days since Stephen Lett said this:

by Chevelle in

https://youtu.be/jxumoix1rew.

“and in revelation chapter 6, the ride of the fourth horseman includes mention of deadly plague.

so the events unfolding around us are making clearer than ever that we’re living in the final part of the last days.

TonusOH

"Soon."

85

Physically in mentally agnostic ie sitting on the fence

by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

hi everyone i’m not pimi or pimo i’m pima.. i don’t think the gb have everything right but i’m sitting on the fence that maybe they do some things.. if the great trib starts i will jump that side of the fence.. this is a definite little sneaky advantage dodging but even by their own doctrine last min some could come in.. i suspect many are like me.. i spent years in bethel and am very disappointed and disillusioned by it all.. but at the end of the day i love the bible and think it is the word of god and i don’t see any other religion that comes as close to what jesus describes his true followers or who are fulfilling mat 24:14..

TonusOH

I don't know if anyone knows, or can know, everything. I have reason to believe that no one does, and no one can. But absolute certainty would require me to know more than I think it's possible to know. Hence why I assumed you were making a joke.

85

Physically in mentally agnostic ie sitting on the fence

by ExBethelitenowPIMA in

hi everyone i’m not pimi or pimo i’m pima.. i don’t think the gb have everything right but i’m sitting on the fence that maybe they do some things.. if the great trib starts i will jump that side of the fence.. this is a definite little sneaky advantage dodging but even by their own doctrine last min some could come in.. i suspect many are like me.. i spent years in bethel and am very disappointed and disillusioned by it all.. but at the end of the day i love the bible and think it is the word of god and i don’t see any other religion that comes as close to what jesus describes his true followers or who are fulfilling mat 24:14..

TonusOH

You misunderstood my post. You used the term "absolutely." That's a high degree of certainty for someone who is implying that know one can know for sure.

I thought you'd done it on purpose, as a bit of humor. Now, I'm not so sure...

18

Silicon Valley Bank bankruptcy....

by mikeflood in

didn't know silicon valley bank was so important for start-ups....now there's some sort of contagion, people taking their money from regional banks to the big banks.

.

system seems pretty resilient and different from 2008. thoughts?.

TonusOH

The similarity to 2008 is that banks tend to do a poor job of risk-management. Which is always a concern, given their role in the economy.

In 2008, banks leveraged themselves to extreme degrees in the hopes of riding a financial wave before it crashed, and their timing was wrong. In 2022/3, SVB did not properly prepare for interest rate hikes that they had to know were coming.

Another similarity- the government is stepping in with taxpayer dollars to rescue a bank from its bad decision-making or poor preparation. This can help avoid some pain, but it also encourages the kind of poor preparation and risk-taking that caused the problem in the first place. If you know you are "too big to fail", why not take dangerous risks?

At the same time, this isn't the same as 2008, in that SVB took a pretty common approach to managing customer funds, and individuals with $250,000 or less in their accounts will be made whole under existing federal regulations. But SVB had a lot of investors with millions in their accounts, and without government intervention those investors and companies would have lost vast sums of money. They should have hedged for the coming rises in interest rates, and as a financial institution managing billions of dollars, this is inexcusable. But there are definite differences between this event and the crash of 2008/9.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

Evans: it needs to be a business, it needs to be something where I can actually hire someone to edit videos I hire someone to do the admin and arrange interviews…

He seems not to understand how the subscriber model works. His patrons are not his employer. He is not drawing a salary from them. They do not owe him a living. There are plenty of people who work a job and use Patreon only to support their creative work. His patrons should be asking him how much does it cost only to produce videos. That's it.

In any event, if his content and reputation are insufficient to get enough people to support him month-to-month, begging won't work. Guilt won't work. Threats won't work. These short-term band-aids will only hurt him, since they're being used to patch ongoing shortfalls- next month, he'll need to beg/threaten/cajole again. And people will tire of that act quickly. I mean, how are his existing patrons supposed to react to the news that he needs around 100-220 more of them to stay afloat? Do they increase their own payments? Do they find others and get them to join? That doesn't work.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

KIMSILVIO: I don’t think PB had ever spoken to dijana before that time and dee would never have told me no matter what unless lloyd had ok’ed it with her.

Thanks, Kim. I had thought that way because it seemed like the most logical reason for him to talk about something so ugly. That makes me think that the other, less charitable, explanations are the correct ones.