Note: I started writing after Fink but it didn't post until after Slim. That's okay, though. Slim and I seem to have lots of overlap in our comments.
GrreatTeacher
JoinedPosts by GrreatTeacher
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13
Culture Wars
by Victor inwith things going to hell in a hand basket, i’ve taken an interest in the clashes of mindsets.
this of course takes me back to my own evolutionary mindset pre and post jw life of two decades.
if you overlay the core beliefs of memetic tribes as postulated by the authors, i’m curious what the median tribe of jwd would be?
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13
Culture Wars
by Victor inwith things going to hell in a hand basket, i’ve taken an interest in the clashes of mindsets.
this of course takes me back to my own evolutionary mindset pre and post jw life of two decades.
if you overlay the core beliefs of memetic tribes as postulated by the authors, i’m curious what the median tribe of jwd would be?
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GrreatTeacher
The problem is that it is more like cultural divisions (plural)
You might think you're arguing about politics, but it might be about the nature of knowledge, or you might think you're arguing about race but the other guy is arguing class.
Or you might be arguing with someone and don't realize why you're busting your heads together without realizing that one of you might be motivated by a utopian world and another is motivated by a moral world but those two things are not exactly the same.
The article is about the fracturing of knowledge. Information moves extraordinarily fast and not along traditional networks anymore. So what is Knowledgd? How do we know?
These things used to be relegated to college Philosophy classes. Now it's each person's problem to find knowledge/ information, evaluate it and fold it into our existing knowledge and schema.
Sounds exhausting? It is! And (there's more) we're doing it badly! And we're not even sure what it is we are doing! Or not doing! And that's why we're fighting!
There's more to the article. It's long.
Loved the references to the red pill and the blue pill. We XJWs know the metaphor. The blue pill is agreed upon reality. The red pill allows you to see the secret underlying order. But, the Gray pill. That might be the ultimate reality because we admit we really don't know much. Everything is gray and murky and we might end up arguing against the position we thought we had.
Simplistic example. I'm on the political left. I'm for equality of the sexes. But, the transgender thing? I don't know. You don't have to deny your sex to embrace being a strong female. People who say that they knew they were transgender when they were growing up and were treated as the weaker sex and they knew they weren't weak and didn't fit in to that stereotype therefore they didn't identify with women. Well, there were times I was treated the same way, but it didn't cause me to not identify with women, it caused me to be a strong woman who didn't believe the bullshit about what being a woman meant, weak, etc. (Again simplistic. I do believe some people have always felt they have been born in the wrong body so to speak)
I'm a feminist, but I just enraged feminists that are passionate about transgender rights. To them it makes me Not a Feminist. Or Not a Democrat. At which suggestion I am enraged. Isn't it ultimately about getting Trump out of office? I'm sure we can agree on this! But they say, no what it's really about is people being free to be who they are! We are ultimately arguing about different things. People who seem the closest can enrage us the most.
The article lists a few dozen -isms that we may feel particularly passionate about. Believing one doesn't necessarily make you a nonbeliever in another. A certain group of -isms don't put you cleanly on one side and another group the other. And that's what's so confusing. Each new -ism ( or meme as the authors call it) must be evaluated on it's own. It's exhausting, but that's the rate of new information in the new information economy.
Anyhow, that's what I understand the authors to be saying. It's a tough bunch of new concepts.
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Culture Wars
by Victor inwith things going to hell in a hand basket, i’ve taken an interest in the clashes of mindsets.
this of course takes me back to my own evolutionary mindset pre and post jw life of two decades.
if you overlay the core beliefs of memetic tribes as postulated by the authors, i’m curious what the median tribe of jwd would be?
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GrreatTeacher
This was a long read and a kind of difficult new idea. Our society is not just split in two opposing tribes anymore. We can't just think in Left and Right. There are so many more groups, based on memes, that are pulling people in multiple directions. This has left us unable to even understand each other and share the same reality, thus the vicious cultural wars, politics, etc.
That's a quick summary of what I think they're saying.
Then they go on to speak of the multiple different mimetic groups. This will require much more reading. And much more thinking.
Thanks for the article.
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12
Miney under the table and retirement
by road to nowhere ini know several older retired witnesses who comolain abiut how little social security pays.
all of them made more than i ever did but were self employed.
they fudged the amount t they reported on taxes and thought they would never get old.
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GrreatTeacher
Always amazed that people think getting paid under the table is such a good thing and then are shocked that since they didn't report income they don't get Social Security.
It happened here locally. There were many self-employed watermen who worked for themselves all their lives and were having a tough time affording housing when the prices of real estate shot up.
So, the county created a senior housing apartment building where they could live in a very small apartment for a less than market rental price based upon a percentage of their monthly Social Security benefit.
The complex was built and the elderly watermen duly applied to the county. But, most of them had so underreported their income that they weren't qualified for any Social Security at all!
Some had Zero income. One gentleman lived with his very elderly mother and when she died, the house was condemned because it had basically fallen apart. He lived in his car in the backyard until he died. Very sad.
The county then had a problem filling their housing complex and ended up taking people on overflow from other nearby counties.
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6
Pioneering for real
by Giordano ini promised mom i'd pioneer for a year after graduating hs.. but!
i didn't say where.. i chose a small store front kingdom hall in kane pa, one of the coldest places in nw pennsylvania.
they were impressed with their frosty weather.
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GrreatTeacher
No kid today could ever imagine not having indoor toilets, but my mother clearly remembers the first one installed in her childhood home.
She was unhappy because she lost her toy room!
But, she learned to really appreciate not having to go outside in winter in the middle of the night.
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5
Lockdown Blues and my new friend Carl the Cardinal
by GrreatTeacher inthe great lockdown has been mind-numbingly boring.
my husband has been an essential worker, but i have been home and not working.
the only other housemate is a teenager who is on distance learning from college.
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GrreatTeacher
The Great Lockdown has been mind-numbingly boring. My husband has been an essential worker, but I have been home and not working. The only other housemate is a teenager who is on distance learning from college. He is consistently working, but needs quiet to concentrate, so I will go outside in the backyard, sit on the hammock under my pear tree and read or just observe nature.
I have been able to observe and get to know the animals and birds that live in the trees in my and my neighbors' yards. There's a blue jay, a cardinal, a mockingbird, mourning doves, a pair of small birds which I can't figure out the species.
I give them names because I feel like I know these individuals. Randy the rabbit is no longer afraid of me and hops around the yard eating clover at my feet. The Squad of squirrels climb up and down the pear tree above me either taking pears or eating them right above my head and spitting the leftovers down on me. Occasionally Crikey the crow will swoop in, pull off a pear and fly away with the whole thing in his beak! There's Carl the cardinal who is always swooping from tree to tree in the yard, Jay the blue jay who sometimes picks fights, and Mark the mockingbird who sits on the absolute tallest branch on the Leyland cypress trees in the neighborhood and tweets obnoxiously loud and he's not even original. He just goes through a round of the calls of every other bird in the neighborhood. Amusingly he tried to mock the mourning doves and sounded like a purring cat! Mark gets on my nerves and he can sometimes be scared away if I play a recording of a red tailed hawk on my tablet!
Yes, my life had been reduced (or enriched) to this point. And then it rained for a week.
I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn't make noise in my own house. And I couldn't even go outside. So I sat by the window and, godammit, Carl the cardinal was sitting on my hammock like he owned it, not even concerned about the drizzle!
As I burned in anger, I also almost simultaneously realized how truly ridiculous it all was, and laughed at myself and came up with a new way to answer my husband's daily after work question, " How was your day?"
This is how it played out...
Hubby: What a nasty day. I'm soaked. How was your day?
Me: Carl was out there on my hammock today, lounging like he owned it. He made me so mad.
Hubby: Who the hell is Carl? Are people that bored and desperate that they just wander into other people's yards and lounge on their lawn furniture? Did you call the cops?
Me: Oh no, I didn't have to, the Squad took care of it. They pelted him with a bunch of pears and he took off.
Hubby: The squad? Who the hell are they?
Me: Oh, you know, they're always hanging around the yard.
Hubby: Oh, really? I was not aware. Do they harrass the neighbors too? Why have I never heard of them?
Me: Well you have been working a lot and haven't been home much so I wouldn't worry too much. I generally take care of them. Or sometimes I let the cat out to take care of them, but they nearly beaned the cat with a pear and he came tearing back in the back door like a bat out of hell.
Hubby: (confused and irritated) What the actual fuck? What the hell else goes on while I'm at work?
Me: Well I looked out the bedroom window and saw a pair of tits yesterday.
Hubby: (cautiously as if I'm losing my mind) Um, and who did they belong to?
Me: Oh, they were free.
Hubby: Wait a minute, were they peeping in the window? Where? How?!
Me: Well you know that post where we have the hanging flowers in one side and the bird feeder on the other side? Right between them!
Hubby: (becoming unhinged) What the actuall... we have vagabonds and peeping toms in the yard...Are you sure they were tits?
Me: Well, I'm not really good with that kind of identification, but, preliminarily, I'm going with tits.
Hubby: ( very quiet and concerned) Did anything else go on in our yard today that you haven't told me yet?
Me: Actually Mark was at the top of the Leyland cypress watching everything go down and mocking everything everyone else had to say. He's really nasty. I don't like him at all. He is always in everyone else's business. I really want to shoot him!
Hubby: Where's the shotgun? Are you crazy? You don't fucking shoot people when they annoy you! Oh my God, if things are this bad you call the police! Why would you not tell me that this shit has been going on? Who the fuck is Mark, that sonofabitch, I will...
Me: (giggling then laughing out loud) He's up there at the top of the tree right now. Don't you see Mark the mockingbird?
Hubby: looks confused
Me: ( laughing uproariously) And there's Carl the cardinal on the hammock. You can't miss him, he's bright red!
Hubby: ( cracking a grin) I can't believe you got me. So, the squad?
Me: The squirrel squad. They really do throw pears from the tree.
Hubby: (shaking his head) Aww, man, there really weren't any tits involved?
Me: ( laughing so hard I'm almost peeing ) Maybe! But, they might be sparrows, I'm not really sure!!
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71
Trump suggests postponing the elections ... I'm not making this up
by RubaDub inelections have been held per the us constitution during many difficult times; us civil war, ww i, ww ii, whatever.
i just put on the pro-trump fox news and even they are saying ... oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. this is really scary.
are we headed towards a dictatorship?
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GrreatTeacher
Hey, maybe I will share some of my actual, recent teaching adventures.
I've updated the curriculum since that old orange-colored book.
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71
Trump suggests postponing the elections ... I'm not making this up
by RubaDub inelections have been held per the us constitution during many difficult times; us civil war, ww i, ww ii, whatever.
i just put on the pro-trump fox news and even they are saying ... oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. this is really scary.
are we headed towards a dictatorship?
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GrreatTeacher
The slaveholder / Democrat thing is truly a red herring, though.
The Democratic party and the Republican party have essentially switched platforms. This happened sometime in the mid 20th century.
The Democrats were the party of the South and the Republicans the North during the time those statues were erected.
Now it is the South who largely support Republicans and the North the Democrats.
A Democrat from 1920 and Democrat from 2020 would be on opposite sides of the political spectrum.
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Trump suggests postponing the elections ... I'm not making this up
by RubaDub inelections have been held per the us constitution during many difficult times; us civil war, ww i, ww ii, whatever.
i just put on the pro-trump fox news and even they are saying ... oooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. this is really scary.
are we headed towards a dictatorship?
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GrreatTeacher
It's hard to tell whether Trump is deliberately stirring Democrats up or whether he just tweets anything that comes to mind, but what is very clear is that he is not paying attention to or is not aware of the threat from the Republican party.
There is a huge contingent of the Republican party that absolutely HATE him.
They are lying low right now because they would prefer a Republican in office, but if Trump wins, they are ready to wrench the party right back from him.
I've seen and heard the complaining and planning firsthand.
Maryland's current Republican governor, Larry Hogan, just wrote a book, has famously disagreed with the president on Covid and, reading the writing on the wall, might be angling for the 2024 nomination.
That would be my prediction.
He has a lot of popular support in a Democratic state and governs down the middle.
At any rate, come 2020, you will hear a lot more Trump hate, and a lot of it will come from Republicans.
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Former Bethelite from Service Department blogs about his experiences
by krismalone inthis blog is worth mentioning again under a different title to attract more viewers.. former bethelite john bechtel who served 10 yrs at wt headquarters including the secretive and powerful service department, writes about his experiences and what woke him up.. https://www.johnbechtelblog.com/tag/jehovahs-witnesses/.
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GrreatTeacher
Ah ha! I know the name! He was a notorious apostate in the 1970s.
I grew up in the Westminster, Maryland congregation, but after John Bechtal's demise as a Witness. The very name put fear of his treachery in the minds of all local JWs. He was felt to be particularly evil since he had been to Bethel, the cradle of the organization, and yet still left. Anyway, this was what I heard as a small child.
As a sad side note, his sister Joan was the best friend of a wonderful lady in the congregation. It was a rarity to have another JW in the area, let alone one who went to the same school, so they were inseparable. This sister was thwarted in a marriage proposal and never married. She was able to start a semi- successful business and lived alone. She loved children and went out of her way to be friendly to them. She organized congregation picnics. This was gradually shut down by the local elders who put the kibosh on just about all socializing. She got breast cancer at the age of 40 and died. My family helped her and visited her and told her we loved her.
Later I found out that she had said that the only reason she stayed in the truth was because she wanted to see her father again in paradise. He had died when she was young, and though not a Witnesss, was always considered good enough in her and, as she believed, her God's eyes to be resurrected. A wonderful person who led a sad and unnecessarily restricted life which was cut tragically short.
Anyhow, those are my memories of the John Bechtal affair. I have not read his blog, but will now do so to see if my memories mesh with his story, and, of course, to hear the other side of the story. How difficult it must have been to leave the organization before the internet!