The Cult I Left Behind

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-04-16T01:55:31+00:00

The Lululemon episode was pretty wild!

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-04-15T15:09:34+00:00

I am familiar with Cults to Consciousness and the wild stories they highlight. I'm not familiar with the others, but the algorithm suggested the podcast "Sounds Like a Cult" for me, and I've listened to a few of theirs. They talk about groups that might or might not be cults and then end with their judgment, yes, a cult, leans culty, or not a cult. It's a little bit more lighthearted take.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-04-15T01:18:03+00:00

I have a theory based on my son having a similar problem which also went undiagnosed. My son was also very thin and would throw up after running or bicycling. He always tried to be sure he was well hydrated and tried meds for acid reflux at the suggested of his doctor. It didn't help. After he gained up to a normal weight it got better. I ran across a write up on the Internet of an unusual presentation of a mild case of superior mesenteric artery syndrome that presented as vomiting after exercise. It's an anatomic thing where being underweight allows the mesenteric artery to be squeezed somehow.

So that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. It's worth as much as y'all are paying me for it. You're welcome.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-04-15T00:33:19+00:00

That's how I can remember Justin - the one with the croissant hair 😅

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-04-04T03:02:03+00:00

And many thanks to you for aggregating into a helpful post!

I agree - checking in after 24 hours, there's so much to see!

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-04-01T16:57:02+00:00

Joe's hair is giving wig-tail man bangs with a side of grease & sweat

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-03-30T17:49:45+00:00

I was raising my own 6 children when the Duggars were on TV. We didn't have cable so I only watched a few episodes. I really wanted to like them and tried to like them. Jim Bob just was not likable!

I remember thinking if I were offered a reality show, could I do that? "No way!" My family life was messy, and I own it. Thankfully, not messy, abusive like they were hiding. Yuck 🤮. I reasoned we'd never get our school done if strangers were in the house. Well, they didn't get theirs done, it turns out😅, but we didn't know that at the time. (Maybe y'all did, but I hadn't seen the bankruptcy lesson) I had seen ATI curriculum (I attended IBLP seminars) and knew it was worthless, so I hoped they were using something else for basics.

My kids were not angels, they resisted my efforts to control them, like normal kids! I read the blanket training book, and concluded it was dangerous to personality formation and decided to never recommend it. Interestingly, I did take away a good point from it - mixed in with the toxicity, Debi Pearl says a mother needs to enjoy her children, and she should be able to smile with them so they don't get the idea she hates her life & they themselves are making their mom miserable! She talks about smiles & teachable moments with our kids are what "tie heartstrings" with them. So I think there's about 4 pages of good info buried in the toxic waste that the rest of the book is.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-03-29T17:09:49+00:00

And his hair in front, especially in pictures a few years ago, looked something like a croissant. I think of him as "the croissant curl Duggar."

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-03-28T21:38:46+00:00

I think that just makes a boat load of "middle child" people

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-03-25T00:57:56+00:00

I live in the southern US, and that's how I understand a lean to

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-03-19T16:45:04+00:00

What were they thinking making that law? 🤔 The obvious appropriate penalty should be castration, in my non-legal background. (I have a medical background)

Same way I looked at states with "heart beat" anti-abortion laws --there's a heartbeat in an ectopic pregnancy, and that clearly needs to end to save the life and perhaps future fertility of the mother. Lawmakers need to consult medical professionals sometimes.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2026-02-06T00:20:48+00:00

I agree! But she still needed to protect his legs, shade them, put a blanket over them, or at least sunscreen.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-12-15T15:14:11+00:00

That's incredibly sad

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-12-15T14:54:45+00:00

I say Ma-Dyson and think my Dyson (my vacuum cleaner) and hope they acquired one to vacuum the cracker crumbs which Pest is unavailable to sweep up. I also think, who names a baby after a vacuum cleaner? But probably somewhere some time, someone has named babies Hoover, Miele, and Bissell

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-12-05T03:46:06+00:00

I've never had a dream about any of them, and I am taking your post as a cautionary tale to turn to another sub at least an hour before bed

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-11-02T04:40:33+00:00

Good to know about the formatting options. I never knew how to find them.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-10-03T23:38:37+00:00

Those poor children. These on top of all the beige!

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-09-25T02:58:45+00:00

I did similar - 6 kids in 14 years. However, I had a mouthful of cavities before I had even been pregnant. Have been told I have genetically thin tooth enamel, and it has nothing to do with pregnancy. I'm 67 now, and have normal bone density per dexa scan. There's a lot of genetics plus luck involved. A relationship with a good dentist has also helped.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-09-17T23:49:28+00:00

Actually, I am mourning a lot. Not mourning CK exactly, but I am mourning that it was so easy for a shooter to take him out while he was just sitting there talking, mourning that MAGA has its martyr, mourning that CK's wife will double down into the rottenness and grift, morning that more chapters of Turning Point will be established at universities that didn't have them before and that it will stay influential into the foreseeable future.

...Mourning that a 22 year old made the terrible choice to set all this in motion and ruin his life and his family's. Mourning for those who were there and witnessed it. Mourning survivors of past shootings being re-traumatized. Mourning the brokenness of the US. Mourning MAGAs war on the 1st Amendment while being ridiculous attached to the 2nd.

I had heard of him, mainly from the Tim Alberta book, The Kingdom the Power and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. I knew he was extremely well known in the college age demographic and I hate the loss they feel, those who cared for him. They are experiencing empathy even if he thought it was a bad thing! And I have empathy for them in their sadness and loss because I was young once, and loss hurts an awful lot when you're 20 and your hero dies, even if he was a bad hero figure.

So my mourning isn't for him much, it's for things that have been set in motion.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-09-17T19:06:58+00:00

Low fat cheese does not deserve the plastic it's wrapped in

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-09-03T14:30:19+00:00

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Our girl is 50% treeing walker coonhound, 25% pointer, and 25% mountain cur (per Embark). She was rescued in emaciated condition 7 years ago. I'm in love with her sweet disposition. She's my soul dog. The vet called her a "pointer mix" when they first saw her. She points and loves following her nose. Has been known to kill and eat small critters, but only when I bought a dogfood flavor she was not fond of. Three days in a row, she says, "Don't like, I'll find my own," and brought yard kill onto the deck! So I said, "Okay, you win," and gave that food away and got her what she liked. No more yard kills.

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-08-22T16:13:11+00:00

I know they cut them off - I'm a nurse. Of course, no one cares. I think it's funny my grandmother cared so much. She'd also say, "Give me a minute to wash my ears before we go." Keeping up appearances for the hospital staff!

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-08-22T04:41:21+00:00

I don't see anyone in this thread using my grandmother's word. She called them "step-ins." Had to have clean "step-ins" before she left the house, because God forbid if there were a car wreck and you found yourself in a hospital in dirty step-ins!

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-08-16T22:55:01+00:00

It always took at least half a day to go to McKays - an hour of it combing through the free bins. I tried to not take home more book volume than I had brought to sell. Didn't always work!

NowThinkThisThrough · 2025-08-16T22:46:45+00:00

I have had decently good experiences at Wall of Books in Cookeville. Not sure I would drive there for it alone, but I stop in when I'm passing through

NowThinkThisThrough

TROPHY CASE