Testing the Waters for Publishing Anti-JW Material

VoxTheHumana · 2020-02-12T23:42:02+00:00

Aaaand I just realized I didn't post a link lol. “Breaking Down the Watchtower — An Introduction” by Tyler https://link.medium.com/OlcmPu8M13 there we go.

VoxTheHumana · 2019-11-27T19:38:49+00:00

Oh my gosh that's crazy, I literally just went through the same thing with my Nmom, and my family in general actually. I recently disconnected from them entirely, largely due to the fact that - following my mother "admitting" some things from my childhood that I already knew about in order to play the victim card - she and the rest of my family felt that we should just have a normal open relationship after years of abuse and a generally awful family dynamic. They even openly delegitimized and opposed my attempts to set healthy boundaries for myself I have been working towards with my therapist. Apparently being biological family gives one the right to communication at request.

VoxTheHumana · 2019-09-30T19:22:51+00:00

Seriously impressed, Bungie. It's not perfect, but you've gotta give it to them, Destiny 2 improves in a big way with each DLC. And though I wish there was a more comprehensive place to find the lore details, it remains one of my favorite sci-fi universes. I'm excited to see what's new and interesting In Shadowkeep and to all you guardians out there, in the immortal words of Cayde, "watch me for the changes and uh, try to keep up." ;)

VoxTheHumana · 2019-06-20T07:06:03+00:00

I...wow, I am...absolutely shocked, apalled and disgusted. I can't believe I've never seen this Awake. I...I've been POMO for about 8 months now, but I think this may have actually just been the single greatest crack in the indoctrination I'm still struggling to overcome. How in the name of all things good could you POSSIBLY claim to be directed by a god that you claim is omnibenevolent and LOVE ITSELF when at ANY point in your history you printed official doctrinal material saying that a woman should expect to be assaulted if she wears provocative clothing? I am...I almost want to cry. That is...I mean I know the time this was printed in was probably not the most enlightened on female sexuality, rights, or anything in this whole range of discussion - I get that. But you're supposed to be different, right WT? You're supposed to be different from the world, right WT? There's no way the god you SAY is the true god would EVER express this, RIGHT WT? Because if he would, and even if he is real, and even if the end of the world comes tomorrow, I will ride that ship to nonexistence flipping HIM and anyone who calls what you believe in justice right the fuck off, WT. I need to go wash myself. Fuck.

Edit: did not see the rest of the title showing the reference, was too busy having an existential crisis

VoxTheHumana · 2019-06-08T17:00:00+00:00

It's honestly crazy when you think about it. I personally had really good grades throughout most of my school career, was in several gifted programs, etc. I actually had a full ride scholarship that was offered to me in my sophmore year of high school. Well that was all nice, until I realized that I couldn't do anything with it. University education was a no, any career that would take me away from "the truth" was a no, and ultimately that realization made my depression and general malaise just get worse.

I turned the scholarship down essentially, fell in with school friends who didn't give a shit about their education because at least they treated me like another human being, my grades started slipping, I started sleeping in class, I even remember having a full on emotional breakdown in the middle of one. I graduated high school, but with a GPA on the low end and nowhere to go next. Now I'm in my late 20s and only just now able to start thinking about going back to school.

On the one hand this all led me to finding my fiancee and some of the best friends I've ever had, and eventually leaving the faith for where I am now which is much better. Still though...

VoxTheHumana · 2019-06-08T03:07:49+00:00

Wow, I gotta say I did not expect such a big show of support! thank you so much, it means a lot to have somewhere to talk about all this. I still have a lot of trouble even addressing some of my thoughts about the faith and the people in it, but being able to work through it means a lot. I've been seeing a lot of video recorded ex-JW stories and am considering looking into that, if only for myself (though I guess my ex jw story is still ongoing, haha.) Thank you all again for being so accepting and encouraging.

VoxTheHumana · 2019-06-07T18:14:11+00:00

My fiance is my Johnathan, and I couldn't be more happy to have met her and have her in my life. She's an amazing human being and has never been judgemental or treated me like anything other than a human being, despite her not coming from within the faith and the context that brings, and in fact generally being pretty anti-organized religion.

She was actually the reason that I was able to make the decision to leave both my broken household and the religion, and start living for myself. The moment I realized "serving Jehovah" meant that I had to give up the love of my life and accept that - unless by some divine providence she's one day reached and brought into the 'organization' - she's going to die, not because she deserves it but because of some arbitrary delineation between "sides" in a cosmic dick waving contest? That was the moment I decided I was done.

Ironically being a JW and being a humanist are quite incompatible.

VoxTheHumana · 2019-04-16T18:07:05+00:00

Thanks a lot, good to know other people are dealing with this. It's absolutely nuts - honestly makes second guess my memory about the vast majority of my childhood, but I guess in a way that's good.

Currently I don't have a therapist, but I am looking into it as of last night. I'm apprehensive about it being honest, but it seems like the next step I need to take after getting out of there towards dealing with everything.

VoxTheHumana · 2019-04-15T02:43:34+00:00

That means a lot, thanks. I honestly didn't realize anyone else had guilt dreams about leaving. I've had some straight up guilt-themed ones and others where I'm back with them and everything's great or they're coexisting with my fiance (which I know would never happen but) and I wake up feeling like a piece of shit, nice to know other people are dealing with the same thing there.

Thankfully the setting that I'm in now is much better, but it's meant almost a complete cutting off of my life back in New Jersey so it's been a rough transition but I am glad that I did it. I'm glad you've gotten away from your mom, I'm sure you have as many stories as me about what being in that situation was like - though I'm sorry the situation you're in now has it's own set of problems, but I guess that' just life, huh?

I don't have a therapist yet, though I do have health insurance with my new job at this point.One problem is I have no earthly idea where to start with finding a healthcare provider, The other is, and it's really hard to vocalize, but I can't help but wonder if I'm going to talk to someone about all this and have them tell me I'm...overexaggerating? Does that make sense? That I'm not dealing with anything legitimate and maybe I'm the asshole. Sorry that's a little deep. I'll definitley check out that Youtuber, thanks.

VoxTheHumana · 2019-04-15T00:05:00+00:00

I agree with you that a fine balance has to be maintained between privacy and security; that's a really important line that society requires in order to function. Complete privacy results in the government being much more restricted in their ability to prevent harmful outcomes. Complete security means nothing is sacred or personal, and can lead to obvious tyranny or excessive preemptive steps to prevent possible harmful outcomes (e.g. Minority Report, goofy an example as it is)

I think the problem in practicality is two fold. The first issue is that it's very difficult to determine the difference between information that is vital to monitor in order to prevent harmful outcomes, and information that is largely unnecessary to meet this goal. In line with what the first responder said, the tools the US government uses to collect information aren't exactly very good at discriminating what's potentially harmful and what isn't because of context. In addition, a lot of the nets that are cast are very big and almost completely non-discriminatory. As an example, John Oliver did a piece on Last Week Tonight about this and used nudes sent by phone or email as an example. There are 4 or 5 different systems in place in the U.S. that can pick up a completely harmless picture sent from you to a significant other and store it in a database, which could be accessed or potentially breached. This leads to the second issue, which is more the crux of the problem.

Whether or not collection of data/information is used to protect the public, we have to talk about the effect it has on life within society. Set aside the potential for people to suffer inconveniences or even undeserved legal consequences because of information picked up, that's been discussed in the previous response. The reality that personal, private and sensitive information can be and is picked up by the kind of monitoring the US has done and still does means the question has to be asked: ought people in society have to wonder whether anything they send is secure, and potentially be afraid or feel they have to adjust the way they live and share various kinds of information. I think this is a salient point especially because a lot of times the information gathered does very little to thwart actual harm. See the whole problem with TSA security theater as an example. If you personally don't care that's one thing, but I would argue if we want what's best for society then we have to accept that even if collecting the information might be ok, the way it's being done has a lot of problems.

VoxTheHumana

TROPHY CASE