being young and knowing for a fact you’re leaving the organization, knowing for a fact that at some point you’ll need to go through with baptism but also have to come terms with the fact that the moment you do it your fates sealed; your entire family will never talk to you again once you finally leave. it fucking hurts and while it may not seem like it in the moment, it’s absolutely affecting you.

I have no idea if this is confirmed, but did you hear that Tony Morris was removed as a governing body member? I can’t find anything concrete but I think they made an announcement on February 23

I don't know if it's "confirmed" confirmed, aka officially confirmed, but it does seem to be the case. There's a few articles and tweets with evidence about it, at least. He's not the first governing body member to be removed, but he is the first in some time. There's a lot of speculation about the reason(s) behind his removal, and I have one I'm personally leaning towards, but I'm not going to write about that. He's a real person with real struggles so I don't want to speculate on that. It's definitely some good ol' JW tea, though.

And by believing that only Christians think like this, one would be engaging in black-and-white thinking themselves.

I’ve seen a lot of posts attributing the worst aspects of online social justice-oriented culture—such as black-and-white thinking and inflated self-righteousness—to Christianity, and I don’t doubt that there’s some truth in that. What I absolutely do not believe, however, is that this stuff is anywhere near exclusive to Christian culture. If you think that people who are neither religiously or culturally Christian never think that the righteousness of their politics puts them above basic moral and intellectual obligations, I think you are out of your mind.

I have updated my pinned post March 5, 2023 with a disclaimer about Steven Hassan's work being great, but dude has had some questionable ideas on Twitter about the trans community (he was convinced by gender-critical activists that hypno sissy porn, a type of Dom/sub kink, is actually sophisticated mind control being used to recruit people into "trans cults" 😭). I haven't been able to find any statements from him saying he's figured out he's wrong, apologized, or made amends*. I hardly ever use Twitter and I also don't follow any sort of author/influencer/celeb closely, which is why it took me a while to figure all this out. While I think his work is a great starting point for learning about cult dynamics, just be aware that not even experts are immune to propaganda. And maybe get his stuff second-hand for now if you don't want to financially support someone using his authority to further stigmatize trans people 😬 No judgment either way from me though; I understand how difficult it can be to find legitimate, easily understood, and widely available anti-cult resources. While there definitely are cults that weaponize leftist language to target marginalized communities for recruitment, the trans community (a highly marginalized community) isn't one of those cults. They're one of the communities targeted by cults. And while forcing people to watch porn is absolutely a way to groom people for sexual abuse, the trans community isn't recruiting more people into being trans by showing them forced-feminization kink porn, mainly because that's not how being trans works lol. In fact, sissy hypno porn is pretty much made for cis men who have absolutely no intention of ever transitioning because that would kinda defeat the entire purpose of their kink. Also, he was right in saying that some detransitioners have had extremely negative reactions from the trans community, but what he failed to realize is that most of the time it's because they also started actively being against trans-rights. It's the latter rather than the former that pisses the trans community off. They're also a very tiny sample of people who destransition, but they make it seem like they're the majority. In reality, most people who detransition do so because they didn't want to live with the transphobia anymore, not because they never were trans. Spreading the falsehood that the trans community somehow makes people trans by hypnotizing them with kink porn does absolutely nothing to fight said transphobia. *If anyone knows of any further statements he's made on the subject, please let me know.

Disclaimer: I'm not going to debate with others the existence and rights of trans people on this blog.

there is a culture on here of wanting to be told an author or a work is bad so you can discard it, and not have to think about it, instead of doing the work of recognizing what is objectionable, articulating it, and facing it without internalizing it. which is necessary not just to extract or synthesize useful knowledge from sources that otherwise conflict with your purposes, but to strengthen your understanding of your own principles

Today, I met someone who believed that people who left their religion deserve to die, even more so if they dare talk about it or make art out of it.

He told me that not all ideas should be scrutinized. He told me that religion, especially Islam, gets a pass because "it's true.". The part that baffled me the most is the following : "You don't criticize religion like that. The murder of these people is okay, it's halal.".

In his essence, I and many of my loved ones, deserve to die.

This shit is what we apostates have to go through on a daily basis. TBH, I'm so sick of being here. I'm so sick of having to explain time and time again that I, a queer agnostic female artist, doesn't deserve to die. But this place is too far gone in its own delusion and people like me pay the price. I don't agree or even like religious people, but I'm never going to wish death or injury on them because they're human beings. Why can't that same favor be accorded to me? I am human, too. I'm sick of it all.

I deserve to live even if I stand in opposition to you. Ex-muslim writers, artists, critics, singers, bakers, office workers, carpenters, men, women, straights, trans people, gays, asexuals... Deserve to live.

I deserve to live.

transification beam

In other news, they’re making what seems to be a new Neeta and Jade series (It has an intro so I assume there will be more coming) and they live together in the same apartment now.

hello

more exmo stuff you know the deal

I think we need to talk more about the sheer grief that comes with leaving a cult, especially when all your friends are members (as is often the case with mormonism and almost always the case with jehova's witnesses).

I lost an entire community when I left, and I have to shoulder the burden of being the one to blame. I still miss my friends that I had, but I intentionally don't talk to them anymore because they're programmed to try and bring me back.

I know how it'll go. They'll find out I no longer believe, that I'm a trans man. They'll have to choose between accepting my identity and their doctrine. Some of them will do mental gymnastics that would make an Olympic athlete quiver in fear and manage to choose both.

Then, if they can stomach the cognitive dissonance of gendering me properly, they'll put on a brave face and keep trying to be my friend, all the while trying to shoehorn in just enough talk about church to bring me back without making it blatant that they're in missionary mode.

It'll twist their personalities beyond recognition as they try to reverse my deconversion, all the while missing who I was forced to be and maybe even who I truly was. They'll put real friendship on hold for a false promise of repentance. I have nothing to repent of.

And when they fail, they will blame themselves, and mourn me, too. I may as well save both of us the heartache and just leave them wondering what happened to me.

No matter what I do, though, how the hell am I supposed to cope with that?

And I wonder if it makes me selfish, to leave them clueless, when I could be trying to help them out.

I wonder if the young woman who was once my best friend, who is now in a lavender marriage, would be willing to listen, to reach for the love she deserves instead of settling for the arrangement the cult has relegated her to.

I wonder if the confused gay young man who was once an acquaintance would lend an ear, would rejoice if I told him that it does not have to be this way.

I wonder if the people I love and care about as if they were my own family would let their brother tell them the truth.

I wonder if it's not too late for my little brother, across a state border, being raised as though this is his only choice.

I have to mourn the people I love as they live, only hoping against all odds that they make it out.

Hoping against all odds that someday, someone will open their eyes to the cult behind the curtains.

Hoping against all odds that anyone I love will hear what I say.

Hoping against all odds that the confirmation bias will, for once, fizzle out in a puff of smoke.

thinking about anti-role models. people you look at like "well whatever i'm gonna be in life it's not gonna be that"

Nobody is a sin. Nobody can be a sin. Sin is a verb. It’s something people choose to do, not something people naturally are.

If anyone is telling you differently, they either have a major problem with their theology, or they aren’t the kind of person you want in your life.

A friendly reminder that continually arguing about beliefs and making detailed explanations to justify yourself all the time are stressful and detrimental to your health. Complaining on the internet may raise awareness about something, but it is not activism and you should not dedicate your life to it as if it were.

Take breaks. Do something with your hands that doesn’t involve a screen. Do something for fun. Or do nothing at all. Rest.

Then come back and argue.

alright, mothers and fuckers. here is your social psychology crash course into beliefs and why beliefs stick like peanut butter and Cheetos in a three-year-old’s hair

i might make a more detailed post with some studies about this later on, but i just finished this class and I have way more research to start diving into starting tomorrow. so i don’t have the bandwidth to cite anything atm but i want to throw these concepts out into the wilderness of tumblr and see what happens

1. Belief Perseverance

Belief perseverance is the concept that once a belief is formed, that belief sticks even in the face of information that is contrary to it.

For example: if you tell a biblical literalist xtian that, no, there is not historical evidence that xyz actually happened, their belief that it did happen will probably continue to persevere

However. There have been studies that have demonstrated that beliefs do not always persevere, and beliefs are more likely to change with careful and thorough explanations of the evidence that contradicts someone’s beliefs

2. Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is when someone looks for things that specifically confirm their beliefs or argument, while ignoring glaring information that completely refutes their beliefs.

An example of this would be xtians picking out phrases from studies about the benefits of religion, while completely ignoring the mechanisms of any religion, not just Christianity, that makes it beneficial to some people.

3. Selective Exposure

A lot like confirmation bias, selective exposure occurs when someone seeks media that supports their beliefs and avoid media that does not. Selective exposure is something I think most people do to some degree, because it can be used to protect against cognitive dissonance (I’ll get to that in a bit).

An example of selective exposure is that right-wing relative who watches nothing but Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, and all those other right-wing extremists. In the meanwhile, this right-wing relative shouts that other sources are fake news just because they don’t follow with their worldview.

4. Attitude polarization

Attitude polarization is the principle that the more time someone spends reflecting about their feelings and thoughts about something, the more strongly they will feel about it and the more extreme their attitudes become.

For example, someone you follow on Facebook recently watched a fear-mongering anti-vaxx video and they totally bought into it. They begin posting more and more and more about why vaccines are evil and destroying America or whatever. Their feelings and thoughts about vaccines become extreme, and they may join several groups that also share the same levels of these feelings. This is kinda where the the polarization comes into play, because they have started to oppose those who agree that vaccines are efficacious in reducing the spread of disease.

Attitude polarization drives people to action, or at least give them the intention of doing so. I think attitude polarization may be exacerbated by doom-scrolling.

(now i feel embarrassed that i didn’t grasp that part of attitude polarization entirely until making this post after midnight. AFTER my assignment on this very topic. ugh)

5. Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort felt when beliefs are inconsistent with actions or other beliefs and knowledge.

An example of cognitive dissonance would be agreeing with Jesus telling the rich man to sell all his belongings and give the money to the poor while also attending a mega church where the preacher makes millions.

Anyway, I think the takeaway here is that beliefs aren’t easy to dispel because people just do whatever they can to keep believing in those things, at least up until they understand why their beliefs aren’t necessarily true and when the cognitive dissonance is too much to handle.

it's weird when people are like I'm Christian but I respect your religion

then be like

I think you're going to hell though

be racist

also, why do Christians only pretend respect others? they were raised on stories of "this man stole, vandalized and destroyed others religious items and practices (in ancient times but let's ignore all context bc we said so), bc of 💫!Jod!💫and you should do the same" and they fucking act like it

Mhm. Precisely.

My JW parents have no problem buying items from a Catholic garage sale with crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary in it; but their blood turns ice cold with fear and they wail “demons!” if there are depictions of Hindu or Wiccan gods in it, despite the fact that all of the aforementioned religions are considered equally “false” by their cult. So, there is definitely some cognitive dissonance going on with that. And there is a bias to be nicer to other Xtian sects.

I know my Google reviews will probably be deleted at some point (I have seen negative reviews from 3 years ago still around though, so maybe I'll be fine??), but it was so cathartic to leave a scathing review for the Kingdom Hall I used to go to.

I gave it "five stars" based on how many boxes it ticked for what makes a harmful cult, so they'll be less likely to pay attention to it. Probably.

Anyways, it's just nice to have some petty revenge, y'know? And if it keeps a couple of people from going there, well, even better!!

- Jinx

Careful not to jinx it!

-Mod Degurechaff, puns