u/freebird360

Hello, r/secularbuddhism. I have a question about ownership and responsibility for our actions (karma) and whether that changes under a sufficiently manipulative cult.

So, I had an unfortunate interaction last night on r/exjw. I was in the wrong. A young man came on and gave a few details about an affair that he had, and one of the elders in his congregation compelled him to do something that I found reprehensible. He later revealed in a deleted comment that he was a young man taken advantage of by a much older woman, he was not with a young woman his age like I assumed, and then he was manipulated by this corrupt elder while in a vulnerable state. I misread this situation and apologized to him.

My problem, aside from jumping to conclusions like that instead of probing for more information first, is that I want people to take responsibility for what they did. I hate the idea of putting all the blame on cults and cult leaders or their middle management. Those people will never take responsibility for what their followers did. I hate this idea of denying our own agency, and this has probably hardened me.

I am open to the possibility that I'm entirely wrong about this. It could be that my passions about right and wrong are getting ahead of me. It could be that our responsibility is reasonably mitigated when under authoritarian pressure, but I have a hard time accepting that.

So, I bring this to you. What do you think? To what degree do we own our actions if we are in a religious or even a political cult like this? What is your secular Buddhist perspective on this?

Thank you, and I apologize again.

Not specific but plainly applicable to JWs, of course. I particularly like the bit where she says, paraphrasing Paolo Freire, that to alienate someone from their own decision-making is to make them an object into which a pedagogical authority deposits information. We know just enough to walk around in the world and follow the program, which makes us far more exploitable as human capital.

I like her. She's smart.

So, first of all, I want to recognize the pain and frustration that a lot of folks here have with parents who have shunned them. I'm sorry. If my father were alive when I left his religion, there is a good chance he would've shunned me, because he had already done it to my uncle, but I can't be sure.

My mother is emotionally immature. Childlike, like she's stuck eternally at about 17 years old when she got hit by a car after running away from her abusive parents, as she would often remind me. When I asked in years past why she chose the JWs and raised us in it, her answer was, "Because I learned about Jehovah, and his son Jesus Christ, and their promise for the new world."

... It's a coping mechanism for her. My thesis here is that the entire religion is nothing but a coping mechanism for many JWs, but there is one key difference with my mom. Most JWs seem to have a lot more attachment to the GB than I ever remember having. They just weren't in our family discussions, ever, and I didn't hear about them at the kingdom hall (before JW Broadcast) either unless the CO was in town.

I asked her today, "What do you think of the governing body?"

She answered: "Oh they're just men. I don't think about them. I think about Jehovah and Jesus and the scriptures."

I pressed her lightly that she was never that big on reading the Bible, or took much interest in any "deep" topic like that, and I asked plainly if it's because it's a coping mechanism for her. To paraphrase her: "Well of course. I just wanted to know that the way things are is not how it's always going to be, that one day all of this will be over and I'll have your dad and no more sin or death..."

She also mentioned that some of the other witnesses are more into the governing body but she isn't. I told her that I think the worst thing they could've done was put themselves on camera and talk weird. She said she skips some things in the broadcast if it's too annoying.

But of course, she would never quit. If she did, it's Pascal's Wager and that's the end for her coping mechanism... So I don't need her to. It's not that I respect her religion, I have no respect for it because it's a great big sham, but I respect that she's honest. I respect that she's trying to fill this very old wound that she has, she's not in any real danger, and I respect that she's kind of a freeloader for them because she never goes out in service or gives them a dime. That's her though.

But of course, she had to end it with a little bit of crazy. Obviously, the reason the JWs have had problems with policy or administration over the years, is because of Satan doing what he can to stop it. Yup, that's it.

Feel free to compare notes, tell me what you think. I love you all.

So I use Calculate Linux on a Celeron laptop that's probably 10 or 15 years old. If I wanted to switch over to Gentoo proper, couldn't I avoid reinstalling the entire thing by reconfiguring Portage?

Minding my business this Sunday afternoon when I got an email from UPS, and nothing from Maestro. Email contains a link to a return label that lists Nexus Logx in Wilmington, Delaware as the return address. No mention of Maestro or a laptop anywhere. So I a sent a message to Maestro's staff about this.

So folks, is this the company I'm returning the laptop to?

Answer: Yes..

I've been trying to stay focused on my studies these past couple of weeks, but the uncertainty has been hard for me

Some days I can put it out of my mind and just focus on the learning, other days I find myself on reddit and the community and reading updates. I'm still doing the work and trying to stay on track because I like the learning soo much! but its definitely been harder than usual at least it looks like they have a plan

Hi there. I'm new to Royal Road and I feel like I need a writing buddy. I tend to get "up in my head" a little too much, like analysis paralysis, and I just need someone out there to DM me and say, "Hey. Did you write your 750 words? Come on, man, let's see it." And then we can share what we've written so I can return the favor, because this isn't a one-way street.

Of course, I do have family I could ask personally, but it's not the same, is it? It's a different mask for a different function, and if I can help someone else to write and to publish as well, then we can both contribute to an open culture.

Please DM if you're interested. I will respond as quickly as I can, circumstances permitting. Thank you!