Deprogramming From Cults

One of the reasons it’s difficult for me to be out in public is that I see how most people are unquestioningly controlled by imperialist propaganda and corporate cult conditioning. It’s triggering, due to what I’ve already endured as a former Jehovah’s Witness who escaped that cult when I was 26. My last few years in that cult were spent in what the exJW community calls “PIMO” – meaning Physically In, Mentally Out. I had to hide that I no longer believed their teachings and do my best to pretend that I was still a committed member. I was married to another Jehovah’s Witness at the time, so even my home life was highly scrutinized for any signs of doubt and disbelief. As I reached every new realization about being in a cult, I saw my JW peers who were still fully dedicated to the organization believing lies and deceptions that I’d discovered, and I wanted to scream from the roof of the Kingdumb Hall that we were in a cult, but I couldn’t, because I didn’t yet have the financial means or the support network to escape.

However, now I can scream from the rooftops about the corrupt, unjust, unnecessary system of Capitalism, and that’s what I’ve been doing for quite a long time now. I’m writing about it here on a more personal level, in terms of my own experiences. This isn’t the only subject matter I’ll be writing about here on my new blog, but it is one aspect of who I am, and I want to share it.

I know I’m not immune to propaganda and cult conditioning, but I’m also aware of and can identify both more easily than the average person in the US. Recognizing clearly in the early 1990’s that I was in a cult, then subsequently escaping and deprogramming from the JW’s, resulted in my developing critical thinking skills. That process, combined with my intensive study of history over the past decade, have given me unique insights to the conditions we all find ourselves facing today. I also think my neurodivergence is a contributing factor.

It’s frustrating when I see people simply accepting the propaganda and conditioning we are all subjected to in the United States, and have been dominated by for generations, that results in variously unjust outcomes for the majority of the population. Recently, Jessica Wildfire of OK Doomer wrote about why: systems justification. Check out her other articles, too, they’re really good. From her article:

Part 1: The Jehovah’s Witness Cult

During my last several years in the JW cult, I found myself with conflicting understandings of their rules vs what the Bible actually said. Some examples:

For years, I was struggling with trying to bring some logic and justice to this high control religion I was raised in, its contradictions having becoming impossible to ignore for their impact on my own life and those of others. I saw that there were others, including some elders, who thought policy reforms were long overdue. But ultimately, they always demurred to whatever the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses demanded either via direct communiques or via their Circuit Overseers. Even though it was obvious that many of the policies were dated and outright wrong, everyone had to wait on the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses – old men who made the rules for everyone and who themselves had usually spent at least a couple of decades sheltered from the outside world, living off of the donations of congregants and global real estate holdings. The members of the Governing Body were fairly out of touch with the actual conditions that rank and file Jehovah’s Witnesses were living under. But they knew best for us, it was insisted! The Jehovah’s Witness way of life was the best way of life in the world, and the only way approved by the Creator, Jehovah, and his son, Jesus Christ, so anyone who would question it, or -gasp- reject those beliefs and lifestyle were dangerous people who were to be avoided and shunned.

Obviously, I eventually realized that I was in a cult that had twisted my understanding of the world, other people in it, and even my perceptions of history and science. I escaped when I was 26. I was scared at first that I was wrong, and was not only leaving everything and everyone familiar to me – I was also going to need to deprogram from their indoctrination and learn how everything actually works. But I decided to face down my fears about the unknown, reprogram my mind and body to not go into fight or flight when encountering things the JWs terrified me – since I was in kindergarten – into thinking were “demonic.” When I was 11-12 years old, Mom had some of the girls my age from the Kingdom Hall for a sleepover party, and my friends T and her sister K wouldn’t go in my room after seeing that I had a collection of Smurfs. The JW’s still teach members that the epileptic people in the Bible were actually controlled by demons and that it is still possible to be possessed by them.

It was scary at first, after I stopped going to meetings and living according to their rules, to always have their claims about how evil “worldly” people are, lurking in the back of my mind, wondering if demons like those used as scare tactics in the JW teachings were actually real and I had been foolish to leave the protection of the “faithful and discreet slave,” the Biblical name that the JW Governing Body claimed described them. So instead of getting paralyzed in the limbo of my fears, I confronted them. I began metaphorically pulling on loose threads by reading and learning from sources outside of JW publications, including from ex-member activists (“apostates”) who we’d been strictly warned against even mentioning or risking looking at the cover of their books.

Seriously, we were told we could risk having demons attach themselves to our bodies if we looked at or touched things written by apostates, by other religions, and (as is the case with most Christian fundamentalists) occult books and items. We were warned about buying mundane items secondhand, because they may have demons attached to them, including clothing, household items, toys, food, etc. We were told cautionary tales about Witnesses who had experienced demonic attack or angelic protection in publications, from the platform, and via other Witnesses telling one another, which would spread like wildfire among congregants and across congregations. (Back in the 1980’s, the “joke” was don’t tell another Witness anything you don’t want to spread because “telegraph, telephone tell-a-Witness.”)

As I learned more about the history of the JW organization, the (lack of) qualifications of the leaders, and how the organization would cruelly sacrifice any of its members who risked the reputation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses – including child sexual assault victims – the cult conditioning unraveled more from my mind. I started seeing the world increasingly without the prejudices and outright falsehoods the JW’s had inculcated in me. That process continues today. I’m still finding remnants to unravel, with lesser frequency as it did twenty-five, or even ten years ago, but it still happens. That’s the fallout from being lied to and misled about the world by those who you were raised to believe had better answers than you could find without their “guidance” (aka control.)

People in the Jehovah’s Witnesses go out of their way to defend the status quo, to preserve harmony and boost their own self-esteem. By justifying the cult to themselves and their fellow members, they create reinforcing feedback loops that ignore the problems of the cult system. Their fear of being cast out and shunned from their primary or only social structure gives them motivation to do so.

I’ve gained an increasingly clearer view of the larger world since escaping, and had the realization over the last couple of decades that the corruption that the Jehovah’s Witnesses see in the world isn’t due to the influence of supernatural demons led by a cast-out son of god, but is actually caused by the human-created, human-run economic system we live under, that operates just like a cult.

Part 2: The Capitalist Cult

Once I realized that the United States and its economic system, Capitalism, operate like a cult, the process of deprogramming has been similar to my experiences in the Jehovah’s Witness cult. At first, I thought it could be reformed if we got the right people in office, just like I had mistakenly thought that a couple of JW elders who appeared prepared to take a stand for policy changes with the Circuit Overseer during his visit could help make JW life a bit more tolerable. But as before, I was wrong, and not thinking widely enough. I needed to gain perspective about Capitalism from sources that weren’t attempting to indoctrinate, reinforce, or guilt me for questioning it, just like I had to learn more about the JW organization from sources other than its own.

That is no easy task here in the US, because not only are most media sources owned by Capitalists, they’ve also used psychological operations to condition the working class into being in false class solidarity with Capitalists and to support the interests of the Military-Industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about in his farewell address. The Capitalist Ruling Class of the US is continuing this practice today, and now they aren’t even necessarily hiding it, with “former” CIA operatives being employed by news networks as on-air analysts. Hell, we even have “former” CIA who have become Congressional Representatives and Senators. Most Americans are painfully unaware of why it’s a bad idea to give this agency any more power than it already has, and they certainly are not aware of its origins. This is reminiscent of how most Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t know the history of their own religion, and in fact, are discouraged from learning it.

In both cases, the purpose of disinformation and secrecy is so that we in the masses are easier to control, and so that we police one another for thinking that could pose a threat to the power and wealth of leadership – whether the JW.org Governing Body, or the Capitalist Ruling Class.  In the case of the latter, Anti-Capitalist, and particularly Communist thinking pose threats to the CRC. McCarthyism and other Red Scares have played major roles in US history in order to protect the Capitalists from their greatest threat: the majority of the population demanding a more democratic system, which is what Communism is at its core.

The JW’s have a similar behavior they condition in their congregants, in that they police one another for rule breaking, “questionable” behavior, and if you even hint at having doubts, you’re most likely to be corrected, reported to your local congregation leadership, and could face expulsion and shunning. The Jehovah’s Witnesses also strongly encourage their members to only read publications that the cult has produced, because, as I mentioned in part one, they tell their congregants that anything else could be “demon-possessed” or influence them away from the JW cult.

Another similarity is that the JW’s are trained to call their belief system “The Truth” – and to accept that it is the ONLY truth that exists, not only on Earth, but throughout the Universe. Likewise, those of us in the US have been taught to believe that Capitalism is Democracy, and the only “true” democracy, freedom, and liberty that exists and that will ever exist. We are frequently assured that we live in “The Greatest Country On Earth,” often by people who have never traveled outside of the US, and have no basis of comparison. They also tend to be politically and historically illiterate, much like the born-in JW’s touting having the only true religion, despite never having experienced another religion.

One-tenth of one percent of the US population, 0.1%, should not be determining how life will be structured for the 99.9%, particularly given their track record. That record is part why real history is not taught and celebrated; instead, ruling class narratives are substituted to place 99.9% of the population in false class solidarity with the Capitalist Ruling Class (0.1%). Much like the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the CRC is woefully out of touch with the conditions that the majority of the population live under as a consequence of their rule, yet they demand and expect more and more from the masses, while unwilling to make any sacrifices themselves.

The corruption of those at the top, while demanding the rank and file not only pretend that’s not happening and holding the rank and file to higher standards than they hold themselves is seen in both cults. We see this in how many crimes in the US are simply a fine for the wealthy, versus life-altering and often life-ruining outcomes for people who do not enjoy the benefits of wealth. This is especially true of they are Black or Indigenous people – this is undeniable in material reality, and if you deny it, you are either an outright liar, or are being deceived by liars.

There is another parallel between abuses by leadership – the Jehovah’s Witnesseshave a long and despicableongoing history of protecting JW pedophiles, and have disciplined victims and their families for making “false accusations” against another member when they’ve come forward to the Body Of Elders (local JW leadership in each congregation) with an accusation of child sexual assault or even adult rape against another member or members. Under Capitalist rule, we see similarly that wealthy and whitemen have not been held to account for their sex crimes. This is ongoing, and victims are silenced in both cases – in order to preserve reputations and wealth. Those victims who do come forward are often called liars and experience threats of further violence against them, which means many victims of sexual assault never come forward. Even those who do often must deal with the rapist receiving a light or no sentence at all, and the perpetrator’s life is rarely ruined. This is true of many JW pedophiles, who continue to operate in congregations all over the planet without restraint or regret. The JW system protects them, just as the Capitalist system protects rapists. Some rapists do end up convicted, but they are the exception, and not the rule.

JW’s are trained to be “always ready to make a defense for their faith.” In the US, we are trained to do the same for the Capitalist system, whether we’re conscious of it or not. It has been used in schools, workplaces, places of worship, and other organizations. Any whiff of worker solidarity, workplace democracy, and other Anti-Capitalist, Pro-Cooperative topics is still frequently opposed and even treated as if the person hearing these things is being personally attacked rather than the system we live under. Any of us talking about those matters are subjected to personal attacks and being called insulting names, as if being traitorous to this corrupt system is equivalent to betraying humanity, when, in fact, the opposite is true.

I see the same unquestioning faith and zeal in US Anti-Communists trying to defend the nation and capitalism that I have seen in Jehovah’s Witnesses when they are confronted with information contradicting and disproving their religious beliefs. In both cases, regardless of how they have been harmed by the system they are defending, they will practically froth at the mouth while denouncing anyone who dares to question that system. There’s even defensive catchphrases used in both cases. But that sounds like a Part 3 I need to work on.

Being fresh out of a cult that lied to me about how the world worked, the history of our planet, and the nature of ours and all other species made me vulnerable to disinformation in some ways; on the other hand, because I’d been conditioned to be very skeptical of governments, I’ve had some advantages, in that my scrutiny regarding claims has prompted me to verify those. Over the decades, I’ve developed an always improving set of research skills, alongside autodidactic study of history, science, politics, propaganda, cults, and psychology. I try to be a helpful person who can help people with getting resources that they need. And whether you, dear reader, realize it or not, you are in need of a particular combination of those resources.

I’ve tried to warn people that the world can no longer sustain the Capitalist Cult, but you can refer back to systems justification to see why most have ignored and dismissed me. Those who don’t learn the truth about the US now are going to be very ill-equipped when conditions drastically change. The US has been the master of the unipolar world since the forced collapse of the Soviet Union, however, the multipolar world, led by the majority of humanity, is already emerging. The US is only 4.23% of global population and should not dominate the rest of the world. If you are not already aware of BRICS, the Belt & Road Initiative, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, you are doing yourself a disservice by remaining ignorant of those, because those movements represent the future. Forty-two percent (and growing as new member nations join) of Earth’s population is represented by BRICS. A reminder: the US only represents 4.23% of global population.

I really, really want to help you avoid being fresh out of a cult you didn’t even know was a cult and thrust into actual reality without an understanding of it. You need to learn real US history, like I’ve written about on comradebirb.com, so you properly understand why Scott Ritter recently said on Danny Haiphong’s show:

“Americans need to recognize that we are incompatible with the rest of the world.”

*Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of “Scorpion King: America’s Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump” (2020). He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector. He was a Marine Corps intelligence officer from 1984 to 1991 and a United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998. You can find his website here.

If you live in the US, have YOU recognized this yet, or are you still being deceived by US government agencies and mass media?

It’s time to wake up, if you haven’t yet, whether you’re a Jehovah’s Witness, and/or if you’re American. I can share helpful, informative resources for both.

Until next time!