Top Tweets for #IgotOut

How many people have died because the Watchtower prohibited blood transfusions? This is a big one. For years, the Watchtower Society has taught that receiving a blood transfusion is against God’s will, based on its interpretation of biblical and kosher laws. Thousands and thousands of people have died under that policy. Now, the Watchtower is amending its position. I’m always glad to see reform moving in a better direction, but there is also going to be so much trauma and harm for people to process, especially those who watched loved ones die because of a belief they were told came from God and the Bible. Join me live here https://t.co/LvRrrxGexR this Friday, September 25th, from 2:00 to 3:00 PM Eastern with former Jehovah’s Witness elder Isaac Carmignani, who I’ve interviewed before. We’ve been doing a lot of work around Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower, which I consider an authoritarian cult, and we’re going to unpack what this change means and what happens psychologically when a deeply programmed belief suddenly shifts.

I've studied abnormal psychology and human behavior for decades, and if you follow me, you know I have begun tweeting that - right now - there are Trump voters all across America - tons of them - tired of the negativity, bombast, lies, whininess, nonsensical riffs, incompetence, self-centeredness, divisiveness, and especially the corruption, the grift, and the broken promises, who want nothing more to do with him. Many cannot say it openly in their circle yet; but they feel it. What they're feeling is called Cognitive Dissonance. It's a psychological conflict between their established views and the things they're perceiving. Humans strive for internal consistency to function effectively in the world. When confronted with conflicting or dissonant information or actions, they experience stress, guilt, or shame, which drives them to resolve the dissonance. How do they resolve the dissonance? Some will minimize it, some will rationalize it, and some will change behavior and - in this case - their world view. It takes a lot of discomfort to get people to change behavior. How many feel it? How many will change? A recent stat from a WaPo article claims that 1 out of 5 Trump voters are at risk of either not voting in the midterms or voting Dem. This is the first time I've seen a quantified number on this, but it makes sense. Another stat is that the % of voters who "strongly support" Trump has absolutely cratered - the last WaPo Ipsos poll has it at 15%. Cognitive dissonance. Remember that term. I'm going to tweet about it a lot. It's out there, big time.

In a WILD sermon, NIFB Pastor Steven Anderson says he’s so psychologically damaged by his four "sniveling brats" and "evil pieces of trash" children publicly accusing him of child abuse, that he prays they either publicly recant so he can get his good name back, or, as an alternative, that God destroys and "spectacularly punishes" them because otherwise he's going to quit preaching. This is long, but you get a good picture of where he's at, and it's not in a good place.