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The Watchtower organization claims the know-how to recognize brainwashing.
As Watchtower explains it[1]:
● It starts with a propaganda line of a few words.
● This string of words is repeated persistently.
● With enough repetition it achieves the status of a slogan.
● A slogan repeated widely enough becomes programmed into brains.
● The result is little critical examination or skeptical dissection of the claim suggested by the slogan.
● Once a claim is sloganized into community thinking, it no longer requires proof from that community.
● Those in the community who dissent are scorned.
● If these dissenters bother to offer rational refutation of the slogan’s validity they are subjected to the only available defensive response, which is ridicule.[1]
The Watchtower organization claims the know-how to recognize brainwashing.
As Watchtower explains it[1]:
● It starts with a propaganda line of a few words.
● This string of words is repeated persistently.
● With enough repetition it achieves the status of a slogan.
● A slogan repeated widely enough becomes programmed into brains.
● The result is little critical examination or skeptical dissection of the claim suggested by the slogan.
● Once a claim is sloganized into community thinking, it no longer requires proof from that community.
● Those in the community who dissent are scorned.
● If these dissenters bother to offer rational refutation of the slogan’s validity they are subjected to the only available defensive response, which is ridicule.[1]
In this instance the brainwashing propaganda slogan identified by Watchtower is underscored because it is “repeated persistently (even 12 times in one short essay)”. 12 whole times in a single essay! How telling! Right?
Time and Times
The Watchtower organization has a phrase that fits the profile it depicts. Watchtower's phrase is the slave
In a single chapter in one of Watchtower’s many books we find “the slave” repeated 41 times![2]
A more recent article published by the organization repeats the phrase a mere 33 times over the course of a measly 5 page article.[3]
Guess what happens to Jehovah's Witnesses who offer rational refutation of claims made based on the authority of "the slave". These are singled out for ridicule as "apostate". This is a signal to the rest of the community that they should ignore any and all refutation coming from the individual expressing a divergent view. Members who disregard this signal and decide to welcome the hearing of dissenting views coming from a fellow are themselves made subject to Watchtower’s coercive weapon of organized communal shunning.[4]
(( (((The slave))) ))
Marvin Shilmer
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References:
1. Awake!, published by Watchtower, January 22, 1990, p. 10.
2. God’s Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached, published by Watchtower, 1973, pp. 331-363.
3. The Watchtower, February 15, 2009, pp. 24-28.
4. Watchtower’s Gunpoint
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