I had the “privilege” to be around many Jehovah’s Witnesses in my late teens and early 20s. It provided me a real world tour of cognitive dissonance in action.
The JWs ability to simultaneously accuse every single person on earth of being satanic, evil and worthy of imminent death from God while excusing en masse the epic stupidity of their own beliefs is quite the sight.
Speaking of the JWs resilience in the face of multiple prophetic humiliations, Carl Sagan once noted:
The fact that religions can be so shamelessly dishonest, so contemptuous of the intelligence of their adherents, and still flourish does not speak very well for the tough-mindedness of the believers. But it does indicate, if a demonstration were needed, that near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry.
The similarities between “Trump conservatives” and their group think is oh so striking. They are loud, they are proud and they will never back down regardless of how many times they are proven wrong.
