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here.

Even Lowkey's point about 'answers in an-cappism' seems at least sensible.

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Maybe Lowkey feels the need to be 'controlled' being ex military and thus seeks a contoller.
So much for Freedom as the name suggests.

All it takes to be one of the "smart people" is to parrot the party line as pronounced by Stef, or as one Molynaut put it, throwing in your "two Stef-cents." And if that interview he gave on "guaranteed $36,000 a year podcasting" is any indication, Stef is all about dollars and cents, if not sense.

- Leave irrational parents because they are only "prison guards." Check!

- Disassociate from everyone who doesn't agree with FDR party line. Check!

- Only associate with people who are curious and empathetic. Check!

- Celebrate glorious new-found freedom. Check!

- Make the mistake of publicly confessing personal variance from dogma. Oops!

- Be ignored by leader who is neither curious nor empathetic. Oops!

- Learn that you are now considered the irrational one. Oops!

- Realize that your definition of "glorious new-found freedom" actually means desperately clinging to dogmatic organization that acts as prison guard for your mind. Wilco Tango Fox! Mayday! Mayday! ....

QuestEon beat me to it again, and much more elegantly.

My view is that they have no-one else left, they have cut themselves off from all their former friends, not to mention their family. If they don't cling to FDR, they will be completely alone.

They should realize that family and friends are remarkably forgiving of such youthful foibles, and were it not for their prideful egos and fear of admitting their error, they'd tell Stef to stuff it and go back to their old friends and family to apologize.

Fear of admitting error would possibly be one of the most difficult things to overcome.
Simply turning up and knocking on the front door would be admittal enough for us.

Just a thought.

Perhaps someone (or some website) could act as an intermediary for those (from fdr) who would like to contact home but are afraid of how they will be received. Everything could be confidential. This might help them take the first step and see where they would like to go from there. I'm pretty sure that most families would be elated to have this contact.

Please excuse me if this has been suggested before.

yeah, that might be a good idea,, though it would be hard to find people who both the FDR'er and the family/friends trust. Also, any decent parent will likely in any case not ask for an apology etc., but just be very happy to see his/her child again, and be open to talk about anything. it would be good if that could be made clear to FDR'ers on the fence.

Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. (Robinson)

Reconciliation is a beautiful thing....a fresh start.

of course PaulC now has noidea what to do. Lowkey made good points, wrote a very honest post, and if PaulC were to respond with kindness and honesty he would soon find himself in conflict with FDR's teachings, so he has to find a way to end the conversation without being a total jerk, and without being a 'traitor' of FDR ideas. So what he can do best is not respond anymore, or to find some way to dismiss Lowkey altogether while still appearing nice or morally superior.