Q: How much credit do PIMO Jehovah’s Witnesses owe to Zoom for freeing them from attending boring meetings at the Kingdom Hall?

[TrueTomHarley]

Q: How much credit do PIMO Jehovah’s Witnesses owe to Zoom for freeing them from attending boring meetings at the Kingdom Hall?

Probably quite a bit, though simply fading would accomplish the same goal, minus the certain element of hypocrisy. Fading works fine for those who wish to leave. As long as one doesn’t go publicly reviling, robbing banks, or killing people, one is fine.

A consistent blackened screen without any participation always suggests to me PIMO as a possibility, save for obvious cases of infirmity, distance, hardship, etc. Nor is anyone fooled in the long run. Witnesses bond so readily with their fellow believers, even from around the world, because 2/3 of what they have in common is their spirituality/love of God. Begin to indicate that 2/3 is not very important to you, and in time relationships, even friendships, will shift.

I mean, I don’t think those meetings are boring at all, but if I did, I not only wouldn’t go but I also wouldn’t use Zoom in an attempt to deceive others into thinking I was. I like to think I have some backbone.

[Pudgy]

Somebody famous, I think it was Robert A. Heinlein, who said “if it cannot be expressed in numbers…… It is opinion.“. The more I think about that, the more I realize it’s true.

…. just because it is opinion does not mean that it is not true, but the level of suspicion is much higher.

[Anna]

9 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

A consistent blackened screen without any participation always suggests to me PIMO

Well, we don't do it often (zoom) but when we do it's because we are sick/not feeling good, so we don't want to show our sickly mug, and as soon as the meeting is over we sign out. We are definitely not PIMO. So if you're ever zooming into our meeting and we're all blacked out don't make that connection, but bring us some hot chicken noodle soup, actually, just leave it on the doorstep. Thank you.

[JW Insider]

11 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I mean, I don’t think those meetings are boring at all, but if I did, I not only wouldn’t go but I also wouldn’t use Zoom in an attempt to deceive others into thinking I was.

I also think of PIMO as the younger ones who sneak the iPhone down low between their knees and begin texting in the middle of a meeting. I ended up driving a couple of them in the back of a pickup truck a couple weeks ago to help a sister with a yard cleanup project. The truck had a backseat where they both sat while I was alone in the front. They didn't realize I could hear them whispering as they also had to whisper rather loudly to hear each other. But other people whispering always perks up my hearing capabilities. One is an MS, the other handles microphones. They are both freshly graduated from HS but were talking about dating girls in their school and not telling them about being JWs. Although I had a feeling (or a hope) that it might have been about their recent past and not the present. 

But If I snitch to their parents I wouldn't get any help lifting things next week when we do this again. J/K. Actually, I dropped some very general hints to the parent of the MS that we have to watch our young ones closely especially around that age, but probably didn't say enough. Haven't done anything Matthew 18-ish. 

[Anna]

Maybe if our meetings were more like this the PIMOs might be tempted to attend in person? 😂

 

[Anna]

7 hours ago, JW Insider said:

younger ones who sneak the iPhone down low between their knees and begin texting in the middle of a meeting

Not just the younger ones. But I don't think they are necessarily mentally out in the sense that they don't believe anymore (and live double lives) but because they get bored. Perhaps PIMB?

Also reminds me of an anecdote where a teacher was asked how he knew a student was looking at his phone when they were being so stealth about it. He said: no one smiles at their crotch.

 

[TrueTomHarley]

10 hours ago, Anna said:

Well, we don't do it often (zoom) but when we do it's because we are sick/not feeling good, so we don't want to show our sickly mug, and as soon as the meeting is over we sign out. We are definitely not PIMO. So if you're ever zooming into our meeting and we're all blacked out don't make that connection, but bring us some hot chicken noodle soup, actually, just leave it on the doorstep. Thank you.

I caught some flak on Facebook over the post, similar to yours, as though I was suggesting any black screen is a PIMO. I wasn’t. One person confessed to a certain form of social phobia but was very much in the program, saying how much better Zoom was than the old phone lines. To him, I said,

“It all works. Lots of reasons to prefer Zoom. I didn’t mean this to be a judgmental post. I just agree that among the constant black screen no-shows there are probably some who have tired of the whole program but don’t want others to think so. I didn’t mean to suggest it was anyone’s duty to figure out who was who.”

Another thought it not good to be suspicious of one’s brothers. I replied, “This is well-stated, [in both cases, I addressed them by name]. Suspicion was not what I meant to encourage. ‘Open to the possibility’ was more my point. And even when the latter is the case, that doesn’t mean a person won’t benefit from a hand of friendship. Thanks for commenting as you have.”

Two persons didn’t know what PIMO was, which I don’t think is very healthy—a little like the Russian Supreme Court refusing to look at what everyone else had seen, video-recorded evidence of incriminating material being planted by authorities. Of course, that is not to blame those friends. You’ll never hear the term PIMO at the Kingdom Hall or via the literature. It hampers people to be so uninformed about what large swaths of others are up to.

I think some were confused by the question itself. I took it off Quora, a social media site which has (I think) taken to generating many ridiculous questions about JWs (though, this wasn’t one of them) through AI, (sigh—which some brothers appear to take as though sincere questions from interested persons)

8 hours ago, JW Insider said:

I dropped some very general hints to the parent of the MS that we have to watch our young ones closely especially around that age, but probably didn't say enough. Haven't done anything Matthew 18-ish. 

Yeah, I know the feeling. The trouble is, you almost can’t, since we are primed to overreact. 

1 hour ago, Anna said:

Also reminds me of an anecdote where a teacher was asked how he knew a student was looking at his phone when they were being so stealth about it. He said: no one smiles at their crotch.

I see you don’t keep up with modern science. I believe several genders have been discovered in which they do just that.

 

1 hour ago, Anna said:

Maybe if our meetings were more like this the PIMOs might be tempted to attend in person? 😂

 

Hey, this is pretty good. And isn’t that Many Miles 8 rows back, 4th from the left? 

I hope the brothers don’t harrumph too much over it. It’s not like they could endorse it, but it is possible to say, ‘You know, there’s a place to learn more about this Jehovah.’ What to one person is not being swept along by the fads and vagaries of men is to another just being a bunch of fuddy-daddies.

[Anna]

53 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I see you don’t keep up with modern science. I believe several genders have been discovered in which they do just that.

😂

53 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

Hey, this is pretty good. And isn’t that Many Miles 8 rows back, 4th from the left? 

😂

Yes, not bad, and and most of them were somewhat modestly dressed.

53 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

I hope the brothers don’t harrumph too much over it. It’s not like they could endorse it, but it is possible to say, ‘You know, there’s a place to learn more about this Jehovah.’ What to one person is not being swept along by the fads and . vagaries of men is to another just being a bunch of fuddy-daddies.

 

If you read the comments left by people it seems like they're not really interested in who Jehovah really is. Most lump him together with God and Jesus, perhaps the new Trinity? And they're tight with them all.

We have a mega church like this close to us and it's packed (you can tell by the huge parking lots being full). At Christmas time they bring in live nativity animals. At other times they have concerts and make business deals. But they're all baptized in Jesus. It makes me wonder what will happen to churches like this when supposedly the governments shut them down. Will they even be able to? And the question is why would they? Most churches like this are also tight with senators.

[George88]

59 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

“It all works. Lots of reasons to prefer Zoom. I didn’t mean this to be a judgmental post.

The original language you began with was precisely as it appeared—criticism. The way things are perceived is crucial.

[Pudgy]

…

PIMB … almost an epiphany!

What other acronymns are in common usage nowadays?

 

[TrueTomHarley]

1 hour ago, George88 said:

The original language you began with was precisely as it appeared—criticism. The way things are perceived is crucial.

Yeah, I suppose you’re right. I probably should have clarified from the start that it was a question encountered on social media, not my own. I’ll do that should there be any reincarnations.

[TrueTomHarley]

2 hours ago, TrueTomHarley said:

What to one person is not being swept along by the fads and vagaries of men is to another just being a bunch of fuddy-daddies.

Duddies.

Not daddies.

As far as I know, there are no fuddy daddies, or at least if there are it might be some relation to sugar daddies.