More from Bill W., Cult Leader

It's simple:  you either go to AA, conform complete to its covenant, or you die.

Update:  AA removed these videos from YouTube.  Even they are embarrassed by what their founder says. 

I Don't Care If People Don't Like Me

  

Senator Franken got it almost right with his character, Stuart Smalley.  But Stuart is kind and assumes the best in people (just not himself).  The twelve-steppers of AA, founded on Christian born again fundamentalism, aren't  They are full of fear, intolerance, and hate.  The audience of SNL wasn't (and probably still isn't) ready for this type of honest depiction, however.  It's still taboo to criticize religion.  Hopefully people will start to see these psychotics for the irrational, dangerous, lunatics they are.

Naturally Incapable of Rigorous Honesty and Suffering From Grave Emotional and Mental Disorders

Every AA meeting opens up with this prayer:

Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. There are such unfortunates. They are not at fault; they seem to have been born that way. There are naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty. Their chances are less than average. There are those, too, who suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders, but many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest.

If you have any independent thought, you will soon grow extremely tired of its astounding degree of condescension, blaming, arrogance, and shockingly blatant effort at manipulation.

"Rarely have they seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path"

Wow.  It sounds like AA is very effective!  This is a lie.  Even AA admits it.  They qualify this statement by "thoroughly."  If it doesn't work for you, it's your fault--you didn't follow their (simple) path thoroughly enough.  It's your fault!  You can't even follow a simple program!!

The truth is that people who quit on their own have an equal, if not higher, success rate than those that follow AA's path.  The problem isn't with the person, it's with the program.  AA simultaneously falsely legitimizes itself as effective when it is not, and then bashes the poor alcoholic when AA doesn't work for him/her.  Charming.

"Men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves.  There are such unfortunates."

This is perhaps the most condescending statement I've heard anyone utter.  The idea that a group of deluded, unthinking, unquestioning sheep could know myself better than I do is outrageous.  They can't even accurately assess their own lives or critically assess the AA program.  They unquestioningly accept what Bill W. says as the truth.  If they are unable to question themselves critically, they are in no position to do so to me.  But they do, and take pity on me as a hopeless case...an "unfortunate" who they turn their backs on.

People who fail are either:

"naturally incapable of grasping and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty"

I always snorted when someone said this.  If AA members lived in a manner demanding rigorous honesty they would realize:

• that AA has been repeatedly shown, using rigorous double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, to be utterly ineffective in achieving sobriety.  The likelihood of success is just as high in those that stop drinking on their own.  One major study showed that people who attend AA are 9-times more likely to binge drink, compared with those who do Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT).  Even AA's triennial survey admitted to the ineffectiveness of its program.  But AA members reject these pieces of evidence.  They are in a constant state of denial, which is ironic because that's how they dismiss others (like myself) who disagree with them. 
• that the evidence for a Christian God, which is what AA is based on, is nonexistent.  Combine this with the many suspect, self serving reasons to believe in such a god (fear of death, fear of others unlike us, fear of change, selfloathing, etc...), and all this god talk begins to sound like a type of psychosis.  I heard many testimonies about personal visits and conversations from God by people in AA meetings.  I was scared that such delusional people were, not just walking the streets, but approved of by society.
• they are, in no way, superior to me in being capable of being honest with myself. Not only am I incapable of being rigorously honest, but I'm naturally incapable of even grasping it!  I was evidently born defective mentally, and cannot operate at the high plane of mental functioning that average AA members are able.  And even more, I'm so stunted intellectually and/or morally that I'm incapable of realizing it!
• they were wasting half their lives at AA meetings in dark damp church basements where all anyone ever talks about is how great the program is, how close to death they were, and how they would be dead if it weren't for AA.  Say it enough times, and people will believe it, maybe, is what they are shooting for.  This is also called "brainwashing."  Look into it.

 "suffer from grave emotional and mental disorders"

I guess my doctors are all incompetent.  I must be bipolar or schizophrenic and they missed it.  Maybe I should trust AA instead of them, especially since they're so rigorously honest, unlike my physicians.

"many of them do recover if they have the capacity to be honest."

So all you have to do to succeed at AA is have the capability of being honest.  I guess "honest" really in the language that AA uses means "gullible."  It certainly doesn't mean believing the truth.  It means believing the lies that AA tells you, and then spouting off constantly about how wonderfully it works.

This mean-spirited, "kick 'em when their down," attitude is common to christian fundamentalists.  It's not the version of Christianity taught in the older, more traditional forms of Catholicism, Protestantism, or other religions.  The christian "born again" fundamentalists are a sick, twisted, selfish, and hateful lot.

I don't know which is more shocking to me:  that society has such a beneficent view of the AA, or that people in AA can be such gullible idiots.  Society doesn't really know that much about AA.  Most people only know of someone who has gone to meetings.  If they had gone themselves, or have read the lunatic rantings of Bill W. in the "Big Book" that is read like scripture in every meeting and followed with blind obedience, I'm sure they would think differently.

The sad fact of the matter is that there are many people truly helpless at the hands of alcohol.  They are decent people who, for some reason, cannot stop drinking.  They are suckered into the scam that AA will save them, if only they are subservient enough and give up all critical reasoning ability.  Why trust medical researchers and physicians, when you can trust a former drunk's uncritical, uneducated religious rantings in the basement of a church?  The fact that AA preys on these, the real "unfortunates," is the worst aspect of this entire sham. 

AA: Of Course It's a Cult!

 AA:  A Fascist Cult Founded On "God-Control"

On the blog "Positive Atheism," author Jack Trimpey has a great post entitled, "Alcoholics Anonymous:  Of Course It's a Cult."   Trimpey is the founder of the secular AA alternative, Rational Recovery.  He has been openly and aggressively critical of AA for decades.

Some examples of the many phone calls from across the country that Trimpey and Rational Recovery regarding AA include:

“I knew from the start there was something creepy about those people.”

“They aren’t of this world; they’re way out there.” 

Charles Manson

“I kind of got a shiver during one meeting when they were putting one guy down for arguing against the powerless concept.”

“When they said my family also was diseased, I knew something was wrong.”

“When they started this thing about anything being my Higher Power, it felt wrong, like it was going against something very important inside of me.” 

L. Ron Hubbard

“After I stopped going to meetings, no one I knew from the groups would have anything to do with me, even though I wasn’t drinking.”

“My brother quit drinking by going to AA, but he’s become so weird. I hardly know him any more, and almost miss the way he was when he was drinking. At least he was sincere, and could talk about something besides himself.” 

James Jones

“Our son went to a treatment specialist for drug addiction, and now he says we are satanic child molesters.”

“I’ve been telling my husband that the meetings aren’t helping, that he now calls his binges relapses and feels less guilty afterward. He admits he is drinking more and more often, but says relapse is a normal part of recovery. When he goes to meetings after a relapse, though, he feels ashamed and depressed.”

“A year after I quit drinking, my wife went to Al-Anon with a friend. Now she won’t communicate with me unless I go to AA.” 

Marshall Herff Applewhite

“The counselors at the treatment center were poorly-educated and acted like robots reciting every word.”

“I heard one man say, ‘I pray to God every day that I never get the idea that I can run my own life.’ When I heard this, I felt sick inside because I felt unable to leave the group.

It would be one thing if AA were actually effective, but it isn't.  It's recovery rate is a dismal 3-7%.  The spontaneous recovery rate for alcoholics who get no treatment is 5%.  Binge/relapse drinking for those in AA is nine times more likely to occur than for those who get no treatment.  The first of the twelve steps tells you that you must admit that you are powerless over alcohol.  The subsequent steps tell you to admit  your sins (defects) and that only God can cure you.  AA's method of learned helplessness is disastrous. 

Bill W.

Frank Buchman

Alcoholics Anonymous was formed by the Oxford Group in the 1930s.  The Oxford Group was founded by Frank Buchman, a Lutheran minister from Pennsylvania.  In one of Buchman's speeches during this period he stated:

     "The secret is God-control.  The only sane people in an insane world are those controlled by God.  God-controlled personalities make God-controlled nationalities.  This is the aim of the Oxford Group.
      The true patriot gives his life to bring his nation under God's control.  Those who oppose that control are public enemies....
     World peace will only come through nations which have achieved God-control.  And everybody can listen to God.  You can.  I can.  Everybody can have a part."

--Buchman, F., Remaking the World. London:  Blandford Press, 1961.

Buchman also said:

Adolph Hitler

"I thank heaven for a man like Adolph Hitler.  Human problems aren't economic. They're moral and they can't be solved by immoral measures. They could be solved within a God-controlled democracy, or perhaps I should say a theocracy, and they could be solved through a God-controlled Fascist dictatorship."

 --Birnie, W.A.H., "Hitler or Any Fascist Leader Controlled by God Could Cure All Ills of World," Buchman Believes.  New York World-Telegram, Aug 26 (1936).  cited from Thornton-Duesbury, J.P., The Open Secret of MRA:  An examination of Mr. Driberg's 'critical examination' of Moral Re-Armament."  London:  Blandford Press, 1964.  Also available here. 

Ask any AA member about their group's origins and the Oxford Group and watch what happens.  They'll get incredibly defensive and start rationalizing.  Then suggest that perhaps they, and not you, might be the ones in denial.

"We're All Powerless"

From Season 9, Episode 14, of South Park:

Bloody Mary
Tags: SOUTH
PARKmore...

Charlie Sheen Was Right About AA

 

Though Charlie Sheen is definitely suffering from some form of mental illness, his reasoning about Alcoholics Anonymous is sound (and entertaining).  From Radar Online:

In a bizarre and tough-talking new interview, Charlie Sheen blasted Alcoholics Anonymous and said his success rate at beating addiction is 100%!

“Newsflash, I’m special,” Charlie said at one point during the interview with the Alex Jones Show. Sheen showed no signs of remorse for any of his actions and conversely lashed out at a variety of targets in a way that is sure to raise eyebrows.

“The only thing I’m addicted to right now is winning,” he said asserting that he is clean and sober. Amazingly he added about his ability to get clean: “My success rate is 100%”

Sheen saved many of his angry words for Alcoholic Anonymous. “I was shackled and oppressed by the cult of AA for 22 years,” Sheen said. “I finally extracted myself from their troll hole and started living my life the way I want to live it.

“It’s vintage, outdated and stupid and it’s followed by STUPID people.”

He then added: “I hate them violently. They will come at me.”

At one point he said: “Debate me on AA right now. I have a disease? Bulls**t. I cured it right now with my mind.”

Sheen was feisty, acerbic, nasty and at times off-the-wall.

He even attacked  his own show at one point, saying: “I was told if I went on the attack they’d cancel the show. are they happy with the 5 billion dollars they made off me or do they want 10?”

Earlier he said: “I’m not fair game. I’m not a soft target. There’s a new sheriff, and he has an army of assassins,”  apparently as a warning to the media.

More Sheen wisdom included: “My motto now is either you love or you hate and you must do so violently. I don’t live in the middle anymore. That’s where you get embarrassed.

“If  you love with violence and you hate with violence there is nothing that can be questioned.”

Talking about his life and the new women in it, he said: “I’m going to hang out with these two smoking hotties and fly around the world. It might be lonely up here but I sure like the view.”

When interview host Alex Jones said, “I’m just glad you’re clean…this is it” Sheen seemed to back away from promising he’d be clean forever.

Sheen responded: “Right now it is. I don’t subscribe to any model.”

The Two and a Half Men star attacked AA, religion and a variety of targets while extolling the virtues of hanging out with “two smoking hotties.”

He characterized religion as “talking snakes” and a waste of a Sunday.

Littering his interview with violent imagery bordering on threats, Sheen saved his softest words for new squeeze Kenly, reading a letter she wrote him, that, in part, praised him for his “wisdom.”

By the end of the interview, even Alex Jones said:” I hope they don’t cancel Two and a Half Men over the interview you just heard.”

You can listen the full radio interview here.