I have lost a friend over TZM from r/TZM
I am not extremely wealthy, but I am against TZM, mostly for personal reasons.
I have seen the negative effects of what TZM can do to an individual. I watched as a friend of mine grew obsessed with those movies. At first I thought I’d just let it be, but it came to a point where I could not tolerate it anymore. This was in early 2011, and at that time I had just learned that it had become a full-blown movement, although I really did not look into it. I have always hated people who pull others down for being better off. So I told my friend (who by this time had gone so far that he was already posting anti-America propaganda on his facebook profile along with links to Peter Joseph’s movies and interviews and some truththeory and ancient astronaut links) that TZM is most probably a scam that wants donations and that he was making a fool of himself by following this neo-communist (that’s what I thought of it at that time) movement and that he was disgracing his own country by suggesting that we are slaves to a more powerful nation and posting it on facebook for all to see. Anyway, he stopped posting those links,but our friendship was never the same again and I eventually lost contact with him when he went out of town to work. A few months passed and one day I just found myself googling zeitgeist movement and found blogs like this. And I wasn’t surprised when I read stuff about donation wars and being called a cult. When I told my friend that they are hypocrites who say they hate money but really want donations, I did not really know for sure, but after looking into it, I guess I was right after all.
TZM isn’t really about making the world a better place. TZM reminds me of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Except the Khmer Rouge understood that people are not going to be convinced through merely “educating” them. Just think what would happen if TZM began to realize this and decided to do something about it. I for one do not want to find out.
Ian
You don’t really have to look hard to see TZM pulling people down for being better off. Saying that they are merely pointing out society’s flaws is just a way of softening it. Besides, its old news, but you don’t see TZM doing anything about it except to talk and make statements about how bad things are. I have yet to see someone from TZM actually point out something positive. I think TZM are also against doing charity or outreach work for some reason. Just a day ago a TZM member posting here was presented with a list of companies that are doing some real work that actually help people (check the latest blog post), but he decided to ignore it and keep on talking about how much he hates money. I think people at TZM really don’t want to see anything good, they are counting on things going bad so they can come out and say “I told you so”. I also think it’s TZM’s own fault if they have not achieved anything. Others have gone through tougher trials and besides, in this day and age, they have all the tools they need. I would at least have some respect for TZM if they actually did some hands-on humanitarian work with that donation money instead of using it for making movies. Speaking of emotional reaction, this is what TZM are counting on, a TZM member even said so himself here on this blog. This is why they use a lot of images of starving children, which I find sick, since they really are doing nothing about it, so those starving children are reduced to mere tools. On money matters, others could probably explain it better than me, but I see nothing wrong with paying taxes and having to work. Others benefit from those taxes too. Maybe some goes into the bank accounts of some corrupt politicians, but still, not all is bad. People do not starve just because of the sheer desire to do so. Things are not really so simple , and the situation is different for each country. It really takes a lot more effort to understand these things. A lot of study is required, and going through TZM materials isn’t really going to teach you anything. But I guess you are free to choose, if you have not already chosen. I’m not really good at turning people away from this wannabe-activist movement. I confess I’m just here to watch it fall, and maybe give it a little push to help it along the way when the opportunity presents itself.
Ian