Is like bashing your head against a wall to make a headache go away.

So I was hanging with a friend that I met during my time in SGI the other day. She still practices and I'm afraid she's sucked in more than ever.

At our most recent get together, I asked her how things were going with SGI, as she told me last time I saw her (a few months ago) that she didn't really want to be a YWD leader and that she wanted to change districts so she could go to meetings in her own neighborhood. I encouraged her to really do what she wanted and to not be pressured by leaders to do something else.

Well, unfortunately it seems the higher up leaders got to her and convinced her not only to stay in that district and keep her leadership role, but they convinced her that she was really "making a cause" for the world. I know this because she was saying all the same shit I used to say to justify spending so much of my free time on leadership duties. I could hear her parroting all the things I used to parrot. Ouch!!

I'm going to summarize a few things that came up in our conversation: 1. She asked me if I was ever a sustaining member. For those who don't know, a sustaining member is someone who signs up to give SGI monthly donations.

I told her I was not, that I only gave sizable donations once a year for "May contribution." She said she was considering doing regular donations. I asked her why. She said something to the effect of, "It'll make me a better person to be less selfish with my money and I'd also be contributing to a good cause." Which led to our second topic:

1. SGI is not a charitable religion so just WHAT do they actually DO with members donations? I told her what I know from this site, and encouraged her to go read some of these articles for herself (emailed her a few links). I told her most of the money goes to three things: paying billionaire staff members in Japan and high up leaders in USA, buying real estate (mansions for who? And more centers for who!?), and lastly, promoting the crap out of the org so as to convert more people and get more money.

Her response was that she didn't think it was possible for SGI to buy real estate for no reason. She thinks it's a good thing that there are more centers so more people can access them. She also believes promoting SGI is a good thing that's actually changing the world for the better somehow. (Again just parroting the same false talking points).

1. The last thing that came up was the idea that she feels like yes, there are problems in SGI just like any other religion, but that she thinks it should be changed from the inside out.

Bahahahahahaha

I of course told her about the Internal Reassessment Group in Japan- a group of former SG leaders that thought the same thing. But when they tried to present a case for reasonable changes to the org, they were kicked out. I also sent her a link to a couple of our articles about that. I told her to read the sources for herself and if I've interpreted them wrong, to please let me know.

Lastly, because I was sending her Reddit links, I asked her if she ever uses Reddit and she replied (this one cracked me up and made me sad at the same time): "Oh no, I never go on reddit. That site is just for people to talk negative about others."

Oh. MY. GOD.

Can you literally hear that LIE being parroted by SGI leaders to every gullible member there is!?

I laughed and was like, "Who told you that? The SGI leaders?" And she looked at me like a deer in headlights- perhaps surprised that I knew it was the case, or maybe shocked at herself for having become an SGI robot.

She immediately tried to cover up her surprise by telling me that "No, everyone says that about Reddit."

Hahahaha whaaaaaat

I informed her that she was most definitely wrong, clearly had never used the site and that there is literally EVERY SINGLE THING you can think of to talk about here, including pages about cute cats.

I was just FLOORED that this woman who REALLY is VERY intelligent has fallen so far down the SGI rabbit hole that she is now spreading their LIES about a freaking website that millions of people use every day!

I think if I'm going to keep hanging out with her I need to NOT bring up SGI anymore, as I'm going to have to just respect her decision to hand over her money (which she doesn't have much of) to a cult. It's just sad to see.