Dr. Heinz Fraudster;1505495 wrote:Arguably the best chess player of all time is Bobby Fischer and he is by far the one I enjoy studying and watching the games of the most.
Many people try to dismiss Bobby by saying he became crazy... to me that is simply ignorant and it is a witch hunt not worthy of any self respecting person.
Bobby Fischer was one of the more fascinating public figures from his time and it is with some regret that I never got to meet him alive in person.
A lot of slander spawned around Bobby Fischer in the past decades. The media hasn't got even half of its lies and presumptions correct. Some in the media who actually knew him confirm that there are many
misrepresentations.
I was in the cult that Bobby was a 'coworker' within for almost 15 years. I learned this in the past month, and it wasn't hard to start putting the pieces together of what happened to him. Others in that cult ended up among the far right too. The cult was
not antisemitic, at all, however, 15 years of hearing Armstrong thunder from the pulpit, magazines, radio and television broadcasts about Nazi invasion (and we all know what the Nazis did to the Jews) it messed with our minds.
Bad. (In clinical terms, "Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder") Constant barrage of terror from Pasadena, California. During the height of the 1972-1975 Doomsday timeline is when Bobby was reported by NY Times, as 'reportedly replaying chess games and reading Nazi literature'.
He was investigating his 'prophesied killers'. It actually took courage, something most of the Armstrong cult followers didn't have. The cult of repressive and restrictive, controlling diet, weekly schedule, the people you could associate with, everything in your personal life -manipulated and controlled. So it was forbidden to even look at outside literature. Armstrong had drilled into the skulls of cult members the Nazis invasion as 'Biblically prophesied' and Jesus would return, 1972-1975. Others did the same thing. They grew sick of the terror and the 'elusive, all powerful, 'beyond the human realm,' Satan himself gave Hitler his supernatural qualities...mysterious enemy' who would kill them because they kept the 'true sabbath.' Bobby was collateral damage for the cult. Armstrong swindled him of all his money and left him destitute.
Media slander worth repeating
“He disowned his Jewish roots and joined Worldwide Church of God in mid-1960 only to accuse it in 1977 of being Satanic.”
Joining the WCG in 1962 didn't change much, if supposedly ‘disowning his Jewish roots’. Preposterous… since Bobby traded it in to
keep the Jewish holy days, Jewish sabbath, Jewish meat laws and subjected to great admiration of Jews and Israel for 15 years of his life, and all the rigid, strict pseudo-Jewish regulations outsiders don't seem to understand about “Armstrongism,” which most people on the outside mistook for “Jewish”,
anyway. Some are apparently under the delusion that Bobby fled from his “Jewish origins”. For all practical purposes, Bobby probably accepted Armstrongism because it was so SIMILAR to Judaism. Bobby would've seen himself as a living descendant of Israel, a “spiritual cousin” of Jews, of the
Hebrew tribes of “Manasseh and Ephraim” and “Satan's Nazis” really had it in for the Jews & “lost tribes of Israel” (Manasseh and Ephraim) and were to prophetically arise in 1972, invading the U.S. and Britain. The media didn't know that, either.
Too busy slandering to fact-check.
“Satanic” is a
real good word to describe the WCG. Armstrong extolled the ‘mighty and wondrous power of Satan’ and his righthand man Hitler. To hear Armstrong talk, Hitler was supernatural, “beyond the human realm” and for Armstrong's drilled in terror of Hitler, people should open their bank accounts wide if they want to make a bid to survive the coming plagues and “Great Tribulation” or perish in the Nazi Death Camps. Neighbors and extended family who actually knew how the religion affected them and those attending, sometimes referred to it as “The Devil's Religion.” Attending a Baptist Church with my Grandmom resulted in my Dad becoming enraged and shaking his fist in my face about the “true sabbath”. Grandmom overheard the yelling in the distance, when next I saw her she was in tears and said she'd never have me back to church with her. When a relative married outside the church she was
excommunicated… kicked out and shunned. So, my church brother Bobby called it “Satanic”? Well that's fitting in my opinion. It was a manipulative, controlling
CULT.
To the person who posted the original opening post, I respect that you refrain from saying unkind things about Bobby Fischer. The amount of time Bobby was subjected to the mind-control tactics of Armstrong's cult was extensive, over a decade, and that was long enough to create serious mental issues and Bobby said so during a 1977 interview. But nobody connected those dots. Nobody paid attention. They didn't think it was as bad as he was saying.
“I have to discuss some of the things Herbert has done to me-how he screwed up my mind-just to let people know that this is for real, because if anybody tried to live by the letter of the law… it was me. I truly tried to be obedient. The more I tried, the more crazy I became. The pressure he puts on you! You can't do this, you can't do that, you can't tell your friends this, you can't see unconverted people, you can't eat this, you can't eat that, on the sabbath you have to rest, you have to listen to the radio program every day, you have to study the correspondence course… and then you're supposed to pray…”
[...]
And here I was in the sixties reading this stuff sincerely and believing it. And I should have known that it was all just a pack of lies. He was just playing with me. Lie after lie, letter after letter.”
[...]
I was looking through some of his old co-worker letters-so phony, you know. He talks about this world and how evil it is and all, but actually he's really of this world with all these high-pressure sales tactics. That's exactly the stuff he talks about-the stuff he was doing as a kid that he supposedly outgrew. For example, he continuously tries to frighten and panic you in his coworker letters about the supposed imminent end of the world-so that you will empty your bank account before him. Articles in old Plain Truths tell you that you haven't much time to develop character to prepare for Christ's return-to take the last train to sanity by joining Armstrongism. The idea is constantly drummed into your head that you must obey God=Armstrongism before it's too late. You must decide now. Time is running out… This kind of super high-pressure salesmanship leads people to make rash decisions, based on fear, often made against their better judgment. This is the very essence of Armstrongism (i.e., fear, panic, guilt).”
— Bobby Fischer Interview, 1977
Since learning Bobby was part of the cult I set up a page (
https://vindication-of-bobby-fischer.co/) for anyone who really wants to understand the truth (a thing the media failed miserably to provide the public all these years) when and how Bobby went from being the celebrated American Cold War Hero to political dissident. It was that sick Doomsday Cult. Armstrong didn't care about the people. He was a narcissist and a sociopath who used doctrines of terror to intimidate people into giving him the majority of their income. Bobby was reported as saying that by 1972, "I gave all my money." (And rumor was reported in NY Times, he was "destitute".)
Ex-Armstrong groups that have kept the record of what happened in that cult have a wealth of information, starting with back in the 1920's, Armstrong built his cult doctrines based on Ku Klux Klan "British-Israelism" ideology. His estranged family also reported he read books like "Mein Kampf" and admired Hitler's methods of crowd control and dominating other men. This history was hidden from new converts in the 1960's, 70's and 80's onward. My family joined in the 1970's, while Bobby was still attending.
That was the emerging origins of "The Worldwide Church of God" or, "The Radio Church of God" during the 1960's. Of course by the time Fischer joined (1962) the church had already covered up and hidden its bigoted origins. Racial tolerance was normal by the 1960's and such attitudes like anti-semitism were not tolerated. Especially against the Jews. The entire religion revolved around Hebrew racial identity. The Jews were one tribe of Israel, while Bobby would've seen himself as a 'cousin' of sorts. All who joined and opened their wallets were accepted with open arms by Armstrong.
