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Scientology

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17:35 / 10.02.08

In the post-game forum at Enturbulation, includes lots of links to photos of the protest in the London thread, mostly from the second page.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:53 / 10.02.08

Here's the first one.

Essential Dazzler

22:15 / 10.02.08

Apparently the Cardiff protest was a total bust. It's apparently quite difficult to motivate people to protest against the Church of Scientology in a country that doesn't have any Churches of Scientology.

But it was nice to learn that I can say that I live in a Scientology-free country.

01:00 / 11.02.08

oh fuck, the internet is here - and it looks like a washowsky bros movie!

stoatie - didn't mean to put every christian in the same bag here [being raised as one - and not bothering with it anymore], just saying that i can't consider that video a valid protest or statement. one religion wanting to benefit from the fall of another .

*

03:13 / 11.02.08

Nothing in San Francisco? I wasn't downtown today, so I didn't hear or see anything, but if nothing happened here I'm SHOCKED, SADDENED, and APPALLED.

04:29 / 11.02.08

enturbulation.org's post-game thread on s.f.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:27 / 11.02.08

Beware the ides of March.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:33 / 11.02.08

A YouTube slideshow with pics from around the world.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:33 / 11.02.08

Aw man, one of the guys in that SF thread's dressed like Raptor Jesus! Awesome!

12:52 / 11.02.08

"I would caution the protesters about going too far with this religious persecution," stated Scientology spokesperson Tom Cruise. "If this continues in America later today, people should know that the Church of Scientology is an official member of Infragard. The Sea Org is now fully armed, and as a member of Infragard, they are authorized to protect various aspects of our contributions to the nation's infrastructure using deadly force. We're authorized by the FBI to do this, and we will shoot on sight."

OMGUNZ!

13:25 / 11.02.08

From reddit's front page, one dude's LJ post on London.

I really want to know how the 200 in Clearwater went.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:32 / 11.02.08

"Note the stilted, mechanical, almost Borg-like quality to the voice," stated Cruise. "Sea Org has, with 99% certainty, matched the voice of the narrator to archival recordings of Xenu in our possession. We will be turning over our findings to the FBI, and our lawyers will begin pushing for charges of hate crimes to be brought by legal authorities."

LULZ!!!

The best thing is reading all the positive press on the more established ant-$ci boards. They seem really impressed with how we conducted ourselves. I have to admit, as an old bastard who's been going on demos for years, even my instinctive antipathy towards young people has been somewhat assuaged... the kids did a fucking good job.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:34 / 11.02.08

From that LJ link-

500 people rick-rolling the UK Scientology head office. It was at this point I saw the corners of the cops' mouths twitch into smiles as they realised it was ok: we were from the internets.

There were numerous demands for "CAKE!" - Shortly followed by much more enthusiastic cries of "THE CAKE IS A LIE!" ... Then someone came round with cakes, prompting happy exclamations that "THE CAKE IS REAL!"

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:36 / 11.02.08

Actually, that's the best write-up I've seen yet. Good find, grant.

13:51 / 11.02.08

Tampa Trib coverage of Clearwater. The discussion under the story is even more interesting.

Have yet to watch the videos.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:06 / 11.02.08

Wow. Looking at all this stuff from around the world, this really WAS epic win, wasn't it?

I've never been particularly proud to be British, but just this once can I say "LONDON WAS THE BIII-GGEST, LONDON WAS THE BIII-GGEST"! At least, I think it was...

I'm absolutely gobsmacked by how organised people were. The whole thing went like clockwork over here, with very little (not NONE, by a long way, but not the Xbox-huge amount of organisation pretty much any other demo, even one this relatively small, has required) in the way of actual OFFICIAL organisation. The vast majority of people had, really and truly, just discussed their plans online until they all vaguely agreed on stuff.

Even if I hadn't agreed with the cause, it was pretty fucking inspirational.

14:48 / 11.02.08

I'm thinking about writing some letters to editors... I can see, just by watching videos, that The Scotsman is mistaken/lying about the numbers, for example. They say 'more than 30', which is, I suppose, technically true. Even the most conservative estimate would say about 100 more, though, and 'more than 30' just seems a ridiculous way to describe that kind of figure.

How have the London media been?

14:55 / 11.02.08

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

I'm sort of bracing for some kind of counter-moves in two weeks or more - I think the CoS operates on a different timescale than people from teh internets is used to.

Oh, and London might be the biggest, but I'm more impressed with Biloxi (1) and Anchorage & Malmo (17 or so each, I think).

Biloxi because -- it's one dude. That's guts. And Anchorage & Malmo because they're in the Arctic Circle in February.

Closed for Business Time

15:08 / 11.02.08

Er... neither are really that close, grant. Malmo is ~55° north, Anchorage on ~61°, the Arctic circle is on 66° 33′ 39″. But yeah. Still lulz and WIN.

15:28 / 11.02.08

To someone on 25°, it's all up north!

Looking at pictures of frozen eyelashes and bubbles in Minnesota now....

Dude! Global!

[Edited to add: is the seebs there the same as the seebs who used to be on here? I think maybe....]

16:17 / 11.02.08

Aaaannndd...the Amsterdam section! (my pix, but there are more by others on flickr). Only sixty, but the Netherlands are small and there's not much room between the Scientology building and the river of cars, bikes, buses and trams flowing in front of it.

Special appearance by Longcat.

16:22 / 11.02.08

Youtube message of support to anonymous from 'Voiceless', "a loosely connected group of ex-scientologists and others who have experienced the pain of Scientology's "Disconnection" policy".

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:42 / 11.02.08

bjacques! Long time no see... great to hear from both you AND Longcat!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

16:46 / 11.02.08

That Voiceless clip's also pretty inspirational...

17:39 / 11.02.08

Also from reddit:
I'm not a scientologist, but....

18:30 / 11.02.08

Voiceless addresses current Scientologists

While this could very well be a piece of Anon propaganda, it still brought tears to my eyes. Even though achieving their stated goals is going to be a longer and more difficult process than most realize, yesterday was indeed an epic win for anon and friends. i seriously haven't felt this proud of a bunch of strangers since being on the frontlines of the seattle WTO protests.

18:44 / 11.02.08

I'm intrigued...

Is Anonymous going to be able to keep up steam without becoming more centralised? What is the likelihood of them dividing and becoming factions?

Are they likely to start targeting other groups if they do keep going?

How likely is this campaign to have a major effect on Sci?

Is this going to be this decade's/generation's anti-bomb/anti-war movement? (Anti-information-control?)

I'm just musing about the future, not really expecting answers. I guess this all depends on how many individuals keep going and how much people get feedback that makes them feel they are really helping people and its worth continuing.

The Voiceless clips, they are heart-wrenching. I almost cried. I don't know if there are many people who can see those and not feel like this is a worthwhile thing to sink time and effort into.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:53 / 11.02.08

New message from Anonymous to $ci, just pre-demo...

18:55 / 11.02.08

i agree - this is all pretty fantastic, and seems very balanced & healthy. Well done to all who are involved!! Quite a wonderful movement that's sprung up here.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:35 / 11.02.08

Somewhat off-topic, but given that the MOVIE of V for Vendetta, which Moore famously disassociated himself from, appears to have been as inspirational as the comic, if not more so, in inspiring decentralised direct action (which I always assumed was one of the aims of the comic)... I wonder what his opinion of all this would be?

I also take back any negative comments I may have made about the movie's "Army of Vs"... which, to be fair, I only made before I'd seen it... it's a powerful image, and one many people, on yesterday's showing, seem keen on reproducing FOR GREAT JUSTICE.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

20:47 / 11.02.08

Another slideshow, with more stuff from around the world and a lulzier soundtrack. And an ending which is EPIC WIN.

And another one from London.

Most of the rest of my own footage is appalling- once I find some more good bits I'll post them. mudkipstoat23 be me.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:35 / 11.02.08

And to be a bit more Temple-y, what do people here think about the Freezoners? With the demos, a lot was made of the fact that we weren't against Scientologists, but against the Church of $cientology itself. The FZ guys are Scientologists who've broken away from the Co$. They still believe the Dianetics stuff and what-have-you, but disagree with the Church's practices. I met a couple of them yesterday- they were pretty cool, and agreed with the aims of Anonymous. Which was why they were part of the protest.

Does that invalidate the Co$'s claims that this is religious hatred? I like to think so. I mean, I don't believe in the same shit as the FZers, but I don't have a problem with it. In the same way that I wouldn't picket a church, but if they were in my area I'd picket the Westboro Baptist guys.

*

22:17 / 11.02.08

I would think it would be difficult for FZers to be part of a protest that included a lot of people shouting things about how ridiculous the teachings of Scientology are, if they believe many of them are true.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:07 / 11.02.08

Most of the slogans chanted against the beliefs, rather than the "Church", were against the Xenu/Thetans part of it... not the "tech". I'm not sure the FZers buy the whole Xenu/Thetans thing. They're WELL into the Tech, though.

I'm not sure what you're suggesting there- are you saying they DIDN't agree with us on the anti-Co$ thing and were just pretending (and if so, why?), or that it's impossible to believe part of it without believing the rest? Or that I'm lying?

Personally, I don't believe any of it, but y'know... people believe some weird shit. And they can believe any weird shit they want to, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. The FZs seem, to me at least, to fall into the latter category.

It's worth remembering that the Xenu/Thetans stuff doesn't really come into play in the early stages of Scientology... Dianetics doesn't really go there, and that's the primary text.

It's when they get BEYOND that, and into the "WHY all that stuff in Dianetics works" that they bring out the age-old spacewar. It's possible to be a Scientologist and never to have even HEARD of Xenu.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:22 / 11.02.08

I would think it would be difficult for FZers to be part of a protest that included a lot of people shouting things about how ridiculous the teachings of Scientology are, if they believe many of them are true.

So Christians can't join people hating on Westboro then? Whoah. That can't be a good thing.

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