Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Temple >

Scientology

Page: 1 ... 2 3 4 5 6(7)8 9 10 11 12... 19

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:54 / 11.02.08

...erm, I may be reading more into your posts than was intended. If so, I apologise, but would like some clarification.

02:38 / 12.02.08

It's possible to be a Scientologist and never to have even HEARD of Xenu.

That's actually part of the problem - you're only supposed to get the Xenu story at OTIII, a level only attainable after a significant expenditure (and I think only pursued by some members, not all).

*

06:07 / 12.02.08

No, I'm saying if I were a Christian and I joined a protest of the Westboro asshats and my co-protesters were chanting things like "Jesus is just another dead hippie" or similar, it might be emotionally fairly challenging for me to stick around. But yeah, I'm not sure whether the FZers are on board with the whole Xenu-Thetan thing.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

07:50 / 12.02.08

Yeah, sorry, I kind of misread you. Apologies for being so snappy. I agree- most of the chants in London, fortunately, were more directed at the Xenu stuff or the fact that Co$ charges for its teachings- I think the FZers liked that part.

08:36 / 12.02.08

FYI, there's a thread on Slashdot about the various protests around the world, including a listing of the number of people attending at each location. Indeed, it looks like London came top, although L.A. may have had a similar number of protesters.

08:45 / 12.02.08

...and a short piece on Boing Boing TV.

14:00 / 12.02.08

It's not an attack on the greasy sci-fi cosmology, semi-literate and derivative though it may be.

It's on the organization promoting those beliefs and how they go about it.

The Bible gives you nearly as many special effects (though on a smaller scale) in Genesis and Revelation alone, for free, if you read it online. Scientology pushes it on you at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars and years of psychological manipulation, after which you have an emotional investment in believing it.

Shouting about Xenu saves potential recruits the trouble. It's also a big two fingers to all the celebrities who've been ordered to deny it (like Juliette Lewis on Panorama: "That's just...weird"). Most of the signs I saw focused on the money-grubbing, ill-behaved, self-aggrandizing institution L. Ron Hubbard left behind. There are plenty of those, but, unlike Scientology, they mostly leave the internet alone.

But that's a good remnider about focusing more on Scientologist murderous buffoonery and how much they charge for their cosomology than on the cosmology itself.

*

14:13 / 12.02.08

Well, it was an observation, not a criticism. I don't think there's anything wrong with exposing the cosmology as much as possible, especially since it's what they charge so much for. Still I could see FZer's having a hard time sticking around for it if it's not just exposure but also outright ridicule, and it could entrench people in the C0$ because admitting that you've been wrong to believe you had murdered space aliens living in your body can only get harder if it's patently stupid to everyone around you and there are people waving signs to that effect.

I didn't see any "Ron is Xenu" signs, but I would have been amused.

14:21 / 12.02.08

The London policeman at the end of Stoatie's 'And another one from London' link on the previous page is such a dude. He clearly thinks the church are a bunch of tossers yet manages to appear very neutral. Go him.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:48 / 12.02.08

A V mask AND a party hat? Hmm, I think that might be a nice look.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:51 / 12.02.08

Lula- yeah, the London cops were great. They seemed a little unsure at first, but it pretty quickly became obvious we weren't violent, and most of them seemed to be enjoying the show.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:06 / 12.02.08

Cool video chronicling the whole thing right from the leaked Tom Cruise video up until the announcement of the March 15th actions. LOADS of cool footage from around the world, with some good background on Co$ itself.

Be warned- it's about 15 minutes long, but it's very good.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:34 / 12.02.08

Slightly dodgier video (whoever's edited it and put it up as video uses the words "scifags" and "bitch", and dwells a little too long on a guy being hit by a bus, which you don't really need to see more than once, if that), but it's the audio track that's important (not by the same person)- it's basically a recording of someone at the Columbus offices laughing at a protester being hit by a bus.

(sorry for all the consecutive posts- I just keep finding this shit!)

00:20 / 13.02.08

What kind of dude sees someone from his protest group (a friend?) getting hit by a bus, and walks the other way doing the "jeezuz, what a stupid asshole" arm gesture? That was genuine "oh fuck the internet is here".

I mean... It doesn't really says much about what they're protesting about that some random operator-lady on the phone laughed (specially since there are lolcats during the laughs, repeated loops - and remixes! - of the bus in the most godawful way imaginable, and one of their own basically going "what a fuck-up!").

Although, I imagine the entire "yeah 'Xenu'... I don't know what's that, don't even go on the internet" turning on its ass (when someone wastes their entire money) by Tom Cruise going "remember all those silly Xenu stuff -- all true (laughs). And we saved that guy, we're the authorities".

03:45 / 13.02.08

People are googling Lisa McPherson.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:03 / 13.02.08

What kind of dude sees someone from his protest group (a friend?) getting hit by a bus, and walks the other way doing the "jeezuz, what a stupid asshole" arm gesture? That was genuine "oh fuck the internet is here".

Don't think the "guy being hit by bus" footage is actually from the same day- I think it's just some random "guy being hit by bus footage" the editing guy put in- as far as I can make out what happened during the demo was that two people were hit by a bus door which swung open, so I'm guessing that wasn't it.

13:55 / 13.02.08

Australian protester lost his job after being tailed.

Hmm.

16:39 / 13.02.08

There is a Co$ church across the street from the Uni here in Austin that was apparently beset by over 200 folks. Lots of good footage in YouTube, including a news blip.

Gives me a happy. I used to walk to school past it and had to cross the street to avoid being offered a "free stress test" or "free personality test" several times a day.

They seem to like targeting college kids - upwardly-mobile people in search of identity...

16:40 / 13.02.08

the editing guy put in

Oh... I stand corrected.

The first video ("Cool video") does a really good job in explaining the overall situation for someone who's a bit out of the loop. (and the london policeman is just the coolest guy).

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:56 / 13.02.08

(and the london policeman is just the coolest guy)

Yeah, he was awesome- I gotta say, I've been on a lot of demos, and a lot which have turned nasty, and a lot of those which have turned nasty have done so because of the cops, but the London cops were absolutely brilliant on Sunday. I was ONCE told I couldn't stand somewhere to get a decent shot and had to move, and even that was in a very unaggressive manner- later I managed to get a shot from there after I said to the guy "look, masks just look BETTER from the front", and he said "yeah, of course they do- just head back over there after you've finished, yeah?"

No complaints from me about the cops at all.

You're right about the prank call video not giving a good impression, though, even though that's different footage- if I could have just found the audio track it would have been far preferable.

03:19 / 14.02.08

Look who just turned up on the enturbulation forums....

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:55 / 14.02.08

Wow. As someone says in the thread, that's a huge win on awesomecake.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

11:46 / 14.02.08

This might just be getting dirty.

The thread's a fascinating read, and also contains links to this video about Co$ black propaganda and this press release stressing the non-violent nature of Project Chanology, with a nice bit about the FreeZoners.

That black propaganda video gets bonus points for ending with "we do not mess with football".

Just WATCHING this shit happen is fascinating... I feel like we're finally in the future.

21:52 / 14.02.08

There's more stuff happening than can be comfortably summarized, but you might hear clanking when this person walks the streets of Portland.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:22 / 15.02.08

Youth For Human Rights, a $cilon front, have a number of videos on YouTube that could do with some comments.

Though judging by some of the comments on this one, there may be some editing going on.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:27 / 15.02.08

It appears the comments ARE being edited- both the ones I've posted so far have not showed up, and a previous comment by an Enturbulation member has vanished.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:25 / 15.02.08

YouTube have taken down the first message!

Emailcomplaintbombardmentmachinego!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:53 / 15.02.08

Finished edit of the Road To... video.

19:44 / 15.02.08

Nice. Anon has better propaganda for sure.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:57 / 16.02.08

The video's been reinstated! Looks like the complaint campaign worked.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:10 / 16.02.08

Awesome report is awesome.

From Canadian TV, probably the best official report I've seen so far. And it has both a Mudkip AND a Rickroll in it.

(It occurs to me this thread is arguably more Switchboardy than Templey now... I don't really mind where it is, although Switchboard could do with the traffic, but I wonder what you Temple types feel about it?)

11:46 / 16.02.08

There's already a thread over there, even. As long as we don't split focus, I don't see why not(speaking, of course, as a non-mod). This thread really isnt all that Temple anymore.

13:09 / 16.02.08

This thread seems to be the one getting all the traffic. Is it best to copy the Switchboardy-type stuff from this thread into that one, and then revert this to a Temple Flavoured Thread? Or just move the whole thing with the risk of the beginning being too temple-y for switchboard?

Either way, I agree that current discussion would be better off in Switchboard!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:44 / 16.02.08

If you wanna put it in Switchboard, we can always put some sort of thing in the abstract saying the beginning has more background- from a couple of pages in it's pretty much all Anonymous v the $cilons. Even the first couple of pages have more to do with the Co$'s criminal activities than their actual beliefs, so I don't think it'd do too badly over there.

It's just whether Temple people want to keep that stuff here, really.

01:35 / 17.02.08

I'm a mod in both and I can see it being in both places. I'd just keep it here for convenience - here's where I'm used to it.

Besides, you can't get more Templey than the Anonymous being outed as aliens from the tail of the Big Dipper.

Some folks believe that it's the suits. The suits are tipping the CoS off about Anonymous' ALIEN OVERLORDS!

Page: 1 ... 2 3 4 5 6(7)8 9 10 11 12... 19