Gentle Countering

YouTube - The Truth About Amsterdam, RE: Bill O'Reilly loves Amsterdam

Amsterdam is an absolutely delightful town, and tolerance, together with the high-spirited Dutch mood is part of the package. I just love it, and Dutch people are some of my favorite people, together with Italians.

Fascist jerks at Fox of course don't like it. This little video is a wonderful reply, posting facts and pictures to contrast with wild claims.

This entry is not entirely off-topic, and the CoS could inspire itself to counter similar wild claims made by critics. I don't mean to say Scientology is not a cult, ultimately, but some of the claims critics make are even more ridiculous than Fox and deserve to be contrasted this way.

New Propaganda Video from Anonymous

Check out Anonymous new propaganda video that refers to Scientology beliefs as "garbage" and to Anonymous as the "Guardians of the Internet", no less...

It claims that:

"Since January, over 9000 Anonymous in over 140 cities worldwide have staged monthly protests"

This is false. While there may have been close to 9,000 anons in the Feb. and Mar. protests indeed, this number has now dwindled down to probably around 1,000. It is thus false and manipulative to make it sound as if the high numbers of Feb. and Mar. have persisted every month. Of course, Anonymous will claim that "over 9000" is just an Internet joke but this by itself is manipulative because it is presented in a serious context.

Anonymous claims their protests is working and that people should check their stats. Of course they do not refer to the disastrous stats of the crashing down numbers of protesters. Instead, they "steal" various events, basically claiming that they are the result of their protests, whereas most of the time there is no proof to that whatsoever and it is even unlikely. For example:

• Jason Beghe - I have not seen anywhere his defection was the result of Anonymous protests - docx?
• David Graham - I have not seen anywhere that his defection was the result of Anonymous protests - docx?
• James Parker - I have not seen anywhere that him leaving Scientology was the result of Anonymous protests - docx?
• Anonymous featured in the press - there has been quite a few articles in the press during the initial protests for Feb. and Mar. then gradually the press lost interest and nowadays Anonymous is almost universally ignored by the media. Taken as a whole, a study of lexis has shown that the number of results for Scientology has remained pretty constant over the past three years in spite of the temporary surge of press at the start of Anonymous
• "More journalist now have the power to write anti-Scientology stories without fear of retribution" - unsubstantiated opinion..
• Bookathon stats - I was unable to confirm this claim, though Anonymous certainly did systematically stalk bookathon events.
• Shut down org in Belgium - I have not heard of such. Authorities have raided and indicted the CoS in Belgium, and I believe the case is still on going., but the case against Scientology in Belgium was started long before Anonymous was on the scene.
• Reject application restraining order - not true. Angry Gay Pope and Gregg Housh have both been served with restraining order within a week in October.

Follows a litany of allegation against the CoS claiming they are getting desperate. Among which the "accusing handicapped critic of assault" one about which I already blogged last June. They also accuse the CoS of "distributing lie-filled fake anonymous flyers" - ironic for an organization like Anonymous whose purpose is just that. Even the claim that the CoS is getting desperate is a projection, as Anonymous have turned their stance of martyrdom to a ridiculous level.

More funny bloating: "We are the greatest opposition the Cult of Scientology has ever faced" - yeah right... Scientology fenced with the IRS and various governments but a few goons dancing in front of orgs is the greatest opposition... In this respect I like to quote one of my favorite quote, made by an OG:

"After all, how could a bunch of teenagers who'd never heard of Scientology until a few months ago possibly not easily destroy an organisation which has been around for decades, with tens of thousands of dedicated grownup members and many millions of dollars in the bank? "Piece of cake", as Lafayette R. Hubbard would say. Sorry, I may have misplet 'cake'."

Anonymous hope to tags among the tens of millions new students joining Universities all over the world next month, but I doubt they will have anymore success than their failed black op 8-8-8 or big "over 9000 Anon March" that was supposed to be the epitony of all protests and was another resounding flop.

Even as of now, this propaganda video has been viewed only 204 times only. Compare that to the 2 millions of the initial video... Ok give it a bit of time, maybe they'll reach 2,000 - but even that I doubt. By no mean Anonymous is the mass movement it was for a couple of month at the beginning.

Read also the "more information" on that video, and the ludicrous, overblown and paranoid claims of "Crimes, Human Rights Violations and Deaths perpetrated by this sinister and dangerous cult".

Oh my...

Scientology Improving its Image

http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/blurbex/2008/07/25/scientology-sticks-to-you-like-lint/

"There’s no doubt that the Church of Scientology has improved its image in the last decade or so. A little less secretive, a little less scary (although still creepy), more the butt of a good joke than a genuine threat."

Now, while this statement may be surprising considering the amount of negative information to be found about Scientology on the Internet, consider the following:

My web site has been around for the last 10 years. At the time, people thought that by revealing the Xenu story through the Internet, and circulating horror stories about Scientology, the CoS will have to close doors in short order.

Yet, what happened in those 10 years? In spite of all the information available, the CoS is still around, and rather than closing doors it is busy buying historical buildings around the world for billions of dollars. The Xenu story is widely available, and yet people keep on joining Scientology. The dwindling legions of anonymous protest outside the CoS with accusatory signs and conspiracy theories, and they are being roundly ignored.

Because criticis have been putting out such an exaggerated portrayal of Scientology, the public at large ended up seeing through their propaganda, and they lost credibility. The negative publicity, combined with external information the public could evaluate, turned Scientology into "the butt of a good joke" rather "a genuine threat".

In other words, the public did not buy eventually into the myth that Scientology was a dangerous cult that kills dissidents and that brainwash its members, and which should be stopped at any cost. It has become less of a mystery, and though still universally decried, it is only viewed as a sort of lunacy rather than something from which to be really afraid of.

In this sense, Scientology indeed improved its image in the last decade and, frankly, in spite of the Internet, things have not changed that much. Whereas before hand they would say to a prospect "do you believe everything you read in the newspaper" to get people to listen to them, they would just say "do you believe everything you read on the Internet" now. People may start to listen and realize that many of the assertions made by critics simply were not correct, and so Scientology will continue to expand in spite of the negative publicity, or maybe thanks to it.

Morality: don't exaggerate, don't paint a picture grimmer than it actually is. Be honest, proportionate, and reasonable. Then, when somebody encounters Scientology, he may have real tools to question its indoctrination, rather than sensationalized and childish arguments easily dismissed and that are of no help whatsoever when the going get though.

Anonymous Uses Children as Weapon

A family with 3 masked kids were prevented by a Scientologist to go in a Subway shop because they were wearing masks. Later on, LAPD arrived, the Scientologist went away and they were allowed to go in.

Dramatized exploitation of the incident abound:

• "Church of Scientology Hits Below The Belt, Harasses Little Girls"

• "5 Year old denied into Subway by Scientologist"

• "Actress and Scientologist NOELLE NORTH : Tried to rob 2 little kids of their civil rights"

• "Filthy Scientology woman against 2 little girls"

However, consider this:

1. during the protest, an anon posted about the sign at the Subway shop: "

   "I was eating at the Subway deli across the street from Kaiser Medical Center (which had their own security officers assisting the Scilons) when I short, blonde-headed woman accompanied by OSAbot Ed Parkin walked in and sat down next to me preparing a "No Anonymous" sign which she taped to the window of the deli.
   
   She continues to sit at a table there monitoring the area. (Hey, it's freaking hot outside. She picked an air-conditioned place to do her surveillance). "

   This report was further clarified in comments after the incident:

   "I was the one that first reported on ARS of the sign going up. In fact, I was quietly eating a sandwich prior to the protest when Noelle came into the restaurant, sat down next to me, and proceeded to put loads of tape on the “No Anonymous” sign, then proceeded to attach it to the window, reinforcing it again with even more tape. She had the OK of the manager. Most of the employees were Hispanic - I say this because the residents in the vicinty of the Big Blue on Sunset Blvd are primarily Hispanic & they have to live with the cult & their goons every day. I suspect that manager gave Noelle the OK to hang the sign out of fear. I also watched her take a table by the door to assure that Anonymous didn’t enter the deli."

   Therefore, Anonymous knew about that ban before the incident happened
   
   
2. Anonymous recently discussed "Using Youth as a Weapon"
   
   What are the odds, then, that, knowing adult anons may have difficult to enter, they didn't use children "as a weapon", knowing that if they would be barred entry they could make the type of titles as above?
   
   
3. My impression is re-enforced by the fact that the video they show even recorded the "we are hungry" expressions of the girls
   
   
4. The video has been heavily edited and whole chunks are missing. It would have been interesting to see the video in full
   
   
5. The end of the video is particularly outrageous, as we see the little girl spouting things she obviously can have no idea of, such as "my right to free speech expression". It reminds me of terrorists using children for their propaganda.
   
   
6. For that matter, what business does anon have to bring their children at the protest? The believe the CoS is highly dangerous then bring their 5-years old at an emotionally laden protest, yeah right... In this sense I agree with a comment posted on the glosslip page:

   "I love me some anonymous, and yes, the cult sucks, but I am always bothered when parents of any stripe indoctrinate their children into very adult activities like politics or civil disobedience. I don’t care if it’s a “good” cause or not. Children aren’t able to hold sophisticated concepts like: “Scientology is run by unscrupulous people who are harming the people like the lady who stopped us at Subway. We are protesting to help the bad lady because she’s been brainwashed”. How different is it in practice than Fred Phelps making his darling little grandchildren sport “God Hates Fags” and “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” T-shirts? I’m serious, my parents used to take me to rallies against the Vietnam war and they got very hairy and I used to think anyone in a military uniform was a murderer. I learned better as an adult, but when I was seven, I just wanted to please my folks, I had no frikkin’ idea what was going on. Using young children in emotionally charged situations like a protest is a very bad idea. Scientology sucks, but lets leave the kiddies out of the fray."

   
   

Magoo's Super Dupper OT Powerz

Tory Magoo, opinion leader of Anonymous, now has "super powers" too.

During a visit to Saint Hill, in the UK, she and fellow Mark Bunker went for a walk as of course they could not gain access to the organization.

Suddently:

"Back in the trees, a bit down the road, we found a storage container that Tory felt was full of PC folders."

This is not written as a joke or satire but in all earnest by Emmy Award winner Mark Bunker! They went on harassing the guy in that container on that basis.

Now, anybody who has a modicum of knowledge about the CoS would know that the possibility for the CoS to keep PC folders in a container outside from the organization and among the trees is practically nil.

Tory Magoo , being a long time Scientologists, should know that. But no, she FEELS that the container is "full of PC folders".

And there I thought "Magoo" meant "nearly blind and constantly confused". I was wrong. She really DOES have super dupper OT powerz after all...

Another Example of Gross Propaganda on the Part of Anonymous

Another example of gross propaganda on the part of Anonymous and outrageous stalking. They write:

"Apparently forgetting their harmonious public image, the Scientologists got nasty - and a bit violent - with the activists. An Anonymous member sent over an explanatory video on Scientology’s anti-gay agenda and some footage from the pride battles, including when Scientological leader Yvette Shank telling the activists “we can find out where you live.” Eeks!"

Now watch the video they provide and you will find that this is not at all what happened. Quite on the contrary, Yvette Shank was extremely friendly, motherly even, towards the protester.

This is the exact conversation that took place:

YS asks a protester why she is not wearing a mask

Anon: "It's quite warm outside and I'm honestly not afraid because I highly doubt you guys can find me."

YS: "Not only that, we wouldn't even bother. We wouldn't. We could find you, just so you know, we could. If we wanted to."

Look at the tone in which this is being said - the whole think is friendly and non-threatening - exactly the opposite to what Anonymous want us to believe.

Now look further in the video and see how Anonymous grossly interferes with Scientologists' right to propagate their beliefs, dancing in front of the advertisement panel, etc. This is sheer and pure stalking.

Quite on the contrary, the Scientologists display an amazing amount of patience and tolerance towards anonymous' protests. Anyone else would have already beaten the shit out of them.

Australia's Channel 7 on Child Labor Abuse

Glosslip gloats about the fact that "Australia’s Channel 7 reporter Brian Seymour did a brilliant expose on the Church of Scientology’s long-standing child labor abuse”. In fact the footage was only brilliant in its manipulation of information and didn't expose anything since most of the show only consists of the say-so of a disgruntled ex-member commenting on teenagers going in and out of the building, punctuated by the exclamations and horrified speechless faces of Brian Seymour repeatedly shocked by the repetitive claims that they have to work 40 hours a day and don't get home schooling (something the CoS denies).

An example of manipulation of information is when we are shown an interview of Astra Woodcraft claiming that at age 15 she had to counsel a 40 years-old man against masturbating and that she had to show him a policy that says masturbating is banned (in reality there is no such policy). Then we are shown a 15 years-old girl entering the building with the exclamation of the reporter horrified that at this age she is trained to be an auditor - presumably to be trained to counsel 40 years-old men against masturbation. In fact, the counseling Astra did (if true as it certainly is not typical) was an ethic counseling, totally different to auditing. The footage deliberately mixes the two to give people a false impression.

Then we get the manipulated Hubbard interview I already pointed in my entry for June 30, in which the BBC deliberately assembled the interview to make Hubbard sound absurd, with of course Brian Seymour commenting “remember, this rambling ruck on tur is revered by Scientologsits”.

We also get the hint that minors illegally commit themselves through contract. Unfortunately the picture they show to illustrate this is precisely where it obviously says that minors need parental consent but you would only see this if you make a stand-still on the word "minors" that is shown for just a split second.

Not surprisingly, the footage ends on the Xenu story, falsely claiming that Scientology beliefs are build on that story.

The whole thing is theatrical and patently ridiculous but of course it is going to be a big hit for uncritical critics who already rave, rant, and ravel about it as can be seen on ESMB and Digg.

Interview with L. Ron Hubbard

A video on YouTube contains one of the rare interviews with L. Ron Hubbard. Unfortunately, it has been very heavily edited and distorted.

For example, zoom to 2:55 where Hubbard is asked to answer the question "what is Scientology". He starts to explain the origin of the word, then the commentator at 3:38 ask him to be more concrete. He let Hubbard state one single sentence then cuts abruptly and on 3:47 jumps to another out of context sentence that for the layman would be difficult to understand. Then the commentator claims "even after three hours of talking, we never got an explanation from him that we could understand" and goes on to provide his own (irrelevant and biased) interpretation. They didn't even allow the viewer to decide this for himself by letting Hubbard speak more than two sentences, mounted in such a way to make it look absurd!

This gives the tone of the whole footage. Out of three hours the team made a 26 minutes footage containing very little of the actual interview and loads of their own derogatory comments. They just selected out the few minutes in the interview that fit their obviously biased point of view.

The full uncut version of that interview is unfortunately not available.