Six Months into the Protests

Anonymous has a video on Youtube, six months after their initial video. While this may seem a sort of six month reports on the part of Anonymous, I believe the video is a sort of fake. Not that it is not from some anons, but it does not have the elevation of the other Anonymous announcements, such as the original video above, or the recent announcement concerning Tory/Magoo.

What is more, while the original video of Anonymous had 2 million views virtually overnight, the present one barely passed the 2,000 bar after more than 3 days. This either reflects its fake nature, or reflects more than anything the tremendous fail of Anonymous effort over the past six month. I am going to be generous and vote for the first alternative: that it simply is a fake.

This being said, we can check out the claims being made in this video as a measure of six months effort. As I said, they are voiced in a petty way, such as "Oh! By the way... how are your booksales going?" - this simply is not the style of the original Anonymous. Nevertheless, let's check them out:

1. PR Nightmare The initial and sudden rush of nearly 9,000 anons members from the Feb. and Mar. protests all over the world was indeed spectacular and phenomenal. What is more, nobody knew where these people came from. They seemed to emerge from the Internet made visible. This remains the "Epic Win" of Anonymous, and will probably remain so down history.
   
   However, as I wrote on my web page when these protests started, the big weakness of Anonymous was that they brought nothing new to the arguments that have been made before hand (apart for a weak claim to dissociate Scientology and the CoS). Much of it being culled from the "old guard" (OG) critics page, much of it outdated (Operation Snow White, more than 30 years ago!), and much of it debunked, even if the Old Guard keeps on repeating their lies as if nothing happened (Scientology Kills, McPherson, Keith Henson, etc).
   
   As a result, the numbers dipped. People lost interest. Many realized that their initial assumptions about Scientology weren't true, or at least weren't as bad as they thought, and certainly not as bad to sacrifice more interesting lulz on the Internet. Anonymous also made the mistake to moderate its fora and lost quite a few members who became disappointed with anons free speech stance.
   
   Aiming at the decrease in the numbers of Scientologists, Anonymous was the one to suffer a total stats crash, not Scientology. The numbers as of July 12 are a ripples to what they used to be. Their National/International DC event was a disaster, and their latest actions have left the press completely indifferent.
   
   After six months of protests, Scientology is still around, and they are stronger than ever. Why? Because they survived Anonymous onslaught, barely touched. All the CoS had to do, really, was to ignore anons, because, as I said, Anonymous slogans were old, over-used, and easily debunked.
   
   What Anonymous should have done was to protest against things like the German discrimination towards Scientology at the same time as they protest Scientology. Then they would have made their marks and brought something original. They should have seen through the OG bullshit sooner and dissociate them from their exaggerations and cultic behavior, while at the same time protesting Scientology on key points that can stand on their own rather than using the same old myths. Instead they chose to play along the OG line, a line that did not succeed to shatter Scientology for a decade and which propaganda cannot survive a more serious scrutiny. That was their mistake...
   
   
2. Surge of Press articles. There has been a few press at the start of Anonymous protests, and some article that followed later on, such as the Maxim article. However, the situation such as Anonymous describe in this video is totally untrue. Quite on the contrary, the press article got rarer and rarer and nowadays they basically died down. Anonymous big " Over 9000 anons" flop did not receive a single article, their latest taunt using little girls can't even make it to Wikipedia, because not a single serious newspapers picked it up, their latest July 12 protests are virtually ignored as well. Even on the whole of the six months, the numbers of Scientology-articles did not increase, as has been demonstrated through a search of LexisNexis.
   
   
3. Drastic actions. Anonymous claims the CoS had to resort to drastic actions to counter Anonymous. They cite the initial, later dropped, charge of a 15 years old for using the word "cult", ridiculously claiming that this was a result of bribing the police. They cite the "charging a crippled man for assault", when in fact the man in question was charged for possession of drugs, not for assault, even though it is true that this was uncovered after the man, an active critics, run over the feet of a Scientologist with his chair (probably by accident)..
   
   Though the CoS did try to defend themselves legally wherever they could, their action on the whole have on the contrary been very mild, and even at times so innocuous Anonymous had to twist reality in a ridiculous way to make themselves a victim. Check out the example of the case where they distort the words of A Scientologist to make it appear as harassment, when in fact that person was extremely motherly and patient with Anonymous. If anything, the CoS has just roundly ignored Anonymous, even though they also succeeded in many cases to push their protests farther and farther away from the CoS building itself.
   
   
4. Flyers. What I like about this is the irony of Anonymous getting mad for the CoS doing the same thing they do. They accuse the CoS of distributing "Flyers that contain fabrications, dramatised misinterpretations and slanderous falsities." Why should the CoS be deprived of its right of free speech to distribute its own version of the truth? Why is that making Anonymous so mad that they have to harass and old lady, virtually assaulting her until she found a refuge back in the CoS, and claiming that mooning her was an "Epic Win"? Why to they have to make threads claiming Scientologists distributing their flyers are "infiltrating" anonymous, when in fact they are in plain clothes, not even wearing masks, as they could in fact do? In a way, this is just too funny. Anonymous can ditch it out, but cannot take it...
   
   
5. Cut source of income. There is no evidence Scientology suffered financially from Anonymous protests. Quite on the contrary they are busy getting new quarters for themselves by buying expensive historical buildings around the world.
   
   
6. Ex-members. "Ex-members of Scientology have now come out and are speaking against you." Ex-members have always come out of Scientology and spoken against it. This is nothing new. What is more, there is no evidence that this has increased with Anonymous, or decreased, not even that anonymous was at the origin of any of those who came out during the protest period. For all I know, they may even have been less defections than before Anonymous. Anonymous, with their scary masks and their stalking of individual Scientologists, just confirms the CoS' propaganda against critics, and draws sympathy towards Scientologists from onlookers.
   
   Of course, Anonymous dreams of people rushing out of the CoS building and seeking refuge in their arms. This has not happened, and the best they could do was to decide that someone watching from a window (probably thinking what a bunch of idiots these people are) was a "crying Scientologist", all the while shouting in desperation "come, come to us, escape from the CoS". Instead, this makes me sorry for anons, because these are people really motivated in doing good and not bad people and in their delusions they really think what they do is helping to anything. Their lack of result must be very sad for them. The solution is getting to understand Scientology better, in its positive and negative aspects, not just buying into OG propaganda.
   
   
7. Charged. "When your leaders are facing a judge, being prosecuted for fraud, malpractice, criminal harassment, extortion, exploitation of children and perversion of justice, know that you've only got your greed...". Scientology has been around for more than 50 years. It has a long history of battling the society legally. Anti-cultists have already tried all they could to charge Scientology, but the CoS has won most of its legal battles. The reason critics cannot charge Scientology with all they claim it has done wrong is simply because their claims do not withstand legal scrutiny. Most of it are bloated and untrue, and all they can do is repeat them on the Internet where they find gullible people to swallow them, and to repeat them in turns in a stupid crowd phenomenon. If anything, Anonymous protests has just demonstrated that very phenomenon, just as their dwindling numbers and their failure to get any results either from within the CoS or from the legislature, shows the emptiness of their claims.
   
   Anonymous still seems to think they can bring any of the above about. Wake up Anonymous. Look beyond the OG claims. Yes, the intent was noble and commendable, and you should be proud of having mobilized yourself for a what you thought was a just cause. You have not wasted your time because you followed the noble impulses of your heart. But now, try to bring up your mind at that level too. Either step up your protest in a more intelligent way, or find something more meaningful to do.

Anonymous Wants No Heroes

For the first time Anonymous see through "Old Guard" bullshit.

Tory/Magoo is a very active and vocal Scientology critics and, though she does make a good few points, is virtually a paranoid loon who sees "OSA" and "Bill Yaude" at every corner and has repeatedly made a fool of herself accusing her critics of being OSA. I gave a very mild live example of this on this blog here. She is also loose with facts, as in a recent example when she ridiculously "felt" that a container in the wood was "full of PC folders".

For some time she has been treated as a celebrity by uncritical anons, asked for autographs and paid free trips around the world at their expenses!

Things changed, however, when her true nature came out during a confrontation in the "thunderdome", a sort of "bull baiting" place within enturbulation.org where anything goes. In spite of being fully warned about the rules, she became offended and started her litany of "OSA, OSA, Bill Yaude, OSA" against participants in the dome. Here is a good summary of what happened. The worst of course was when she incited her friend Tom Gorman, a bully and a thug, to physically threaten the person they thought was responsible for insulting her, and when she made the incredible mistake not to dissociate herself with his actions.

After much debates, Anonymous finally saw through that particular bullshit and issued an unofficial official statement to distance themselves from her. Their insight through the whole affair is remarkable, even though they still attribute the cause of her behavior to the wrong cause. It is the first time Anonymous see through the countless BS the OG is throwing at them. As such, I consider the following statement as a milestone, in par with the original Anonymous "Message to Scientology" that started it all: "

"(As a disclaimer this applies only to Tory and not to other members of the Old Gaurd. We consider each member of the OG on a case by case basis.)

Dear Tory:

We, the faceless members of anonymous do recognize and commend your years of efforts and successes in fighting the Scientology cult. We are appreciative of the support you have given to the chanology effort.

However, this does not exempt you from being responsible for your actions.

Your recent behavior concerning the Thunderdome and Tommy Gorman incidents have given us an opportunity to observe certain character traits that admittedly few of us had really suspected. Specifically, your deceitful and manipulative ways.

It is now clear to us that although you have left the Cult of Scientology and protest against them there is still far too much Hubbard Tech floating around in your brain. We could overlook this in light of your 30 years in the cult, however, we cannot overlook your utilization of tech against members of anonymous.

Specifically, you have used Dianetics against one of our members. You have lied about the situation, manipulated those who care about you, and shown a lack of remorse for anything other than getting caught. You have unrepentantly and hypocritically used the very LRH tech you claim to so abhor. This has resulted in another long time Scientology protester bullbaiting a member of anonymous and issuing threats of real life violence. This has jeopardized the movement and created numerous schisms. This is completely unacceptable. We will not forgive this, nor will we forget.

Henceforth your quasi-celebrity status within anonymous is terminated. We will no longer offer you aid in any form. The time of anonymous giving you financial aid for travel is at an end. The time of anonymous spreading your videos and story virally is at an end. The time of Anonymous spreading the red carpet to you wherever you go is at an end. At this time no apology or restitution is possible nor desired. You have already wasted your oppurtunity to make amends for deadagenting an Anonymous. Your pathetic attempts at a weak and insincere apology smacks of attempts to "sweep this under the rug". This is a tactic utilized by Scientologists, not by anonymous. Your belated apology is moreover an insult to the intellect of rational people.

You are still welcome to appear at Anonymous protests and pickets and we will not ask you to leave. You are a useful tone 40 face for the media, (although not the only one in the LA area) and we recognize that. However, we recommend that in your future contacts with the media you learn to keep your story straight. Instead of being a beloved person to us, you are now just a resource, and one that must be monitored carefully. Your actions have caused this outcome, and nothing else.

In recognition of your long years of campaigning against the Scientology cult we issue you this fair warning. Should you ever seek to persecute, manipulate, or request money from Anonymous ever again we shall call down the full power of the Internet haet machine upon you. You needn't doubt the veracity of this statement. Our more chaotic elements (the *chans especially) would consider you to be the juiciest lulzcow to be offered up in some time.You are a juicy target because you possess an overinflated sense of self-importance combined with paranoia and over-reactionary ways, traits that are prevalent within the cult of Scientology. We respectfully suggest that you seek professional help in properly deprogramming yourself, as it appears
you still have a long way to go before you can declare yourself healthy. Else, you may one day learn the true meaning behind many of our "lulzier" slogans.

Sincerely,
Anonymous"

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.

Tory/Magoo Loose with Facts and Paranoid

I have been impressed by Magoo's ability in public lectures, but I have always been less than impressed by her constant accusations of anybody disagreeing with her of being "OSA". This makes her look foolish and cultish. This supposedly free speech activist was also always in favor of a strongly moderated group on IRC, so that "OSA agent" (read anybody who disagrees with her fanatical anti-Scientology world view) could be wiped out.

I am not the only critic with this impression, though, as recounted on this account:

"I’ve been participating in the Scientology “critics” scene since 2000. I posted for the first 5 years anonymously via remailers. OSA finally outed me and I eventually started posting under my real name.

I was in the cult for 27 years and worked for OSA. I’m basically the worst of the worst as far as Ex’s go.

I despise the cult and but have been on a mission to expose them. The only problem is that for the past 8 years I have had to deal with Scientology critics. There are only a handful of critics that actually do anything. These are the people that have anti scn web sites. I don’t have a website. I provide information (dox) for websites.

I guess I am a bit confused about the term Old Guard.

OG= what I call Scientology critics or the arscc (wdne) = alt.religion.scientology central council (which does not exist) Ars has a core group of Scientology critics that don’t always get along.

It’s a massive troll fest over there because there are a few “critics” like Tory that believes every troll is really Bill Yaude or someone from her “Secret OSA Internet Mafia”. Of which she has posted about 5 fucking thousand times.

Tory tends to hyperbole and gets real huffy when asked for dox. I’ve gone a few rounds with her on ars and ocmb over her exaggerations and being fast and loose with the facts, but all I ever got for my efforts was to be accused of being OSA or doing OSA’s work.

When I or anyone would push the point with her, she would send out reinforcements. I’ve had it reported to me more than once that Tory was pming people to defend her against me.

So for my efforts on getting Tory to not be such a showboat and being sloppy with facts, I would be called a sociopath, a liar, evil OSA, and per Arnie Lerma and the Lermaloons, under the spell of the evil gypsy queen.

As far as OCMB – they are not really critics. Except for one of two, they are basically a bunch of do nothing chest pounding retards. I suggest you ignore them. They are nothing but a pimple on anonymous ass.

I can’t thank you guys enough for seeing through this insane bullshit and calling it out. All I want to do is help by providing dox and info. You guys are smart, you can figure out what to do with it, or not.

I want to expose this cult and I know most of you want the same.

Thanks for not being insane ex cultists."

Gorman Bullies for Lerma Too

One should not be surprised to see Tommy Gorman in bed with people like Magoo and Lerma. In this post, Fluffy girl reminds us how Gorman enforced the ban of people Lerma did not like, for no better reason that they do not share his fanatical anti-Scientology views, and also how Gorman kept on bully her in OCMB:

"They can start with his tendency to libel people he does not know and to make assumptions about them. Arnie placed Tommy Gorman in charge of Factnet's Scn subforum(Arnie and Wolly are evidently friends) and Tommy immediately threw off everyone Arnie told him to, which, IIRC, was Tigger, UMike and myself. The grounds were that those individuals were supposedly mean to his friend. Yeah, that's a great reason to do that, sure. It's very Cof$-like.

Then, as a topper, Tommy posted a vile accusation about my husband and myself (that we are "perverts") on OCMB because of my husband's humorous and critical JPGs about Scn. I told him OSA didn't like the JPGs and he all but called me a liar.

He then informed me that I didn't like his commentary because "The truth hurts-LOL" to which I responded that he hadn't actually posted any truth regarding this and that anytime he'd like to get around to posting some truth, I'd sure like to see if "it hurts-LOL".

Personally, I think that he's got a learning disability of some sort or has some mental problems or both. He spent a lot of time spamming the hell out of the "your story in Scn" section of OCMB before they assigned a moderator.

I know people who've met Tommy Gorman and really liked him but I've not had the opportunity to encounter anything likeable.

He'd have far more credibility with me if he didn't attack other critics. My guess is that he doesn't like whomever Arnie tells him not to like. That's exactly why he did what he did on Factnet and OCMB.

It's sad when people leave the cult and still cannot think for themselves."

Daily Argus Hamilton

http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008/07/argus-hamiltons-column-for-7-25-08.html

"John Edwards was caught by the National Enquirer at the Beverly Hilton Monday seeing his mistress and their infant love child. So that's it. All last year when he campaigned against premature withdrawal everybody assumed he was talking about Iraq."

"Barack Obama continued his tour of the Middle East and Europe Wednesday where he posed for pictures of himself with world leaders, pictures of himself with the troops, and pictures of himself in foreign capitals. The worst is yet to come. Is there anything in the world more aggravating than someone just back from vacation?"

"President Bush told a Houston crowd Friday that Wall Street was on a drunk and he wondered when they will sober up. He's one to talk. The decision to cite false evidence to invade Iraq showed such sobriety that AA just added it to the Twelve Steps."

Jodhi Meares Seeks Comfort in Scientology

James Packer, the Australian billionaire, may have left Scientology, but his ex-wife, Jodhi Meares, seems to take comfort from her divorce in the Church.



Relate blog entries: R-packer-

The Thunderdome

Another way information is manipulated on enturbulation.org, in addition to arbitrary banning, is to send threads to the "Thunderdome", a section on enturbulation.org where anything goes and where the goal of posters is to seriously disturb the mental peace of anybody, using gory pictures and wild accusations. The thunderdome's effect is describe by this French girl who made the mistake to follow her thread in there. It also is the source of the incident that led Tory/Magoo to incite her thug to physically threaten an anon after he had insulted her in the dome.

Not surprisingly, many of the threads and posts that are being sent to the thunderdome, where normal discussion is virtually impossible, are simply threads and subjects anonymous is uncomfortable with (being unable to live by their free speech moto) but which could potentially develop in interesting discussions. This is confirmed by one of the participants:

"Yes, some interesting threads were sent there to die that could actually have engendered some good conversation and, indeed, actually were doing so. Perhaps it was truly the best call as flaming was taking place but thing is, if you don't have the ~right~ POV there, to the TD you will go."

Needless to say, declaring someone a "troll" or "OSA" is a favorite tactic of critics to get rid of dissenters, and in any moderated forum ran by critics this is exactly what happens. Even ARS has its list, that demonstrates how simple dissenters are so labeled. The only difference is that critics cannot apply it since ARS isn't moderated (and is the reason why the most interesting discussions still happens there rather than in moderated fora).

Daily Argus Hamilton

http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008/07/argus-hamiltons-column-for-7-24-08.html

"Condoleezza Rice told Iran Monday to get serious about ending its nuclear enrichment program. She's not kidding. The only reason the United States hasn't invaded Iran is because the president keeps text-messaging the go-order with his television remote"

Tommy Gorman Assaults Anonymous

Tommy Gorman is an angry Scientology ex-members and a thug whose offensive action against individual Scientologist can be seen in this video.

Gorman has now turned his "special skills" against some anonymous members themselves and they are not happy about it. Indeed, at the instigation of Tory/Magoo, he physically threatened an anonymous and his family.

Rather than apologize, he was proud of what he had done and issued more threads towards other anonymous for the upcoming protest in August.

A summary of the initial thread in enturbulation can be found here.

Note also the dishonest reporting by Tory Magoo. She dismissed the abuse as just a "serious talk" and tried to turn the reason Anonymous is angry with her as the fact that the anon member apologized - not the fact that he was physically manhandled by her personal thug.

OG Behaving Like Rock Stars

The "leaderless" anonymous movement of course has its leaders. They are called OG, for "Old Guards". Anons swallow whatever is to be found on their so-called critical web sites and listen to them for direction.

Now some of these OG behave like rock stars, signing autographs to their flock of anonymous admirers and enjoying free trips around the world paid by anonymous!!! They even lectured their obedient folks during their big flop National and International event, the "over 9000 anons" March in DC, attended by less than 200 followers!

Harassing Individual Scientologists

Another example of Anonymous "protest" of Scientology, just harassing individual Scientologists. The guy even boasts about the fact that the last time he "protested" Scientology by stalking a pretty gal for two hours, the police did not arrest him but simply sent him away.

Ex-Scientologists New Web Site

The ex-Scientologists message board is a forum that gathers to ex-members (though many posters are not ex- at all). It is created and "policed" by one "emma", who makes sure that all on the board cry in the same direction (banning those who don't). The forum now has its own web site, or more exactly, the forum is now just the forum part of a larger web site.

The new site is nicely organized, with the particularity that it works primarily as a database. Even pages on the site are just items, and they can be sorted by alpha or by number of hits. That's the nice part of it.

Otherwise, the site site is 100% anti-cult oriented and does not bring anything new. It basically is just another rehash of what you will find through zillions of so-called critical web sites.

Anonymous not Getting any Press

Anonymous has big problem getting any press those days. Apart for their usual propaganda rag, such as Glosslip or HyndiMedia or the -ist series, they aren't getting any press at all. Their big National and International March in DC didn't get even a single article, anymore than their latest protest on July 12. Even their bloated incident where they exploit little girls to try and blame Scientology didn't get credible enough to gain coverage. They are being ignored, not taken seriously, and their number are crumbling down fast. Even major articles that recently appeared about 4chan didn't say a word about their Scientology protests. They now have to resort publishing their own article, such as this one to get any coverage at all.

Daily Argus Hamilton

http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008/07/argus-hamiltons-column-for-7-23-08.html

"Iraq endorsed Barack Obama's plan to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq in sixteen months. The candidates have similar plans. John McCain favors pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq in sixteen months, if time's still measured in months a hundred years from now."