To a generation of gamers, you'd think Scientology would be incredibly tantalizing. It has you, as the hero, battling an evil entity. (cue Darth Vader/Death Star music here)
You have an entity that will actually strike back if you picket them.
They will follow you, find out where you live, visit your parents, and hand out libellous fliers in your neighborhood. In some areas, they will also picket you. You will be filmed and videotaped until you know how Britney Spears feels about the paparazzi. And if you're lucky, you'll even get in a car chase or two!
Plus, there's just the stone cold evil of this group. Horror stories abound; families broken up, people held against their will, and fraud, fraud, fraud! There are the obvious lies. There are the tragedies caused by harmful Scientology beliefs, like Jeremy Perkins. This schizophrenic young man stabbed his Scientologist mother Elli 77 times.
Elli, being a good Scientologist, didn't believe in getting any sort of real treatment for her son. She sent him to a quack Scientology doctor, who advised lots of hard work and vitamins.
A horribly similar case occured last year, where an Australian Scientology family was ripped apart by a mentally ill daughter who slaughtered her father and sibling, wounding her mother.
From personal experience, I can say that Scientology has indulged in many evil and dirty tricks against those who speak out against them.
I've outmaneuvered them a couple of times; partly thanks to my military training, and partly because of my suspicious nature.
Opposing them is a blast. It is wild and woolley to be sure, and almost always entertaining. Many critics are in their 40s and 50s, with a few 30 year olds to round it out. Where were the kids and their interest in fighting evil? Lost in World of Warcraft, perhaps?
Well, they came out of the woodwork with a roar! If the release of the Tom Cruise book and the internal DVD to teh internets weren't enough, a
challenge went out from a group that calls itself Anonymous. A
transcript of their warning video states in part,
"Over the years, we have been watching you. Your campaigns of misinformation; suppression of dissent; your litigious nature, all of these things have caught our eye. With the leakage of your latest propaganda video into mainstream
circulation, the extent of your malign influence over those who trust you, who call you leader, has been made clear to us. Anonymous has therefore decided that your organization should be destroyed."
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
WE DO NOT FORGET.
Expect us.
What followed this warning? A massive DDOS attack on Scientology websites, spreading from Scientology.org to RTC.org, even Religious Freedom Watch's site is down, making the numerous hate pages on their critics inaccessible.
I will not state publicly how I feel about this DDOS attack. I've repeatedly said online that you can't look at both sides of an issue if one side is unavailable. And, when part of the issue is free speech, and it is a big part, it is technically wrong to suppress the free speech of Scientology. Anonymous aren't hiding behind their keyboards, however. In New York City, Anons passed out 450 fliers one day. Another "raid" featured three Anons in V masks, who put fliers all around the cult's influence zone.
Some of us who have been critics for a while react indignantly at Anonymous' tactics. We've been waging a slow information war since the 70s, and we've seen real progress. The cult has to reach farther afield these days to find people who aren't informed, and their stats list reflects it. Lots of Chinese and Latin names these days.
Something big is looming on Scientology's event horizon. An event that might propel us into the next level of Scientology exposure, something so huge, it might just blow them off the map! Here comes the awesome power of teh internets, to help give them a not so gentle nudge toward obliteration.
If this movement isn't just a faddish flash in the frying pan, if this ball starts rumbling towards Scientology like the potential juggernaut it is, 2008 could be the worst year of Scientology's existance.
Think about it, a growing body of hackers, crackers, videographers, kids in it for lulz, writers, artists and other creatures of cyberspace
banding together to smack Scientology upside its pointy little head hard enough to alert Tom Cruise's dentist!
This isn't a religious issue. Not by a long shot. This is a direct result of the cult trying to take down the recently posted clips of Cruise from the 2004 International Association of Scientologists event.
Some of these netizens got interested enough to do a little research.
And they found what we've all seen, and they asked themselves the same thing everybody asks. "Why is this organization allowed to do this kind of crap to people?"
Why, indeed. The last Congressman to understand Scientology and its true nature was Leo Ryan. And that's why he may well remain the last Congressman to understand Scientology. The murder of Leo Ryan by Jim Jones' followers in Guyana sends a pretty strong message about the lengths cults are willing to go to to keep their operation running.
The Congresscritters I've written to about the criminal acts of Scientology don't seem all that interested in learning anything about this destructive cult, let alone actually do something about it.
Apparently they have More Important Issues, like gay marriage and a little self-generated war, and the destruction of the Constitution to deal with. Oh, and don't forget abortion.
For over fifty years, Scientology has had virtually free rein to do whatever it wished. People have been killed. Others have had their lives and families destroyed. Some lost their sanity.
But, for every horror story that surfaces, the cult spews out a hundred happy shiny testimonials penned by people who have been taught that good things in their lives are due to Scientology.
Scientology claims to be a humanitarian organization, but if that's true, their history reads like a copy of 'To Serve Man.' Because they are humanitarians like people who eat vegetables are vegetarians.
They claim to be successful getting people off drugs. But, their drug rehab, Narconon, has been determined to be junk science, and is dismissed by qualified professionals. No problem for Scientology. They just form a front group to accredit your own detox program.
They send "disaster response teams" to high profile tragedies. It's all a sham. They recruit. They promote themselves at disasters, handing out booklets (purchased by members, but not merely at cost) and rake in thousands of bucks from well-meaning members who think they're
somehow "helping" by making these booklets, a lame, second rate version of the Ten Commandments, Hubbard-style, to victims of tragedy.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers also give "touch assists" and "nerve assists" to stunned survivors. This basically entails poking or petting you until you say you feel better just to get them to stop.
So, everything Scientology does is either crap, self promotion, or both. That's one reason to dislike them.
For some people, the abuses and offences committed by this wolf in pastor's clothing is sufficient motivation to speak out.
When Scientology tried to crush free speech on
alt.religion.scientology, a whole new group came into the fray, people concerned with free speech on teh internets.
Scientology claims to be in favor of free speech, but only if it's approved by the cult. Anything else is "entheta," and is to be avoided or crushed at all costs.
The tactics used have included issuing a rmgroup aimed at the Usenet group, alt.religion.scientology.
Critical websites have gone down in a flurry of DDOS attacks. Bogus complaints have been issued in an attempt to yank critics' posting privileges. Floods of nonsense posts hit the newsgroup in an attempt to disrupt communication. There are currently a group of Scientology posters posting anti-psychiatry material.
But we have, for the most part, maintained the high ground, content to chip away at this monolith a post at a time.
That was before Scientology attracted the attention of Anonymous. They have succeeded in launching massive DDOS attacks against Scientology.org, RTC.org, and religiousfreedomwatch.org. These guys don't have the mature restraint of the older critics.
They're also going on the offensive in real life. They've held several "raids," where Anons went out and handed out fliers, plastered fliers all around the Scientology centers, and videotaped Scientologists lying on camera. A search of Youtube for 'Anonymous Scientology' can be a nice armchair adventure.
These guys appear to be very serious in their determination to bring down this totalitarian organization. The guy on my left shoulder, you know, the one in the red suit and devil horns, is laughing his ass off, while that annoying guy in wings and a white robe clucks in disapproval.
I don't know who the Anonymous is, and it's probably just as well. They are a new element in this war, and I can't say I'm sorry to see Scientology's own tactics used against them.
The Anonymous seems to be part William Gibson novel, and partly influenced by V for Vendetta. It will be interesting to see where this goes over the next year.
I will say that they share our outrage over the horrible things Scientology has continued to do to people, the outrage that seems very lacking in our public representatives.
If Congress refuses to deal with Scientology as a criminal enterprise, perhaps the mysterious Anonymous will do their job for them.
Of course, many of us have done our part without help for years. Anonymous seem to think we're not doing enough, but think about it.
How did that Tom Cruise video find its way onto teh internets?
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