Attacks on the Church of Scientology.

[Scotty Dont]

Huh...

...so apparently an online group is attacking the Church of Scientology worldwide for their actions and abuse of their followers, resulting in people being penniless or dead.

www.xenutv.com

They did a protest here in Portland in front of the Church of Scientology building on Feb 10th and they're planning another one for March 15th.

Mmmm, YouTube

I find it to be incredibly interesting.

Anyone else have thoughts on it?

[Rick]

After everything the COS has been doing over the years, it's about time.

There was a protest of their Gresham location years ago (1995 or so,) that apparently didn't fare well. I've heard of protesters being stalked and taken to court for defamation. Including the lengths the Church has gone through to snuff out any criticism of them, it's amazing how they can still bring in followers.

On the other hand, it's pretty cool that a Sci-Fi author can steal some else's idea and turn it into a multi-billion dollar cult.

[Ryver_H]

I can't say whether I was there or not *cough*cough* but it was epic in it's win-ness. also, worldwide, there were over 9000 people (WHAT, over 9000?) protesting from New Zealand all the way around to Hawaii.

[Scotty Dont]

Wasn't NZ the protest that failed?

Nothing but like 4 underage b&s with paper plates on their faces?

[Scotty Dont]

Also: linky!

[Ryver_H]

I forget, there were a couple that were not so win (in england I think was one of them) and in Japan there was one guy. also in Vienna (I think) the partyvan showed up and said they couldn't protest for lack of a permit.

[Rick]

The UK one was epic. 500+ people there, and they were so non-violent, and shouting random Internet Meme's that were just hilarious.

Here's an overview: http://deathboy.livejournal.com/1082404.html

[Bishop Devan]

Most of the people at these protests were smart and followed the ideas that Anonymous put forth (don't give your name, cover your face so the CoS can't find who you are and harass you, come and leave in groups so they can't single you out and stalk you home).

The best one in my mind (and it's big on the internet now) was the one in Seattle, where somebody decided to RickRoll the Scientologists by playing "Never Gonna Give You Up" on a boombox, with scores of masked protestors singing along. It's all over YouTube now.

I didn't go to the Feb. 10th protest (didn't know anybody else who was going, and I'm paranoid enough of the CoS to not risk going or leaving by myself), but I thinking of getting a few folks together for the Mar. 15th one (and for anyone on here who doesn't know why these dates were chosen, Feb. 10th is the birthday of Lisa McPherson, a young woman who died horribly while under the ill-provided care of the CoS; Mar. 15th was the birthday of their beloved dictator, L. Ron Hubbard).

Personally, I have no problem against people who are Scientologists; my problem is against the Church itself. My father (Rest In Peace) was a Scientologist throughout most of my life, and at one point he had to take out a big loan from my grandma to pay for "auditing sessions"; this "Church" almost bankrupted our family.

Let's get out and show up in even greater numbers this time.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We will not forgive.

We will not forget.

[Rick]

I can't make the March 15th one. But here's info about Lisa and what happened to her.

http://www.lisamcpherson.org/

Also, Shawn Lonsdale who produced a documentary, was assaulted by a COS member, recently committed suicide.

http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/lonsdale1.html

And on the off chance anyone thinks this is a isolated incident, a complete list of CoS members who've committed suicide or gone missing.

http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/suicide1.htm

[Bishop Devan]

I would say that given the Church's history with its critics, we should really consider his death a "suicide", with emphasis placed on the quotation marks. Their Fair Game philosophy states that if someone is trying to "suppress" them (meaning that someone calls them out for being a greedy cult), it's perfectly okay to harass, stalk, defame, slander, attempt to get that person arrested, assault them, even have them killed if that's what it takes. They don't have the Fair Game doctrine in their books anymore (after the government found out about it, that is), but that doesn't mean that they don't still follow that doctrine to the letter.

Nowadays, their main MO is to sue someone until that person is completely broke and can't fight back anymore (even if the lawsuit has absolutely no legal merit, they will drag it out in court as long as they can); of course, if that person has plenty of money or simply shows no fear of the CoS, they will soon go to other tactics in Fair Game.

If you wanna see some really fucked-up stuff that they're willing to do to their detractors, try Googling "Operation Freakout" sometime. A woman back in the 70s published a book denouncing them, and they responded by attempting to get her arrested for numerous crimes, including trying to frame her for several bomb threats and assassination threats that they had made over the phones, using a woman who sounded like her.

Stuff like this is why the protestors wear masks and go by Anonymous.

[Bishop Devan]

May I ask what this post of yours has to do with the topic on this thread. Sorry, I'm just very confused.

[Rick]

Pretty clever spam. I've not seen that type before. The links in the text helped up their Google rankings to their site.

It's taken care of now, but feel free to email me if you all see something like that again.