2-10-08: Day of protests against Scientology

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Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Admiral Valdemar wrote:What of the Manchester protests? I was going to get my bro to go to that one while I took London, but things came up.
Pics of the manchester protest

Between 100 and 150 people, and I think some YouTube vids as well. PM me if you need more links.
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Post by Havok »

Admiral Valdemar wrote:
havokeff wrote:Of all the religions...why are they picking Scientology? Why not one that is actually worthy of protests like Christianity or Islam? Y'know, cults that have been brainwashing and killing people for over 2000 years. :roll:
Yeah, that'll go down well in predominantly Christian/Muslim nations. Everyone hates Scientology. People get pissy when you start telling them baby Jesus was a sham and Mohammed was a pædophile.

Of course, if you read the original thread you'd know why they're doing this.
So what. It is a protest. It is supposed to be telling people what they don't want to hear.

And I read the article. Oh no, ONE person died. How many people die under the care of Christian Scientists? Or under X religion or sect? Or because you don't agree with X religion. Did Scientology have some crusades or inquisitions that I missed?

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So all you and Valdemar are saying is it's to hard so why bother. Scientology is the easy target. Gotchya.
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Post by General Zod »

havokeff wrote: General Zod
So all you and Valdemar are saying is it's to hard so why bother. Scientology is the easy target. Gotchya.
No, we're saying it's hard and going after it in the fashion that Scientology is being targeted is highly impractical to the point of producing negative results. Though I'm not sure what your complaint is except for the fact that you don't seem to think they should go after any religion if they don't go after the big ones too.
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

havokeff wrote:
So what. It is a protest. It is supposed to be telling people what they don't want to hear.

And I read the article. Oh no, ONE person died. How many people die under the care of Christian Scientists? Or under X religion or sect? Or because you don't agree with X religion. Did Scientology have some crusades or inquisitions that I missed?

General Zod
So all you and Valdemar are saying is it's to hard so why bother. Scientology is the easy target. Gotchya.
We routinely point out the flaws in organised religion daily, I don't make it a secret that I'd be quite happy to outlaw any such practice. But even the moderates I know in this country, to say nothing of the Bible Belt in the States, find huge objections based on logical fallacies or plain ignorance. To show these people their hypocrisy as they support such protests against an organisation whose only difference is age and size is the first step. Maybe then many religionists will take a long hard look at what they preach themselves.

Y'know what? I doubt it. I'd rather fight a cult that is identified as being dangerous before it's too late, than try and take on the whole world with something that has been seen many a time before and proven ineffective. Ridding the world of Christianity or Islam requires intergenerational education, not street protests outside churches and synagogues.
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Post by Rye »

Get in!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shortyazk/2254391649/

8)

The purpose of the protest was to raise awareness of Scientology's actions. Sure, the RCC's teachings on contraception kill orders of magnitude more every month than Scientology's cultish kookery, but I would rather attack Scientology than no one at all.
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Post by SilverWingedSeraph »

havokeff wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:
havokeff wrote:Of all the religions...why are they picking Scientology? Why not one that is actually worthy of protests like Christianity or Islam? Y'know, cults that have been brainwashing and killing people for over 2000 years. :roll:
Yeah, that'll go down well in predominantly Christian/Muslim nations. Everyone hates Scientology. People get pissy when you start telling them baby Jesus was a sham and Mohammed was a pædophile.

Of course, if you read the original thread you'd know why they're doing this.
So what. It is a protest. It is supposed to be telling people what they don't want to hear.

And I read the article. Oh no, ONE person died. How many people die under the care of Christian Scientists? Or under X religion or sect? Or because you don't agree with X religion. Did Scientology have some crusades or inquisitions that I missed?

General Zod
So all you and Valdemar are saying is it's to hard so why bother. Scientology is the easy target. Gotchya.
Shut the fuck up, havokeff. If you're not going to actually look for details about it, then stop talking shit. For one, this isn't about taking down the religion of Scientology, it's about taking out the Church, which is a ruthless, powerful corporation that ruins lives.

Taking down Christianity or Islam is fucking impossible, short of actual warfare. More over, if you did target them, which specific church would you go after? The Church of Scientology may be an easy target in comparison, but it's still powerful. Moreover, most people who even know anything about it just think it's a cooky but otherwise harmless religion. It is not. The Cult brainwashes its members while taking thousands and thousands of dollars from them, and more than just one person has died due to Scientology. Lisa McPherson is just the most well know case.

The CoS has actively destroyed the lives of people who speak out against it. Somebody needs to let people know that it's dangerous, instead of just letting the public in general continue to believe that its just a harmless religion with strange beliefs.
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Post by Havok »

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:
havokeff wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote: Yeah, that'll go down well in predominantly Christian/Muslim nations. Everyone hates Scientology. People get pissy when you start telling them baby Jesus was a sham and Mohammed was a pædophile.

Of course, if you read the original thread you'd know why they're doing this.
So what. It is a protest. It is supposed to be telling people what they don't want to hear.

And I read the article. Oh no, ONE person died. How many people die under the care of Christian Scientists? Or under X religion or sect? Or because you don't agree with X religion. Did Scientology have some crusades or inquisitions that I missed?

General Zod
So all you and Valdemar are saying is it's to hard so why bother. Scientology is the easy target. Gotchya.
Shut the fuck up, havokeff. If you're not going to actually look for details about it, then stop talking shit. For one, this isn't about taking down the religion of Scientology, it's about taking out the Church, which is a ruthless, powerful corporation that ruins lives.

Taking down Christianity or Islam is fucking impossible, short of actual warfare. More over, if you did target them, which specific church would you go after? The Church of Scientology may be an easy target in comparison, but it's still powerful. Moreover, most people who even know anything about it just think it's a cooky but otherwise harmless religion. It is not. The Cult brainwashes its members while taking thousands and thousands of dollars from them, and more than just one person has died due to Scientology. Lisa McPherson is just the most well know case.

The CoS has actively destroyed the lives of people who speak out against it. Somebody needs to let people know that it's dangerous, instead of just letting the public in general continue to believe that its just a harmless religion with strange beliefs.
Oh go fuck yourself. What, in your little rant there couldn't be applied to any of the big religions. Brainwashing, taking money from it's followers, ruining the lives of people who oppose it. Again. Scientology is the EASY target. That's all this is.
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Post by General Zod »

havokeff wrote: Oh go fuck yourself. What, in your little rant there couldn't be applied to any of the big religions. Brainwashing, taking money from it's followers, ruining the lives of people who oppose it. Again. Scientology is the EASY target. That's all this is.
So do you actually have any reason at all that Scientology shouldn't be targeted? Or do you just not like it because they're somehow an "underdog" in this?
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Post by Alyrium Denryle »

havokeff wrote:
SilverWingedSeraph wrote:
havokeff wrote: So what. It is a protest. It is supposed to be telling people what they don't want to hear.

And I read the article. Oh no, ONE person died. How many people die under the care of Christian Scientists? Or under X religion or sect? Or because you don't agree with X religion. Did Scientology have some crusades or inquisitions that I missed?

General Zod
So all you and Valdemar are saying is it's to hard so why bother. Scientology is the easy target. Gotchya.
Shut the fuck up, havokeff. If you're not going to actually look for details about it, then stop talking shit. For one, this isn't about taking down the religion of Scientology, it's about taking out the Church, which is a ruthless, powerful corporation that ruins lives.

Taking down Christianity or Islam is fucking impossible, short of actual warfare. More over, if you did target them, which specific church would you go after? The Church of Scientology may be an easy target in comparison, but it's still powerful. Moreover, most people who even know anything about it just think it's a cooky but otherwise harmless religion. It is not. The Cult brainwashes its members while taking thousands and thousands of dollars from them, and more than just one person has died due to Scientology. Lisa McPherson is just the most well know case.

The CoS has actively destroyed the lives of people who speak out against it. Somebody needs to let people know that it's dangerous, instead of just letting the public in general continue to believe that its just a harmless religion with strange beliefs.
Oh go fuck yourself. What, in your little rant there couldn't be applied to any of the big religions. Brainwashing, taking money from it's followers, ruining the lives of people who oppose it. Again. Scientology is the EASY target. That's all this is.
lets see.... your average church asks for voluntary tithes. Scientology makes people pay for salvation. To the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, they have, as an organization, murdered people. We are not talking about some follower getting a bug up his ass and shoting someone. We are talking about the organization itself, ordering people's deaths. They sue their critics, they have tried to frame critics for crimes THEY committed. They successfully infiltrated the IRS to get dirt on said critics

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Post by SilverWingedSeraph »

havokeff wrote:Oh go fuck yourself. What, in your little rant there couldn't be applied to any of the big religions. Brainwashing, taking money from it's followers, ruining the lives of people who oppose it. Again. Scientology is the EASY target. That's all this is.
I reiterate, go fuck yourself, up the ass, long and hard. Brainwashing techniques such as those Scientology use aren't as commonly used in publically acknowledged religions, these days. It's rare for Christian churches to seperate their members from their families. Expecting your followers to give your church all their money, every last dollar, just to become higher in the Church is rare, and also makes it so if members want to leave, they can't, because they have nothing left. I doubt you'll find many Christian Churches that go to even half the lengths that the CoS does to keep the truth about it from getting out, either.

Scientology is an easIER target. Because taking down any of the powerful religions with these methods is not fucking possible you worthless little cockstain. Does that mean we should just see an injustice and say "Hey, we can do something to stop this. But then again, we haven't done the same thing to the much larger and much more entrenched religion, so doing it to one that's actually a viable fucking target would be stupid."?

I'm not saying we shouldn't target Christianity, Islam and Judaism for the exact same reasons, I'm saying it's not possible. What part of that do you fail to fucking comprehend!? Yes, they're just as bad, if not worse. But they also represent a massive portion of the world's population. As Admiral Valdemar said, ridding the world of Christianity and Islam would require a intergenerational education.
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Post by Mr. Coffee »

Whole lot of ass fucking in this thread... Kinda makes me all tingly in the underpants, if I actually wore underpants.
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Post by Academia Nut »

I see this sort of thing as a necessary first step in the process of ridding humanity of religion. First we target all the little, younger religions, the ones that haven't managed to entrench themselves into the public psyche yet. If you smash the power of the Church of Scientology, the religion will quickly follow as while people are conditioned to believe more "reasonable" bullshit like burning bushes and creating the world and all things on it in six days, the poorly constructed sci-fi gobbledey-gook that the Scientologists espouse will quickly collapse without the brainwashing apparatus they have constructed.

Then once the public is turned firmly against this sort of bullshit and will no longer accept "religion" as an aegis against all attacks, then you can start chipping away at the bigger organizations. Start targetting the Jesus Camps, force people to see that the abuse the heap on their tenants should not be overlooked because they are "Christian". Protest outside Catholic churches that shield paedophiles, force them to hand over the sick fucks like the criminals they are.

Asking to strike a blow against the other religions now is the height of idiocy. It's like asking to launch an invasion of Berlin before you've secured Normandy, it just won't work and will end badly. There are many battles to be fought in an undertaking of the magnitude of overthrowing the power of churches worldwide, and this is but one step.
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Post by HemlockGrey »

I passed by a group of protestors on Race St. in Philadelphia today. Will I agree with the sentiment, they were clogging the road.
I see this sort of thing as a necessary first step in the process of ridding humanity of religion.
Yeah, good luck with that. I'm sure you'll have a lot of success.
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Post by Starglider »

HemlockGrey wrote:
I see this sort of thing as a necessary first step in the process of ridding humanity of religion.
Yeah, good luck with that. I'm sure you'll have a lot of success.
Historical precedent is firmly on his side. But yeah, I think we're going to need to redesign the human brain to actually kill religion for good.
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Post by Admiral Valdemar »

Starglider wrote:
Historical precedent is firmly on his side. But yeah, I think we're going to need to redesign the human brain to actually kill religion for good.
I wouldn't go that far, since we have plenty of rational people who don't need such crutches about. What we need is an end to indoctrination in this age of enlightened minds. So long as religious organisations exist to prey on the young and impressionable, we'll have this mess.
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Post by That NOS Guy »

HemlockGrey wrote:I passed by a group of protestors on Race St. in Philadelphia today. Will I agree with the sentiment, they were clogging the road.
Uh where? We took great efforts to do precisely the opposite.
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Post by Keevan_Colton »

That NOS Guy wrote:
HemlockGrey wrote:I passed by a group of protestors on Race St. in Philadelphia today. Will I agree with the sentiment, they were clogging the road.
Uh where? We took great efforts to do precisely the opposite.
Dont mind him, he's just a fucking cunt. He likes to play at being hard online because out in the real world he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
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Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Mr. Coffee wrote:Whole lot of ass fucking in this thread... Kinda makes me all tingly in the underpants, if I actually wore underpants.
I'm pretty sure the judge was quite clear about you wearing underpants at all times, Coffee.
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Post by That NOS Guy »

Keevan_Colton wrote: Dont mind him, he's just a fucking cunt. He likes to play at being hard online because out in the real world he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
Maybe he actually might have a valid complaint, and shockingly enough I'd like to hear it so that in the future I can help avoid that trouble. It's not good form to dismiss people out of hand all the time.
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Post by CaptainChewbacca »

Its not all serious, though. During the London protest, Anonymous deployed its greatest, most fearsome weapon:

Rick Astley

As Rick Astley was being played over the crowd, this friendly policeman muttered to the nearest protester, "That song is going to be stuck in my head all day now. Thanks."
That's a new level of WIN, I think.
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Post by Rye »

I think we played that in Manc too. Or some other well known example of such memetic warfare. He downloaded it on his phone and we played it through some crappy speakers some dude had. I've recorded some of it, anyway. Hopefully I'll have it captured and edited tomorrow.
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Post by Rye »

That's odd. I wrote "He" instead of the name of a friend of mine who was with me at the time due to rewrites.

Anyway, I found a video of the woman that came over and started causing trouble: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOwIJzjPB8I
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Post by Illuminatus Primus »

Keevan_Colton wrote:
That NOS Guy wrote:
HemlockGrey wrote:I passed by a group of protestors on Race St. in Philadelphia today. Will I agree with the sentiment, they were clogging the road.
Uh where? We took great efforts to do precisely the opposite.
Dont mind him, he's just a fucking cunt. He likes to play at being hard online because out in the real world he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
What the fuck is your problem. He just said that some protesters obstructed traffic. How can that be construed as "playing at being hard." Maybe we have a little bit of projection from the Captain of the Shrill Over-the-top Brigade.
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Post by Metatwaddle »

HemlockGrey wrote:I passed by a group of protestors on Race St. in Philadelphia today. Will I agree with the sentiment, they were clogging the road.
We passed by between 4 and 5 and they were all gone. I wanted to see them.
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Post by HemlockGrey »

Dont mind him, he's just a fucking cunt. He likes to play at being hard online because out in the real world he's about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
You mean complaining about traffic doesn't make me a hardass? Maybe I should bitch about the weather instead...then I'll really be tough!
Maybe he actually might have a valid complaint, and shockingly enough I'd like to hear it so that in the future I can help avoid that trouble.
When I went past (late morning) there were a few people spilling out into the street, but the main problem was people in front of me slowing down to read all the signs,. Race St. isn't very big and I couldn't really pass them. So if you can get the permits I'd pick a more arterial road next time, like Broad Street or the circle in front of City Hall. Race St. already has congestion problems thank to that fucking parking garage at the beginning of Chinatown narrowing the road.

Also, I'm pretty sure I saw a guy with a Mumia sign in the back of the pack.
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