I’ve just received an anti-BBC DVD in the post, which promises the truth about the Beeb’s controversial Scientology programme.
They know where I live! Aieeeee!
I’ve just received an anti-BBC DVD in the post, which promises the truth about the Beeb’s controversial Scientology programme.
They know where I live! Aieeeee!
Did you see that doc? Possibly the shoddiest piece of TV ‘journalism’ I’ve seen in quite some time.
They must have you marked down as gullible and loaded. Does this mean they read your blog? :-)
No, I didn’t watch it. Not particularly interested, to be honest.
> Does this mean they read your blog?
Heh. They obviously don’t read it very well if they think I’m loaded.
If any Scientologists are reading this, I think you’re all a bunch of [cut by McGazz’s legal team, who know about Scientology’s extremely heavy-duty lawyers].
Maybe we’re spoiled with too much Louis Theroux and Jon Ronson, but the bloke had decided that they were ‘a cult’ and nutters and just spent the entire programme saying “But, you’re just a cult”. Immediately, it put them all on the back foot and alienated them. Any claims that there was an agenda are obviously very true.
Am I right in thinking that L Ron Hubbard even said that it was all “getting out of hand”?
Let’s be honest, though. Is it really that much dafter than any other religion?
Wow.
I would love a free frisbee! How kind of them.
I’ve read a fair amount of L Ron Hubbard stuff when I was a kid and it wasn’t particularly good. I’m not likely to sign up on the strength of it.
Appropriate lolcat. http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/xenu-pam.jpg
Oh dear. I haven’t stopped watching stuff about Scientology on YouTube since I saw that doco…. Now I’m all paranoid…..
Same here mupwangle. My memory of his fiction is that it contained “plots” where the manipulation of the masses using judicious amounts of PR was the norm.
That sounds like his last one – the “decology” called Mission Earth. Battlefield Earth (the one they made an atrocious film of) was a readable scif-fi thing. Mission Earth was horrendous. Why I actually read all 10 books is a mystery to me. That’s the thing Hubbard – as Sci-fi went it was readable (in the main) but nothing special.
> Is it really that much dafter than any other religion?
No. And less dangerous than some.
>> Is it really that much dafter than any other religion?
>No. And less dangerous than some.
Yeah, right. It’s a religion. Sure it is. Just a coincidence that it became the Church of Scatology about the time Hubbard found out about tax exemption.
Maybe we’re spoiled with too much Louis Theroux and Jon Ronson, but the bloke had decided that they were ‘a cult’ and nutters and just spent the entire programme saying “But, you’re just a cult”.
Oh dear, that makes me sympathetic to the scientologists. That’s a turn-up for the books.
Although I’m not particularly interested in the Beeb-versus-Scientologist thing (I reckon they’re litigious nut-jobs, but it sounds like this particular doc blew it big style), I am fascinated by the speed and scale of their response. At the risk of doing my usual wet blanket against online evangelism thing, so much for the democratising (is that even a word?) of media in these blogging, youtube days – it’s just spin versus spin. Same thing we saw with Christian Voice going after Jerry Springer: The Opera, or the response to any criticism of 9/11 conspiracy theories, or – admittedly a dull and predictable example – OS or games console fanboys going crazy at anything that’s less than 100% “gee, this is great”, or…
Don’t get me wrong, I think calling broadcasters, hacks etc on mistakes or bias is generally a good thing, but when it’s just the online equivalent of new labour’s rapid rebuttal thing – “here’s the message we need to get across, here’s the template, go do it” – from organisations or groups with their own agenda to promote, I don’t see how it benefits the rest of us.
I think you’re right about Ronson and Theroux, mind you – their passivity gives the subjects enough rope not just to hang themselves, but to do so in spectacular style. I do wonder if that particular approach is old and busted, though, now that they’re so well-known.
I’ve read a fair amount of L Ron Hubbard stuff when I was a kid
I tried, a long time ago. I think I managed three pages before hurling the book across the room in disgust. Terrible stuff.
> Yeah, right. It’s a religion. Sure it is. Just a coincidence that it became the Church of Scatology about the time Hubbard found out about tax exemption.
What’s that got to do with anything? Do you really mean to imply that whether Christianity is a religion is wholly dependent on what Christ actually believed or on his real reasons for doing what he did? Of course not. Even if Jesus had never really existed, Christianity would still be a religion. Similarly, Scientology is a religion regardless of what Hubbard thought.
I read Battlefield Earth. Thought it was OK to be fair. Read far, far better though – no idea how on earth he managed to get such a big following
Eeek!!! I have received a copy of the dvd at my home address and at my work address too!!!
Well, I’ve just driven to france and back and my car’s developed a really annoying EEEEEEEEE noise. If I didn’t know that the scientologists know where I live, I’d just think it’s because a wheel bearing is on its way out. But I know better. Put it this way: the car goes EEEEE. Scientology has a machine called an E-meter. Coincidence? I think not.