So Scientology has recently been purchasing ad spots on social media sites including Twitter and Facebook. Scientology has always worked hard to recruit young people it seems like they’re investing in social media as well now. I know most people think Scientology is a joke but it’s a seriously dangerous cult which uses fear, extortion, violence, vandalism and various other unethical actions against those who oppose them both inside and outside the church. Here is key information on the abuses committed by Scientology:
•Scientology uses a form of pseudo-therapy called auditing which focuses largely on embarrassing and traumatic memories. Scientology collects the information you share and uses that information to threaten you if you oppose the church. They also charge huge amounts of money for auditing sessions (which is why they really are doing all this).
•They are extremely anti-psychology and psychiatry and pressure you against taking any antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication or any other drugs for mental health.
•They believe homosexuality can be “cured” and are blatantly homophobic. •Enemies of the church are labeled “suppressive persons” and it is forbidden to communicate with such people. This isn’t just to limit the negative press they receive but also is a manipulative tool. If you are in the cult and decide to leave or criticize the church you stand the risk of being completely cut off from your friends and family. “Suppressive Persons” are often also harassed, stalked, or threatened.
•If you’re new to Scientology and your family or friends are worried about you being in a cult you’re instructed to cut them out of your life, increasing your reliance on the support system (though there’s nothing supportive about it) the church give to you.
•Scientology’s doctrine includes the concept of “Fair Game”. This basically says that those who are judged a threat to the Church can be punished and harassed by any and all means possible.
•Because of this, they have no moral qualms about having their members lie in court which they use to defend themselves from lawsuits or charges that they’ve broken the law and also to help win lawsuits against their enemies. •They essentially spied on and stole information from the IRS and tried to frame the mayor of Clearwater Florida for a hit and run.
•Scientology filed 50 different lawsuits in one year against the Cult Awareness Network, an anti-cult organization. Using false testimony they won one of the suits and because the organization couldn’t pay the fine Scientology took the organizations name and logo so if you were calling to get out of Scientology you’d be unknowingly telling Scientology of your intentions. (For full transparency my mom was a member of the Cult Awareness Network before it was taken over and was sued individually by the Church of Scientology)
•Scientology has an official branch known as the Sea Org, a mixture between a paramilitary group and slavery, comprised of their most dedicated members including many children/teens who’ve been raised in Scientology. This is where some of the most rampant and terrifying abuse in Scientology occurs.
•Sea Org members often work over 100 hours a week for Scientology for around 2$ per hour.
•Sea Org member’s living conditions are terrible; they live in overcrowded communal rooms with up to 12 other people, are not given healthcare unless there is a free clinic in the area, often are forced to miss meals or sleep in order to successfully completed their work.
•Several former Sea Org members have accused the church of physical abuse. •Sea Org members may not have children and women who have become pregnant have reportedly been forced/coerced by their higher-ups to have abortions.
•Leaving Sea Org without permission automatically makes you a suppressive person, so young adults who’ve been raised in Scientology who want to leave are cut off from everyone they’ve ever known with no money or job and getting permission to leave can require 3 years of hard labor, social isolation, and group pressure.
it’s one of the scariest “religions” you’ll ever meet if not THE scariest because it was PURPOSELY created to make money. unlike most cults that do have some seed of genuine belief however twisted and off base the founders are, scientology was never a belief system – it was a get rich quick scheme for a terrible hack author who saw that there was more money to be made in manipulating people into a cult and then not letting them leave. higher and higher levels of scientology, which you have to take to be truly “clear” aka free of evil spirits, will cost you thousands and even millions of dollars. they will literally hook you into a billion year contract and then pursue you for any money you “owe” them, thousands of “back fees” for their religious training, if you try to leave.
stay the fuck away from anything marked scientology or dianetics. narconon (NOT the same as narcotics anonymous, the 12 step program) is also their thing. never even step FOOT into one of their free dianetics “auditing sessions” because they will use it to manipulate you into joining. they are incredibly persistent and will use every trick in the book to get you on board.
scientology: not even once.
It was a special interest of mine too for a while. This is all true.
They literally tried to drive a journalist crazy who reported on them critically. Paulette Cooper was her name.
They will literally attempt to make you paranoid if you ever cross them.
Hell, a few years back a guy from the BBC did a documentary on them and they did it to him, to the point where he explosively lost his temper at one of them on camera.
The intention being to make him look unstable in his own documentary so people wouldn’t believe what he was exposing.
Yes, please please please keep an eye out for Narconon. It is not Narcotics Anonymous, though it’s pretty clearly intended to cause confusion and make people think they are at NA. It’s designed to prey on vulnerable people looking for help and multiple people have died during the program. Scientology often gets used as a punchline, but it’s genuinely an incredibly dangerous organisation.
Please also be aware of the Volunteer Ministers, who go to disaster zones to spread Scientology teachings.
Okay, no, being a roofer is not a hundred times more dangerous than being a cop
First of all how would you even gauge that
Well, occupational death statistics are pretty easy to find – and while it’s not 100, it’s still more than four times as deadly to be a roofer (47.4 deaths per 100,000) compared to a police officer (11.1 per 100,000).
If you wanted to see how many people don’t know what taxes are or how they work, read the notes
I think my only problem with continued joke— tech bros just invented busses tech bros just invented renting etc— is that it assumes these guys are just clueless idiots who don’t know how the world works. The reality is these guys know exactly what they’re doing and what they’re doing is creating a lifestyle that deliberately excludes the poor. Re-invent the bus system so you don’t have to sit next to the poor. Re-invent renting to be even more exclusive.
Re-invent taxes so you be sure your money is only helping “your community” ie other wealthy people and then vote to lower actual taxes so that none of that money goes to help anybody else.
This is absolutely a purposeful plan. Nobody wants to drive on roads with potholes or walk on broken sidewalks but why should our tax money go to *those people* I know let’s create a “community startup” so we can cut taxes without personal inconvenience.
this, and also I feel like the term “tech-bro” is necessarily obfuscatory of the class dynamics of the situation here, since it can be as easily applied to a computer janitor who likes different pop culture than you (THIS MAN IS YOUR FRIEND, HE (COULD BE PERSUADED TO) FIGHT FOR FREEDOM) as to venture capitalist placing strategic bets on “exit”-based infrastructure (THIS MAN IS YOUR ENEMY)
all of these are neglecting to mention the startup in question wasn’t started by a “tech-bro” but a black man looking to help his community because his local government refused to
and then because that very important fact is going completely unexamined, the assumptions made in ignorance of it continue to pile up
Love this! This is post-modern historiography done beautifully! Not rejection of narrative and contextualization abilities, but reframing of narratives in a challenge to Euro-centric constructs and modes of thought!
Sorry for saying “post-modernism” lol. And like, the other jargon. I’m just having a Moment.
“Is it possible, then, to write a history of Europe using only Arabic sources?”
I mean, speaking from a recent (say, post WWII) U.S. context, a combination of factors:
1) Having more stake in a capitalist systems. For example, making more money, and making money in different ways like having a stock market dependent 401K. People buy houses and property as well. This all makes them more likely to resent ‘taxation’ and specific kinds of taxation (property, capital gains, estate) because it has started personally affecting them.
2) owing less-liquid property makes you generally more risk averse/protective of your assets. hence more conservative financial approaches.
3) Having children also means that people have a specific person they can funnel all their altruistic impulses into rather than people in general. This also means that their conservativism can have an altruistic tinge to it (trying to support/protect resources for their children). Responsibility to another makes it no longer simple greed.
4) in the U.S., rebellion against/critique of the system is so coopted into marketable youth culture both in order to profit from it, but to infantilize the idea of being against capitalism (the “you’ll grow out of it” logic).
Which is to say, people don’t just spontaneously become conservative because some wiring in their brain does it- as a certain group of people age, conservative interests align w their own economic interests. Fears of losing the resources they have are preyed upon, and the lack of any sort of left beyond ‘youth movements’ and the coding of critique as immature exacerbates this effect.
And to kinda discuss that point, that’s why the entire argument of “people become more republican/conservative as they age” like isn’t really meaningfully true across the board demographically. It’s the same tired millenial/baby boomer situation where people extrapolate white middle class political dynamics like they are universal
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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