Gawker
Tom Cruise has personally, PERSONALLY, been pwned. This weekend, an anonymous Internet group (named Anonymous — these are not masters of subtlety) started a war with the Church of Scientology by hammering the group's web site; Scientology.org is down after a brief traffic spike. This isn't the only group of Internet users unafraid of the intimidating cult; a whole range of sites has turned the Church into a mockery by doing what mainstream celebrity-coverage outlets wouldn't dare. Here's a guide to the war (and a creepy manifesto made by The Internet!).
Anonymous
This loose group of Internet vigilantes (vaguely centered around, but not officially connected to, the site 4chan) often harasses unsavory but small-time people, but they did help with the arrest of pedophile Chris Forcand. Their usual tactic is a simple denial of service attack like the one against Scientology.org, but they occasionally get more sophisticated; members tell me they plan to hoist banners above some Church branches. Inspired by the release of Tom Cruise's secret Scientology video and the Church's attempts to suppress it, Anon promises an all-out war in the following hokey but entertaining video:
Digg
The users are less aggressive, but Digg is a promotion machine for stories users feel are overlooked by the media. They love to stick it to the man, and they love the freedom of information. That's why the many popular Scientology criticisms on Digg focus on the Church's history of censorship. Digg promoted the Cruise video, but they gave much more love to the Church's takedown letter to Gawker.
YouTube
The Church got the Cruise video removed from the site, but within a few days a new copy was up. Meanwhile there are plenty of parodies less likely to be deleted. The Church may have plenty of money to litigate, but if it tries to force the issue with YouTube, it'll find itself up against Google, which loves fighting bogus copyright claims.
YTMND
The site is usually just a jumble of in-jokes, but after several users mocked Scientology's mythology, user Smoothmedia designed a presentation accusing the Church of destroying several lives and harassing critics. There's a copy on YouTube (which was popular on Digg, natch):
Mainstream media has criticized the Church too, but the most famous examples are parodies from comedy shows like South Park (in an episode later censored by Comedy Central) and Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show (which still didn't run footage from the actual video). Maybe media outlets don't want to lose pull with Cruise and his celebrity friends, or maybe they just don't care, but the Internet's doing a great job exposing the dangers of the cult. Thank Xenu for immature Internet teenagers!
Comments
My favorite part of Dianetics is when L. Ron defines "test tube" in the footnotes. What a joke.
Cheer them on now, but you'll be sorry when those teens forcibly convert as all to Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Oops, I enjoyed that digg part :P digging around aint that bad after all :D
[www.vcao.net]
I was at Balboa Park here in San Diego yesterday. The Scientologists had a couple of large tables stacked with copies of Dianetics. There was a large sign on each table that read "FREE STRESS TEST". Is that how they get you to come over & then convert you? I'm confused.
I'll mention it again: OPERATION CLAMBAKE!
[www.xenu.net]
@StormyMes:
You will find them here in NYC at the Times Square subway station, right by the Bank of America ATM's. I'll take a picture next time and post it somewhere. If they stab me, please send help! Or lawyers. Thanks.
What's up with the "Law & Order" typography in the top graphic? That makes me wonder: would Dick Wolf dare touch this? Assuming, of course, that the WGA strike ends before the current Cruisegate fades from the "headlines."
if this is what upper middle class white kids can do with a sweet computer rig, no parental supervision, and handfuls of adderall, i salute teen america and hope they never come after me
@StormyMes: ...Yes it is. I don't get it, are you being sarcastic?
I've seen that video on Lisa McPherson before, and it still chills me to the bone. If even a quarter of what they claim there is true...there are a lot of Scientologists with blood on their hands. Kind of makes me wish there really was an afterlife to take care of them.
So the new Gawker agenda has been revealed: Take down Tom Cruise and take down Scientology. Victory via pagehits,viva la revolution!
@StormyMes: Yup.
Bored friend & I stopped by Toronto HQ,checked boxes on giant questionnaire & were talked to individually in an office by some guy like he knew us. Things got too personal & we got the eff outta there!
If Julia Allison converted to Scientology, Gawker's proverbial head would explode.
@missdelite: I took this photo outside the Toronto HQ in the summer.
I think it speaks for itself.
Some more creepy shit from the cult.
This is from they creeptastic "Orientation" video. This gem stars such people as Kirstie Alley and Isaac Hayes
[www.youtube.com]
[www.youtube.com]
[www.youtube.com]
[www.youtube.com]
The last part is a blast...
""If you leave this room after seeing this film, and walk out and never mention Scientology again, you are perfectly free to do so," the narrator said.
"It would be stupid, but you can do it. You can also dive off a bridge or blow your brains out: that is your choice.
"But, if you… continue with Scientology, we will be very happy with you - and you will be very happy with you."
Kirstie Alley : "Without Scientology I would be dead, so I can personally highly recommend it" (in robo style)
I like all this internet stuff.
@IBentMyWookie: LOL! When was that taken; late June, right?
You forgot anonymous' headquarters, www.4chan.org, a cesspool of anime porn and autopsy photos, where they plan their attacks!
@IBentMyWookie: There's something wrong with your photo, but I can't for the life of me put my finger on it.
Oh yeah. It's Wrong.
Oh, yeah...I'm so glad SOMEONE isn't afraid of these lunatics...Go!Gawker!Go! You'll have my support, whatever it's worth, against this lunatic fringe. I'm actually sad that Tom is cray-cray, but let's not let other vulnerable people fall prey to this BS.
There is a Scientology center on "The Drag" in Austin across from UT (officially just outed myself as the Texan I am) and they are pretty good at preying on people who are a little "lost". I thought about going in there a few times but we are talking 20+ years ago. I had no idea about what they believed. Now that I know what these fools believe I'm so glad I didn't fall victim to their Xenu/auditing BS.
Eff 'em. Go Gawker!!!!
I started to watch the 2nd video but then the backround music kicked in and all of a sudden I am having flashes of jennifer connelly having double ended dildo buttsex for heroin and three inch deep oozing arm abcesses. Not cool man, not cool at all.
It's good to see Digg step up here; I'm fucking tired of posting stuff to reddit only to see it downmodded and "Where's the REAL media coverage? How do we know this is real?" in the comments.
@fearofdreaming: And don't forget that talking refrigerator macking on Ellen Burstyn.
Lately, like especially unsightly and persistent pigeons, the "Church's" minions have been gathering around Powell Street BART, trying to snare lonely derelicts and tourists. In an effort to make themselves less culty, they started putting a cross on their business stationary; I guess the idea is that a cross is a symbol of "church" even if these propellor-heads aren't Christians even by the generous standards of organized religion in America.
Though the South Park episode on Scientology may have been pulled out of rotation (don't know, don't have cable), the animated description of Xenu's enslavement and freezing of those poor, poor aliens with a caption reading "This is what Scientologists actually believe" can be viewed at the Comedy Central website.
One trick I'd recommend to those wishing to write about Scientologists without attracting their attention: use some euphemisms, like "the Temple of the Dead Frozen Brainwashed Aliens." This defeats both Google and their clipping services, and they do have clipping services.
gawker? in my internets?
when will you tell us what happened to Jeeves?
@downlow: "The drag" in Austin is where I, at age 18, gave them my mailing address. More than 10 years later, they still manage to find my new addresses and send me pamphlets and self-addressed envelopes for donations. And I never even showed up for my "stress test."
I have neighbors who believe there's an invisible man in the sky who tells them how to behave, eat, have sex, etc. Some say he also demands that part of babies' penises be sliced off. Supposedly, there are adherents in positions of power.
One of my life's better accomplishments was to assist in 'disassociating' my little sister from this cult in the very early eighties (read 'hide her in the Olympic mountains'). Started with a 'Personality Test' picked up at a local fast food joint, and went quickly downhill from there. I'm a strong believer in one's right to worship freely, just not in brainwashing. Kudos to all involved in exposing this organization for what it really is. Now, if I can only accomplish anything else in my life...
@StormyMes:
they had one of those creepy stands at the mall and my idiot friend didn't realize and walked right up and asked for a free stress test thinking it would be fun. i had to nudge her about 5 times before she realized what she had gotten herself into.
internet hate machine!
@GIFTFORTHEOBVIOUS: Right, because Scientology is just like every other religion. You should read more.
A few years ago I stopped by a Scientology tent here in Tampa so I could hear the pitch and receive a free "stress test." I grasped the metal cylinders as the volunteer asked me questions about work, relationships, life in general. Each time I answered the needle on the machine would jump-- of course he was constantly adjusting/calibrating/messing with said "stress tester" the entire time. Afterwards he held in his hands a copy of Dianetics and told me how Scientology helped reduce the stress in his life. "Sweet" I said. "Can I have a free copy of the book?" Not so much. Unlike freedom, which only costs $1.05, stress reduction in the form of Dianetics costs $26.95 (at the time-- it was the hard cover though).
@Jim Treacher: Because, let's see, other religions don't -- what? Preach drivel, start wars, screw with kids' minds/bodies, seek political power in nuclear-armed nations, extract money from the desperate and credulous?
The Scientologists threatened to sue me when I was 18, for having their secret scriptures on my website that all of ten people ever visited. I took them down.
@giftfortheobvious: Other religions don't attempt to sue their dissenters into oblivion, so there's one.
@giftfortheobvious: Sue anybody who talks about them, separate people from their family and friends, extort their own members with information those members paid to divulge, make sick 9/11 rescue workers think they're getting better with a quack "cure," extort the IRS to secure tax-exempt status... No, not all religions do that.
Remember near the end of Spiderman 3 when good Spidey is fighting bad Spidey-who's a good guy that let the bad suit's power go to his head-, but good spidey's not doing a very good job, and he's kinda getting pummelled, meanwhile innocent people are getting hurt. But then his best friend shows up and helps win the battle....
Thats kinda how I feel about these anonymous folks. I can't say i condone such illegal actions, but then again, what hell else is gonna work, the good guys are getting clobbered by this massive "pay-per-play" errrr, uhhh, religion, and from what I've seen- even on the bbc's recent program, these guys are wacked full of supression and vindictive motivations.
I hope, no...I Pray, these folks get what's coming!
Obviously, the situation needs a little super-hero action.
@CumaeanSibyl: @Jim Treacher: I'm sorry it's not otherwise, but gullibility has its price. And if lawsuits are the worst they can do against unbelievers, they've got a ways to go.
@giftfortheobvious: Lawsuits aren't the worst they can do. Pay attention.
@Jim Treacher: Separating people from family and friends,tormenting the uninformed, demanding tax-exempt status ... meh. Religion 101. Follow the news much?
@giftfortheobvious: Tell you what, ask Paulette Cooper if she thinks they're just like any other religion.
Are you a Scientologist, by the way?
@Jim Treacher: IF there's a difference, it's in scale. Let me know when they've racked up as many victims as the "mainstream" religions.
@Jim Treacher: Not now, nor have I ever been. I just hate to see attention diverted from equally deserving, and infinitely more powerful, targets.
@giftfortheobvious: It is a difference of kind, not scale. I was raised Catholic, but when I left the church, they didn't use my own confessions to blackmail me into staying. They didn't accuse me of pedophelia as revenge for criticizing them. I'm no fan of organized religion either, but you don't know what you're talking about.
Amen, Jim!
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Does anyone know if Scientology ever went after the producers of 'Nip Tuck' for their portrayal of the religion?