The Cancer of $cientology

From: anon2c9e@nyx10.cs.du.edu (henry)
Date: 12 Jun 1995 17:01:38 -0600
Organization: University of Denver, Dept. of Math & Comp. Sci.
References: <3rce0v$em1@unlisys.unlisys.net> <Pine.SOL.3.91.950612092756.4779B-100000@joust.rs.itd.umich.edu>
X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University
	of Denver.  The University has neither control over nor
	responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users.

[The submitter asked me to "{...} please consider this as a manifesto of
sorts.  i believe it fits the definition of a 'manifesto.'  it's the
reason i'm still on the net right now."

Approved for that reason.  Opinions expressed in this newsgroup
are the responsibility of the submitter.  I accept any article that
is on-charter, not cross-posted, and not commercial.
                                           --manifesto@emf.net]

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In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.950612092756.4779B-100000@joust.rs.itd.umich.edu>,
Barbara J. Snow <barbsnow@umich.edu> wrote:

[yet another scam product]

>speaks to the puzzling question of who could possibly be "stupid
>enough" to fall for Scientology's claims.  Of course many of these
>people aren't stupid at all.   

of course not.  gullibility and stupidity aren't synonymous.

but let's get to where you hit on something very close to my heart.

>But I suspect that one trait that is
>held by a great number of them is a conviction that commonly held
>truths are to be scorned.  They have a fascination with anything
>that is routinely dismissed by the majority of people. They delight
>in becoming involved in activities that others dismiss out of hand.

i share all these traits.  i almost believe that if most people
believe something it's probably wrong.  i think that 'common sense
is what tells you the earth is flat.'

i try to give even the most ridiculous theory a good think before
i reject it out of hand.  after all, 'commonly accepted wisdom' has
been flat out wrong so many times it's funny.  

i was even willing to give a cult like $cientology a neutral hearing
before i dismissed it as bunk.  at the time i first started becoming
familiar with this evil cult, through the tremors its initial attacks
on the net caused, the only material on $cientology i had read was 
a _reader's digest_ article decrying it as an evil cult.  i had also 
heard the famous story about hubbard declaring he would create a bogus
religion and make millions of dollars.  the _reader's digest_ article
i dismissed as typical hysteria, since i've seen more than a little 
bullshit out of that particular mag and tend to think of it as a
mainstream establishment brainwashing rag.  

the story about hubbard declaring he'd create a bogus religion and
then doing it struck a note of class.  i thought that anyone who could
flat-out state that he intended to spend the rest of his life slinging
around outrageous whoppers and then actually DO IT had serious slack.

then these fools attacked the net.  

one STUPID MOVE two STUPID MOVE three STUPID MOVE!

i started reading all the information on $cientology i could.  i almost
became obsessive on the subject.  in fact, strike the almost.  obsessive
is the exact word.  

on reading yet another affidavit on this cult, i'd compare it to others
unrelated to it.  it seems that EVERY time i hear an allegation about this
cult, i shortly hear independent confirmation.  when i heard about the 
forged rmgroup (MAJOR dumb move) i hunted down the original cancel message.

when i heard about the flood of forged cancels i started to get 
seriously pissed.  FUCK these losers, i thought.  how DARE they do
that?  so i started attacking them, since they were attacking me,
whether they knew it or not.  i view the true freedom only available 
on the net as something incredibly precious, and anyone who would
deliberately attack that to preserve the reputation of a dead liar
is, in my book, revolting and despicable, deserving of any epithet
or disgrace.  

true freedom of speech is something very rare.  something like it
existed in ancient greece, until it was destroyed.  the renaissance
held its own spark of free speech, destroyed in a flood of wars that
engulfed all of europe.  

however, i see the net as one of the few self-propagating systems which
almost guarantee that in the future, EVERYONE will have the right to 
express their opinions without fear of reprisal.  this is something 
beautiful and precious.  

this is without precedent in the history of the world, but it is 
still something fragile and to be protected.  i think it has achieved
the momentum necessary to propel it to its destiny without my assistance,
but i am both pleased and honored to increase if only by a tiny fraction
the chances that this will come to pass.  

>I have begun to think that at best the attraction of Scientology
>and other unbelievable schemes is that it offers a nose-thumbing
>opportunity too good to pass up--and that at worst it offers a
>way for a very hostile, very passive-aggressive person to "get even
>with" a lot of people, for of course parents, spouses, children 
>and others close to the person a hurt and puzzled by these costly
>and unreasonable ventures. 

precisely because i am a very hostile and often passive-aggressive
person i value the cloak of anonymity because it allows me to be 
the person i wish i were.  

precisely because i am the sort of person who would have at one
time been the rawest meat imaginable by this cult, because i would
have been a prime prospect for recruitment by this pack of ravening 
jackals, this is why i despise it.  

by their actions on usenet, against ftp sites, by their attempt to
destroy www sites, by their forgery of email, by their loathsome 
character assassinations of their critics, by their disgraceful, 
outrageous and barratrous harassment of anyone who dares to speak out 
against them, by 'operation freakout' and by the current criminal
activities of gene ingram, they have permanently alienated one of
their potential 'customers.'  

i am thankful to 'woody,' andrew milne, and 'vera' for letting me
know precisely the brand of evil i'm fighting here.  i now view 
this cult as a disgusting plagiarism of freud, korzybski, crowley, 
reich, jung, and others, a revolting perversion of dissident thought
used and abused to brainwash, a cancer on the human psyche equal in
virulence, if not in power, to nazism, fascism and other disgraces.

and so i address the $cientologists:  if your goal is to 'clear' the
planet, you will have to clear it over my dead body.  

i mean that quite literally.  if it came to it, i'd be on the 
battlements firing off rounds at your asses.  you people who are
attempting with an utter lack of success to destroy the net are 
an insult and a monstrosity.

luckily, i feel that no such confrontation is necessary.  luckily
for you as well as for me.

for i feel that nothing more is needed for the destruction of your
disgusting cult than that the truth be revealed about it.

truth conquers all.

prepare to die.

h 
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