You have all probably heard about project chanology by now, but in case you haven't check the wikipedia link.

A bunch of people from the *chans (the guys who brought us lolcats, rockrolling, ORLY and probably 50% of all big trolls and memes) decided to declare war on the Church of Scientology. A lot of other people on the internet sympathized and joind the cause. Its getting pretty interesting now, what with thousands of people actually showing up for protests in real life(!)

Fascinating stuff, this sort of thing has never happened before to my knowledge.

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http://maze5.net

yeah, this stuff is a little crazy, but you know what? If this ends up putting a dent in Scientology AND the 'chan' community ... I say let it roll, in any case, we win.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Finally, they found a victim that deserves it.

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Why snark works.

I find it kinda bizarre that people find this kind of energy and passion to attack the "Church".

I imagine a whole raft of them wouldn't expend the energy required to vote or take even a passing interest in world affairs much more scandalous than the celebrity cult of scientology...

Nevertheless, it's good to see people working against the crazy "Church". As for people who embrace scientology, it's baffling in comparison to other religions - you can understand why people worship and pray, but Scientology has basically spawned from a load of ill connected ramblings of Hubbarb and hijacked symbols (Christian cross anyone?)

It's not coincidence they have the word "Church" in their title. The whole organization uses any loophole they can find to defend their (IMO) very illegal operations. Scientology is a dangerous and corrupt organization that doesn't deserve the status of a "religion".

What I like about this is that people stop falling for the "tolerance" trap.

I understand your point, Gwil. But I think Chantology has nothing to do with true political engagement. It's a troll party. Aimed at an organization that more than deserves the negative publicity. Worrying about where else these young people could have put their energy is useless IMO. The only alternative would be them sitting at home and spamming the IMDB boards or something.

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Why snark works.

Gwil said:
I imagine a whole raft of them wouldn't expend the energy required to vote or take even a passing interest in world affairs much more scandalous than the celebrity cult of scientology...

Thank god they don't, the last thing the world needs is more braindead idiots influencing the real world.

what? you don't even make sense. speak english.

It's nice to see them targeting such a organization, but to be fair, scientology supposed beliefs are no more out their than mormonism or catholicism or ect. beliefs. Whats so outrageous is how vicious they are when it come to collecting money form their followers.

The asshole side of me is saying "who cares". If people are stupid enough to believe all that ridicules bull s**t then let a vicious cult destroy them. The only moral issue then is when they bring their innocent children into it. Sad...

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Reality has become a commodity.

My largely unnecessary two cents: [yep, I'm still floating around, even though you all hate me]
Yeah! Death to Scientology! Don't let them ever make another Battlefield Earth!

thehalflifeman33 said:
what? you don't even make sense. speak english.

go back to grade school moron

It's nice to see them targeting such a organization, but to be fair, scientology supposed beliefs are no more out their than mormonism or catholicism or ect. beliefs.

Well... in a way. but honestly... no they're way more f**ked up.

I imagine a whole raft of them wouldn't expend the energy required to vote

The funny thing is, I think you're probably right. People willing to stand in the blistering cold for hours holding signs, but who can't be bothered to vote.

Brings to mind a quote I heard a couple years ago (forgot the source) "Standing between an internet user and his information is like standing between a grizzly bear and her cubs."

I also think that Scientology has pissed a lot of random people off over many years with their dumbass antics, who couldn't be bothered to do anything about it until now.

Scientology is a self help book, it tells people they can benefit from it in this life and they think it's too good to be true

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Yak_Fighter</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting thehalflifeman33</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>what? you don't even make sense. speak english.</DIV></DIV>

go back to grade school moron

</DIV></DIV>
go back and let your brain process my question moron.

(not sure if it's even going to attempt to, though...)

Scientology is a self help book, it tells people they can benefit from it in this life and they think it's too good to be true

Huh?

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Why snark works.

see? even poor reaper doesn't understand.

I don't think anyone really "knows" what Scientology is. I mean, you can just call it a money making scheme, as Mr. Hubbard has been quoted to refer to. But even at that...

Pyramid schemes are far more well defined than this church is. As near as I can figure, its basic principles are "divide into cells and thrive in any way possible."

Anyway, I don't think it's worth the effort of attack, either. I'm frankly a little mad at myself for caring enough to write this post. :/

thehalflifeman33 said:
go back and let your brain process my question moron.

(not sure if it's even going to attempt to, though...)

I will break you.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT

yep, I'm still floating around, even though you all hate me

I have no idea who you are.

Battlefield Earth

lol.

go back and let your brain process my question

I missed the part where you asked a question.

Process this:

Hurray for groups of weirdos from the fringe of society declaring war on one another. Since 4chan is involved I predict whatever websites scientology has will be hacked within the month and covered with annoying memes, image macros featuring cats and/or retarded people, and deviant shock porn. It might make headlines briefly, then fall out of focus. Once scientology is out of the spotlight they will begin to assimilate other religions with the mind-bending power of L. Ron Hubbard, and by 2012 they will be in position to initiate their doomsday plan called "Operation Freeze everybody, fly them across the galaxy, and dump them into an alien volcano so we can trap their souls on another planet." For you see, the mind-bending power of L. Ron Hubbard is too much for any human, the entire race will crumble before it's majesty, save for one person, humanity's last hope against insurmountable odds. Unfortunately since the odds are insurmountable that person is destined to fail and humanity is doomed at the hands of the church of Scientology in 2012 because the Mayans said so.

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o

Widely scorned groups of people tend to disdain the groups their society sees as even more ridiculous and contemptible than they are. Hence why rednecks hate black people. Hence why a circle of racist, homophobic hentai- and child pornography-saturated losers hate Scientologists.

A couple points:

Voting/non voting is not an issue here, as this isn't something that would be subjected to a vote, so I don't see your point about that...

Scientology has already had its website hacked multiple times by "Anonymous"

Other than that... I dunno... there are lots of cults out there that are just as bad as scientology, they just are far less in the public spotlight, and try to avoid deaths...

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Signature? What signature!?

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Fjorn</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Voting/non voting is not an issue here, as this isn't something that would be subjected to a vote, so I don't see your point about that... </DIV></DIV>

It's really easy. Imagine if all the effort put into stupid pointless s**t like ddos'ing a Scientology website, posting about cheap foreign children's cartoons, or playing video games etc etc was instead put into political action and trying to wrangle important issues like healthcare, the Iraq war, the US wealth gap, the environment, genocide, starvation and so on. Gwil would probably think the world would be a better place while people like me are just glad that even more idiots (various _chan posters) don't use their political power to help drive the world into the ground faster. :razz:

I don't think necessarily that think the world would be a better place, I believe in this country at least many many people would vote for the extreme right or radical religious parties, which might shock the governments and mainstream parties into reform.

Unfortunately for the US there is a 2 party system - we have it here also, but votes turning toward the BNP, UKIP, Muslim Alliance etc and having an impact are much more likely. However, people wont vote because they either feel disaffected or run their lives in a bubble of blissful ignorance.

Also, my "point" was actually saddled up with a couple of other things beside voting in elections. It has been read too literally. What I mean is that if people were more concerned about FOR INSTANCE where their meat came from, or, how their local authority wasted money on programme x/y/z, concerned on a scale they are about a 2 bit pseudo religions organisation, society might run a little better and you would have less people engaging with the "Church".

I love you Gwil :redface:

I try, but most of the time i'm just a bastard.

As an amusing side point, one of my fellow 'students' pointed out with glee the campaign by "Anonymous" on "teh internet!!11" - I took up the conversation later and tried to gauge his opinion on early years education and testing, amongst other things. He had a simple, recited opinion which was unable to be expanded upon. Yet Scientology there was much rage for.

What? WHY?! The only reason I expressed an opinion of support for their activities is that at least they are speaking out for something. Perhaps it is a little foolish to hope they will extend the same interest to other subjects..

Why should I care about national and world events and issues when I could be watching entertainment news about Britney Spears?!

Yak_Fighter said:
I could be watching entertainment news about Britney Spears?!

Oh boy..... If I had a dollar every time I heard her name...

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Aaron's Stuff

I actually just flew back from socal, where I attended the Feb 10th Hollywood protest. It was quite successful, and worldwide protests had a total of at least 8,000 Anonymous members. The next demonstration will be on the ides of March, and is expected to be much, much bigger.

Huzzah.

Scientology is a self help book, it tells people they can benefit from it in this life and they think it's too good to be true

How many "self help book" authors enjoy a very nice set of tax exemptions because they're a "religion"? Even jews don't get the same taxbreak for their religious education costs.

Just sayin.

As an amusing side point, one of my fellow 'students' pointed out with glee the campaign by "Anonymous" on "teh internet!!11" - I took up the conversation later and tried to gauge his opinion on early years education and testing, amongst other things. He had a simple, recited opinion which was unable to be expanded upon. Yet Scientology there was much rage for.

I don't think thats a fair comparison - early childhood education and testing is a difficult question that has many aspects and no perfect answers, whereas Scientology (while less significant) is pretty much bad nomatter how you look at it, from what I hear.

SIGH, for INSTANCE again. Amongst other things. Crime, the environment and the nature of democracy were also discussed.

Remind me not to try and illustrate points on the internet ever again.

There there Gwil, nobody reads what other people post anyway. I know I don't.

Anyone else see the empty space above here? Weird, some kind of plane is attacking the forums.

Crime, the environment and the nature of democracy

Those are even more complicated.

Crime: the intricate balance of preventing crime vs. limiting the power of the state; Whether we should focus on "cracking down" on crime or taking of macro-scale actions like education and economics action to deter crime, the debate over the efficacy of the criminal justice system, the moral questions over what is a crime, and how serious crimes are compared to one another, etc...

The Enviornment: what is really happening to the envionrnment, how serious it is, how big an effect humans are having vs. natural causes, what we can do about it, what goals should be set, how to go about achieving envionrnmental goals (incentive based? regulation based? etc), the use of various alternative means, and so forth...

The Nature of Democracy: This is a topic of epic proportions that could be reasonably debated from any number of angles.

So again, your comparison was not valid.

It's not often that you get an "easy target" like scientology.

Never mind, you've missed my point which was that he was reciting words opined by the popular press - a recital, as it were. That was my irritation...

Also, you have to keep in mind these topics are/were being discussed as follows the trends in the UK at the time, ie we have the most tested children in Europe, we have the highest youth crime in Europe, the current government won only 22% of the vote, use of SUVs for short runs etc.

Either way, you missed the point, as I say. Hence I will avoid using text to describe arguments or points which clearly need more consideration and comprehension of the context in which they are made - even if it I thought one operative word made it pretty clear the idea that I was trying to convey.

The truly ridiculous thing about anyone subscribing to the anti-Scientology movement in the UK is that it really isn't that big an issue in terms of demographics in the USA, let alone Britain, where it is barely heard of outside of reactionary documentary makers and people with too much time and too little brain on their hands.

Ok. You are saying that the guy you talked to is silly for protesting scientology because there are more important things to do, and I am saying that its actually not that silly because the more important topics are more complicated and harder to take an exact stance on.

Well, no, I didn't say that at all... - the argument about "more important" (this is something you have read from it yourself) wasn't even tied to the person I am discussing - separate posts, separate situations.

I'm saying the guy is a fool for espousing the ill informed opinions of others on Scientology OR current affairs and dressing it up as some kind of valuable contribution or independent thought process.

What's really happening here is you're trying to trip up the arguments with an anally retentive - yet ironically - incorrect reading of what I am saying.

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting reaper47</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>It's not coincidence they have the word "Church" in their title. The whole organization uses any loophole they can find to defend their (IMO) very illegal operations. Scientology is a dangerous and corrupt organization that doesn't deserve the status of a "religion".

What I like about this is that people stop falling for the "tolerance" trap.

I understand your point, Gwil. But I think Chantology has nothing to do with true political engagement. It's a troll party. Aimed at an organization that more than deserves the negative publicity. Worrying about where else these young people could have put their energy is useless IMO. The only alternative would be them sitting at home and spamming the IMDB boards or something.</DIV></DIV>

O'RLY?

Or leading a life of crime and assaulting elderly people while getting drunk underage.

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Just Kidding

Just Kidding

Yak_Fighter said:
Thank god they don't, the last thing the world needs is more braindead idiots influencing the real world.

The world has already reached its saturation level for braindeads influencing things Joe. I doubt seriously there is much in the way of "Noticibility" that anyone can do thats drastically different from whats already happening.

Sadly what I have said all along gets proven each and every day. "If enough people do something wrong long enough, it becomes less wrong"

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The best things in life, aren't things.