Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

[scrabblequeen]

What the hell did I just watch. I dozed off in the middle of it, too! Imagine if I had seen the whole thing. I think the parts I missed involved Travolta coming into the flock. I'll have to re-watch it later.

How is it possible for people to be so dumb?? If a group of men in made-up uniforms were giving me orders and I was hooked up to a made-up machine as someone wrote down all my secret thoughts, I would not be interested in being part of their group. I can understand if your family is in it and losing contact is a threat, but how exactly do people get sucked in to this? It looks so clearly insane.

Tom Cruise is mentally ill, I have no doubt after seeing this movie. He is unhinged! And Travolta is dumb as a box of rocks. What other religion promotes peace??  OMG.

The medals, the presentations, the Nazi-esque staging. I had NO idea this was what they did. I hope they get their tax free status revoked. This is a mockery of what churches are supposed to be doing.

[Ella]

Someone posted this pretend Instagram of David Miscavige and it's very funny.

[Martini Girl]

That is so creepy...

[save lilo!]

I watched the latter half of this and my two thoughts:
- all these people are dumb even if they got out of it
- the IRS is so powerful

[prisma]

Apr 8, 2015 17:31:08 GMT -4 Ella said:

Someone posted this pretend Instagram of David Miscavige and it's very funny. I don't do links well so I'll just do it this way.

instagram.com/davidmiscavige/

Oh wow--this is brilliant. I'm going to have to pace my way through it because the descriptions are long but hilarious. I'm surprised Scientology hasn't yanked it down, though!

[Foo]

That instagram is fucking HILARIOUS.

[prisma]

Op-Ed 'Going Clear' filmmaker: Scientology abuses its tax-exempt status

There is ample precedent for the revocation of tax-exempt status: It happens more than 100 times per year. There is also an important Supreme Court ruling that addresses the religious issue. In 1983, the court upheld a decision revoking the charitable status of a religious college, Bob Jones University, because it forbade interracial dating. The court stated in Bob Jones University vs. the United States that the "government has a fundamental, overriding interest in eradicating racial discrimination in education ... which substantially outweighs whatever burden denial of tax benefits places on [the university's] exercise of their religious beliefs."

It seems to me that our government has a "fundamental, overriding interest" in protecting individual liberty by not subsidizing harassment or surveillance by gun-toting private eyes. The 1st Amendment should not be a smokescreen to hide human rights abuses and possible criminal activities.

I really hope they lose their tax-exempt status. It seems like the tide may be turning against them.

[Deleted]

That will be their undoing. The massive celebration they had when they became tax-exempt shows how important that status is to them. I don't think they could survive financially without it. For one thing, they'd actually have to pay people for their services instead of treating them like slaves. The horror!!

[Neurochick]

I watched this movie a few weeks ago and I really thought it was good; I'd heard about Scientology, they're in my neighborhood but I've never gone inside and don't intend to.

But I really get how people get pulled into it, especially celebrities. First, they don't tell you the sci-fi stuff right away, that alone would make people go, "WTF?" But I think celebrities are very vulnerable people. They are in a profession where their livelihood depends on people liking them, mainly we, the fickle public. In the entertainment industry, you can be a nobody in 2010, a household name in 2011, and a nobody again in 2012. That's crazy making. So I get how people could fall for all the self help stuff, and I could also see them falling for the metaphysical stuff too. When you live a life where the physical world is crazy, you need something to fall back on. Then once they're in, they're hooked.

[Deleted]

Apr 14, 2015 11:53:27 GMT -4 Neurochick said:

I watched this movie a few weeks ago and I really thought it was good; I'd heard about Scientology, they're in my neighborhood but I've never gone inside and don't intend to.

But I really get how people get pulled into it, especially celebrities. First, they don't tell you the sci-fi stuff right away, that alone would make people go, "WTF?"

One part I liked about the documentary was Paul Haggis describing what happened when he was told the sci-fi stuff, that his reaction was basically "You're shitting me right?" He cannot be the only to get up to that level and have that reaction, which makes me wonder how many of the high-level clams actually believe that Xenu bullshit.