I don't disagree, but it is socially unacceptable to say such things about thugs in other religions, just Scientology - and they may be freely promoted in the press with equal quantities of distortion - this bothers me a great deal.
Haven't you noticed the relentless pounding the Catholic church has been taking for years and years now? Or listen to Penn Jillette's or Louis CK's remarks on Mormonism, or a great deal of George Carlin's material... many religions prey on the powerless, but we are offended by the efficiency with which Scientology drains its' adherents bank accounts and their will.
There's also no shortage of criticism for Islamic fundamentalism / Sharia law.
People generally don't have much patience for rhetoric that calls all religious belief evil, but specific accurate criticism usually has a place in public discourse.
it is socially unacceptable to say such things about thugs in other religions
It is? I didn't get that memo. To me it's socially unacceptable not to. People just ought to realize that being free-thinking, and in parts actually intelligent people gives them so much more power and so much more agility. Just look at scientology, look at their messiah, look at Tom Cruise.. they aren't that bright. They're bottom-feeding, they are preying on weak and/or vulnerable people.
What gets me about Scientology is how stupid it is, how obvious, and how white middle-class. It's hard to accept it was taken seriously for a second decades ago, but that they are expanding? It's like Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming governor, sometimes I really really wonder what kind of planet I'm on.
Maybe the idea is to make it all so crazy and horrible that people will cling to any story? I mean, let's just assume scientology was 100% true and correct: why has nobody successfully achieved their god status yet? They're just recruiting, never arriving, besides being super selfish assholes(oh yeah, those "body thetans", deported and mass killed people.. they are causing problems, let's get "rid of them"... just wow) on that never-ending way .
And yes, you could say exactly that about many other religions as well, and certainly Christianity and Islam; but that isn't reason to criticize any individual one less, the opposite is true. I say lean into it. It can be ugly, or even scary, but I believe appeasement would have scarier results.
Why is this relevant? It's irrelevant to Scientology's abuses and untrue. If we had the opportunity to shut down Christianity's past and current abuses, we should pursue this, whether Christianity "did it too" does not need to be brought up in every article.
I didn't say Christianity, so why did you attribute that to me? The comments on this article have drawn out some extreme vitriol about Scientology and I believe it is relevant that this is incredibly specific to Scientology, giving exceptions for other organizations which may simply be older.
