Scientology doc on HBO

[hondo]

Any one see it? Comments?

In addition to the obvious mind-control/paranoia/retaliation common to cults, you had to laugh at the public events that would put Amway to shame and the "auditing" that looked like it came out of a bad knock-off script of the Manchurian candidate.

And, Jesus, can Tom Cruise be this ****in' dumb?

 

[SpeedTchr]

No.
None.
Absolutely.

 

[Ace]

What struck me was how creepy the leaders are and how instead of trying to strongarm enemies and be bad asses, they just annoy and/or litigate the hell out of you.

What a bunch of creeps.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

It's out already. I thought it came out in the end of April.

I can't wait to see it.

 

[JayFarrar]

Read the New Yorker article, and working on the book it is based on.

Lawrence Wright, the writer of both, said it was the most fact-checked, lawyer vetted piece that he had ever worked on and I think Remnick said no piece they had done in his time there had gotten more pushback.

I will get around to the seeing the doc, but I suspect it won't present anything new, just an on-camera rehash.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Read the New Yorker article, and working on the book it is based on.

Lawrence Wright, the writer of both, said it was the most fact-checked, lawyer vetted piece that he had ever worked on and I think Remnick said no piece they had done in his time there had gotten more pushback.

I will get around to the seeing the doc, but I suspect it won't present anything new, just an on-camera rehash.

One of the funniest Lovelines ever was after Dr. Drew called Scientology a "cult" and a couple days later, the church sent a scripted apology for him and Carolla to act out on air.

 

[User 11148]

Several (i.e., > 10) years ago, Time did a Scientology piece as its cover story. As I recall, the author led her story with a really telling angle: Literally within minutes of its finding out about her working on the story, the CofS, hiding behind a rent-a-mailbox, ran a full-blown credit check on her. This was followed up by all sorts of inquiries. She knew about these because she'd been told this was how they work and already had some sort of alert system set up.

Those folks are creepy. Scary, scary creepy.

 

[MisterCreosote]

Those folks are creepy. Scary, scary creepy.

Tolerance.

 

[Dyno]

I read the book and thought it was fantastic. I am HBO-less, but looking forward to the documentary. David Miscavige is evil.

 

[HC]

I read the book and thought it was fantastic. I am HBO-less, but looking forward to the documentary. David Miscavige is evil.

Another one who read the book. Miscavige is freakin' terrifying.

 

[swingline]

Dyno and HC, your phones are now tapped.

 

[JayFarrar]

All religions believe in some pretty funky things.

On a cooking blog, they had a recipe for roasted lamb but it also gave Kosher instructions, which were to have the butcher remove the sciatic nerve from the roast or cut it out yourself.

The nerve of the Jews not to eat nerve, not that you would eat nerve, as I think it would cook up like gristle in a piece of meat.

But I have no idea why nerves would be forbidden.

 

[User 11148]

All religions believe in some pretty funky things.

On a cooking blog, they had a recipe for roasted lamb but it also gave Kosher instructions, which were to have the butcher remove the sciatic nerve from the roast or cut it out yourself.

The nerve of the Jews not to eat nerve, not that you would eat nerve, as I think it would cook up like gristle in a piece of meat.

But I have no idea why nerves would be forbidden.

I looked it up ... it's pretty interesting. It goes back to the story of Jacob wrestling all night with an angel. Ultimately, when the angel couldn't defeat Jacob, he moved a nerve in Jacob's hip, causing Jacob to limp.

The Zohar teaches us that in every struggle we are powerful, and can overcome our evil urges if we so desire. There is only one place where the lust is so strong that even great men are powerless—the gid hanasheh. Its very name means “to forget,” because once it has been aroused, all rational thinking and religious scruples are left far behind.

The only way to win that war is to stay far away in the first place, for once the first flirt his been thrown out, there is no knowing where things can lead. For this reason, the gid is not eaten at all but utterly avoided.

Why don’t we eat the sciatic nerve? - Kosher

 

[TyWebb]

Did the credits look like this?

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

What struck me was how creepy the leaders are and how instead of trying to strongarm enemies and be bad asses, they just annoy and/or litigate the hell out of you.

What a bunch of creeps.

Very Libwellian of them.

 

[Ace]

Very Libwellian of them.

Go join the Scientologists as a show of support, Shoeshine.

Any "religion" that locks up its members, takes their children, blackmails and harasses people that escape its clutches, has earned my intolerance.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

Go join the Scientologists as a show of support, Shoeshine.

Any "religion" that locks up its members, takes their children, blackmails and harasses people that escape its clutches, has earned my intolerance.

Scientology is in no way a religion. It's a cult. Of course many of the members are terrible. In any group that puts it's strident ideology above common sense, bad people will thrive. I'm still talking about Scientology. Mostly.

 

[Steak Snabler]

I've got it taped but haven't watched it yet due to March Madness and a fantasy baseball draft. Looking forward to watching it tonight though.

 

[Dyno]

Dyno and HC, your phones are now tapped.

Ha! I thought of that right after I posted.

 

[hondo]

In watching some of the show over again, I was struck by just how downright comical these people are. It's almost as of the Marx Brothers decided to do a parody of a cult, with the salutes, the cheesy uniforms, the pyro-technics and the devices used for their interviews that look like a sixth-grader's sloppy-ass effort at a science fair project. I remember an interview where someone as Mel Brooks why had had Nazi references in so many of his movies. The answer was simple: he wanted to ridicule them and have people guffaw. He said that's what you do, make people laugh at them.
I know I did, especially every time Tom Cruise tried to defend them.