Tuesday, May 15, 2007

YouTube Tuesday: Scientonomy

Yesterday the BBC program Panorama aired an episode which attempted to dig a little bit into Scientology. The "religion" is trying to gain recognition as a religion in the UK, over the objection of citizen groups.

I watched the 30-minute program online. Here's the first 10 minutes. You can watch the rest here.



The Scientologists' main spokesman in the piece is Tommy Davis. This guy does his best to look like Agent Smith while following the BBC reporter around, gettin' all up in his grill, and basically harassing and impeding him the whole time.

The pestering continues on and on until, in an understandable fit of frustration, the reporter John Sweeney completely looses it with an old school shout down. Of course if I were in Sweeney's shoes, I'd be the subject of an assault charge for trying to knock the Raybans off that pencil-necked little fascist.

Unfortunately, Tommy Davis' lack of PR acumen only serves to strengthen the public perception that Scientologists are crazy, whacked-out, paranoid, cultist Nazis. They obviously don't "get" that when you act like your batshit crazy, people assume that you are, in fact, batshit crazy.

If they want my advice, they'll give honest answers to the questions. Or, if they actually are the shysters everyone thinks they are, make up elaborate but plausible lies.

But following people around, harassing them, provoking them only makes it look like they have something to hide.

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3 comments:

  1. Xavier Onassis5/15/07, 7:20 PM

    I lump Scientology and Mormonism in the same wacko bucket.

    Sorry to some of my regular readers who will take offense at this. But I do.

    There are a lot of other fringe, cultish religions that fall into that category as well. But these are the two most (mysteriously) prominent ones.

    ReplyDelete
  2. FletcherDodge5/16/07, 11:03 AM

    XO- Thanks for the comment.

    Frankly, I can't think of a "religion" that strikes me as being even in the same "temple" of wackiness as the Scientologists. From what I know of Mormons, at least they leave you alone if you question or criticise them.

    The paranoia and "fair game" tactics employed by the Sceintologists set them apart in the pantheon of lunacy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5/29/07, 2:42 PM

    i could give a damn who i offend, these people are looking to the wrong people for a spiritual solution. Not that anyone is 'wrong' per se, but any religion where more $$$ unlocks 'all the secrets and salvation' is full of shit. Super-smelly goat shit with maggots on it.

    After I read Hubbards' quoted saying "Want to get rich? Start your own religion." I've been rolling my eyes at these people since.

    Oh yeah, nice post!

    ReplyDelete

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