Kiisu here. They/them. Estonian. Confused. Watch me in my (failure-riddled) quest for knowledge, happiness, success and pancakes. You may also see some biology, baking, art and linguistics. I know more about trans-splicing than 99.997% of all people.
So Scientology has recently been purchasing ad spots on social media sites including Twitter and Facebook. Scientology has always worked hard to recruit young people it seems like they’re investing in social media as well now. I know most people think Scientology is a joke but it’s a seriously dangerous cult which uses fear, extortion, violence, vandalism and various other unethical actions against those who oppose them both inside and outside the church. Here is key information on the abuses committed by Scientology:
•Scientology uses a form of pseudo-therapy called auditing which focuses largely on embarrassing and traumatic memories. Scientology collects the information you share and uses that information to threaten you if you oppose the church. They also charge huge amounts of money for auditing sessions (which is why they really are doing all this).
•They are extremely anti-psychology and psychiatry and pressure you against taking any antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication or any other drugs for mental health.
•They believe homosexuality can be “cured” and are blatantly homophobic. •Enemies of the church are labeled “suppressive persons” and it is forbidden to communicate with such people. This isn’t just to limit the negative press they receive but also is a manipulative tool. If you are in the cult and decide to leave or criticize the church you stand the risk of being completely cut off from your friends and family. “Suppressive Persons” are often also harassed, stalked, or threatened.
•If you’re new to Scientology and your family or friends are worried about you being in a cult you’re instructed to cut them out of your life, increasing your reliance on the support system (though there’s nothing supportive about it) the church give to you.
•Scientology’s doctrine includes the concept of “Fair Game”. This basically says that those who are judged a threat to the Church can be punished and harassed by any and all means possible.
•Because of this, they have no moral qualms about having their members lie in court which they use to defend themselves from lawsuits or charges that they’ve broken the law and also to help win lawsuits against their enemies. •They essentially spied on and stole information from the IRS and tried to frame the mayor of Clearwater Florida for a hit and run.
•Scientology filed 50 different lawsuits in one year against the Cult Awareness Network, an anti-cult organization. Using false testimony they won one of the suits and because the organization couldn’t pay the fine Scientology took the organizations name and logo so if you were calling to get out of Scientology you’d be unknowingly telling Scientology of your intentions. (For full transparency my mom was a member of the Cult Awareness Network before it was taken over and was sued individually by the Church of Scientology)
•Scientology has an official branch known as the Sea Org, a mixture between a paramilitary group and slavery, comprised of their most dedicated members including many children/teens who’ve been raised in Scientology. This is where some of the most rampant and terrifying abuse in Scientology occurs.
•Sea Org members often work over 100 hours a week for Scientology for around 2$ per hour.
•Sea Org member’s living conditions are terrible; they live in overcrowded communal rooms with up to 12 other people, are not given healthcare unless there is a free clinic in the area, often are forced to miss meals or sleep in order to successfully completed their work.
•Several former Sea Org members have accused the church of physical abuse. •Sea Org members may not have children and women who have become pregnant have reportedly been forced/coerced by their higher-ups to have abortions.
•Leaving Sea Org without permission automatically makes you a suppressive person, so young adults who’ve been raised in Scientology who want to leave are cut off from everyone they’ve ever known with no money or job and getting permission to leave can require 3 years of hard labor, social isolation, and group pressure.
it’s one of the scariest “religions” you’ll ever meet if not THE scariest because it was PURPOSELY created to make money. unlike most cults that do have some seed of genuine belief however twisted and off base the founders are, scientology was never a belief system - it was a get rich quick scheme for a terrible hack author who saw that there was more money to be made in manipulating people into a cult and then not letting them leave. higher and higher levels of scientology, which you have to take to be truly “clear” aka free of evil spirits, will cost you thousands and even millions of dollars. they will literally hook you into a billion year contract and then pursue you for any money you “owe” them, thousands of “back fees” for their religious training, if you try to leave.
stay the fuck away from anything marked scientology or dianetics. narconon (NOT the same as narcotics anonymous, the 12 step program) is also their thing. never even step FOOT into one of their free dianetics “auditing sessions” because they will use it to manipulate you into joining. they are incredibly persistent and will use every trick in the book to get you on board.
scientology: not even once.
Off the top of my head, a non-exhaustive list of “Brand Names” used by Scientology:
Narconon
Dianetics
Associate of Better Living and Education (ABLE)
Criminon
Applied Scholastics
Delphi Schools
The Way to Happiness Foundation
Author Service Inc.
Bridge Publications Inc.
Golden Era Productions
New Era Publications
Citizens Commission on Human Rights
The National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice
Do not join any of the organizations. Do not work with them. Do not use their materials. Do not give them your money. Do not sign any documents.
^^^^
I can add nothing to this post except to say that this is true. I’ve crossed paths with these people several times. It’s a fascinating and terrible psychological control.
Took notes on Scientology from a public speaker and regrettably this is very true, based on the research done afterwards. But I think the obvious tell is the fact that the speaker began by explaining for 20 minutes straight about how “Scientology is not evil. It’s not a cult. People are just wrong and stupid.” Anyway if you have to preface your speech with a multitude of reasons why people shouldn’t think your belief system is god awful, then you may have a problem.
I fucking heard a commerical for them on a fairly popular radio station and am absolute appalled
I’ve heard them, too, and they’ve set up their own TV channel as well.
Particular PSA for the Tumblr crowd as I know there’s a lot of creators on here: They’re also behind the “Writers of the Future” and “Illustrators of the Future” contests, which are run by “Author Services Inc” and “Galaxy Press” so beware of those if you’re looking to submit anything to contests
hey friends, if you care about cultural appropriation and the damage it causes, please check out this awesome project!
in 2017 dior copied the design of a traditional romanian coat from the county of bihor and sold it for 30,000 euro, giving no credit to the local artisans. in response, romanian fashion magazine beau monde helped the community create their own brand, bihor couture, which sells the original coat, handmade to order, for 500 euro a piece. they also sell other traditional clothing and jewelry for much more accessible prices (5-45 euro). they’ve been hugely successful so far, and currently have enough pre-orders to cover 4.5 years of work, with 100% of the profits returning to the community.
it’s surprisingly common for big name fashion designers like dior, gaultier, tom ford and altuzarra to copy traditional romanian clothing and sell it for ridiculous prices, with minimal original input, while giving nothing back to the community where these designs originated. it’s completely unfair that a big name designer can just steal so much hard work and misuse it to make huge profits.
please support bihor couture, if not by ordering one of their products, then by spreading the news around. it’s really awesome to see a small community fight back against cultural appropriation so successfully. i hope they carry on for a long time!
Onfim was a child who lived in Novgorod, Russia, in the 13th century. He left his notes and homework exercises scratched in soft birch bark (beresta) which was preserved in the clay soil of Novgorod. Onfim, who archaeologists believe was six or seven at the time, wrote in Old Novgorodian; besides letters and syllables, he
drew battle scenes and drawings of himself, his family, and his teacher.
[x]
Here is a picture of him as a knight stabbing someone.
(At least, he wrote his name next to the knight. Either it was supposed to be him or he was signing his masterpiece. Either way, still adorable.)
Several pictures of the original birch pieces can be found here:
[x]
i’ve seen similar ones from roman children living in what is now england, too. People have ALWAYS been people.
i love this so much, history with real people in it
see also -archeologists at hadrians wall dig up a letter from a roman soldier to his family tanking them for sending him a new pair of underwear in the mail -norse runes scattered around constantanople and several cathedrals turn out to be viking graffiti, including “this is very high” over two stories up -the oldest known joke (egyptian) and the oldest known english joke are both lowbrow sex jokes -roman gladiators had equivalents to sponsorship deals, some murals found were basically ‘gladiator brad pitt rubs himself with capelli brand olive oil, try some today’ and action figures were also found of prominent fighters for chidlren to play with -flat stone fragments left at egyptian construction sites were used as post it notes by workers, some included variations of ‘the foreman is a jerkface’ and a crude drawing of the pharoh with a comically large donger -we have an embarrassing wealth of 4,000 year old receipts referring to one specific merchant being an ass. WE KNOW HIM BY NAME, he wasnt even a king or anything,
Ea-nasir will be known through history for being a dick about refunds
I love how children, even in the 13th century, can never remember how many fingers someone has.
Oh no Ea-Nasir strikes again.
You left out the best part about the Ea-Nesir receipts! From the original post about this historic jackass:
The majority of the surviving correspondences regarding Ea-nasir
were recovered from one particular room in a building that is believed
to have been Ea-nasir’s own house.
Like, these are clay
tablets. They’re bulky, fragile, and difficult to store. They typically
weren’t kept long-term unless they contained financial records or other
vital information (which is why we have huge reams of financial data
about ancient Babylon in spite of how little we know about the actual
culture: most of the surviving tablets are commercial inventories, bills
of sale, etc.).
But this guy, this Ea-nasir, he kept all
of his angry letters - hundreds of them - and meticulously filed and
preserved them in a dedicated room in his house. What kind of guy does that?
My favorite is people who send me unsolicited dick pics and then they’re like, “uh, hi? Are you ignoring me?”
It’s just so funny to me. Like one minute I’m designing bioreactors and getting published for heat dissipation in polymers and then I open this godforsaken app to dudes hanging brain who can’t even pronounce “saponification” calling me a slut because I won’t give attention to their limp excuses for existence.
3 billion years of evolution and the greatest form of communication you can conjure up in your fermented omelet of a conscience is submitting your wrinkly ball sac to a stranger on the Internet to substitute the attention your parents never gave their mistake of an offspring.
just spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to rescue a bee stuck in our kitchen. It’s really hard when you have to climb on top of the kitchen sink to reach the open part of the window, and then need to bribe the bee into a martini glass with sugar water so you can actually lift her up to the window.
you know that feeling when you’re out in nature at 5 or 6am and everything’s still quiet and the air still smells like night time and it’s fresh so you shiver a bit but then slowly the first rays of sun peak over the edge of the earth and everything is bathed in foggy, golden light and you just stand there watching the earth awaken.. if that’s not soothing idk what is
