Gwangi Valley - Lost Blog of the Gwangi

It’s an open secret that the Church of Scientology’s first defense against criticism is to attack the person criticizing and ignore the criticism (their now-dead leader L. Ron Hubbard told them to always attack, never defend). And usually this attack is aimed not at defusing the criticism, but at intimidating the criticizer so forcefully and personally that they will crawl away and never speak up again. If they can be harassed so well that they denounce their previous critique, perfect. If not, they’ll simply be painted as a coward who obviously could not back up their words and has slunk off to whatever dark corner they’re described as having come from. Scientology tech victorious.

But what happens when there is no individual to harass? What does the cult do when plan B, involve the police or courts through whatever means necessary, has no tangible boogie man to subpoena or investigate? The cult’s entire M.O. has centered for years on this ability to smear, defame, intimidate and, as Hubbard pronounced, destroy it’s human enemies — those who would speak out against them in public. Now, suddenly, like a troupe of jesters turned cavalry, Anonymous appears on the scene and, in the name of fun, turns out to be the cult’s worst nightmare. A nightmare they never saw coming. The perfect antibody for a one-trick virus that just won’t go away.

Surely You’re Joking
Let’s be clear; Anonymous’s protest of Scientology started out as a sort of joke, a way to make fun of a ridiculous group whose non-sensical beliefs were the fodder for so many jokes on Fark and YouTube and Slashdot and the like. Some jokers wanted to take this joke live, and Anonymous was born. Knowing that the CoS is notorious for harassing and smearing those who they see as enemies, often hiring private investigators to follow people and dig up dirt — keeping long long lists of enemies that are distributed to cult staff, Anonymous urged those who planned to protest to wear masks so that the cult could not photograph them and try to persecute them. This, coupled with their ability to form seemingly out of nothing, from their target’s POV, on the Internet made them formidable. The joke was on, they’d point out this noxious cult loudly and with much farty noise-making and then… who knows. Maybe they’d move on to somehting else. Maybe it would all just dissolve.

But, fortunately, before this force could be wasted on a mere single joke,ev en as good as that joke was likely to be, those who had been fighting Scientology for years popped up and asked Anonymous to also consider going one step further; protesting and doing ‘the right thing’, but also doing it for the right reasons: to expose the CoS for what it was, a dangerous cult and to keep at them. Anonymous was a force for change which Scientology never saw coming. All their tactics were tied up in Hubbard’s old school strong-arm tactics. Anonymous was immune to that.

Mission: Wise Beard Man
And the organizers and early planners listened. When Mark Bunker, of xenutv.com, a long-time crusader against the cult who recognized the power that Anonymous wielded, asked them to go ahead and have fun and enjoy themselves, but to avoid any and all acts which the cult could use as propaganda against them (no serious hijinks or violence, basically). Anonymous applauded and adopted Bunker, calling him Wise Beard Man, and made sure to let everyone know that they planned to protest in a civil and responsible manner… but still wear funny masks and signs. Wise Beard Man’s words were wise. And his face was beard.

Today saw Anonymous’s second round of protests all around the world. It was held on L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday, much to the cult’s consternation as they hold events as well, just as the first was held on Lisa McPherson’s birthday. McPherson, who died while being held in the cult’s Clearwater hotel/base, has become a symbol for how dangerous the cult can really be. Today’s protests were also peaceful and, despite much noise from the cult asking for court injunctions against a bunch of kids in plastic masks, and some dubious bomb scares which some are saying were orchestrated by the CoS, Wise Beard Man’s wise words have helped Anonymous to become something more powerful than they ever expected:

An accidental cure for a festering disease called Scientology.

I salute the accidental (and intentional) genius of Anonymous. My suspicion is that your next move is to take the story to the celebrities who fund and endorse the church with their name. A noble cause. Maybe I’ll see you there.

Ella Rache

Read more about the cult’s beliefs and activities (including destroying careers, families and lives) at:
Xenu TV (xenutv.com)
Operation Clambake (xenu.net)
Wikipedia.org

UPDATE: While reading through the Oliver documents, I found a section which backs up my contention that the CoS is hobbled by their dogma. In their investigations officer full hat checksheet (page 6) in a clay demo exercise you’ll find, “The goal of the department is to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by high level ability to control and in its absence by low level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies…”

Following this is a demo section outlining how to do just that. Note b. and c. in particular:

a. “If it’s a group problem, find the key person and influence him.”
b. “If it’s nebulously about a group without any mention of a key person, discard it.”
c. “Only data about individuals is valid for use.”
d “Only action upon individuals is productive.”
e. “Forget they Find him or her.”
f. “Use Scientology to resolve individual problems.”
g. “Never abandon an attack until you have found and contacted the key person. Then apply Scientology.”
h. “Get volunteer Scientologists interested in this game and helping.”

As you can see, their M.O. is to find individuals to go after. They aren’t meant to go after nebulous groups. But, with Anonymous, there is not “him or her”. There is only ‘them’. You can see why so many cult members were trying to get pictures or names of protestors (well, that and the judge who had their attempt at a restraining order told them to sod off unless they could provide actual names, not some nebulous group). As the kids say these days, “Epic fail.” This sort of attack can’t work against Anonymous, and Scientologists can’t just make up new tactics. These are the words of Ron. That would be like asking and evangelical Christian to add a new commandment (Scientologists call anyone who changes Hubbard’s “tech” a “squirrel”. You can’t “squirrel the tech”. Hubbard’s word is, for all intents and purposes, scripture.)

Against Anonymous, the cult is hobbled by the ‘tech’, not empowered by it.