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Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

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Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#111

Post by MikeCapone »

StavrosK wrote: post #73
Spooky23 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually people distinguish a cult from a mainstream religion based on the level of control that the movement exerts over its members.

Don't mainstream religions exert a lot of control over some of their members too? I'm not very comfortable with fundamentalists of any religion... I'm not defending Scientology, but the line between "cult" and "religion" seems a bit blurry.

Religions exert as much control as they can. Christianity used to be much more powerful in the West and controlled everything, as Islam does in some countries. Churches don't give up control willingly, it's taken away from them by external factors..

Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#112

Post by pyre »

tptacek wrote: post #110
rondon1 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gay Marriage is also illegal in many places, but that doesn't make it wrong.

Oh. I see. We have unjust laws, therefore, everyone should be entitled to use coercion to enforce their personal morals and ethics. Good plan. What could possibly go wrong with it? After all, everyone capable of coercing us of anything must share our morals and ethics.

I think the post you were responding to was just nit-picking the logic that illegal == immoral (or wrong). I don't see anything in that post that states what you are railing against here.

Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#113

Post by rsanchez1 »

MultiRRomero wrote: post #20

Am I the only one who doesn't find this all that positive? I already think scientology is bad/evil/dangerous, and I think that illegally getting access to their secrets might make the opposition (us) look worse in the public eye. Everybody has dirty secrets, both sides, and it's a bit low to go after the other side's private emails. It'd be much easier to fight/debate against their public image, which is easy enough,…

I just think it was a waste of time. I guess they had to find an easy target, and they probably did it for the lulz (which is a douche move, but it's their MO).

Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#114

Post by anamax »

sidcool wrote: post #63
ma2rten wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scientology is not regarded a religion everywhere. In Germany it is considered a cult instead and it is even on a government watchlist. As students we were warned about it in school. EDIT: I was just looking at Scientology's (English) Wikipedia page and came across this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scientology_warning_leafle... . I though it would illustrate my point. Those are three government-issued leaflets w…

In America here, it's a state recognized religion with a Church of their own. Hell, Tom Cruise is a Scientologist. That cult is a money hoarding organization. I wish this hack attack happened in America.

> In America here, it's a state recognized religion with a Church of their own.

So what? There a lots of state recognized religions, and it doesn't mean much. (The state of CA recognizes weddings performed by folks who bought their "ministership" from an advert in Rolling Stone.)

> Hell, Tom Cruise is a Scientologist.

Again - so what?

Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#115

Post by rsanchez1 »

tptacek wrote: post #109
MultiRRomero wrote: post #20

Am I the only one who doesn't find this all that positive? I already think scientology is bad/evil/dangerous, and I think that illegally getting access to their secrets might make the opposition (us) look worse in the public eye. Everybody has dirty secrets, both sides, and it's a bit low to go after the other side's private emails. It'd be much easier to fight/debate against their public image, which is easy enough,…

You're not the only one. The "hacktivism" trend is not going to work out the way Internet activists want it to; instead, it's just going to associate legitimate advocacy with criminality (and, for what it's worth: advocating against a criminal conspiracy wearing the garb of a religion is a legit target for adversary). What exactly is gained by targeting an organization already famously good at playing the victim game…

They're just adding fuel to the fire.

Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#117

Post by Karunamon »

Karunamon wrote: post #92
drivingmenuts wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rescinding previous comment and dropping out of this argument. I don't have a dog in this hunt nor do I care to.

>Or are you operating on hearsay? Oh for pete's sake. Go read up on Lisa McPherson and Operation Snow White. There are plenty of legitimate and documented reasons to hate Scientology, not one of which is because they hoard money.

Aside: Let your comments stand and take your knocks. Deleting a comment after it's been responded to is weak.

Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#118

Post by aj700 »

Can someone alert the relevant authorities of Germany. Yes, they may have already noticed this. But: Kann ein deutscher Sprecher mitteilen, Bundesnachrichtendienst und BfV.

http://www.bnd.bund.de/EN/__Home/Startseite/startseite__node...

http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/en/index_en.html

A least one country takes the threat seriously.

Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#119

Post by jmyc »

javajosh wrote: post #51
dfc wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Au contraire? Respectfully, in my opinion sitting back and hoping someone else has the motivation to be inquisitive/curious is counter to the spirit of HN. Furthermore as others have pointed out (as well as myself in another thread) CoS has deep pockets and I imagine that serves as a decent motivation for big media to not publish the incident.

I think the underlying message here is that Scientology is a lot more interesting to you than it is to me! Honestly, I care about global warming a lot more and yet I didn't take much time to sift through the "Climategate" emails in detail[1]. I also care about Linux security, and yet I've not done an audit of the kernel I'm currently running. I also care about the federal tax code, and have certainly not taken the ti…

From your link, "Eight committees investigated the allegations and published reports, finding no evidence of fraud or scientific misconduct" (concerning the "climategate" e-mails).

By hearing the cherry-picked quotes from those e-mails, you could get the impression that they're full of fraud, but now that the dust has settled and the investigations have been made, do you really think they're disgusting?

I think this example is counter to your point. The initial media reaction gave the complete wrong impression, and the later findings that the story is nonsense went completely unreported.

Re: Anonymous Austria leaks 2.8 GB Scientology Emails

#120

Post by slurgfest »

sidcool wrote: post #63
ma2rten wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scientology is not regarded a religion everywhere. In Germany it is considered a cult instead and it is even on a government watchlist. As students we were warned about it in school. EDIT: I was just looking at Scientology's (English) Wikipedia page and came across this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scientology_warning_leafle... . I though it would illustrate my point. Those are three government-issued leaflets w…

In America here, it's a state recognized religion with a Church of their own. Hell, Tom Cruise is a Scientologist. That cult is a money hoarding organization. I wish this hack attack happened in America.

Name a major religion which is not (or does not contain) money hoarding organizations
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