Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media.(static)
Ed Brayton also blogs at Positive Liberty and The Panda's Thumb
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Posted on: March 27, 2008 9:02 AM, by Ed Brayton
Radar Online has an interesting look at the recent protests against Scientology by the group Anonymous. I hadn't heard about all the high level defections from Scientology lately, but that should be explosive. Hope those folks have good attorneys. Doug Stanhope has a line on his latest DVD where he talks about all the material he's done about Christianity and Islam, "and I'll be doing more Scientology bashing once I've got a stronger legal team in place."
View the Technorati Link Cosmos for this entry
Comments
For more breaking news on Anon vs Co$, check http://youfoundthecard.com/
Enturbulation.org is down often due to major traffic.
14 days and 23 hours to next global protest.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 28, 2008 5:00 AM
As one of your regulars, Ed, Thanks for posting this.
Fascinating reading is fascinating.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 28, 2008 8:53 AM
The article is very soft on Anonymous. Here is one post from the time of their DOS attacks on feminist websites last year. Note the deeply abusive language.
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/08/09/what-do-we-do-about-online-harassment/
Posted by: NotAnonymous | March 28, 2008 10:50 AM
Going to that "youfoundthecard" link was like getting lost in rabbit hole of ick. Paranoid, insane, fascist, bad sunglass-wearing ick. I've only read bits and peices of the Scientology saga, but that Paulette Cooper was just unbelievable. I want to say that I can't believe people would behave so reprehensibly, but of course we all know how silly that is.
Posted by: Leni | March 28, 2008 11:59 PM
Hi Ed,
Please do weigh in on the subject of Anonymous versus the Church of Scientology. I think you'll find that oddly enough, the initial actions of the lawless and irreverent channers has given rise to a lawful and very targeted campaign to expose the illegal actions of the pseudoscientific self-help scheme that masquerades as a religion. However, as a fellow skeptic, of course I urge you to come to your own conclusions with the wealth of evidence out there.
It's a fascinating subject -- both the long-deserved exposure of Scientology's underbelly, and the rise of this army of unaffiliated individuals forming into some sort of hive mind. "NotAnonymous" above doesn't get it. The post assumes that all who reserve anonymity and oppose the actions of the "church" necessarily coincide with the anonymous individuals who much earlier took exception to certain feminist sites. As a very liberated woman, and an anonymous one, I disagree.
We're all anonymous, until we're not.
Have at it! Looking forward to your take on it!
Posted by: Libby | April 8, 2008 12:49 AM