Spring Break
Anonymous' E-War against Scientology is ... kind of cute?
Aaron Tavena
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Ever since Tom Cruise's couch-jumping incident on "Oprah," taking a good-natured swipe at the 5-foot megastar has been a little too easy. However, when Cruise's Scientology beliefs became more newsworthy than his marriage to actress Katie Holmes, the swipes turned to claws.
Spearheaded by a hacker organization known as Anonymous, attacks toward Scientology and its practices have grown. In the past month, Anonymous has launched an e-campaign against Scientology websites; overloading their servers, black faxing Scientology offices, running up phone bills and ordering unwanted pizzas: you know, diabolical stuff like that.
The origins of Anonymous' wrath can be traced to a promotional video featuring Tom Cruise praising the joys of Scientology. A few days after the video leaked onto YouTube, the Church of Scientology ordered YouTube to remove the video for copyright infringement, which YouTube did. Gawker.com has the original video and because they claim it's newsworthy, they're not taking it down.
Because of the Church's tactic to get the video removed, Anonymous members rallied around Free Speech rights, and on January 21st, Anonymous used YouTube to declare war on Scientology. The video, which you can find here, is the cinematic equivalent of sticking out your tongue at someone. They end the video with "We Are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget." Scary …
Anonymous' D-Day fell this past Sunday, February 10th, also known as the birthday of Lisa McPherson, whose death sparked a civil wrongful death lawsuit. Critics have charged the church was responsible for her death. This past Sunday, in the United States, Britain, and Australia members of Anonymous appeared at Scientology Church offices to protest the religion's practices, some wearing Guy Fawkes masks for dramatic effect. Even Phoenix's chapter felt Anonymous' presence, with some 60 masked protesters showing up to disrupt the day-to-day business.
The whole event comes off as kind of silly, especially if you check out Anonymous' protest page, which is full of adolescent humor, poor grammar and a mish-mash of ideological reasons why Anonymous has taken up this fight. Funny enough, Anonymous has their pin-up girl to support the effort (Gas Mask Girl) and their sage advisor (Wise Beard Man). All of this adds up to a "Neener neener neener" kind of vibe.
Anonymous' campaign certainly shows that the internet gives everyone a voice and an opportunity to find like-minded people: they just use that voice to complain about everyone else.
Scientology, meanwhile, is a heavily criticized organization and this is hardly the first time that the Church suffered some sort of attack. Check out Scientology's Wiki page for the laundry list of claimed offenses. Anonymous' aspiration of ruining the religion is a tall order to fill.
But when you weigh the facts, we've got enough people in the world killing each other over their beliefs. If Anonymous wants to choose this non-violent way to wage its war, so be it. There are worse things that could happen.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 43
anonymous
posted 2/14/08 @ 1:45 PM MST
Thank you for posting an unbiased view of the current war with Scientology. Know that for years they have harassed their critics in various ways. Now, thanks to the internet, average citizens have the ability to stand up against this CULT without fear of litigious reprisals. (Continued…)
anonymous
posted 2/14/08 @ 2:54 PM MST
I think you may be misinterpreting anonymous somewhat, and not just because calling them a hacker organization is like calling facebook's users a student activist union. (Continued…)
Anon
posted 2/14/08 @ 3:08 PM MST
First of all, Anonymous is not a "hacker group," and 2 minutes on Google could have saved you from embarrassment. I can tell your article was written with little research into the actual reasons why Anonymous protests the Church of Scientology. (Continued…)
xenuanon
posted 2/14/08 @ 3:15 PM MST
Well written article, its about time that people started paying attention to this cult. They have intimidated and sued their critics ad nauseam for decades, as per their doctrine. (Continued…)
bgodley
posted 2/14/08 @ 3:57 PM MST
This "mob mentality" that the Anonymous group member spoke of earlier is in itself a dangerous proposition. Mob mentality is that collective think that has caused so much trouble, upset and bigotry throughout history. (Continued…)
John
posted 2/14/08 @ 4:03 PM MST
Oh the joy of bigots pretending to know what they're talking about. This is the epitomy of college blogging. One sided "news" stating half-facts.
Do your research please. (Continued…)
Anonymous
posted 2/14/08 @ 4:10 PM MST
So much fail. It BURNS!
Marc
posted 2/14/08 @ 4:31 PM MST
Nearly every YouTube video of every Anonymous protest clearly demonstrates the demographic of the bulk of the protesters. Several interviews including one in Texas where one protester complained "I'd rather be home watching porno than doing this. (Continued…)
ex$cn
ex$cn
posted 2/14/08 @ 4:38 PM MST
I was a true believer for 25 years. It was a great day when I finally woke up and saw what the "church" of $cientology was really about. In case you think they are harmless, think again. (Continued…)
Kristin
posted 2/14/08 @ 4:58 PM MST
bgodly, don't you get tired of copy pasting that same rant over and over again? And why do you always have to go twisting people's words around to sound all malicious all the time? Its really more like opposing sports teams' fans saying "destroy those bobcats" or whatever. (Continued…)
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