Scientology Gets Pwnd

Has the infamously litigious and ridiculously deep-pocketed Church of Scientology finally met its match? It seems a rag-tag band of hackers, bloggers and teenagers on YouTube are managing to do what the mainstream media can't: expose the church's pay-per-faith secrets and dirty laundry.

Oh, and get away with a lot of mocking, harassment and childish jokes.

FOR ME TO POOP ON.

Gawker (one of the more visible outlets that refused to listen to Scientology's growly-growls and pull down The Tom Cruise's Whackaloonery Goes Way Beyond Couch-Jumping Video) has a interesting round-up of the online fights that the church will most likely lose. Because no one ever wins fights on the Internet.

While YouTube obliged and pulled the Tom Cruise video down, dozens of copies continue to pop up, over and over, again and again. YouTube deletes it? Shuts down your account? Big effing whoop. Just create a new login and post it again. Call it "My Cat Is Sooooo Cute" and give it some phony tags, and you have successfully Stuck It To The Man. Also bugging Scientology out are the hundreds of parody videos that fall squarely into the realm of Fair Use. The Church still wants these removed, but as Gawker points out: they'd actually be taking Google (i.e. the one company that has just as big of a legal budget as they do, and who also looooove pwning questionable copyright lawsuits) to court. Good luck with that!

The Internet vigilante group "Anonymous" has just flat-out declared war on Scientology. There's a press release and everything. These folks have gone to war before, taking down some white supremacist sites and were directly responsible for getting pedo Chris Forcand arrested. They hit the church's website with denial of service attacks (as I am typing this it's still down) and are also set on creating as many PR disasters and headaches as possible.

What's probably the most interesting about all this, though, is that the beef with Scientology goes way beyond "ewwwww they're weird and aliens lol stupid church of the flying spaghetti monster omg!!1!" Which is what you'd really expect from a bunch of loser Internet people. (Or maybe that's just what Aaron Sorkin expects?)

No, the cult has been targeted in part for their truly despicable assault on free speech, and also because many people believe they are, in fact, corrupt and downright dangerous, but hide the bad stuff by just suing any media outlet that tries to report it. A lot of it surrounds their views on mental illness and psychiatric care, and evidence that many, many church members have suffered and died (and then had their deaths covered up) because of these beliefs.

From YTMND (You're the Man Now Dog, the most unlikely source for anything comprehensible), the charges are leveled. Anonymously, of course.

Ramble on about Xenu all you want, no religion gets a free pass for corruption or is exempt from honest, informed criticism. At least not now in the Internet age, anyway.

No, Scientology. You cannot has cheezburger.

Comments

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That is a crazy video on YTMND.

Posted by: Cheryl | January 22, 2008 at 01:17 PM

I can't explain why I find this so very amusing. Perhaps, it is because I can't understand how people got sucked into Scientology in the first place.

Posted by: Maria | January 22, 2008 at 01:31 PM

Oh Amalah- that last line is PERFECT. :)

Posted by: Liana | January 22, 2008 at 01:44 PM

I just finished watching that video on ymtnd and you guys? Scaaaary stuff. Eek.

Posted by: Liana | January 22, 2008 at 01:53 PM

Oh. I can't believe you're still mad at Aaron Sorkin!

Posted by: Laura | January 22, 2008 at 02:22 PM

Who is that "Eric" guy at the end?

Posted by: AmyC65 | January 22, 2008 at 03:33 PM

There is a video on tmz.com of Jerry O'Connell doing a spoof on the nine-minute Tom Cruise video. It is HYSTERICAL. I have never been a fan of Jerry O'Connell... I really couldn't stand him... until today when I saw that video. He's now my favorite actor.

Posted by: emily | January 22, 2008 at 07:37 PM

creepiest video ever.

Posted by: emily | January 22, 2008 at 07:47 PM

I was actually born and raised in Scientology. I am still figuring out how it's going to fit into my life, but it is very disturbing to me to have this gleeful pile-on by people who really have no personal information or experience with Scientology.

There are some things about Scientology that I'm sure look strange from the outside -- some look strange to me too! like that Tom Cruise video is pretty crazy looking -- but some of the happiest, most successful people I know are Scientologists and they DO do a lot of good. Scientology just gives you a way to be happier, basically. It's not some crazy evil thing. Talk to a Scientologist. You might be surprised. You don't have to like it, but you can at least understand it.

Posted by: April | January 22, 2008 at 11:35 PM