I think it's always wonderful to have a thread that acknowledged Paulette Cooper as a hero. When I think about what they did to that woman, my blood boils. Short of being killed, she paid the ultimate price a journalist can pay.
I contacted her after reading about her story and she was very gracious. Remember, Scientology didn't just "fight back" against her criticism, they tried to destroy her completely. They sent people to intimidate her with guns, they tried to frame her and send her to prison using her fingerprints against federal agencies and there is a strong possibility that they sent a man to date her who was planning to kill her and make it look like a suicide, but she got away in time.
There is that story about the two of them on the roof on her East Side apartment where there was a swimming pool. One night under the stars, he asks her to join him on the balcony. She starts to come over to him and suddenly gets a terrified feeling and steps away, going back downstairs. If I remember correctly - he disappeared completely soon after that. Later, it was discovered, through OSA files on her that this man was a spy, because there were things in the file she had only shared with him in confidence.
If this story is true, and all the countless others - is this really "fair game" against a journalist who writes a book that is unfavorable to the church - to have her killed?
There will always be people like Balthesar, I'm afraid. They are the family members who ask the rape victim or incest survivor, what did you do to provoke the abuse, what were you wearing and how did you lead him on?
I've shared before that I had a history teacher who basically suggested that American Slavery wasn't that bad in the end. At least it got Africans to the New World for free - without having to book a travel agent. Revisionists who would rather alter history than face an ugly reality. Hey, not many people know this, but some concentration camps actually had miniature golf and bingo nights! "The gas chamber" was really just Nazi code that the cook was making chili for lunch. Yeah, right.
Blaming the victim is a psychological process that people embrace as a way of coping with trauma. It is the deepest form of self-betrayal. Instead of saying, Daddy beats me and Mom because he's sick and an alcoholic, the mind says instead, "If I had only cleaned my room, If mom had only had dinner ready on time, Daddy wouldn't hurt us."
The fact is, Balthesar is someone to pity more than anything. And threads like this, and there have been a lot of them for some reason by the usual suspects, are really pathetic because the truth is they can't stop anything.
Scientology as an institution will be held accountable, as will LRH's legacy and David Miscavige's brutality. And no amount of foolishness, attention getting, provocative, devil's advocate posts, defending the bully over the victim, is going to any of stop that.
It's just that in the age, where so many issues related to bullying are being profiled in the media, it seems obscene to stand by a bully over a victim in a forum like this where so many people are trying to uncover the truth and heal. But the fact is, LRH was a bully and so is DM.
We all pick our sides in life. Balthesar has chosen his. I'm on Paulette Cooper's.