Claire Swazey
Spokeshole, fence sitter
I've been reading Pook's posts with great interest, I know she makes some valid points, as she always does. I also had been signed up for Trainspotting and for the Ex Scientologist Message Bored- before I quit them. So I saw some of the stuff.
I know that OSA tries to disrupt critical venues. They hate every ex member, they hate critics of any sort, and that's mainly because they perceive enemies everywhere except in the mirror. Truth to tell, though, they don't like their own people. They don't even like the church members who are toeing the line. There's no love in COfS anywhere and that's why it's so easy for them to be so hateful.
Plus,nothing gets a supposedly righteous man or woman (which I mean in the ironic sense as in "We all know Brutus was an honorable man") going like a scapegoat or witch hunt.
But consider this-- much of the heartache and angst caused by human beings is not the result of OSA staff/operatives, or their counterparts (if it's a non Scn venue). No, we do a lot of this to each other.
Most of us including myself have made many friends here (and in some cases, again, like mine, on other forums). There also have been some enmities formed. Not every flame war indicates enmity, but there have been enmities formed in some cases. Some were only short term, some long term.
It wasn't OSA. It's people's infinite capacity to hurt others. I'd feel bad about it except that I honestly feel that our capacity to hurt others (and ourselves) stems from the same wellspring of our capacity to help and make others feel good. It's all free will and it's all our own intentions. Those things that make us act like shitheads are the same phenomena that cause us to be noble and good. So there's a yin yang balance. And that's why I'm OK with it. This is not a post about woe is me, or gee, you're picking on my friend.
Situations can be salvaged plus we can control how we ourselves feel about things. Also, more importantly, there's a lot more constructive, informative, fun, interesting, bantering, loving and charming communication here than the destructive sort.
But on those occasions where it hasn't been constructive, IMO, it generally wasn't OSA. We're more than capable of doing it ourselves and that's where just about every enmity on this board or any other critical venue has originated.
Ourselves.
I know that OSA tries to disrupt critical venues. They hate every ex member, they hate critics of any sort, and that's mainly because they perceive enemies everywhere except in the mirror. Truth to tell, though, they don't like their own people. They don't even like the church members who are toeing the line. There's no love in COfS anywhere and that's why it's so easy for them to be so hateful.
Plus,nothing gets a supposedly righteous man or woman (which I mean in the ironic sense as in "We all know Brutus was an honorable man") going like a scapegoat or witch hunt.
But consider this-- much of the heartache and angst caused by human beings is not the result of OSA staff/operatives, or their counterparts (if it's a non Scn venue). No, we do a lot of this to each other.
Most of us including myself have made many friends here (and in some cases, again, like mine, on other forums). There also have been some enmities formed. Not every flame war indicates enmity, but there have been enmities formed in some cases. Some were only short term, some long term.
It wasn't OSA. It's people's infinite capacity to hurt others. I'd feel bad about it except that I honestly feel that our capacity to hurt others (and ourselves) stems from the same wellspring of our capacity to help and make others feel good. It's all free will and it's all our own intentions. Those things that make us act like shitheads are the same phenomena that cause us to be noble and good. So there's a yin yang balance. And that's why I'm OK with it. This is not a post about woe is me, or gee, you're picking on my friend.
Situations can be salvaged plus we can control how we ourselves feel about things. Also, more importantly, there's a lot more constructive, informative, fun, interesting, bantering, loving and charming communication here than the destructive sort.
But on those occasions where it hasn't been constructive, IMO, it generally wasn't OSA. We're more than capable of doing it ourselves and that's where just about every enmity on this board or any other critical venue has originated.
Ourselves.