Never mind. Caroline is good on her DOX so no doubt will clarify at some stage.
I should have just linked to
post #340, where Jquepublic devalues Rathbun's black PR as a "PR circus."
It's not Rathbun's PR circus that hurts or is intended to hurt. It's his black PR circus. It's the malignant or black Scientology circus, where the intention to hurt is performed.
Black PR or bullying is nothing fun or happy. It is painful for the people being bullied, and I can see that it can also be painful for some onlookers. It can even cause people to do or say uncourageous things to make the pain of onlooking go away.
That whole Black PR buzz does my head in. I see how its practitioners seek to obscure their behaviour by claiming its criticism, or fair comment, or opinion, or a heat of the moment shit fight, or whatever. Only a few people need to be babmboozled by a fallacious redefinition of terms. Much of the on-going dialogue then devolves into endless petty squabbles about definition of terms and subtle shifts in the texture of the millieu as sides are taken. Meanwhile, the Black PR keeps on keeping on: a little comment here, a certain phrase there, the repetition of particular words, the mention of a name in context - and all of it carefully assessed beforehand as likely to hurt the "target". Relentless and distracting because it inhibits genuine criticism, and opinion, and all that other good stuff.
Thank you for the tight summary, Infinite.
In addition to redefining black PR as criticism, argument, opinion, etc., a whole wave of black PR can be redefined as "grudge match." Degrading that black PR here to "grudge match" is more black PR against the target or victim, and, of course, made hiding the black PR wave out of public view "desirable," even "needful."
As the dialogue devolves through intentional communication actions -- lies, pretended ignorance, ignoring, obfuscation, banalities, derails, ad hominems, insults, insouciance, etc. -- confusion, the fog of war, is generated. In this fog, dupes can join the bullies, who claim in the fog to have a clear view of the real enemy -- the persons they are clearly bullying. A black PR action, like redefining the black PR as a grudge match and hiding it away, can get enormous thanks, both from the active black propagandists, and apparent dupes, who if the bullies had not so royally fogged them up might see better.
Hubbard had a rule for the human weakness for joining in the bullying, black PRing or targeting of a person, "The bank follows the line of attack." The black propagandists here know they are manipulating minds on a regressed, group level to get people to follow their line of attack, and do something to forward or strengthen the black PR, such as calling it criticism, a grudge match, etc., giving a thumb up for hiding it away from public view. When the target's image has been degraded to beast level, and enough "banks" have joined the attack, then it's safe to just go all the way in and obliterate him. And graciously receive all the thanks and thumbs up for the sterling work. (Ref.
Battle Tactics.)
What Scientology's victims need for healing is empowerment, which requires a rebalancing of power, not a further imbalancing of power through further black PR campaigns. Hiding the work of the bullies disempowers the bullied further. The Scientologists' victims should know what they are going to get here on ESMB.
Judith Herman said:
THE CORE EXPERIENCES of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Recovery, therefore, is based upon the empowerment of the survivor and the creation of new connections. Recovery can take place only within the context of relationships; it cannot occur in isolation. In her renewed connections with other people, the survivor re-creates the psychological faculties that were damaged or deformed by the traumatic experience. These faculties include the basic capacities for trust, autonomy, initiative, competence, identity, and intimacy. 1 Just as these capabilities are originally formed in relationships with other people, they must be reformed in such relationships.
Herman, J. (1992) Trauma and Recovery. Basic Books.
The Steve Hall Facebook documents show that in Martyworld, Scientology's most expert black propagandists actively work to create a power imbalance in their favor, and to disempower their enemies, just as relentlessly as when they were corporate Scientologists. Arguably more so, as the Indie Scientologists are recruiting a lot of new support in the Martyworld protection racket.