Marguerite Bennett's Blog, page 6
November 19, 2017
"Let’s do an exercise. Think about your workplace. Think about the men in it. Which one of those men..."
The women reading this probably have a name on hand. Perhaps more than one.
I like to ask men this question though. It usually flusters them. Almost every time they get blustery and say, “oh surely my workplace doesn’t have one we have lots of women on staff we are very welcoming, I’ve never heard of anything like that in my office.” If that was your reaction, stop. You’re almost certainly wrong. If you work in science publishing or podcasting, I can probably name your office’s creep. If you work elsewhere, I’m sure the women in your field have a similar list. You just don’t know who it is because the women in your field haven’t deemed you trustworthy enough to tell.
So men, I’m tired of hearing about how shocked you are every time something like this comes up. Because at what point does this stop being shocking to you? How many stories like this do you have to hear or read about before you get past being shocked?
When you tell me you’re shocked, what I hear is: “I have chosen to forget all the other stories I’ve heard about this from women.” Or, perhaps: “I have chosen not to actually listen to any of the women who have told me these stories.” Or, perhaps you’re the creep, and you’re simply shocked that one of your own got caught.”
- The Last Word On Nothing | Stop Being Shocked Please (via brutereason)
Important Warning Please Read and Share
So Scientology has recently been purchasing ad spots on social media sites including Twitter and Facebook. Scientology has always worked hard to recruit young people it seems like they’re investing in social media as well now. I know most people think Scientology is a joke but it’s a seriously dangerous cult which uses fear, extortion, violence, vandalism and various other unethical actions against those who oppose them both inside and outside the church. Here is key information on the abuses committed by Scientology:
•Scientology uses a form of pseudo-therapy called auditing which focuses largely on embarrassing and traumatic memories. Scientology collects the information you share and uses that information to threaten you if you oppose the church. They also charge huge amounts of money for auditing sessions (which is why they really are doing all this).
•They are extremely anti-psychology and psychiatry and pressure you against taking any antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication or any other drugs for mental health.
•They believe homosexuality can be “cured” and are blatantly homophobic. •Enemies of the church are labeled “suppressive persons” and it is forbidden to communicate with such people. This isn’t just to limit the negative press they receive but also is a manipulative tool. If you are in the cult and decide to leave or criticize the church you stand the risk of being completely cut off from your friends and family. “Suppressive Persons” are often also harassed, stalked, or threatened.
•If you’re new to Scientology and your family or friends are worried about you being in a cult you’re instructed to cut them out of your life, increasing your reliance on the support system (though there’s nothing supportive about it) the church give to you.
•Scientology’s doctrine includes the concept of “Fair Game”. This basically says that those who are judged a threat to the Church can be punished and harassed by any and all means possible.
•Because of this, they have no moral qualms about having their members lie in court which they use to defend themselves from lawsuits or charges that they’ve broken the law and also to help win lawsuits against their enemies. •They essentially spied on and stole information from the IRS and tried to frame the mayor of Clearwater Florida for a hit and run.
•Scientology filed 50 different lawsuits in one year against the Cult Awareness Network, an anti-cult organization. Using false testimony they won one of the suits and because the organization couldn’t pay the fine Scientology took the organizations name and logo so if you were calling to get out of Scientology you’d be unknowingly telling Scientology of your intentions. (For full transparency my mom was a member of the Cult Awareness Network before it was taken over and was sued individually by the Church of Scientology)
•Scientology has an official branch known as the Sea Org, a mixture between a paramilitary group and slavery, comprised of their most dedicated members including many children/teens who’ve been raised in Scientology. This is where some of the most rampant and terrifying abuse in Scientology occurs.
•Sea Org members often work over 100 hours a week for Scientology for around 2$ per hour.
•Sea Org member’s living conditions are terrible; they live in overcrowded communal rooms with up to 12 other people, are not given healthcare unless there is a free clinic in the area, often are forced to miss meals or sleep in order to successfully completed their work.
•Several former Sea Org members have accused the church of physical abuse. •Sea Org members may not have children and women who have become pregnant have reportedly been forced/coerced by their higher-ups to have abortions.
•Leaving Sea Org without permission automatically makes you a suppressive person, so young adults who’ve been raised in Scientology who want to leave are cut off from everyone they’ve ever known with no money or job and getting permission to leave can require 3 years of hard labor, social isolation, and group pressure.
thie above is 100% true. one of my friends has scientology and other cults as a special interest. there are hundreds of pages of documentation of their abuse that you can publicly read about.
it’s one of the scariest “religions” you’ll ever meet if not THE scariest because it was PURPOSELY created to make money. unlike most cults that do have some seed of genuine belief however twisted and off base the founders are, scientology was never a belief system - it was a get rich quick scheme for a terrible hack author who saw that there was more money to be made in manipulating people into a cult and then not letting them leave. higher and higher levels of scientology, which you have to take to be truly “clear” aka free of evil spirits, will cost you thousands and even millions of dollars. they will literally hook you into a billion year contract and then pursue you for any money you “owe” them, thousands of “back fees” for their religious training, if you try to leave.
oh and it has literally driven people to suicide as part of its goal to keep “suppressive persons” from spreading information. someone even made a fucking song about its abuses.
stay the fuck away from anything marked scientology or dianetics. narconon (NOT the same as narcotics anonymous, the 12 step program) is also their thing. never even step FOOT into one of their free dianetics “auditing sessions” because they will use it to manipulate you into joining. they are incredibly persistent and will use every trick in the book to get you on board.
scientology: not even once.
Oh… more to add: Scientology rejects folks with a disability(-ities) from ever becoming a member of Scientology.
So that’s a good thing. *snark*
That’s somewhat true, one of the issues is that they believe Scientology can “fix” certain disabilities especially mental health, learning disabilities and even substance abuse. The issue is they reject actual medical treatments or therapies that could help people and so not only do they take neuroatypical people off their meds/medical treatments/therapy, they put in place “treatments” that are unscientific, they can be hugely abusive, and once a member has been “cured” they are gaslit if they continue to have issues.
They also are super bad to queer people and have used outing people as a tactic to silence dissenters.
They will also masquerade as queer-friendly (scientologist laura prepon has made statements on this saying the church accepts queer folk, while ex scientologist paul haggis explicitly left in order to protect his queer daughters)
nurseyxbitty:
what-even-is-thiss:
Yesterday my dad told me something that I think maybe more...
Yesterday my dad told me something that I think maybe more people need to hear.
You’re allowed to just do things for fun.
He told me that in this modern society, especially the United States, we seem to have this attitude that we shouldn’t do something unless we’re aiming to be the best at it. If we can’t sing like Beyonce or Frank Sinatra or something there’s no point to singing. If we can’t make the next big breakthrough there’s no point in looking into mechanics and engineering.
But, he tells me, it took him a long time to figure out that life doesn’t have to be a race. If you want to take up the piano when you’re a teenager or later you’re not going to master it. You’re not going to be able to play to huge concert halls, but that also shouldn’t stop you. You can study a language out of curiosity and then drop the ball if you want. You can just get okay at something or even be terrible at it. You can drop it for days or years and then pick it up again and it doesn’t have to be a shameful thing.
I’m really glad he told me that because today I opened my sketchpad for the first time in months and just started drawing. And it looks terrible. But I don’t care. I don’t have the talent or patience or spacial awareness to get anywhere near good at drawing, but it’s fun. It helps me focus my mind and nobody has to see it.
And because of what he told me, I’m thinking maybe someday soon I will take up the bass guitar. And I won’t worry about how well I do, or how fast I learn, or that I haven’t played an instrument since sixth grade, or that I don’t have that much time to practice. I’m just gonna enjoy the experience. Maybe I’ll try swing dancing again and take a class because I’m not the best dancer but damn if it isn’t fun.
Yeah, you don’t have to be good at things. It’s not a requirement. Maybe that seems obvious but it had never occurred to me before. You’re allowed to just enjoy what you’re doing. For me, that feels like a life changing revelation. I don’t have to be good at something to like it. I don’t have to put 100% effort into everything I do. It’s kind of amazing.
i love this post and i love you
November 18, 2017
ellidfics:
sarahthecoat:
caledoniaseries:
unauthorized-magic:
...
This thread is so good.
THIS. ^^
As a folklorist, this kind of thing bothers the hell out of me. So much of what people think of as ancient is Victorian era or newer. Or just wildly inaccurate, really.
WOW, thanks for this thread! 1) i very much appreciate the careful discernment between what people think now, how we conceptualize things, vs how people thought and conceptualized at various times in the past, and 2) i find it fascinating to look at how and why that changes.
TBH, I’d like to know what Ronald Hutton says about this. He’s the actual scholar and has devoted his career to researching the roots of modern paganism.
sashayed:
me: i feel strongly that everything is bad. all evidence supports this conclusion.
my...
me: i feel strongly that everything is bad. all evidence supports this conclusion.
my cat: hm. i have counterpoint
me: impossible. what is it.
my cat:
me, voice trembling: ᵍᵒᵒᵈ ᵖᵒᶦⁿᵗ
radioactive-dingo:
fiore-della-valle:
gutterballgt:
thebobblehat:
ifuckingquit-will:
2spoopycas:...
shout out to everyone who lives in a country where nobody gives a shit about halloween
Shout out to America for having such a bomb ass holiday. Halloween is the shit.
Look man, we don’t have good healthcare, our education system’s about to crash and burn, and people are still fucking arguing over Darwin. Give us Halloween.
Let us revel in imaginary monsters. We have too goddamn many real ones to be scared of the rest of the year.
I was thinking about this today, and why Halloween is my favorite holiday, and I realized something. Halloween better exemplifies the idea of community, charity, and celebration than I have /ever/ seen Christmas or Thanksgiving do. I am expected to open my door to strangers- lots of them, waves of them, most of them children. Some are my neighbors, some are not, and either way, I am expected to greet them with joy and feed them. And maybe it’s only a token, but everybody who comes to my door on Halloween is given /something/. Halloween is a celebration where community is literally taken door to door, and it is far more secular- and thus far more inclusive- than Christmas, and far less politically squicky than Thanksgiving. Also, seriously, how can anyone be grouchy about a holiday that gives kids a chance to dress up, be playful, wander around for a while, and get treats? We need /more/ celebrations like this, everywhere.
It’s also nice that there’s literally none of the loaded familial and social obligation that comes with other holidays. You don’t have to do jack shit for Halloween if you don’t want to and literally nobody is going to think less of you for it.
alexalexalexalex:
meladoodle:
my friend angella was doing a comedy gig, and as soon as she came out...
my friend angella was doing a comedy gig, and as soon as she came out a guy shouted ‘can i give you my number?’ and all the crowd groaned cause it was so inappropriate but angella was like ‘yeah sure’. the guy started shouting out his number and she started entering it into her phone. the whole crowd was like woaaah. she got the whole number and then dialled it and it rang. everyone lost their shit. finally the guy answered and angella just said “hello? shut the fuck up” and it was the most incredible thing i’ve ever seen
So some of these details are probably wrong, it happened a long time ago so I don’t remember the specifics leading up, but it was incredible.
A friend of mine who does stand up was doing his bit at open mic one night, and a guy was heckling him. Just being a total asshole, and then his phone rang and he started talking loudly on his phone about how he’s at open mic and this guy isn’t funny, etc. Now the weird thing about hecklers is that they just want to be a part of something most of the time, so my friend said, “hey man, what’s your name? Can I see your phone for a second?”
The guy actually handed over his phone, and my friend hung up, and scrolled through his contact list until he found the person he was looking for. He hit dial, and starts.
“Hello? Is this [Name’s] mom? Great! It’s very nice to talk to you. I’m a comedian in the middle of my standup routine, and your son is being very rude, [lists off some of the things her son said]…. hold on, can I get you to repeat that?”
He takes the phone away, puts it in speakerphone and holds it up to the mic.
“I said, I’m sorry my son is being such an asshole.”
Everyone lost it. Fuckin’ destroyed by his own mother. My friend said it was one of his proudest moments ever.
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