For 5 years I lived in a house in Los Angeles, where one of the previous residents had been a member of Sea Org - almost 10 years before we moved in. We would receive a piece of mail addressed to him from Scientology almost every single day we lived there. Posters, letters, DVDs you name it. We'd collect the mail and pile it on the floor as entertainment for friends. They probably sent close to $200 worth of mailers to that house every year. People from Scientology would come to the house asking for this guy, and we'd tell them he hadn't lived there in years. They'd return, leave handwritten notes on the door. In the storage area under the house were boxes of his family's clothes and belongings, I wouldn't be surprised if they had just abandoned their things and fled. Scientology is no joke.
I was born and raised here in Pinellas County with Scientology World headquarters. I still live here in Tampa, and I've known a variety of Scientologists, and done business with the Church.
They've been this way since before I was born; this is nothing new. I have yet to see a news article accurately report on them, their beliefs, their activities, or their crimes, which are legion.
The St. Pete. Times used to war with them regularly for years; not once did I read an article that didn't have numerous sloppy mistakes that basic research would have caught.
They really are a religion: they think they're saving souls and the World, and anything they do is worth it; the ends justify the means. Since the World hangs in the Balance, and they're the warriors on the front lines, they're above the law.
What's worse is a lot of their minor techniques are quite effective, especially on drug addiction and the like, which convinces many people that they're the One True Path.
I find it interesting that "freedom of religion" helped them out of a case. Why should doing something that'd otherwise be illegal suddenly change because you claim it's "religious"?
Freedom of religion seems like a relic of an older time, or lack of clear thinking. If you have freedom to think, assemble, speak, why does religion need special casing? How is it different than having "freedom for hobby clubs"?
Because historically, nations have been eager to take advantage of Religion's power to brainwash. They have found every way they could to worm religion into their toolbox.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" prevents the government from saying we all have freedom to assemble, speak, etc, but the gov't is going to preferentially support this particular one over here. Or a myriad of such tricks history has blessed us with.
I enjoy the content of this link, but I don't know what this has to do with hacker news. This is a great link for reddit, or other like site. Hacker News has been losing its focus on technology articles.
"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."
So basically absolutely anything that is not internet memes is on the table. I would love it if Hacker News had a section of their site that was targeted specifically to news about programming. Then I could treat reddit as reddit and hacker news could have the programming news I want.
I have been following hacker news for years, and it seems that the subject of the articles has been slowly straying from the topic of programming to more general interest. I don't mean to pick on this article specifically.
In a way, I think making a programming only section was what turned reddit into the non-programming centric site it is now.
If you maintain one view, there is enough pressure on the main page to sustain the programming articles rather than just say "go to the programming section".
franklinho, I think the programmers have been slowly losing the war on popular articles on HN. As HN gains popularity amongst non-programmers, programmers that want actual hacker news will need to look elsewhere. I suppose that is why someone made https://lobste.rs/. BTW, could someone please invite me to lobste.rs?
I wonder if pg has considered revisiting the phrasing here. In some ways I suspect the much broader "anything goes" acceptance of topics has had a spillover effect in lowering the quality of comments as well.
The "War" against scientology was one of the driving forces that thrusted "Anonymous" into the limelight. In a way, I think this has made stories about scientology somewhat related to HN.
Not to mention, the handy "flag" link for those who feel strongly about it. There isn't much need to make a post about it, with the mechanisms in place.
Thank you, I forgot about the flag link. It is not just this article, I've been noticing a trend in general about the non-programming, non-startup subject matter of many of the articles that have been gaining popularity.
Also, some companies that developers work for use somewhat similar psychological tactics to pressure their employees into working 100-hour weeks (thus keeping them isolated from the outside world). While they probably don't go as far as beatings and imprisonment, managers have certainly been known to use intense psychological pressure and public humiliation to ensure that employees devote their lives to their jobs. I realize that this analogy between corporations and religious cults isn't precise, but it may still be worth exploring.
Ha. That's funny, but I do get the impression that you are trolling me. Either way, good one. Yes, let's take inspiration from these interrogation/torture cells and channel it into our new UI/UX. I call this new layout Stockholm.
Do you really see no correlation in the knowledge used to build a religion vs a brand? The outcome is certainly different but your leveraging very similar concepts in both activities.
I don't. If you get that correlation, and it is helping you with your branding, then I guess good for you. I just feel that this article is off topic for HN.
I wonder if some of their techniques could be used for a hacker boot camp. Voluntarily subject yourself to psychological abuse in order to get rid of distractions and achieve "the zone" or high productive states. Great for those experiencing longer than usual spells of burn-out. Mind hacking you back into shape.
I don't think that abuse would be an effective way to get someone into the zone. In fact, I think it would be a good way to keep people out of the zone.
