This week, I address a recent controversy in the ex-Scn community, why people are grasping at straws for answers on COVID-19, the purpose of my channel in regards destructive cults and a lot more. Enjoy!
(1) First of all, thank you so much for your videos! I find them very educational and your open minded approach to various topics/people is inspiring to watch.
I recently came across Steven Mango’s YouTube channel and found some disturbing information. My past experience with Steven Mango’s content always ended with me having mix feelings about him. He comes across as someone who was truly victimized by Co$ but also who takes his past experience in building a YouTube celebrity status. Do you agree?
In his last video, he called out Karen de la Carriere as a scam artist who uses independent scientologists, providing them with services and stealing money. I have been a fan of hers, so this news comes as a shock to me. I don’t know who to believe in! Your name immediately popped into my mind, because I know you will give an honest analysis of the situation (despite your friendship with Karen).
I have heard that there is in-fighting among ex-Scientologist and perhaps this might be one of them? What is your thoughts on Steven Mango? Has he been infiltrated by the Co$? Is it true what he says about Karen?
(2) What do you think about the reaction to the Bakersfield doctors who extrapolated the infection rate from the tested population onto the general population? Most doctors are emphatic in their condemnation of the statistical distortion but they seem to have a vocal group of supporters who seem to regard concern over the statistical distortion as wrong or excessive. While I suspect the ability to distinguish the policy conclusion from the methodology is key to the divide, what do you think is going on?
(3) I know you are busy, but I would really like to hear you do a deep dive into Siddha yoga on your YouTube channel. My grandmother (now passed), mother, aunt, uncle are and have been deeply involved for many years. There is a New Yorker article from 1994 that details some pretty terrible accusations, but since then there is not much info.
Even if you don’t ever get to this, you have helped me greatly in rationalizing how cult members think and why they act the way they do. I never really believed in the tenants of Siddha yoga, but had a philosophy of, “As long as no one gets hurt, who cares?” I recognize now, because of your YouTube channel that this thought process ignores many victims and no longer feel this way
I would like to approach family members about this, but do not know how to without hostility and denial (I am sure you are familiar with this phenomenon). Any help would be greatly appreciated!
(4) What annoys you the most about conspiracy theorists? For me it’s when I’m told to do my own research, Google it, etc.
(5) This is in regards to the recent story from May 4th of the woman in Canada who was arrested for trying to attract customers to a restaurant wearing a Stormtrooper outfit and carrying a fake blaster. Two 911 calls were received by the police of a person wearing a Stormtrooper outfit and brandishing a weapon so the police showed up and ended up tackling her to the ground. Wow… where to even begin with this one.
First off, I’m aware Canada just had it’s worst mass shootings and that law enforcement there is in a heightened state… but come on. You’re a Star Wars fan, as am I, you know how ubiquitous the imagery around that work is, so you’re telling me none of these officers recognized what was going on here? She was unable to comply with their commands due to the cumbersome nature of the costume she was wearing from the imaginary universe. This is how we’re combating gun violence, by forcing a woman in a costume who immediately drops her plastic gun to the ground, actual guns drawn? What if this was an actual dangerous scenario requiring de-escalation before violence happened? I just do not understand this. I can see how this is reactionary to their recent tragedy, that might explain the initial 911 call but it still doesn’t explain the outcome. I don’t get how a western society can cultivate an attitude around firearms where a person can see another, dressed in a Stormtrooper costume on May 4th, and feel the need to call law enforcement as though it’s a threat.
(6) You’ve said in the past that when you found out about the pregnancy, you came within a hairsbreadth of moving to Australia to play an active part in raising your child, and that not playing an active part in your son’s childhood is probably your biggest regret. Let’s suppose that you had moved and had joined staff at the Perth Org. Do you think you would’ve hit a point of no return with Scientology eventually? If I recall correctly, this all happened before you joined the Sea Org. If you hadn’t been subjected to the years of abuse and exploitation in the Sea Org and been on the trips that allowed you to pierce the veil of the propaganda with what you saw on the ground (and the unfiltered internet access), do you think you could still be in the Scientology bubble? Do you think that no matter what you’d have hit a tipping point where you’d exit Scientology no matter where you’d been in it, or do you think if it wasn’t for the things you experienced and saw that you could still be comfortably sitting in the Scientology bubble out there wherever the other path had taken you?
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