The rise of YouTube over the last couple of years has amazed me. I had no idea that videos would grow to become so popular, and to contain so many subjects. Nor did I have a clue that comments left on Social Media sites like YouTube, Stumble Upon, and Digg would grow to be so rude and misinformed.
The whole “Can’t we all just get along?” attitude of the early web seems to have been replaced with a new expression, “GTFO”, meaning “Get The F!!k Out”. So if your opinion is different than that of those who have already posted in one venue, you are vilified by them for posting a contrary opinion. They don’t want reasoned discourse, they want to drown people out completely, shut them up.
This has gotten completely out of hand in many instances, and not just since Anonymous started attacking Scientology in earnest a few months ago. Not just online with creepy videos, but in the real world with thousands of harassing phone calls, bomb threats, death threats, an anthrax scare, vandalisms, etc.
Chris Sherman of Search Engine Land is quoted as saying this:
[Social Media means] “Internet way-finding tools informed by human judgment. ‘Informed’ can mean many things including egregiously uninformed.”
I would take that a step further and add to “egregiously uninformed” this phrase, “willfully misinformed”. Here I’m talking about people who will not look at any other viewpoint than their own misinformed and malignant viewpoint. The English language has many names describing these people: “bigoted”, “prejudiced”, “opinionated”, “narrow-minded”, “jerks”, “-haters”, etc. These are people who think they know – but what they know just ain’t so.
Recently I’ve noticed that many of the hostile posts are using a new epithet they’ve made up to describe members of our religion who post anything pro-Scientology on any social media site: “Sci-fag”. Sounds hateful, doesn’t it? Has the same ring as “kike” or “bead-clicker”. Not a word you’d want to describe your religion. The tone of these attacks is hateful in the extreme; irrational and psychotic. These guys have worked themselves into a frenzy — I pray that none of their many threats are carried out.
I applaud The Church of Scientology for launching its own new Scientology Video Channel — it contains a lot of videos meant for general public release.
Rather than being drowned out by the Anonymous creeps vomiting all over their comments on YouTube or Stumble or Digg, the Church of Scientology set up its own site exclusively for delivery of videos.
If you’ve ever had questions about what Scientology is or why it is being attacked, these videos will go a long way toward answering those questions, and will do so in an environment where people aren’t yelling at you; you won’t feel like you are having to cross a picket line to get to the truth.
Watch it and make up your own mind based on what you see, what you know, and what makes sense to you. In other words:
Wow, JM, excellent, wonderful post!
Thank you so very much!!!! And yes, our people did a total hit on this. And so professionally done!
I’ve had dozens of “anonymous” creeps try to post rebuttals here. Just so everyone knows, this is a *moderated* blog. I don’t allow (I won’t post) comments on my blog that forward the views of the anonymous cyber-terrorists, big pharma, or psychiatry. The “anonymous” kiddies tend to vomit all over any post that is favorable to Scientology anywhere they can; just be aware I won’t put up with it here. If you want an actual reply to a comment you write, leave a valid email address and I’ll consider it — no promises. Part of being a Scientologist is following the Code of Honor – one point of that code is “Do not give or receive communication unless you yourself desire it.” As a Minister of the Church of Scientology for more than 30 years, I have tried to follow that code.
Also, good manners are also important to me, even on the internet. Just because you *can* say something doesn’t mean you should. In other words, if you want an answer from me, don’t be rude.