Slashdot Mirror


CoS Bigwig Likens Wikipedia Ban to Nazis' Yellow Star Decree

We mentioned on Thursday that Wikipedia has banned edits originating from certain IP addresses belonging to the Church of Scientology; reader newtley writes now that Scientology leader (CEO and Chairman of the Board of the linked, but legally separate, Religious Technology Center) David Miscavige calls the ban "a 'despicable hate crime,' and asks, 'What's next, will Scientologists have to wear yellow, six-pointed stars on our clothing?' During World War II, Hitler forced Jewish men, women and children to wear a a yellow cloth star bearing the word Jude to brand them in the streets of Europe, and in the Nazi death camps."

5 of 567 comments (clear)

  1. nonsense by superwiz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wikipedia also regularly bans Congressmans' offices from editing because they try to use the site to create fictional accounts of either their own candidates or the opposition. This is actually a show of integrity by Wikipedia (equal treatment of all). They are preventing a certain behavior from occurring -- not certain group of people from behaving.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  2. OT: Why can't I see subject lines? by British · · Score: 4, Informative

    What hoops do I have to jump through to see subject lines on Slashdot again?

  3. Re:Nothing wrong with his analogy by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Informative

    And their members can, in fact, edit Wikipedia from other locations. But this wasn't "members" editing. This was the cult's own staff doing a planned campaign to distort and eliminate the postings of others.

    Remember, few "members" are permitted to deal with skeptical outsiders. That's a task reserved for the "Office of Special Affairs", their group that took on dealing with reporters and former members, after the "Guardian's Office" had its leadership convicted of planting bomb threats to discredit the author Susan Meister and convicted of a large array of other crimes. Look it up: this is _precisely_ the material that these astro-turfing censors wanted to eliminate from Wikipedia. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Affairs, it's fascinating what this cult has done historically to harass writers and former members.

  4. Re:Religion's CEO? by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Catholicism has a fairly prominent one. You might have heard of him.

    Just so you know i'm not trolling, the Institute for Works of Religion is run by a banking CEO.

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  5. Re:Nothing wrong with his analogy by Narpak · · Score: 5, Informative
    One of the reasons for this course of action is that the daughter of a Norwegian MP killed herself two hours after taking a Scientology test while studying in France.

    The Church, which is located only meters from Ballo's dormitory, states that the results had shown Ballo was "depressed, irresponsible, hyper-critical and lacking in harmony."
    Family blames Scientology for daughter's death

    Apparently she suffered from periods of depressions; the critical and negative response she received from CoS pushed her a bit too far. She was twenty years old.

    This particular case combined with other reports have caused the Norwegian Government to take a stern look at the practices of CoS; and try to evaluate if their practices comply with the law.