Scientology Charged With Slavery, Human Trafficking

eldavojohn writes "A formal complaint was filed in California (caged PDF) last week by John Lindstein naming David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology International as defendants. Lindstein claims that for sixteen years (from age 8) he was forced to work as a slave at Gold Base, a secret CoS site run by Golden Era Productions with 'razor wire, security guard patrols, surveillance posts, and three roll calls each day.' The pay was $50 a week. The allegations include 'Violations of wage and hour laws as well as unfair/illegal business practices actionable under California B&P 17200 Et. Seq.' and a complaint under the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, which abolished slavery. Members of the group Anonymous praised the summons."

Comments

Re:Yes...

[Belial6]

I agree that having sex with prepubescent kids is despicable. Now, if only we could get the same kind of action taken against the worlds biggest, riches, most powerful child molestation ring. You know, the Catholic Church.

Re:That's pretty evil.

[element-o.p.]

But in the meantime, you are relying on an unproven assertion that your senses are not merely the products of an overly active imagination...i.e., faith. You can't know that everything in your experience is real; it could all have been a dream, and you have really been in a coma from birth. As I said earlier, go read some of Renee Descartes' philosophy (although I misspelled his name earlier; my bad). It might bring you a little more skepticism towards the assumptions you don't even realize you are making.

Re:Those are not mainstream

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

then i want to be around when you find out about the abuses practiced by opus dei (a chatolic sect wholly approved by pope ratzinger)

Re:Yes...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mods, how the FUCK can you mod down a post as off-topic but mod up a reply? This is why moderation is masturbation, you numb-skulls.

Re:That's pretty evil.

[Obfuscant]

Or not. What if I assume all my senses work and that everyone else's work the same as mine? Doesn't that take care of most of the existential crap?

You should have a bit more skepticism over your assumptions, then.

Not everyone's senses work the same way yours do. There are people who "see" sounds as color. Some people don't sense colors the same way you do. There are people who hear sounds all the time. Some people don't hear anything at all. How about people with cochlear implants? Are they hearing the same things you do?

Even if you assume the hardware is all the same, you cannot assume that the result is. How do you KNOW that what you see as "blue" is the same as what someone else sees for "blue"? You've learned to associate that name with a certain stimulus; is the stimulus the same for someone sitting next to you? How would you know if what the other person calls "blue" isn't actually triggering the neurons for "red" in his brain, but he's learned to call it "blue"?

And really, do you exist? All I have is the result of my senses, and I could be hallucinating y'all. After all, "hell is other people".

Re:Yes...

[Hucko]

I personally am of the opinion that rape and pedophilia are worse crimes, `cept that they can both come under torture as can (potentially) homicide.

I'm also of the opinion (puts on flame-proof suit) that slavery isn't necessarily evil, but could be a suitable punishment for criminals, with the adequate parameters.
Hereditary, racial or ethnic, and gender based slavery however is seen as obscene.