The other day, I was killing some time on my phone while sitting on the crapper, when I followed a link to a short video on Twitter/Xitter/X. When it had finished, the next one started playing automatically. And it was…a paid ad for Scientology!!! . The ad took me by surprise, as I haven’t seen one in ages, so the screenshot below is the only documentation I got(*). Translated, the text says: “Join a Church that is different. Discover a new type of religion, where technology and spirituality is united …”. Are there any other sects or religions out there that are as aggressive with ads?
(*) Technical note: For privacy, I masked away notification icons. On this phone, taking a screenshot is a cumbersome key combination involving one of the volume buttons, which is why the volume bar is visible.
The only type of religious propaganda I accept is the one made in the form of a friar loudly preaching in the streets by screaming at the top of his lungs, all the others are just posers who clearly don’t put enough effort because they don’t actually believe.
Also, Scientology is still a thing? If I wanted to be tortured by a man in a sailor uniform I would limit that to my bedroom and not make it a lifestyle.
Just a few weeks ago I was trying to watch College Gameday on ESPN. This is when the anchors go to a college campus to broadcast with throngs of students in the background. A lot of them hold signs that are pretty funny ( poking fun at the opposing team) but this time a group was walking around with signs for Jesus and the Bible and what not actively trying to block other people and take over the camera view. So fucking annoying, just let me watch tv in peace!
I just did a search for Christian tv networks and it listed 33. There are 2 that I was already aware of, CBN and TBN. They are huge networks solely dedicated to spreading Christian propoganda.
Scientology had an ad on the super bowl game last year. Ads on that highly watched American football game run around 7 million dollars and attest to the extreme wealth of that religion. They obviously have the resources to run prominent ads in hopes of recruitment, which seems to be way down.
I tend to view Scientology (and many other religions) as something akin to a multi-level marketing scheme–where a token service and/or product is sold to its members–keeps it from being what it really is . . . a pyramid con.
In the United States, we have a company that has this down to a science, which was called Amway. Many paramedics and nurses were taken in by this, as they “invested” money in the hopes of starting a business that would–supposedly–make them a comfortable living.
It was a disaster.
Amway still exists, but it has been banned in many countries and has had to pay multiple fines to settle various lawsuits.
I see very little difference between companies like Amway and religions like Scientology.
Between 95% and 99% of people involved in Amway actually lose money, which all goes to the corporation.
Oh wow, I never thought of it that way. They’re like MLM/pyramid schemes with effective disguises. I’m afraid that even out right MLM’s/pyramid schemes are thriving. It’s a testament to the level of corruption and greed in this country that they aren’t shut down. As is the fact that dietary supplements have so little regulation and that we can’t get proven harmful substances out of our food supply. Other countries have managed that last one to some degree, but in the US we continue to mix in dangerous dyes and additives to our food.
Unfortunately, no, this is not the case.
I say unfortunately because pyramind schemes are all inevitably destined to fail and collapse on themselves, but Scientology didn’t meet this fate because it’s not a pyramid scheme: it’s a conglomerate of “services” organizations that uses “dissemination” organizations as a front and follow the orders of the “management” organizations and it’s all amplified by the propaganda activity of the “publishing and media” organizations.
All the “management” organizations answer to the Sea Org wich is not really an incorporated organization, but rather an unincorporated paramilitary association that has the administration duty within the church.
And the Sea Org answers to the Commodore Messengers’ Organization (CMO) wich is basically the secret police made of the most fanatic of Hubbard’s followers (when they speak, it’s as if Hubbard’s ghost is speaking).
And the CMO answers to the Religious Technology Centre (RTC) wich is the most important corporation inside the Church, the RTC is the council that controls the Church of Scientology and gives order to everyone inside there, that is why Miscavige is the leader of Scientology: because he is the President of the RTC and gives it orders and the RTC orders it to the CMO and the CMO orders it to the Sea org and the Sea Org orders it to the Management orgs and the Management orgs order it to the service orgs that execute this orders by ordering every kind of media product from the Publishing and Media organizations that keep the very well oiled system of 2005 Hollywood style propaganda.
The church of Scientology is not shaped as a pyramid but as a web and the RTC is the spider, THE SPIDER that attempted to turn Clearwater (FL) into its own Vatican style city-state by infiltrating the offices of the government with the so-called “Project Normandy” and will not stop at anything in order to recruit as many people as possible in their religion.
And now i stop because my mood is swinging from hyper active to depressive and i don’t even remember the point i was trying to make in the first place.
I have been seeing more ads for LDS in recent years and I know last year some christian organization ( no idea which one) got ads during the Super Bowl. Why feed the poor when you can spend millions on a 30 second advertisement?
I have yet to see ads for any other religions at least in the US.
. The ad took me by surprise, as I haven’t seen one in ages, so the screenshot below is the only documentation I got(*). Translated, the text says: “Join a Church that is different. Discover a new type of religion, where technology and spirituality is united …”. Are there any other sects or religions out there that are as aggressive with ads?