this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2023
66 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
22763 readers
626 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try [email protected] if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Imagining a world where the West had the balls to ban Scientology and other cults
If you were to list the top ten cults in the United States by harm done, Scientology wouldn’t make the top ten. It would mostly be Protestant churches who will do another Waco if forced which honestly isn’t something anyone should want.
Scientology is bad, but they have one thing going for it that most cults don’t. Sexual abuse is not common, like obviously it happens but probably to a lesser extent than the Church. Scientology is much more focused on exploiting the labor of its practitioners and covering up the occasional death caused by lack of medical care than getting horny. Like legitimately the reason why Scientology still exists is that it is not a sex cult.
I just named Scientology because it's a safe, obvious example that everyone agrees on
People only know about it because of South Park.
I'd argue it's a pretty infamous cult in it's own right, though not as large or visible as something like the Jehovah's Witnesses
Even then, as a person living in Finland I've gotten ads for Dianetics and seen a giant Scientology tent on a square downtown
Tbf they said "the west" and Scientology is biggest in America but still an international thing