Nooooooooooo!!!!!

[Smurf]

J Swift offered up an interesting observation on Tony's blog:

1. OCMB was the hot board at the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex when Tom Cruise jumped the couch. OCMB then came close to imploding due to trolls and flame wars.

The legendary board owner's refusal to do any kind of moderation whatsoever only made the situation worse.

2. As OCMB was imploding in flame wars, Emma astutely opened up ESMB. This created a great opportunity for former Church members to speak out freely without all of the vitriol of OCMB had at that time. Emma was not afraid to moderate, suspend, or ban posters.

ESMB held the cutting edge for awhile and then it became divided into the two same basic camps it is today. ESMB remains a great board, but it is very predictable and few surprises happen there.

For example: Veda has posted the Brainwashing Manual at least 500,000 times since ESMB began. Veda has also posted the 1984 Judge Brinkema quote at least 900,000 times.

3. As ESMB was going sideways into its permanent divide, Anonymous came out of nowhere and emerged as the red hot cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex. The Cult was overwhelmed and ran inside of its Orgs and hid under the Onslaught of Anonymous.

The Cult immediately went into its David Miscavige Drama Queen mode and mailed itself fake anthrax to hopes of having the FBI arrest Anonymous.

4. As Anonymous was winding down from its large street protests phase, Marty powered up with his blog and took over the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex.

5. As Marty's blog stabilized into a very reliable source of breaking news and insider information on the Cult. Tony Ortega's blog surged to take the cutting edge by eclipsing Marty at times with breaking news and leaks on the Cult.

Unless the VV immediately replaces Tony Ortega with someone who shares Tony's focused efforts to expose the Cult of Scientology's human rights abuses and crimes, the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex will easily move elsewhere as it has done for years and years.

Activists who work to dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form are highly mobile. All of us can all easily move our daily posting elsewhere to a media outlet that cares enough to host the cutting edge of the Vortex and reap the rewards that goes with it.

 

[Boomima]

I think he left before the Voice was shut down.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/how-management-killed-the-village-voice

No one wants to be captain when the ship is sinking.


"Alt-weeklies are always dying. But the news Friday that four editorial staffers were laid off or had their hours cut to part-time at The Village Voice — two features writers, a news blogger and a listings editor — makes the sad fact of that paper’s eventual demise, evident for years, more immediate. The paper now has one news blogger, two features writers, a music editor, a few people working on listings and one critic, aided by a couple contributors, writing about food.
The layoffs at the Voice weren’t the only ones: papers across the Village Voice Media company, which owns more or less every notable alternative weekly nowadays, experienced layoffs, I’ve learned, including those in Minneapolis, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, and Broward-Palm Beach. The Voice itself is planning to move out of its iconic East Village office space in the near future, as I and other staff members found out last year. There have been many ends of an era for a paper that always prided itself at being on the vanguard, but this one seems permanent and final: “I can’t imagine how much leaner they can get,” said a friend of mine who was recently let go from the Dallas Observer."

 

[Panda Termint]

Positions Vacant: Hard hitting Journalist required; must be intelligent, thick-skinned, tolerant of Institutionalised Idiocy and able to see through Bullshit Screens (X-Ray vision preferred).

The successful applicant will be amply rewarded with well-meant applause and advice from others but may, at times, wonder WTF he/she was thinking at the time of deciding to take on this job.

Thank you Tony Ortega for all that you have done!

 

[Free to shine]

Yes, thankyou Tony Ortega.

A huge amount of links to Village Voice have been posted here, every time a scientology story broke Tony was on top of it, and for an awfully long time. The Voice will certainly feel the loss of those click throughs and that will be quickly evident I would imagine. Scientology has always attacked the Voice for it's other colourful content and it seems from what I have read above that ship is sinking and it's probably a good idea for Tony to go. And as Mary noted, there were some great commenters there too, who hopefully will come here now.

I wish him all the best, I thank him for the magnificent work he has done to expose scientology's crimes, and may there be much more to come, in whatever form he chooses.

 

[NCSP]

I think people who think he wasn't really devoted to the subject of Scientology don't realize how difficult it is, and how much time it takes, to build up even a basic level of competence with the subject for people who were never in the cult, and therefore highly motivated to learn.

 

[Magoo]

How can he do this to us?

He's leaving the Village Voice to write a book about Scientology?

Did the CoS set this up to pull him away from writing daily articles that are damaging to Scientology?

How can a book be better than what he is already doing with the Village Voice?

Thank you, FoTi--you expressed EXACTLY how I feel. Here's
my video to Tony O with links to some of his best stories, per him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-6sTqE1FyM&list=UU__gcXYVQlmVocNLZykibUw&index=1&feature=plcp

ALWAYS____Tony O

PLEASE, PLEASE create a blog. We will ALL miss you (an you us, too)
WAYYYYYY too much!

((Hugs))

Tory/Magoo
Burbank, CA
(818) 588-3044---Stay in touch

 

[Boomima]

The Voice company has also been engaged in legal wars over its very controversial Backpage.com

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/30/nation/la-na-nn-backpage-washington-lawsuits-20120729

"On Friday, three girls — two 13 and one 15 at the time they ran away from home — filed suit in Pierce County Superior Court against Backpage.com, alleging it allowed them to be bought and sold over the site for sex by the pimps who captured them.

According to the News Tribune, the lawsuit says pimps photographed the 13-year-old in lingerie to post on Backpage.com, which drew “many, many adult men” as customers. The suit linked the 15-year-old to a 33-year-old pimp named Baruti Hopson, now serving a 26-year prison term for child rape, assault and promoting sexual abuse of a minor."

See also:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/washington...ex-trafficking/story?id=16888671#.UFPRVhxyX3E
http://www.salon.com/2012/07/09/my_pimp_advertised_me_online/

Obviously, The Voice has its own take on this but this is another distraction. Tony O. has done his Scientology work elsewhere and no doubt he will again.

 

[degraded being]

.
.
Whatever. I agree with almost all posts on this thread so far

All the interest shown in "The Master" as a warm up to it's release, followed by all the interest it will cause, and all the other awareness-raising shitstorms for 2 years....well,
Tony's book will have the chance to be a best seller!

Tony has probably been waiting for the most opportune time to get down to writing the book. Whether or not he was being pushed a bit, the opportunity for the book must be at its peak right now.

I am also wondering if any other book writer so far had ever built up such a reserve of sources. No slight on any previous writers; but Tony is now VERY connected.

 

[Gib]

.
.
Whatever. I agree with almost all posts on this thread so far

All the interest shown in "The Master" as a warm up to it's release, followed by all the interest it will cause, and all the other awareness-raising shitstorms for 2 years....well,
Tony's book will have the chance to be a best seller!

Tony has probably been waiting for the most opportune time to get down to writing the book. Whether or not he was being pushed a bit, the opportunity for the book must be at its peak right now.

I am also wondering if any other book writer so far had ever built up such a reserve of sources. No slight on any previous writers; but Tony is now VERY connected.

Tony's book will have the chance to be a best seller!

Tony is a smart guy. I wouldn't be surprised if he was writing the book all along. and now needs just some short amount of time to finish. :confused2:

 

[NoName]

I think he left before the Voice was shut down.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/how-management-killed-the-village-voice

No one wants to be captain when the ship is sinking.

Any teenager with a laptop and wifi can set up a blog at wordpress or blogspot. Out of the many blogs out there, a handful of them are really lucrative. The blog sites have ways that you can monetize a blog based on hits. Tony already has a huge following from the critic and ex community. If he wanted to set up shop to focus solely on the Co$, he has his options.

I think he is choosing the option that will turn him into a NY Times best-selling author. He won't even have to have all the WWP, ESMB, OCMB, etc., members buying up hundreds of books and returning them to B. Dalton with the stickers still on.

 

[GoNuclear]

I just read that tony Ortega is leaving the Village Voice.

He says:



More here: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runni...ology_watchers_a_message_from_tony_ortega.php

It will be a book worth buying and reading, I'm sure. I may even seek an autographed copy.

Pete

 

[Veda]

J Swift offered up an interesting observation on Tony's blog:

-snip-

ESMB held the cutting edge for awhile and then it became divided into the two same basic camps it is today. ESMB remains a great board, but it is very predictable and few surprises happen there.

For example: Veda has posted the Brainwashing Manual at least 500,000 times since ESMB began. Veda has also posted the 1984 Judge Brinkema quote at least 900,000 times.

Those "stats" are amazing, in as much as I have only about 8,600 posts. However, it is a revealing peek at what type of information bugs Scientology.

Judge Brinkema? I think he means Judge Breckenridge, a judge much disliked by both outside the CofS and inside the CofS Scientologists.

3. As ESMB was going sideways into its permanent divide, Anonymous came out of nowhere and emerged as the red hot cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex. The Cult was overwhelmed and ran inside of its Orgs and hid under the Onslaught of Anonymous.

The Cult immediately went into its David Miscavige Drama Queen mode and mailed itself fake anthrax to hopes of having the FBI arrest Anonymous.

4. As Anonymous was winding down from its large street protests phase, Marty powered up with his blog and took over the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex.

5. As Marty's blog stabilized into a very reliable source of breaking news and insider information on the Cult.

-snip-

Unless the VV immediately replaces Tony Ortega with someone who shares Tony's focused efforts to expose the Cult of Scientology's human rights abuses and crimes, the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex will easily move elsewhere as it has done for years and years.

Activists who work to dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form are highly mobile. All of us can all easily move our daily posting elsewhere to a media outlet that cares enough to host the cutting edge of the Vortex and reap the rewards that goes with it.

Notice that the only place "stabilizing" and "reliable" is Rathbun's blog.

An excerpt from a J. Swift post of a while back:

"Where Scientology is concerned, Mainstream Culture has swung to supporting the Independent practice of Scientology...

"There are no mainstream journalists, academics, or popular authors who oppose Independent Scientology.

"Those of us who support the Indies are growing in numbers."

It's interesting that J. Swift has also referred to Gerry Armstrong as a "scofflaw" for not abiding by the terms of the Scientology gag order.

That was about the same time that Swift came over here to call out, and 'demolish' Veda. He made a bit of a fool of himself trying, and left. Ho Hum.

Yes, it was fairly cleverly done - setting up his propaganda message with "Catholic priests raping children," and the "Crusades," and "rights," and "justice," etc.

However, once the set up is absent, the message is not so pretty. It has all the appeal of a North Korean propaganda poster.

Back to the topic of Tony Ortega - We'll have to wait and see what develops. The rest is speculation.

 

[Stat]

What Tony Ortega announced and what's behind it, will be in his book too, I imagine. And for a good reason.

 

[degraded being]

J Swift offered up an interesting observation on Tony's blog:

1. OCMB was the hot board at the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex when Tom Cruise jumped the couch. OCMB then came close to imploding due to trolls and flame wars.

The legendary board owner's refusal to do any kind of moderation whatsoever only made the situation worse.

2. As OCMB was imploding in flame wars, Emma astutely opened up ESMB. This created a great opportunity for former Church members to speak out freely without all of the vitriol of OCMB had at that time. Emma was not afraid to moderate, suspend, or ban posters.

ESMB held the cutting edge for awhile and then it became divided into the two same basic camps it is today. ESMB remains a great board, but it is very predictable and few surprises happen there.

For example: Veda has posted the Brainwashing Manual at least 500,000 times since ESMB began. Veda has also posted the 1984 Judge Brinkema quote at least 900,000 times.

3. As ESMB was going sideways into its permanent divide, Anonymous came out of nowhere and emerged as the red hot cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex. The Cult was overwhelmed and ran inside of its Orgs and hid under the Onslaught of Anonymous.

The Cult immediately went into its David Miscavige Drama Queen mode and mailed itself fake anthrax to hopes of having the FBI arrest Anonymous.

4. As Anonymous was winding down from its large street protests phase, Marty powered up with his blog and took over the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex.

5. As Marty's blog stabilized into a very reliable source of breaking news and insider information on the Cult. Tony Ortega's blog surged to take the cutting edge by eclipsing Marty at times with breaking news and leaks on the Cult.

Unless the VV immediately replaces Tony Ortega with someone who shares Tony's focused efforts to expose the Cult of Scientology's human rights abuses and crimes, the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex will easily move elsewhere as it has done for years and years.

Activists who work to dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form are highly mobile. All of us can all easily move our daily posting elsewhere to a media outlet that cares enough to host the cutting edge of the Vortex and reap the rewards that goes with it.

EDIT: On second thoughts, that was a bit sententious, so I deleted it.

 

[Karen#1]

J. Swift is my most favorite poster of all time.


I am on the boards because of J. Swift.
This is one of J. Swifts best posts ever, done at a time when there was a lot of in-fighting​

I have been thinking about this matter. IMO, one goal to strive for is to be professional in your approach to being a Scientology critic. What is it to be a professional?

*Take your ego out of this work. This is not about you, me, or anyone else. Being a Scientology critic is about working to help dismantle Scientology in its present form.

*Examine your motives. If you are in this work for the flame wars, that is a wrong motive.

*Detachment. Think logically and rationally. Do not think emotionally. Do not allow emotions to cloud your thinking. Your emotions will pass. Your emotions are like the weather that comes and goes and is always changing.

*Do not react. Stay detached. Stop and think before you write. Think before you write or speak on the internet or on camera. When you are angry or emotional, write your post and do not post it. Look at it the next morning. 90% of the time you will erase it.

*Make a vow to avoid flame wars at all costs. In this business, flame wars are ruinous. If someone says something about you, ignore it or have a witty riposte. Make light of it.

*Remember that no one takes you as seriously as you do yourself. Lighten up. Try to stay above the fray.

*Be aware of just how deep pettiness and envy goes in some people. There are people who are small, petty, jealous, and angry. Avoid such people.

*Stay true to the core philosophy of Anonymous. This means to remain anonymous to Scientology and everyone else except your inner circle.

*Neither admire nor condemn anyone in the OG. Admiration can be as useless and destructive as condemnation. To be supportive is sufficient. When you have a criticism, be polite about it.

*I neither admire nor condemn anyone in Anonymous. I am supportive of Anonymous in general.

*Try to get the facts straight.

*Do not be wrathful. Hatred will consume you.

*Forgive the ignorance in your friends and allies in this work. Correct them privately and gently. Allow them to save face in public. It will be your turn to be ignorant someday and you will appreciate kindness from others when you have made a mistake.

*Have compassion for Scientology rank and file. Compassion is not pity. Compassion is the ability to see them as people who are profoundly programmed. Speak past their programming and to the human who is trapped inside. Keep in mind that rank and file Scientologists still present a danger and so do not think of them as friends.

*The true enemy is Scientology's management and its PI and Legal contractors. Expose Scientology's PI and Legal contractors as much as possible to the public eye.

What I have shared here is what I have learned from my own mistakes and successes.​

 

[secretiveoldfag]

J Swift offered up an interesting observation on Tony's blog:

1. OCMB was the hot board at the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex when Tom Cruise jumped the couch. OCMB then came close to imploding due to trolls and flame wars.

The legendary board owner's refusal to do any kind of moderation whatsoever only made the situation worse.

2. As OCMB was imploding in flame wars, Emma astutely opened up ESMB. This created a great opportunity for former Church members to speak out freely without all of the vitriol of OCMB had at that time. Emma was not afraid to moderate, suspend, or ban posters.

ESMB held the cutting edge for awhile and then it became divided into the two same basic camps it is today. ESMB remains a great board, but it is very predictable and few surprises happen there.

<Snipped attempt at humor>

3. As ESMB was going sideways into its permanent divide, Anonymous came out of nowhere and emerged as the red hot cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex. The Cult was overwhelmed and ran inside of its Orgs and hid under the Onslaught of Anonymous.

The Cult immediately went into its David Miscavige Drama Queen mode and mailed itself fake anthrax to hopes of having the FBI arrest Anonymous.

4. As Anonymous was winding down from its large street protests phase, Marty powered up with his blog and took over the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex.

5. As Marty's blog stabilized into a very reliable source of breaking news and insider information on the Cult. Tony Ortega's blog surged to take the cutting edge by eclipsing Marty at times with breaking news and leaks on the Cult.

Unless the VV immediately replaces Tony Ortega with someone who shares Tony's focused efforts to expose the Cult of Scientology's human rights abuses and crimes, the cutting edge of the Karmic Vortex will easily move elsewhere as it has done for years and years.

Activists who work to dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form are highly mobile. All of us can all easily move our daily posting elsewhere to a media outlet that cares enough to host the cutting edge of the Vortex and reap the rewards that goes with it.

J Swift, or Smurf, is very discreet about WWP, so discreet it is not mentioned at all. Otherwise IMO this is an interesting and accurate resume. YMMV. The sum total is increased rather than reduced as the cutting edge moves around. All of the best stuff is somewhere on the Web, as permanent wikis or published in real life in a growing pile of books.

The other side of the coin is the dwindling effectiveness and speed of the cult's response which at the start was brutal and terrifying and recently has been virtually invisible.

 

[Veda]

Posted as a public service:

At this time, Marty Rathbun's function is mainly PR and PR damage control for L. Ron Hubbard's reputation and L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology's reputation.

David Miscavige is universally unpopular, and riding the wave of that (well deserved) unpopularity is a guaranteed path (so the idea goes) into the minds of those Marty&Friends are seeking to persuade.

The outside the CoS Scientologists have finally found an effective "button" to "push," with which to apply the following "LRH datum." That button is the "Church" of Scientology as run by David Miscavige, with Miscavige regarded as an "anti-Scientologist":

"The objective is to be identified as attackers of popularly considered evils [Miscavige, and Miscavology, i.e. perverted or 'Reverse Scientology', i.e., 'anti-Scientology']. This declassifies us from former labels. It reclassifies our attackers as evil people."

Confidential 'Black Propaganda' 12 January 1972


Notice how Scientology (and its stinky reputation) becomes "reverse" or "anti" Scientology, right before our very eyes, and it's supposed to be a seamless transition. Then, the "true Scientologists" become the good guys fighting the "reverse Scientologists" (Miscavige and the '1.1s" on ESMB, OCMB, WWP, and other places etc.) and the "anti Scientologists" (which becomes anyone who persists in not being "handled" or cannot otherwise be used by the true Scientologists) become the bad guys.

Neat huh?

 

[Veda]

-snip-

It's a little more than just an "attempt at humor."

IMO, most ex-Scientologists don't want to re-handled by Scientology. I know I don't.

 

[degraded being]

Posted as a public service:

At this time, Marty Rathbun's function is mainly PR and PR damage control for L. Ron Hubbard's reputation and L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology's reputation.

David Miscavige is universally unpopular, and riding the wave of that (well deserved) unpopularity is a guaranteed path (so the idea goes) into the minds of those Marty&Friends are seeking to persuade.

The outside the CoS Scientologists have finally found an effective "button" to "push," with which to apply the following "LRH datum." That button is the "Church" of Scientology as run by David Miscavige, with Miscavige regarded as an "anti-Scientologist":

"The objective is to be identified as attackers of popularly considered evils [Miscavige, and Miscavology, i.e. perverted or 'Reverse Scientology', i.e., 'anti-Scientology']. This declassifies us from former labels. It reclassifies our attackers as evil people."

Confidential 'Black Propaganda' 12 January 1972


Notice how Scientology (and its stinky reputation) becomes "reverse" or "anti" Scientology, right before our very eyes, and it's supposed to be a seamless transition. Then, the "true Scientologists" become the good guys fighting the "reverse Scientologists" (Miscavige and the '1.1s" on ESMB, OCMB, WWP, and other places etc.) and the "anti Scientologists" (which becomes anyone who persists in not being "handled" or cannot otherwise be used by the true Scientologists) become the bad guys.

Neat huh?

Short version of Marty message:

I would like to indicate that your ruin is David Miscavige.
Scientology can help you to handle that.
That is your next step on the Bridge To Total Freedom.

 

[Lulu Belle]

Any teenager with a laptop and wifi can set up a blog at wordpress or blogspot. Out of the many blogs out there, a handful of them are really lucrative. The blog sites have ways that you can monetize a blog based on hits. Tony already has a huge following from the critic and ex community. If he wanted to set up shop to focus solely on the Co$, he has his options.

Yeah. But at VV he got a salary, and presumably his costs for things like traveling to Texas for Cook's trial and other things he had to do were covered as business expenses. If you start your own blog (or go off to write a book, for that matter) you're on your own.

Something else I thought of: He might not be allowed to have an independent blog on Scientology; not for a while, anyway. He may have a non-compete signed with VV. I would imagine that kind of thing is pretty common. New York isn't a right to work state; non-competes tend to stick a lot more in places like that.