I don’t know what kind of palace intrigue occured behind the scenes at ESMB last week, but something sure did. Ethercat resigned her position as Board I/C and Emma took back over the day-to-day, which like a harassed mother with 7 children under the age of 10, she has always complained about having to do and described in terms of drudgery.
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Emma also appears to have been working very hard to update the board software, recreating all the functions of the old board, and upgrading many of its functionalities. Even Veda commented that it has a better search function – something else he has been a grumpy and humorless old man about for years.
I know how much work something like that can be. And I have to say, it’s looking pretty damn good!
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AlanzosBlog will be continuing to monitor the situation closely. Ethercat did a great job of keeping ESMB out of the Toity of adhom attacks and character assassinations, and we are definitely going to miss her excellent moderation. Hidden influences and blocked information is never good for Exes after Scientology, so if anyone has any inside skinny on what went down there, be sure to comment here anonymously.
As part of the Anti-Scientology Mafia Network (ASMN) ESMB can be very manipulative and only provide the information the ASMN wants to be provided. It can be used to assasinate the characters of anyone the ASMN wants assassinated, never allowing dissenting viewpoints to appear. I was recently told by one of ESMB’s most rabid fanatics that dissenting opinions cause “confusion”.
Yes, we wouldn’t want anyone to become confused, now would we? (eyeroll emoji)
This type of information control is a long-running problem over there at ESMB, and this latest change is not looking good for Exes getting access to all the information they need to create a happy, stable and productive life, moving on constructively after Scientology.
Our standard of loyalty here is to be loyal to the truth, and not to any person or group. That’s the way to get out of a cult, and to stay out of one.
So let’s watch and see how closely ESMB can live up to that standard now that Emma is back on the Iron Throne.
A brief story if I may. I split scn and never looked back until watching Going Clear got me interested in reexamining my scn experience. I was participating on a topic on Mike Rinder’s blog which was trashing some aspect of scn and I was singing with the choir. A practicing Scientologist from Australia showed up and offered counter arguments. To me his arguments were just as valid as the trashing which was going on and I realized just how easily I had been swayed. It was kind of a breakthrough for me and I sincerely thanked the guy for his participation.
After Marty started his ASC tirade the tribes seemed to firm up, or at least that was my impression. Classifying all people participating on the Underground Bunker as cultists seemed to have a shock effect, imo.
First you say you admire Ethercat for her even handed moderation and for not allowing character assassinations. Then you allow ZaneX to character assassinate Tony Ortega, Emma & Mark Ebner. Then when someone calls you on it you say you see “no hateful stupidity here”. Then you proceed to run down Len Zinberg.
How are you any different to them?
I consider Len Zinberg a cautionary tale to all Exes. I don’t know how else to tell that cautionary tale than the way I have, using Len Zinberg as a clear example.
How would you tell the tale of a fanatic as a Scientologist in the Church ending up being a fanatic outside the Church as an Anti-Scientologist? It’s a very common set of behaviors among lots of Exes nowadays. I’ve seen Len Zinberg be so cruel to others as an anti-Scientologist to anyone he disagrees with or who has a different take on things that I just figure he’ll be my example.
Welcome to AlanzosBlog, Ex Everything
So how would you tell this cautionary tale of a fanatic Scientologist flipped into a fanatic anti-Scientologist?
I’m open to suggestions.
This always happens, though – in the Cold War the craziest anti-Communists were always former Communists. People love a convert narrative. The disgusting “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s which ruined many innocent lives was started by people PRETENDING to be converts from Satanism.
I would only be guilty of “character assassination” if Ortega, Emma & Ebner were reasonably good and decent people with good and decent reputations. They are none of these. If they were good and decent they wouldn’t be filled with such a high level of irrational hatred against rank-and-file members of a religion that they clearly despise.
If Ortega & company focused their viciousness & bile on the church itself and those within the management who are allegedly responsible for abuses, that’s one thing. I still wouldn’t agree with the tone that they take, especially when they try to claim Scientology is the worst organization in the world and that it should be banned and eradicated. But the church has a lot of issues and problems that management have never seriously tried to address, let alone acknowledge, and more often than not, they create their own problems where none existed, burning bridges before they even had a chance to get built, so to speak. This is all due to errors of judgment and flawed policies, and nothing to do with the theology and religious practices of the church.
Instead, Ortega & company continually mock & belittle Scientology beliefs and even worse, Scientologists for believing what they believe. Indeed, their whole platform and modus operandi revolves around character assassination of individual Scientologists, most of whom are ordinary publics and not staff. Ortega posts personal photos and information culled from Facebook, a blatant violation of privacy laws which he gets away for the simple fact that none of the victims have bothered to take legal action against him. He viciously and heartlessly assassinates the character of Cathy Tweed and other Scientologist parents who have suffered unfathomable tragedies that will haunt them for the rest of their lives and Ortega mocks them, ridicules them, encourages his Underground Bunker Troll Army to harass and persecute these people.
How are Tony Ortega, Mark Ebner, and Emma — and the rest of the anti-Scientology trolls — any different from the likes of Andrew Anglin, Weev and the other Daily Stormer trolls who helped turn Twitter into a total cesspool of negativity and inhumanity? How are they any different from the massively profitable anti-Muslim lobby that has helped fuel violent attacks and bigotry against regular, ordinary, law-abiding Muslims?
Do you think it is a mere coincidence that Mark Ebner was a close friend, confidante and professional collaborator of Andrew Breitbart, whose pro-Trump media firm promotes the banning of Islam and other “rogue” and “terrorist” religions, halting all immigration from Muslim, African and Latin American countries, expelling Muslims, even those who are citizens and those who have been here for generations, as well as expelling all undocumented migrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries?
Tony Ortega is Mexican-American of ethnic mestizo background whose grandparents and were dirt poor fruit pickers and day laborers. He claims to be a progressive and points to both his ethnic origin and outspoken opposition against Joe Arpaio when he was at New Times Phoenix as evidence of this. That was back in the nineties when he wasn’t as snarky as he is now and had credibility as a journalist.
Mark Ebner has never had any credibility and his work has always from the start revolved around celebrity gossip and tabloid sensationalism. He has absolutely no class and his reputation among legitimate journalists and news outlet is nil. His partnership and collaboration with Andrew Breitbart essentially killed off what little remained of his tabloid career. Not even the Weekly World News would want to be connected to him, and that’s an out-and-out fake news publication. Like Ortega, he’s ruined his own career over excessive tabloid sensationalism and exploitation and is scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point.
Years and years ago you’d never have seen Ortega being best pals with the likes of Mark Ebner for all of the above. Ortega wasn’t shy about expressing his utter hatred and contempt for the likes of Breitbart, Matt Drudge, among other right-wing and Republican ideologues and propagandists. Back then, he did have some scruples. He was always anti-religious, but he had no particular interest in Scientology in specific, mainly because he considered Scientology beliefs and practices to be too ludicrous to write seriously about, hence all the mockery and ridicule, and the very few times he’d write about Scientology, were nothing like the way he’s been writing about it since 2011. And before 2011, his vitriol against Scientology was focused on the organization itself and its leaders like David Miscavige. There was no focus whatsoever on ordinary Scientologists and even his mockery of Scientologist celebrities was tame and restrained.
It’s also worth mentioning that his time at New Times Los Angeles and Phoenix were straight reporting jobs. From Kansas City on (The Pitch, 2003-2005) he increasingly becomes the de facto national public relations officer for New Times Media and by the time he got promoted up to editor at the Voice, he was in charge of defending New Times Media and its Backpage.com property from white slavery & child sex trafficking accusations. You and other Bunkerites can deny facts all you want, but Backpage.com has always been guilty as hell: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/07/497006100/ceo-of-backpage-com-arrested-charged-with-pimping
When he started focusing exclusively on Scientology during his last two years at the Voice, he not only started to become obsessed with Scientology for whatever reason, but the tone of his anti-Scientology blogging (a far cry from the actual editorially vetted articles he wrote many years prior) became not only increasingly hostile, but also heaped scorn and ridicule on actual Scientologists. But at the time, such snark and derision was mostly aimed at the likes of Grant Cardone and Jenna Elfman, who, being total fanatics, are far from popular in rank-and-file Scientology circles, and you’ll notice that it has become more and more rare to find them giving promotional lectures & “seminars” at CCI and other orgs.
By the time he got kicked out of the Voice and started anew at the Underground Bunker, his tone becomes even more negative and mocking, and for the first time he makes the decision that ALL Scientologists are fair game, even people whose affiliation with Scientology was minimal or uncertain. He also becomes obsessed with “bringing down” Scientology and constantly predicting that its on the verge of collapsing (which critics have been “predicting” since the botched Dianetics demonstration at the Shrine Auditorium in 1950 that ended the original Dianetics fad) and indulging in pointless tabloid speculation about which celebrity would be next to “defect” and annoyingly trying to pester people like Lisa Marie Presley who refused to talk to Ortega and who weren’t interested in confirming or denying their involvement. This includes Leah Remini herself who spent years dodging Ortega & other tabloid writers until finally having a change of heart and deciding to publicly condemn Scientology and become his bestest friend in the world. Money talks, right?
This is a pattern that has continued unabated with Scientologists At War, Going Clear and now Remini’s show, where the focus is on manipulating the audience’s emotions with distortions of facts and manufactured controversies and whipping up public hatred of a minority group. Again, its one thing for any of these people to go after the church and its leaders, but its another thing when they indulge in character assassination and harassment of public Scientologists.
Look at the comments section of any article about or interview with Scientologist actors, where they are trolled mercilessly even when the article or interview is not even about Scientology. Here is an example with Elisabeth Moss: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/mar/12/elisabeth-moss-interview-mad-men-top-of-the-lake-high-rise-tom-shone
So, you want to talk about character assassination? Start with yourself and your gurus. With the help of Emma and her loyal crew at ESMB, Ortega has successfully cultivated his own personality cult and those such as yourself have enabled him and continue to do so.
You are a shining example of cognitive dissonance in action.
“. . . he makes the decision that ALL Scientologists are fair game . . . ”
Tony’s “topic” today is “exposing” that a politician in Ohio participated in scn in 2005. What’s next – all politicians must publicly disavow Scientology before assuming office?
One of the most useful things I did, once I had enough experience with Scientology-controlled environments, was to envision that a “cleared planet” would be a totalitarian nightmare.
Envision the world that Tony Ortega and other members of the Anti-Cult Movement are working toward if they got their way. After Scientology and all Scientologists were eliminated, which religion would be next for Tony?
How many minority religions would be wiped off the face of the earth if the anti-Cult Movement achieved all their aims?
Wow! I have never seen so many posters give you shit at one time, Alanzo!!
its about time 🙂
Yes, I’ve been operating with impunity for so many years now. No one ever gives me shit. 🙂
To me, the REAL question here, as it relates to people’s lives is: what KIND of a life is a person leading to spend SO much time obsessing over ESMB of all things. I GOT the gist of that site YEARS ago. Don’t have any idea who Emma or this cat person is or more importantly, why they would be worth a minute of my time.
There are BOOKS to read fercryinoutloud , New foods to try, New music to discover, New places to visit, New romantic partners to enjoy, a whole world out there to be interested in! ESMB?????? I mean, there might even be a Rob Schneider movie you haven’t seen yet. (Yes, of course I’m an intellectual snob … But not completely )
So the REAL question, as it relates to your life, Joe, is what KIND of a life is a person leading who has to come to a blog and write a post about a person who wrote a post about something he finds worthless, and then spends SO much time expressing how worthless it is to write a post like that, spending all that time doing that, while saying that it is not worth a minute of his time.
That’s the REAL question.
By his own rationale, what purpose would a person have for doing that?
I’ll tell you what purpose – one that is not supported by his own rationale, as stated.
That’s what purpose! (:-)
But to answer your question, we care about what happens to Ex-Scientologists here at AlanzosBlog. So we are going to write about something that calls itself the Ex-Scientologist Message Board from time to time. Because they attract Ex-Scientologists.
I apologize for being boring. You’re not the first person to criticize me for that.
Joe – Big “cognition” here! It’s what Alanzo has been saying the last couple of topics. It’s tribalism! Some people want to put on the warpaint and go to war. Good thing there are no bullets flying.
This is the standard or expectation I’m using to criticize ESMB – it’s written right into the end of my post.
Is it a reasonable standard?
As blog host it’s up to you to set out the conditions of war. …..joke!
It’s conversation on a blog. Speaking of tribes, a few months ago on your blog we were all having fun visualizing you as a guru or Sinless Man somewhere out in the cornfields of Illinois. I now have the picture of “Chief Alanzo” sitting in his tepee in the cornfields of Illinois.
The “Alanzo” entity has assumed many different identities.
Christ sakes, Alanzo. You have eyes. If you want to let Zane X post his sewer tripe unchallenged and let your blog go down the cesspool go ahead. He shows up and slimes anybody and everybody he can and then disappears and never answers a direct question. pathetic
We’ll take your suggestion under advisement.
Wait – was there even a suggestion there?
I like you!
AlanzosBlog OSA Network screenshots added to original post.
Here’s a great example of the thinking that ESMBers use to justify their information control:
This was posted by Len Zinberg, a guy who used to be one of the most blinded fanatics in Scientology and who has since become one of the most blinded fanatics in Anti-Scientology.
Just like when Len was a Scientologist in the Guardian’s Office, and going after Paulette Cooper, today Len believes that he is stating factual information, and not pushing an ideology.
The ASC is not a “cult”. But that does not mean that it has no ideology, or that it does not have ideologues doing everything they can to control the information that appears on the Internet about Scientology.
Saying that Scientology was ALL GOOD and being unable to tolerate any information that Scientology has ANY BAD in it was the mistake Len made as a Scientologist.
Saying that Scientology is ALL BAD and being unable to tolerate any information that Scientology has ANY GOOD in it is the mistake that Len, and so many Exes at ESMB and elsewhere are making now.
Why anyone would go through the agonizing process of leaving the ideology of Scientology behind, just to pick up another anti-ideology in its place is beyond me. But it has definitely occurred with a lot of Ex-Scientologists on ESMB, and Len Zinberg (posting as “Churchill”) is a great example of that huge personal mistake.
In my opinion.
You know, I used to think Emma and other neurotic hardliners at ESMB were obsessed about attacking and vilifying Scientology because of out-of-control PTSD as a result of their involvement in the church, which might also explain why so many of them are chain-smoking mealy-mouthed zealots.
But then when I look at how consistently they poke fun at Scientology and Hubbard, mocking and disrespecting the privacy of rank-and-file Scientologists and stalking them all over the Web and even offline, yet only not to confront them with dispassionate facts and rational, civilized dialogue, but instead to sneer and jeer, acting in the most stupidly immature way possible that would shock and disgust even the most rambunctious child, whether five years old or fifteen.
The way they behave mirrors the very immaturity and bullying tactics of Dear Leader Trump and his hordes of alt-right lynch hooligans. The more I’ve thought about it, the more Tony Ortega comes across as a pseudo-liberal doppelganger of Steve Bannon, and I’ve always considered Emma to be about as rational and humble as Ann Coulter.
How many years have the ESMB folks been claiming Scientology is about to implode and evaporate into annihilation? This is like the joke about Benyamin Netanyahu, who, every couple of years since the early 90s, has been claiming Iran is on the verge of unleashing a massive nuclear holocaust of apocalyptic proportions against Israel and the rest of the world, so the US should nuke their Islamic asses and let God sort it out. Somehow the folks in Iran never got the memo since apparently we still not yet suffered such a holocaust in all these years. Hmmm.
So I guess Emma got tired of waiting patiently for Scientology to end-cycle itself permanently and decided to rejoin the anti-Scientology bashing brigades to fight the good fight. If it can help pay for Tony’s cat food and torso waxing, why can’t it pay for Emma’s boozing and Bali vacations?
In the end we must ask how would any of these folks make a living if the church did actually implode and leave them without any source of income since there would be nothing left to attack? Chris Shelton especially would be hit hard as he’s banked everything in his life toward the pursuit of “debunking” Scientology, while Steve Mango appears to think trolling Scientology at his sugar daddy’s (who is old enough to be his father) expense is a good way of breaking into Hollywood.
Emma might want to reconsider. Tony Ortega and his disciples may still believe the best way to make a million dollars is to troll the hell out of Scientology, but he has yet to confront the inevitable reality that Scientology-bashing can buy only so much cat food and body wax and only for so long. Then it’s back to dumpster diving and Vaseline like our old pal Mark Ebner.
Thanks for posting your hateful stupidity “Mr./Ms. Zane X”. I hear Antifa is hiring if you lose your job at OSA.
I’m sorry, I see no “hateful stupidity” here. Zane was accused of being OSA, but not all accusations are true. And anyway, information can be evaluated for its truth whether it’s from an osa agent or from the stanchest anti-Scientologist.
So is there a point you’d like to make, Richard, beside simply insulting another poster here at AlanzosBlog? Like is there a specific thing in Zane X’s post you wish to take up?
Because this kind of post won’t be allowed again here.
So make up for this outburst of yours by posting something rational to ZaneX, will you please?
So a post like Richard’s is verbotten but Zane X talking about “Tony’s cat food and torso waxing”, “Emma’s boozing and Bali vacations” and “dumpster diving and Vaseline like our old pal Mark Ebner” are perfect examples of civilized dialogue?
Good point, DigThatGroove.
Sometimes I myself get a little too blindly tribal, as well. That’s why we need lots of different viewpoints as human beings – even anti-Scientologists need that.
Welcome to AlanzosBlog.
The kind of people who use “Antifa” (anti-fascist) as an insult are not the kind of people who are amenable to fruitful conversation. I think Zane’s comment is spot-on.
Right. Alt-right lynch hooligans, boozing chain smoking zealots, sugar daddies, body waxing and Vaseline brings forth amenable fruitful conversation.