I did Bob G. Thanks. Joe P. isn’t know for his logic.

‘From forty years’ experience of the wretched guess-work of the newspapers of what is not done in open daylight, and of their falsehood even as to that, I rarely think them worth reading, and almost never worth notice.”

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.”

Just a small sample of what Jefferson had to say about the press.

It’s disappointing to see a man such as yourself doing much good in the world fall victim to a political ideology so simple and shallow that it boils down to accepting CNN’s view of the world or being declared an SP. Based on your background, perhaps it is not surprising you require conformity to your worldview. Sorry Mike, it doesn’t work like that.

I require conformity to my worldview? And I have fallen “victim to a political ideology”?

Instead of jumping to conclusions based on your worldview that seems to be that anything that is not praiseworthy of Donald Trump is based on watching CNN, perhaps you should read my original post again.

Yes, the media is flawed. No I don’t think that they are fair and impartial purveyors of facts. They don’t do a good job on a lot of things. But they ARE a bulwark against totalitarians and abuse of power. My point was to note my appreciation of them for the work that has been done to expose the abuses of scientology, for without the media it would go on behind closed doors and never be exposed. I dislike the very concept of anyone trying to undermine the value of the press — from Hubbard to Trump.

Your partisan tinted glasses are leaving you apparently unable to read what I actually said.

It’s disappointing to see a man such as yourself doing much good in the world fall victim to a political ideology so simple and shallow that it boils down to accepting CNN’s view of the world or being declared an SP. Based on your background, perhaps it is not surprising you require conformity to your worldview. Sorry Mike, it doesn’t work like that.

Yes, correct. More important is to be able to differentiate between truth and lies, between good and evil.

I’ll say again, and hope that perhaps someone gets this, this time around, that “the “Axioms of Scientology” are “Axioms of Scientology”. The caption is not “Axioms of Life”. If Hubbard had meant to say “Axioms of Life” I feel almost absolutely certain that he would have written “Axioms of Life”. He did not. He wrote “Axioms of Scientology”. Incredibly, with all the word-clearing and demos and clay demos and warnings about misunderstandings and the importance of getting the meaning of things before running with them, would-be Scientologists read the “Axioms of Scientology” and because those deal with the specific and discreet field of Scientology, which addresses discreet aspects of life, begin to think something like this: “Well, yes … I mean, it does s-a-y ‘Axioms of Scientology’, but everyone knows that what he really means is ‘Axioms of Life’, and that’s obvious to anyone.” And I have asked Class VIII’s about good and evil, and I have gotten, almost uniformly, a quotation of axiom of Scientology #31: “Goodness and badness, beautifulness and ugliness, are alike considerations and have no other basis than opinion.” If I were an “Axioms Thumper” I guess I should reply: “Axiom #38: Stupidity is the unknownness of consideration”.

Hatred and evil are difficult subjects, but it seems to me that while an individual may experience a wide range of emotional tones, including hatred, there is a line of sorts at which one which crosses over from just an emotion of hatred, to an action of intentional harm, and that may be where one gets the phenomenon of what we call “evil”. Just as there is hatred, there is indeed evil, and only a fool would try to deny that.

Axiom #31 reads as it does, in my guesswork, because without that as an axiom of Scientology, auditing could not occur. You cannot ask some a question as regards his own personal experience, and then supply him with the answer.

And since this topic gets into politics in an explicit manner, and since Mike Rinder is in fact a journalist, I’ll get into it. To assume that media is telling the truth, only reporting relevant facts, and NOT running on its own agenda to cover up outright lies, is naive. It is nauseating to read “news” that attacks President Trump ad hominem as its principal focus, just as it is nauseating to read “news” that attacks Scientology in admitted complete ignorance of what Scientology is, REFUSING to differentiate between the idiots that make up the “congregation” and the facts and data and procedures of Scientology. Just as it is nauseating to read of things like the infamous Salem witch trials, the Spanish inquisition, and the slaughter of Christians in Ancient Rome. Ignorance, superstition, hatred, and evil.

Perhaps one of the most relevant questions of all time is this: “Why would someone actively oppose, lie about, and seek to destroy and bury good work?” Scientology has answers to that. Maybe that’s why some seek to lie about it, oppose it, and seek to destroy and bury it – without even looking at those answers or considering that they might apply to themselves. Oh, there is evil in the world. Yes, there is. And that is not a matter of opinion only. How you deal with it is not a matter of opinion either. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the solution is to take responsibility for it, find the hatred behind it, the reasons for that hatred, and audit those out, until the reasons for the hatred dissipate and resolve. That is a tough road, but it is the only one. If someone knows of a better way than Scientology, then by all means let them go for it, but the best route I have found is Scientology.

Oh please. You are going to do a Bill Clinton and try to parse words like it is OK?

This is a recording of Trump’s words, not “media bias” or Harvey Weinstein.

In case you missed what he exactly said:

Trump: Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.

Trump: Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.

Please don’t try to defend this. It makes you look bad. It’s disgusting any way you cut it.

So is Harvey Weinstein. He is a pig too and has lost his job and any position he held. Fortunately Weinstein was not President of the United States.

Trump said powerful men like him could get away with it-I do not believe he said he did it- Harvey Weinstein is a case in point, powerful man, who did a lot more and got away with it for years. Flake comparing Trump to Stalin was a bit over the top for me and too melodramatic for an outgoing Congressman. #Releasethememo. That should clear up the bias of the press if they have the balls to print it when it is released.

Becoming Clear was a goal of every member. When we were scientologists, we bit the bait on accepting this propaganda tool because L Ron Hubbard said that the media was out enemy, that in reading it and believing anything of it, we’d be prevented from achieving a Clear thinking. We agreed because he said this was so; we agreed that only he knew truth, and to think otherwise was a betrayal.

Despite the effect it would have on our ability to seek information, to measure and fact-check what we’d read, to make conclusions from an objective mind, we no longer had free choice on the matter because we gave up our right to seek information from the media without believing and insisting that it was all biased. Little did we know what hypocrites we were. However, it didn’t matter anymore to us back then. We knew we were right because L Ron Hubbard was always right, and to think otherwise was to be doomed.

Yes, truth matters. It was what we sought but followed a path away from it. We did not understand the importance of critical thinking, of the opportunities afforded us by the freedom of press. We traded in our free choice on what to read, what to believe of what we read, and what to discern as fact or fiction from it. How fortunate we are to be free of that big lie. We are free now to read and write whatever we want, and to be of a free mind to accept or not accept. But we must always be on alert to any attempts to persuade us from reading information reported on the affairs of the world. It is a duty of sorts to discern the truth of what we read, and especially attempts to stop us from trusting that media altogether. Those are serious
attempts to control information, to stop it from reaching us, to supress us in thinking, knowing, and engaging in the exchange of free thought.