For those who may not be familiar with the term, Dictionary.com “Woke means being conscious of racial discrimination in society and other forms of oppression and injustice.”
Scientologist and woman shaming bully Liv Watson recently blogged for Stand League ostensibly in defense of cancel culture. In reality the piece is nothing more than hypocritical justification of Fair Game and one more pot shot at Leah Remini.
Watson fanatically opens her post with one of the most amazing statements ever to come from a Scientologist.
“When celebrities or other individuals with platforms say or do something offensive, cancel culture comes for them with a vengeance. They get flooded with negative comments on social media, the mainstream media follows suit with admonishing articles, and the shamed perpetrator gives a public apology. And in most cases, there’s nothing wrong with that. If someone uses their platform and influence to spread bigoted ideas, it is your First Amendment right to cancel the hell out of them.” (Emphasis Watson’s)
There is a fine line between cancel culture and Fair Game, which is why the practice would be so attractive to a Scientologist.
A 2019 article for Vox, which Watson links to in her post, journalist Aja Romano asks whether cancel culture is an effective social justice tool or just the actions of an angry mob.
Romano explains, “A celebrity or other public figure does or says something offensive. A public backlash, often fueled by politically progressive social media, ensues. Then come the calls to cancel the person — that is, to effectively end their career or revoke their cultural cachet, whether through boycotts of their work or disciplinary action from an employer.”
Cancel culture has a propensity for misuse and abuse. When it crosses the line into attacking and attempting to subdue someone for expressing their opinion, it becomes more like Fair Game and less a tool for change.
Further Romano points out that it’s ultimate efficacy is questionable, “…actually ending someone’s career through the power of public backlash is easier said than done. Few entertainers have truly been canceled — that is, they haven’t had their careers totally shut down by negative criticism on the internet.
Thus her lede, “Is cancel culture an important tool of social justice or a new form of merciless mob intimidation?”
Watson’s attraction for the idea of cancel culture is in her recognition of it as a weapon for revenge. While the intention for most who utilize the practice may be sincere, the innate opportunity for misuse would be most attractive to those bent on bullying, revenge or causing pain for the sake of watching people hurt.
Fair Game is the Policy of freedom to destroy another person solely because they dare to question or disagree with Scientology. Effectively, when someone publicly denounces the cult’s abusive or criminal acts, Scientology decides it has the right to harass, stalk and lie about him or her in order to publicly humiliate or even ruin their reputation.
Is the forceful, public ruination of another using “any means necessary” because they express their own opinion really a right protected by the First Amendment?
Scientology believes it is as Watson demonstrates in her piece, defending the abuse saying; “…there’s nothing wrong with that…”.
Confusing being “woke” with Fair Game, Watson goes on to write complete falsehoods in yet one more attempt to cancel Leah Remini.
“Leah Remini has used anti-Scientology hate speech to stay present in the tabloid media and prop up her long-dead career. She filed false police reports, freely admitted she never vets her sources, and paid criminals (whom she describes as ‘her people’) to be ‘witnesses’ on her show. After the show incited hate crime and the murder of a Scientologist last year, it was finally cancelled.”
Speaking the truth about abuse and criminal behavior is not hate speech. It is not hate speech to loudly decry Priests, Pastors, Rabbis or Imams who molest the vulnerable in their charge.
Nothing that Remini has said falls under that category. She has never once used inflammatory words intended to direct anyone to physically attack Scientology.
On the other hand, when Scientology creates their “Who Is” websites to attack and malign those who come forward to reveal their experiences within the cult it can only be construed as hate.
Riddled with personal attacks, scornful commentary, name calling and outright false accusations these sites have no other function but to incite others against the target, to cancel them both socially and in some cases professionally.
Leah’s mission has nothing to do with staying present in the tabloids, either. Winning multiple prestigious awards for her work on A&E Network, which could never be called “tabloid media”, disproves Watson’s comment completely.
Most recently this has proven true in the current Emmy nominations of both Leah and Mike.
Nor did Remini file a false police report. Had she done so, she would have been charged for it, or at the very least been warned that the possibility existed for the charge. That would have made the tabloids.
The fact is that Shelly Miscavige has not been seen nor heard from for over a decade now. In any other segment of society this would be cause for investigation. Because it involves Scientology, for some mysterious reason law enforcement just takes Miscavige’s word as gospel and ignores the situation. Shelly Miscavige is missing by any reasonable definition of the word.
What is false are the continual public avowals that Remini and Rinder are responsible for inciting hate crimes against Scientology.
Completely dishonest is accusing Mike Rinder of domestic violence with severe injury in the face of undeniable, irrefutable proof of his innocence.
One can only wonder who all the paid criminals were. All that can be done with this outrageous claim is to add it to the other allegation that Remini and Rinder are being paid “big bucks” by either Big Pharma or some other shadowy, unnamed mafia type organization whose sole aim is to bash Scientology.
The paranoia which drove L. Ron Hubbard is alive, well and functioning as his legacy in Scientology today.
As for the claims that Remini in any way incited hate crimes, there is absolutely no evidence of such malarkey anywhere. We addressed these fictitious allegations once before. To be perfectly clear, neither Leah Remini nor Mike Rinder had anything to do with the tragic, fatal stabbing that took place in Australia in January 2019. To the contrary, Journalist Bryan Seymour who broke the story stated on Twitter that there was no involvement by Remini or Rinder whatsoever.
Flying in the face of honesty simply to attack someone goes beyond cancel culture’s intentions and there are certainly no First Amendment protections for such hate.
No one has a Constitutionally protected right to slander or libel another. This is why laws exist to protect citizens from such things.
Watson attempts to portray Scientology as the poor, put upon victim of hate and bigotry by Leah Remini. Wondering why such intolerance is acceptable when other religions are vocally defended from attack, she points out the harmless goodness her church does; “Even as Scientologist parishioners selflessly volunteered during the pandemic, helping to sanitize local businesses and hand out informational booklets on how to stay well, certain media outlets criticized their efforts, as if helping people was somehow scandalous.”
Liv Watson may have had a valid point, had those “selfless volunteers” not been lying half the time about what they are doing. Had the photographs not been staged, some posted without the knowledge or permission of the photographed.
Helping people does not include lying to business owners, telling them one is a government representative and forcing the business to display and distribute said booklets.
Outrageously Liv compares the exposure Scientology receives because of their actions, policies and abuses to racism. “The media institutions that propagate this bigotry are hypocrites. They’ll happily cancel someone for a racist tweet or an insensitive comment, but write anti-Scientology hate speech without a second thought. Such ‘journalists’ need to take a long, hard look in the mirror.“
Racism is wrong and a direct violation of Man’s inalienable human rights. It is a cause worth fighting for, speaking out against and demanding change.
It is difficult to take Ms Watson’s outrage seriously when the very organization she is so vehemently defending is deeply in bed with the Nation of Islam.
Louis Farrakhan, Rizza Islam and others who drive this hate filled movement lead their followers into the depths of intolerance, bigotry, racism and extreme anti-Semitic rage.
Watson herself joined in with her Stand League Director, Eddie Parkin, when he took to Twitter to body shame Leah Remini, cruelly sniping “Turns out running your mouth doesn’t count as exercise.”
Liv Watson writes “People who promote bigotry don’t deserve a platform” and she is absolutely right.
Dictionary.com defines Bigotry as “stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one’s own.”
Someone needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.
Confront And Shatter 