What TV are you watching and how would you rate it? [Revive from FRDB]

[spikepipsqueak]

Bridget Christie: Standup For Her.

Brilliant

 

[repoman]

Just a brief tangent, was watching an episode of Criminal Minds and there was a woman with rabies coming at Morgan and Reid.

Morgan actually shot her when she was say 15 feet away in an open park field and in no shape to run at him quickly. What the hell were the writers thinking? The actor must have did a double take on the script. He has a character image to protect that the writer of the week can screw up.

Makes me wonder about the actor's ability to contest scripts.

 

[DBT]

Just watched the 60 Minutes Australia's investigation of Shelley Miscavige and Scientology. Very well done. Everyone should watch it.

Of course, there's tons of books, TV, and movies people should watch about Scientology, but Leah Remini's show with Mike Rinder exposing the cult has really upped the game of late. I'm guardedly hopeful. I've learned from twenty years of being out of the cult and following news and critics that every time it seems like curtains for the cult, nothing significant happens to stop their fraud and other crimes including imprisoning and enslaving people. Who knows how long an utterly conscienceless cult run by utterly conscienceless people will last, given that they have no real boundaries on what they are willing to do to critics.

There's also a lot of parallels to the Trump administration. When the only principle guiding your decisions is loyalty to the authority and any pain and suffering caused in the pursuit of protecting and feeding that authority is just not important compared to that grand goal, a whole universe of options open up to you in regard to the evil you can commit. Scientology, like Christianity, is a machine that produces right wing authoritarian followers. Questioning is a mortal sin.

How anyone could be a believer in Scientology and its teachings is beyond my comprehension.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Just watched the 60 Minutes Australia's investigation of Shelley Miscavige and Scientology. Very well done. Everyone should watch it.

Of course, there's tons of books, TV, and movies people should watch about Scientology, but Leah Remini's show with Mike Rinder exposing the cult has really upped the game of late. I'm guardedly hopeful. I've learned from twenty years of being out of the cult and following news and critics that every time it seems like curtains for the cult, nothing significant happens to stop their fraud and other crimes including imprisoning and enslaving people. Who knows how long an utterly conscienceless cult run by utterly conscienceless people will last, given that they have no real boundaries on what they are willing to do to critics.

There's also a lot of parallels to the Trump administration. When the only principle guiding your decisions is loyalty to the authority and any pain and suffering caused in the pursuit of protecting and feeding that authority is just not important compared to that grand goal, a whole universe of options open up to you in regard to the evil you can commit. Scientology, like Christianity, is a machine that produces right wing authoritarian followers. Questioning is a mortal sin.

How anyone could be a believer in Scientology and its teachings is beyond my comprehension.

Because it's a cult? We're all vulnerable to cults. That's something we've learned from studying this. Cults are designed to exploit universal flaws in human thinking and emotional life. It's the idea that humans are rational (we're not) that cults can exploit. If we think we are rational beings we're very vulnerable targets for cults.

 

[thebeave]

Just watched the 60 Minutes Australia's investigation of Shelley Miscavige and Scientology. Very well done. Everyone should watch it.

Of course, there's tons of books, TV, and movies people should watch about Scientology, but Leah Remini's show with Mike Rinder exposing the cult has really upped the game of late. I'm guardedly hopeful. I've learned from twenty years of being out of the cult and following news and critics that every time it seems like curtains for the cult, nothing significant happens to stop their fraud and other crimes including imprisoning and enslaving people. Who knows how long an utterly conscienceless cult run by utterly conscienceless people will last, given that they have no real boundaries on what they are willing to do to critics.

There's also a lot of parallels to the Trump administration. When the only principle guiding your decisions is loyalty to the authority and any pain and suffering caused in the pursuit of protecting and feeding that authority is just not important compared to that grand goal, a whole universe of options open up to you in regard to the evil you can commit. Scientology, like Christianity, is a machine that produces right wing authoritarian followers. Questioning is a mortal sin.

How anyone could be a believer in Scientology and its teachings is beyond my comprehension.

Heh.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Dark Matter - 9/10

Cool sci-fi show about a group of people who wake up on a spaceship with their memories erased. They discover that they're all a bunch of criminals and they travel around trying to find out what happened to them while hi-jinks ensue. It has a real Firefly vibe to it and is well written with an interesting cast of characters.

Highly recommend.

 

[repoman]

Dark Matter - 9/10

Cool sci-fi show about a group of people who wake up on a spaceship with their memories erased. They discover that they're all a bunch of criminals and they travel around trying to find out what happened to them while hi-jinks ensue. It has a real Firefly vibe to it and is well written with an interesting cast of characters.

Highly recommend.

Good until the end of the last season when it had to wrap up too quickly. If there was money to keep it going could have remained good. However, some of the actors had their characters painted into too small a range. The young girl was too often just frightened, the Japanese guy was too tough in personality, no cracks.

It got me to look up space travel and time paradoxes in sci-fi. It is all convenient fantasy for plots. Even if a space ship crew could go at near instant FTL and avoid the time paradox, there still is the matter of the whole planets not being able to.

 

[prideandfall]

Because it's a cult? We're all vulnerable to cults. That's something we've learned from studying this. Cults are designed to exploit universal flaws in human thinking and emotional life. It's the idea that humans are rational (we're not) that cults can exploit. If we think we are rational beings we're very vulnerable targets for cults.

what's the difference between a cult and a religion?

a cult is one charismatic guy manipulating a bunch of idiots into worshipping him, and coming up with a complex set of rules and traditions in order to reinforce strict adherence to the cult and deter defectors - usually with some kind of weird sex and/or money scheme involved on top of that.

a religion is when that guy wrote a book about it and is now dead.

the scientology faith and the behaviors of their church are no different from any other established religion, people just act surprised by it because it isn't old enough for everyone to be used to it and hand-wave away its batshittery as "faith tradition"

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Because it's a cult? We're all vulnerable to cults. That's something we've learned from studying this. Cults are designed to exploit universal flaws in human thinking and emotional life. It's the idea that humans are rational (we're not) that cults can exploit. If we think we are rational beings we're very vulnerable targets for cults.

what's the difference between a cult and a religion?

a cult is one charismatic guy manipulating a bunch of idiots into worshipping him, and coming up with a complex set of rules and traditions in order to reinforce strict adherence to the cult and deter defectors - usually with some kind of weird sex and/or money scheme involved on top of that.

a religion is when that guy wrote a book about it and is now dead.

the scientology faith and the behaviors of their church are no different from any other established religion, people just act surprised by it because it isn't old enough for everyone to be used to it and hand-wave away its batshittery as "faith tradition"

Believe it or not, there are some churches in some religions that aren't about strict adherence, sex, or money schemes.

 

[prideandfall]

Believe it or not, there are some churches in some religions that aren't about strict adherence, sex, or money schemes.

we're gonna go with "not" because literally no there isn't*

*excepting rare fringes that are some kind of rebellious anti-establishment, like unitarians, which are only that way specifically as a response to the fact that the actual religion of which they are a tiny splinter faction arethat way.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Believe it or not, there are some churches in some religions that aren't about strict adherence, sex, or money schemes.

we're gonna go with "not" because literally no there isn't*

*excepting rare fringes that are some kind of rebellious anti-establishment, like unitarians, which are only that way specifically as a response to the fact that the actual religion of which they are a tiny splinter faction arethat way.

Well, literally, yes there are. I’ve found a number of UCC churches that aren’t based on any of the things you’re railing about.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Believe it or not, there are some churches in some religions that aren't about strict adherence, sex, or money schemes.

we're gonna go with "not" because literally no there isn't*

*excepting rare fringes that are some kind of rebellious anti-establishment, like unitarians, which are only that way specifically as a response to the fact that the actual religion of which they are a tiny splinter faction arethat way.

Well, literally, yes there are. I’ve found a number of UCC churches that aren’t based on any of the things you’re railing about.

Ya, I go to a Unitarian church sometimes which has none of that bullshit and basically just has a philosophy that we should be nice to each other, clean up after ourselves and give the minister a hand job at least once a month. It's just banal and normal and you can't compare it to the creepy, cult like religions.

 

[prideandfall]

Believe it or not, there are some churches in some religions that aren't about strict adherence, sex, or money schemes.

we're gonna go with "not" because literally no there isn't*

*excepting rare fringes that are some kind of rebellious anti-establishment, like unitarians, which are only that way specifically as a response to the fact that the actual religion of which they are a tiny splinter faction are that way.

Well, literally, yes there are. I’ve found a number of UCC churches that aren’t based on any of the things you’re railing about.

man, if only i had specifically mentioned unitarians and how a splinter fringe group behaving a certain way only as a reaction to the greater body being a different way was a dubious exception to the rule my statement suggested.
but if i had something crazy like that, you would have had to actually read the post you were ostensibly responding to.

oh well.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Well, literally, yes there are. I’ve found a number of UCC churches that aren’t based on any of the things you’re railing about.

man, if only i had specifically mentioned unitarians and how a splinter fringe group behaving a certain way only as a reaction to the greater body being a different way was a dubious exception to the rule my statement suggested.
but if i had something crazy like that, you would have had to actually read the post you were ostensibly responding to.

oh well.

I wasn't aware that UCC was "Unitarian". I've never heard that term when dealing with any of the church folk. Everything I can find on the Internet indicates that UCC (United Church of Christ) is NOT the same as UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association).

I read your post. I understood it. Feel free to provide info that those two organizations are the same. And maybe try to be less of a dick about it.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Because it's a cult? We're all vulnerable to cults. That's something we've learned from studying this. Cults are designed to exploit universal flaws in human thinking and emotional life. It's the idea that humans are rational (we're not) that cults can exploit. If we think we are rational beings we're very vulnerable targets for cults.

what's the difference between a cult and a religion?

a cult is one charismatic guy manipulating a bunch of idiots into worshipping him, and coming up with a complex set of rules and traditions in order to reinforce strict adherence to the cult and deter defectors - usually with some kind of weird sex and/or money scheme involved on top of that.

a religion is when that guy wrote a book about it and is now dead.

the scientology faith and the behaviors of their church are no different from any other established religion, people just act surprised by it because it isn't old enough for everyone to be used to it and hand-wave away its batshittery as "faith tradition"

I understand you're being flippant now. But a cult is a very narrow definition. There's a list of things that need to be true for it to be a cult. If any of those are missing, it's not a cult.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/27/cults-definition-religion

Very few religious people are in anything near what a cult is. Just the fact that most people free to leave churches they're uncool with, and are comfortable with shopping around for a church makes it not a cult.

 

[prideandfall]

I wasn't aware that UCC was "Unitarian". I've never heard that term when dealing with any of the church folk.

ah! ok then either i know them by that term for some locally colloquial reason, or else i just fucked up the name and i meant UCC but said unitarian.
either way that's on me, and i retract my totally misplaced sarcasm. my apologies.

 

[prideandfall]

I understand you're being flippant now. But a cult is a very narrow definition. There's a list of things that need to be true for it to be a cult. If any of those are missing, it's not a cult.

correct... if the lunatic in charge is still alive, it's a cult. it's not a religion until that person is dead.

Very few religious people are in anything near what a cult is. Just the fact that most people free to leave churches they're uncool with, and are comfortable with shopping around for a church makes it not a cult.

i mean, ok yes i recognize that the difference is there, but to me that's like saying that if your pile of vegetables is covered in a vinaigrette it's not a salad, because it's only a salad if it's covered in ranch.
it's a difference that only exists in degree, and only as a factor of time. EVERY religion was a cult at its inception, the only two mitigating factors are a dead founder and broadening target audience appeal causing marketing changes.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

I wasn't aware that UCC was "Unitarian". I've never heard that term when dealing with any of the church folk.

ah! ok then either i know them by that term for some locally colloquial reason, or else i just fucked up the name and i meant UCC but said unitarian.
either way that's on me, and i retract my totally misplaced sarcasm. my apologies.

That's cool, thanks.

I think the size of the UCC membership (nearly 1 million adults in the USA) makes them more than a splinter group (Unitarians in the USA are less than a quarter of that number). And I like every one of them I've met, which I can't say about any other group, religious or not, that I've ever encountered. It's a safe haven for people escaping from churches that are focused on the things you listed, especially former Catholics.

When I want to experience cults, I drop in on the local camera club, make a remark disparaging Nikon or Canon, and grab some popcorn.

 

[prideandfall]

I wasn't aware that UCC was "Unitarian". I've never heard that term when dealing with any of the church folk.

ah! ok then either i know them by that term for some locally colloquial reason, or else i just fucked up the name and i meant UCC but said unitarian.
either way that's on me, and i retract my totally misplaced sarcasm. my apologies.

That's cool, thanks.

I think the size of the UCC membership (nearly 1 million adults in the USA) makes them more than a splinter group (Unitarians in the USA are less than a quarter of that number). And I like every one of them I've met, which I can't say about any other group, religious or not, that I've ever encountered. It's a safe haven for people escaping from churches that are focused on the things you listed, especially former Catholics.

When I want to experience cults, I drop in on the local camera club, make a remark disparaging Nikon or Canon, and grab some popcorn.

this has reached the point where our differing perspectives are coming down to basic fundamental outlooks on the world, with a smattering of semantics - and there's really not anywhere you can go from there in terms of discussion that is polite or helpful, because all that's left is to argue about what words mean.
IMO every religion is a cult, full stop. all cults are equal in that they are dangerous and irrational and anyone involved with them is an idiot, full stop.
i fully acknowledge your (and likely many others) opinion on this is different from mine and i'm respectful of that, but since i don't see where else this can go besides ugly i'll stop continuing this derail.

 

[prideandfall]

the magicians: 3/10, maybe 4 if you're feeling generous.

it's like if you took every book, story, movie, TV show, etc etc, from the last 40 years that in any way involved magic, young people, and schools and then had some random 24 year old fan fic writer from reddit make a TV show out of it.
it's amusing, because my friend is SUPER into it and the only reason i'm watching is so she'll shut the fuck up with constantly telling me "oh there's a joke/reference i could make but you don't the magicians", and this show is so god awfully stupid but in a way that makes it kind of fun because of the nonstop stream of obscenities i'm yelling at the TV while we watch it.

it gets a few positive marks for being well produced and not being necessarily stupid in its writing or execution, but the premise is just so derivative that it's rather tedious.