Tom Cruise conundrum

[Rev. Rye]

Or the Governing Body of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Admittedly, they have less than a percent of the followers that the RCC does, but they make up for it with sheer shamelessness about their covering up of child abuse.

[arewethereyet]

I like the movie Top Gun, haven't seen the new one yet. But I lost interest in Tom Cruise after watching Eyes Wide Shut when stuck in a hotel room with few choices of entertainment. John Travolta is big into the Scientology thing too, but I will still happily watch Pulp Fiction.

If I have to start judging the entertainment ability of an actor by the weirdnesses IRL, I wouldn't be able to watch much at all.

[The Grand Nudger]

I tend to worry about Tom Cruise exactly as much as I worry about Scientology (nil = nil).

Scientology has about 40 000 members worldwide. The Catholic Church has well over a billion.  If someone wants to fret over the ‘criminal head of a criminal organization’, the Pope seems like a much more legitimate target.

Boru

My hateboner for the khaki cultists is a local flavor.  They own Clearwater.  They had this plan called Project Normandy.  Fucking bonkers..but it worked.

[Foxaèr]

My hateboner for the khaki cultists is a local flavor.  They own Clearwater.  They had this plan called Project Normandy.  Fucking bonkers..but it worked.

When did you live in Clearwater?

[The Grand Nudger]

St. Pete. Pasadena, off park and central. Spent the 80's and 90's there. It was super easy to collect scientology material then at yard sales. Our next door neighbor had an addict daughter that got milked and when she finally offed herself I ended up with a pretty comprehensive collection of l ron shit. On the plus side there was an obviously unread copy of battlefield earth in there. The St. Pete Times was also running the coverage that got them a pulitzer. I had, coincidentally, just acquired the name tyler - and was very much a good boy. I actually left right (for good) around when they ran their new series on scientology - so it bookends my time in florida.

When people hear Tom shooting salad about the pharma conspiracy and think "wtf!?" - I point them toward battlefield earth - and to explain scientology as practiced, and in clearwater, you only need to add the complicity of local government and the "help" of front groups like narconon. I mean, are floridians ever more than one girl in bondage and a bad trip away from rising up against the catrists and their psychlos with our vast stockpile of 80's weaponry?

[Aegon]

I like the movie Top Gun, haven't seen the new one yet.  But I lost interest in Tom Cruise after watching Eyes Wide Shut when stuck in a hotel room with few choices of entertainment.  John Travolta is big into the Scientology thing too, but I will still happily watch Pulp Fiction.

If I have to start judging the entertainment ability of an actor by the weirdnesses IRL, I wouldn't be able to watch much at all.

The new one is very good. I didn't care much for the old one, so I was surprised how much I enjoyed the new one. I watched it on a long flight back in November.

[arewethereyet]

I like the movie Top Gun, haven't seen the new one yet.  But I lost interest in Tom Cruise after watching Eyes Wide Shut when stuck in a hotel room with few choices of entertainment.  John Travolta is big into the Scientology thing too, but I will still happily watch Pulp Fiction.

If I have to start judging the entertainment ability of an actor by the weirdnesses IRL, I wouldn't be able to watch much at all.

The new one is very good. I didn't care much for the old one, so I was surprised how much I enjoyed the new one. I watched it on a long flight back in November.

My son said it was really good.  Will probably catch it on some streaming service at some point.

[Fake Messiah]

According to Leah Remini, Tom is a pillar of Scientology, or as I would say "a prime bitch." Other Scientologists are afraid of him. When they have get-togethers, Travolta and Kirstie Alley were not present because Tom hates them.

And he is all that because he is popular (among non-Scientologists - people they feel superior to, and yet grade themselves by their attention). As his reputation changes so do the Churches.

When he had that incident at Oprah he was losing power and so did Scientology since it reflected badly on them. And Tom had a few bad years, but it seems like he is coming back and so is Scientology which is not a laughing stock as it was just a few years ago. And so is their power to lure people into Scientology and then exploit them and also fight against psychiatry, pharmacy, and whatnot.

[The Grand Nudger]

They target nuts, and..preferably, nuts with drug and or gay problems. Johnny T...allegedly, has/had both. Tom, well I think Tom just might be a fucked up person. His ex wife Mimi is the one that turned him on to it. She's from Coral Gables FL, and she got it from her daddy. It was a literal family business for them.

[Rev. Rye]

One other thing that helps, oftentimes, they look for desperate people. People with problems (ideally psychosomatic) they can potentially solve. If you've read Ruthless, you'll know that Ron Miscavige got into it in the first place because he was having headaches, and a fellow salesman (who happened to be a Scientologist) told him that, if he wanted to get rid of those headaches, all he had to do was look at the mirror and give it to the guy in the mirror. Crazy enough, it worked. It even cured his son David's asthma and allergies.

From what I've read, that's generally how they tend to bring people in: using the thin end of the wedge. And by the time they figure out that this self-help organization they're a part of is actually a fucking space cult, they've spent a bare minimum of $278,273.25 (assuming, of course, that you don't have to retake any courses or that you don't give any donations to the Co$, which is probably not likely, given how obsessive they are pressuring members to cough up more money in donations). That amount is slightly less than the median price for a home in New Hampshire. Hell, you could buy two in Alabama for that money.