In all honesty that lady is just going to look for the next ideology to follow which may be just as crazy as Scientology, who will be there to save her from that?
You could apply the same laissez-faire argument to literally anything that's discussed here. Why try and prevent people from visiting psychics? From using homoeopathy? From believing conspiracy theories?
What's wrong with a group of people identifying something wrong in the world and trying to do something about it? This whole thing started as a childish knee-jerk reaction to spoiled fun, but is instead becoming a focus for both pre-existing and new outrage at what the Co$ has done, and continues to do.
IMO, Anon is really just cherry picking what they find to be 'corrupt'. If you look deep enough into any religion you can find corruption.
I have to ask you how much you've read about the Co$? It's only a religion per se in the US and Australia, and then this status was only obtained for tax breaks. It's a money-making power-wielding exercise, nothing more.
And yet, ironically enough, it actually seems to ape the methods and behaviour of established religions, back when the original ideas had wandered, individuals were in charge who wanted money and power, and there were no checks and balances there to hold them back. It wants to be the Christian church of about 1500AD - absolute authority, control of government, control of medicine, of morality, massive wealth, etc etc.
Of
course Christianity or any other mainstream religion has a history of corruption, money-grabbing, abuse of authority etc etc. No doubt elements of them still would like to. The point is that they have either reformed themselves or been forced to do so along the lines of prevailing ideas in society about what's right and appropriate. Sharp eyes are kept on them and their influence in society is reduced as far as possible to personal choice and individual belief.
The Co$ flies in the face of those ideas. At best it pushes pseudoscience to people who have severely limited choices, and at worst it destroys people's lives. You don't have to believe the more lurid anecdotal evidence to get a grasp of just how much worse they are than any comparable group that's styled a religion (or is actually one). Compare them with Wicca, or even Mormonism.
I can understand reservations about a group like Anonymous, and there is certainly a danger of hubris, of declining interest, and no doubt there are people out there who want nothing more than to persecute people different from them. They are easily able to associate themselves with a group like this, because anyone can. You could argue that people like me are aligning with them as a sort of marriage of convenience, but I have been very sceptical of the group all along the way. It was only when I saw them standing peacefully, trying to engage with the public and obviously knowing their stuff and caring about the issue that I realised a significant number of these people are intelligent and socially responsible. Scepticism is certainly lacking, but that's true of most people, as we know all too well. To anyone critical of Co$ but still not convinced by Anonymous - time will tell.
In any case, please, don't reject the very valid criticisms of Scientology simply because you don't like the idea of internet "mobs" originating within subcultures you find distasteful.
