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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   3164 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 18, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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This weekend, I became obsessed with the question of whether Scientology chief David Miscavige (who grew up in Scientology and took over upon Hubbard’s death in 1987) actually believes in the mythos. If I have time, I’ll write a moderate effort-post, but I’m curious since I know there are other scientology nerds here (it is one of the oldest ‘very online’ hobbyist topics, after all), what do you think?

Miscavige strikes me as someone with full-blown narcissistic personality disorder. And narcissists don't think like non-narcissists. They really don't care about objective truth. Words are merely a means to an end. They're tools or weapons, like teeth and claws. Used to manipulate their environment in order to get what they want: narcissistic supply. They'll tell a useful lie and then instantaneously believe it. It's more convincing if it's believed.

"Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia."

There's no inner core. They're predators running on subconscious protocols/impulses.

Think of narcissists as solipsistic alien hiveminds. You are merely an extension of them. A conduit of their psyche. The leg does what the brain says. That's why when Jim Jones decides it's time for him to commit suicide, it's everyone's time to commit suicide. Cult leaders and family annihilators have the same thought patterns.

I'm rambling, but I would say he doesn't think like you or me in the same way that spiders don't think like you or me. His beliefs are useful delusions. He doesn't believe in the mythos in the same way that I believe the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

EDIT: Whatever is useful in the moment, he believes. They're amorphous.

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