Scientology Fair Game Podcast Review #0

AIRED JULY 20, 2020

"[We are going to do] whatever it's going to take to get the whole story out that we've never been able to tell before!" - Mike Rinder

I have always been interested in Scientology. I do not wish to become a Scientologist, nor have I had any respect for the "fair game" practices they do, but it fascinates me. I could easily be a cult member. I'm just that "type." I like hanging out and talking nonsense.

That said, I tuned into "Scientology: Fair Game" with Leah Remini and Mike Rinder. This first episode, number 0, goes over the practice of Fair Game in Scientology. Remini asks Rinder, who was a head honcho at the Office at Special Affairs in Scientology before he defected, about Fair Game. Fair Game means to utterly destroy someone's livelyhood, reputation, and/or freedom. This is reserved for anyone that is an enemy of Scientology. As a tax-exempt religion, Scientology has loads of money to hire private investigators to harass people and put up hate websites.

But who is considered an enemy? Leah posed scenarios to Rinder and he verified who would be fair gamed. (not exact quotes)

"Are you Fair Gamed if you go to the police and ask them to do a welfare check on your child, whom you haven't seen since they joined the Sea Org in Scientology?" Remini asks.

"Yes," says Rinder.

"You're a journalist doing a story on Scientology, with nothing against them, but the facts aren't flattering. Are you Fair Gamed?"

"Yes. You'll have an article on you from Freedom Magazine (Scientology's propaganda magazine) within a week."

"You're a person who is not a Scientologist and advises people not to spend their money on the religion?"

"Absolutely."

So basically Scientology is a cult that will bully anyone that doesn't talk positively, even if they are in the wrong. It's a fucked up thing, sort of like bullies in high school. The kind that pick on you with your torn-up jeans, hippie converse shoes, and Drama or Math Club membership. I knew a bully like Scientology. She smashed my Paula Abdul cassette when I bumped into her once with my walkman and called me "a nerd." I am a nerd, but anyways.

I enjoy Leah and Mike because you can tell they went through something that bonds them. Leah cusses like a sailor and Mike laughs and chimes in with his fading Australian accent like the reasonable big brother. They go into more detail about things they couldn't cover in "Scientology and the Aftermath." Things like abuse or extensive background information on court cases or journalistic stories.

Scientology's policies, including Fair Game, can never change. Scientologists are supposed to follow L. Ron Hubbard's, an awkward ego-maniac science fiction writer, policy as if it were a direct instruction on how to be perfect and ethical. Hubbard's definition of perfect and ethical is anyone that kisses his ass and intimidates others.

The biggest shock to me in this episode was the revelation of Marty Rathbun. I had a kid in '16, so I missed the news that Rathbun, a former Scientologist I really respected who fled and spoke out (see his earlier blog posts or watch him in "Going Clear"), has gone back to Scientology as an ally. For more details, you have to listen to the Fair Game episode #10 with Ray Jeffrey. Jeffrey represented Marty's wife Monique from harassment from the church. Allegedly, although we do not have concrete proof, Marty and his wife were paid off and now are supporters of Scientology.

If you want to believe that Scientology is a harmless religion, just research any good deeds they actually do. Isn't religion something that helps others? Not Scientology. They don't even pay their workers minimum wage. They charge for everything they "provide."

"You are not a church! You don't do anything for other people!" - Leah Remini

Things that got discussed in this episode:

• Ed Parkin, a member of a Scientology Front Group, that claims he is a defender of the First Amendment, claims he got Leah's A&E show off the air. Leah points out he is a Sea Org member making $50 a week, who is a joke. Think Cartman running around saying "RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!"
• Leah and Mike are still being Fair Gamed, as are anyone else with lawsuits against Scientology.
• If anyone is a victim of abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, etc, Scientology rounds them up and interrogates them all repeatedly trying to control the information that gets out. A perfect example is the Anderson Cooper wives interview. Listen to how they all reply with the same answer: "I knew every inch of his body..."
• Scientology believes that victims of any abuse have committed crimes in their past or current lives. And sort of like karma, this is why they are victims in the present. They put Scientologists on the E-meter until they "confess."
• Scientology believes all actions, including lying or covering up abuse to protect Scientology, is for "the Greatest Good."
• Maids, not medical staff, were caring for Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died during a Hubbard care-taking procedure for those suffering insanity.
• Danny Masterson is kind of an asshole and they will be covering his rape trail as it happens. His two victims who are suing him did not know each other and had THE SAME EXACT STORIES OF ABUSE before meeting.
• If you want to get the IRS to investigate and possibly retract Scientology's tax-exempt status, write to your Congressman and Senators.
• One of Leah's "crimes" was that she humped her teddy bear when she was a kid.