Why?
The following words written by Reinhold Niebuhr in 1952 sum it up neatly:
Irony consists of apparently fortuitous incongruities in life which are discovered, upon closer examination, to be not merely fortuitous. Incongruity as such is merely comic. It elicits laughter. This element of comedy is never completely eliminated from irony. But irony is something more than comedy. A comic situation is proved to be an ironic one if a hidden relation is discovered in the incongruity. If virtue becomes vice through some hidden defect in the virtue; if strength becomes weakness because of the vanity to which strength may prompt the mighty man or nation; if security is transmuted into insecurity because too much reliance is placed upon it; if wisdom becomes folly because it does not know its own limits – in all such cases the situation is ironic. The ironic situation is distinguished from a pathetic one by the fact that the person involved in it bears some responsibility for it. It is differentiated from tragedy by the fact that the responsibility is related to an unconscious weakness rather than to a conscious resolution. While a pathetic or a tragic situation is not dissolved when a person becomes conscious of his involvement in it, an ironic situation must dissolve, if men or nations are made aware of their complicity in it. Such awareness involves some realization of the hidden vanity or pretension by which comedy is turned into irony. This realization either must lead to an abatement of the pretension, which means contrition; or it leads to a desperate accentuation of the vanities to the point where irony turns into pure evil.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 
^^^ “This is WHY!” ^^^
=P
I will say upfront that I don’t have much right to an opinion since I don’t know the inside details. But that sure as heck hasn’t stopped anyone else. I believe this began when a group of people decided that THEY have a vested interest in Monique’s lawsuit and were owed explanations about why it was dropped. The villagers with torches soon appeared demanding to know details accusing Marty of everything from selling out screwing over his wife’s attorney’s…based on an article from Tony Ortega with unnamed sources. Tony used an anonymous source to provide an “inside look” at what was REALLY going on. And as usual, claimed he knew what was REALLY going on and would reveal later. Never happened. Everyone had pinned their hopes of “taking down the cult” on Marty and he had “screwed the over.” The insults flew with some of the nastiest, most viscous gossip. Everyone felt they were owed an explanation. He was crazy, he had ruined “the only chance to take down the cult” and had lost all First Amendment rights. His videos were made by Gold, they were paying him to link them. It was said he gave up his right to talk to federal authorities just b/c his wife dropped a harassment lawsuit. It was said he was hiding money offshore, his wife should leave him and he should commit suicide. Cruel jokes, taunts, his son being dragged into the mess with speculation on when and how he could be removed. I had to double check to make sure I wasn’t reading a Scientology website. And if anyone voiced doubt or asked to see evidence, they were quickly torn to shreds by Tony and his crowd. Lord of the Flies comes to mind.
Many of these were his “friends” castigating him. People tore him apart and accused him of unrevealed crimes (sound familiar). Yet every single person complaining of disconnection had done the exact same thing to family and friends in their own past. They weren’t grilled about how many people they hurt, what they were withholding.
Even though Tony, Mike and Mark’s emails were all hacked in the past, it was assumed he gave Dani’s email to the Scientology lawyer b/c the lawyers said it in court..b/c yeah they have a track record of telling the truth in court. And because Marty wouldn’t play ball and give all the answers then he became devil incarnate. Scientology used a very critical email about Leah Remini written by her mother in one of their recent videos. Not one person asked her how they could have gotten hold of the email. All the people who accepted settlements such as Debbie Cook and the others were allowed to do so with nary a word. But not Marty. Nope. He was the appointed savior. Until he wasn’t.
The trolling fest became a big pile on with people interfering in his marriage, posting his house address and photo on line, talking about hiring PI’s. They wanted their blood money and how dare Marty change his mind about his opinions, he can’t just feel one way years ago and feel another way now. Tony is all knowing and certain that no one ever did anything to Marty-he suddenly just did a 180 for absolutely no reason.
“I never trusted him all along” belong the standard byline even written by people who had accepted his help and encouragement at no cost in the past. A blog about Scientology becomes a blog about everything and anything that Marty has ever done, may ever do and absolute outrage that Marty doesn’t realize he OWES everything explanations about all of his decisions or actions. Does it really surprise anyone that this man has been pushed over the edge into places maybe he never intended to go? Any if Tony can’t look in the mirror and see the spittle in the corner of his mouth and delight in the eyes with his “see? see? I told you so” then he needs a refresher course reporting. Sycophants does not a journalist make. There is enough blame to spread around without Tony stirring the pot and producing “All Marty All the Time” blog roll.
So the moral of the story is to become aware of one’s own responsibility in a situation and to have “some realization of the hidden vanity or pretension.” The result of that should be contrition – and if not, the vanities will be accentuated to the point of evil.
Great quote. And it gives “the why” for posting the videos.
In other words, the why for the videos is to bring up awareness of these factors.
Two thumbs up, Butler !
Typically obtuse, but I can’t say I am buying it.
The post sparks in my own mind the origin of WWI. Vanities turned to evil.
The tangle around Scientology seems now to be the value of religion as compared to the value of Scientology. Thus we have religion haters, spiritualists, fundamentalists, new agers, naturalists, and rationalists. Ironically, the only way to unite these people is through Reality Television.
The comedy is from Ortega. The vanity is everywhere. But where is the evil?
Another irony in that all three sides take the moral high ground. The three traditions, grounded in millions of words and images, clash.
But Scientology is in a tangle. Hubbard said 1 in 10,000 have the guts to apply it. So we have a max population of Scientologists in the United States of about 3,000 that will keep it floating – religion or not.
Scientology wants to be a religion at a time when all religion is crumbling – another irony. Hence Miscavige’s vanity and evil.
You don’t have to buy it Dan–speaking of which, did you edit those books for free? Even if you did, you’re a smart guy and surely you can see the point here as things come full circle. It doesn’t make either side less guilty, but anyone on either side can decide to either take part in the truth or stop taking part in the lies.
I have never known with any clarity, what the meaning of”irony” and “ironic” really is. Figuring I may have lots of company in that boat with me, here is a helpful page: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/what-is-irony-with-examples/
Hi Val,
Thanks!
Ironically, there is no consistent definition of irony. In fact, there is
double irony when the irony is true. To give you an example, I will use the words of my English teacher in College. What is an example of double irony?
The captain to his soldiers before the battle:
“Gird up your loins gentleman, this one is going to be a nut cracker.”
In the case of Miscavige, it might be that he would succeed as a result of Reality Television.
Best,
GMW
Well said!! As with ‘iamvalkov’, two thumbs up!
Well said.
What a great quote. I have become a fan of Reinhold Niebuhr! Thanks!
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years.
I found out He is the author of the famous quote:
Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr
I didn’t have a clue about man’s inclination to injustice until I toured the ethnic cleansing group at Tony Ortega’s blog. I have the entire blog copied on a hard drive as part of a study on ethnic cleansing, sadism, and injustice. Stay tuned for my book release! It can become depressing to tour such groups, but if you immerse yourself in it and then transfer your attention to a group of productive people working to accomplish something positive, it can be a tremendous high. You realize what a small percentage of society is prone to such social intercourse. Most groups are devoted towards change for the better, improvement, and social betterment. There are very few groups devoted to ethnic cleansing.
Hear hear!
I’ve been meaning to post this as a reply to those who are posting about the ‘Backpage’ issue and Ortega’s defense of it as “free speech”. Some have wondered how he could be like that to young teens essentially being trafficked for sex. This hasn’t come up in those comments. (I’m not relaying this as a personal attack towards him, he is very personable and courteous in person; in front of a computer? hard to reconcile the two).
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-08-05-kidnapped-girls_x.htm That is an USA Today article from 2002 about two brave teens who were kidnapped, raped, and then faced the press publicly. These young ladies deserved nothing but empathy and support. One writer at The LA New Times thought otherwise.
A writer at by the name of Antoine Oman wrote about a reality show named ‘Survive This’. He uses those two brave teens, by name. This snopes page has the article. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/survivor.asp
I was sent a link, to a non-media site, about this last year after I left the bunker. I totally remembered hearing about that then, as a big deal was made of it. Who is Antoine Oman? As the Snopes article says, Tony Ortega.
In this http://ew.com/article/2002/08/19/nbc-subject-papers-reality-show-hoax/ article about Survive This, it includes Tony’s quote about it. “…it was a satirical commentary on the saturation coverage that the girls’ abduction and similar crimes have received recently.” How is that satirical commentary? It says more about the author, than society. “Said Ortega, ‘I hope it gets people to think about the nature of television and the business that it does.'” Well, considering they don’t promote rape shows, um? Again, it says more about the author than society.
How ‘meta’ is Tony Ortega writing about Antoine Oman being fire? http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/740868/posts More than ‘satire’, which it was not, it appeared to be an attempt to get something viral, and that was accomplished. Was any thought given to the additional trauma and distress that might have caused the two young rape victims? I doubt it.
During another writing hoax of his, and only the Survive This one is applicable to what some people are linking/mentioning in the comments; but in writing about this one, he does confirm he’s Antoine. In this hoax, he was Cesar (he likes Roman history) and he even links to the snopes article about Survive This.
http://www.pitch.com/news/article/20607035/red-flags
Quote from above link:
“…Cesar Oman’s older “brother,” Antoine, who is memorialized at the debunking site Snopes.com for penning a 2002 spoof about a supposed NBC reality TV show featuring vulnerable teens trying to escape raving sexual predators. Antoine’s parody of bad television was published in a Los Angeles newspaper and briefly roped in several media organizations, including the Drudge Report.”
There was another brother, and another hoax, and other things I researched; but that’s not relevant here. “…vulnerable teens trying to escape raving sexual predators.” That was satire to him. Backpage was “free speech”. Had I know he was the perpetrator of that reality show hoax, using those 2 teen rape survivors’ names, I would have never ever stepped foot in the bunker. It makes me sick to of what those girls had gone thru, then several weeks later that comes out and went viral. Which seemed the motive of his other hoaxes. Viral. Attention. Know what else viral is? Toxic.
I apologize for the long comment.
Hi Oracle!
I look forward to reading your book. You can make words levitate.
Thank you so much for the kind words about my book in 2015.
No need to apologize. He did victim shame and ridicule two children that were tortured. The kidnapper had actually taken them to the place he was going to kill them when he was apprehended. Ortega squashed them for coming forward in the press and declared their rapist had “propelled them to fame”.
He is a twisted, sadistic human being. He had no friends before he began to exploit the people harmed through the cult. He tried to sanitize selling children for sex by labeling them “underage prostitutes”. This way he degraded them and pushed sympathizers buttons. His closest friends associates and followers are perfectly aware of his history, and it does not put them off one bit. It is an ethnic cleansing group so why would it?
XXOO
Your money is on Tony Ortega and his ethnic cleansing group.
I would say probably most of his followers aren’t aware of this history. They might be aware of some of the backpage stuff; but not the Survive This. I certainly wasn’t and I never heard it mentioned until after I left the bunker. Unless he’s posted about all that, then I doubt most of ’em know this.
Those 2 girls he further traumatized with that reality show hoax. 17 and 16 years old, kidnapped, raped, and were told they were going to be killed, before they saw him killed by authorities were the last people one should mock and that wasn’t a ‘fame’ they wanted!! Dafuq?! It was incredibly brave of them to go public. When people who’ve gone thru traumatic experiences tell their story it can impact and help others. That’s not something to mock or belittle. Amanda Berry, captive for 10 years, now helps find missing children, and Elizabeth Smart still speaks out.
Going public also helps breaks down the possible ‘shame’ some might feel or others might place upon them. They have NOTHING to be ashamed of. They were victims and survived. Some segments of society still shames people who have been sexually abused. To mock this, compounds real individual’s trauma, to claim what was essentially sex trafficking was “free speech”, and mock Ashton Kuthcner’s [sic] Real Men Don’t Buy Girls campaign, just makes me feel: sick; glad I’m out of the bunker; sad for those still fully immersed there; and yes, some anger, at myself for not being aware of this and participating for so long.
Tony Ortega has a long history of further traumatizing women and children that have been abused and exploited. By taunting them and degrading them as “prostitutes” and “fame seekers”. (Not human beings) He has no problem bullying children either. He is a sadist. He takes pleasure in other people’s suffering and humiliating them. The purpose behind 99.9% of his blog posts is humiliation and degradation. He takes pleasure in it. And truth be told, so do his followers and friends. They are all wallowing in sadism. It isn’t exactly a closet secret. All one needs to do is go observe. Not like any of them are up for any humanitarian awards or civil rights awards. They would need to wipe the entire field of mental health if they want to go undetected.
http://www.psychnet-uk.com/x_new_site/personality_psychology/a_diagnostic_criteria/criteria_personality_sadistic.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/narcissists-cannot-love-their-children-2017-7
https://www.google.com/search?q=narcissistic+personality+disorder&oq=narsistic+personality+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.12639j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
The above conditions can not be cured. According to today’s science. Which means on some level they are wholly out of communication. As that solvent is totally ineffective in addressing those conditions. Which means, you might as well be talking to a wall.
I can’t really guess Ortega’s motivations–asides from previously trying to get things to go viral; nor would I attempt to DX someone. Of course I concur what he did to those rape survivors was awful, defending backpage was awful; but that can’t really lead one to a DX, IMHO.
Having BEEN a follower, I would like to say again that many people there are caught up in group think–as I was; and are participating in things they would not normally do. I have no doubts about many of the people there, that they are good hearted, well meaning people, caught up in group think. If they removed themselves from the bunker for a bit, including the email brigade, and started to see things objectively they would probably come to the same realizations I had. I can’t say anything bad about most of the people in the bunker, with just a couple exceptions.
Only when someone is given space, and gets away, then can detach themselves and read things in that manner does it really dawn on you how awful it is and what you have become. It’s not a good realizations, at the time, but eventually it’ll free you.
Don’t discount yourself. You have places where you draw the line in the sand. Many people do not. They do not have boundaries. Nothing is sacred to them. Child abuse is where you draw a line in the sand. Hardened criminals draw the line in the sand there. This is why child abusers and child rapists have to be held in solitary confinement in prison.It is unacceptable to a prison population. The fact that some of Tony Ortega’s closest friends and followers do not draw the line in the sand at that, is indicative of who they are and where they are coming from.