{"id":9097,"date":"2016-05-11T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9097"},"modified":"2016-05-11T08:34:05","modified_gmt":"2016-05-11T07:34:05","slug":"paranoid-thoughts-from-behind-a-sofa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9097","title":{"rendered":"( Paranoid ) Thoughts From Behind A Sofa"},"content":{"rendered":"

El cormaco draws an interesting comparison between a wealthy secretive organisation built around money and secrecy and the church of Scientology.<\/em><\/p>\n

A \u201cFair Game\u201d Policy? \u00a0 I\u2019m going to ask you to bear with me a for aw while here, there may be a point at the end of it. That is not a promise btw!<\/p>\n

I carry various obsessions around, one of which is Scientology. Essentially they believe that we are all alien spirits with the power to control Mass Energy Space and Time but have forgotten how we used to do this. Also, our body is covered in billions of other little alien spirits that are responsible for all our illnesses and unhappiness, which we have to remove through \u201cauditing\u201d (expensive counselling sessions) before we can return to be the super beings of before.<\/p>\n

Although most Scientologists don\u2019t know that is what their own religion believes, as its kept secret until they have paid enough money to get up this far on \u201cthe bridge to total freedom\u201d, where the top level secrets are revealed and you\u2019ve spent too much time and money to go, \u201csay what now?\u201d and walk out the door.<\/p>\n

To enemies of the church, basically anyone who criticises them in any way, there is a policy called \u201cFair Game\u201d. With the full consent of the Church, critics \u201ccan be punished and harassed using any and all means possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Any and all means possible means just that, \u00a0including illegal means. People\u2019s opinions can be derided, they can be framed for crimes, ridiculed as insane etc etc. All for the greater good of course of expanding and protecting the Church. According to the founder of this religion, when faced with any critic, Scientologists should “always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace.<\/p>\n

Don’t ever defend. Always attack.”<\/p>\n

He urged the use of “black propaganda” to “destroy reputation or public belief in persons, companies or nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

I m talking about this as I\u2019 m struck by the irony that the football governing body in Scotland, the SFA, and the Press in Scotland, who should be ensuring we have a fair game, seem to be acting more in line with the Scientology policy of Fair Game.<\/p>\n

Customers, for that is what we are, are having our intelligence insulted, are being accused of being paranoid, or buying into non existent conspiracy theories when we deride the ability and impartiality of the games\u2019 governing bodies in Scotland and the members of the press who are supposed to shine a light on these institutions. conspiracy theorist. (one and the same to many in power no doubt.<\/p>\n

The truth is, I d really rather not believe in conspiracies. It\u2019s really tiring for a start. Think of how much easier life would be if you could take what those in power told you at face value.<\/p>\n

Rather than hear \u201cWe\u2019re all in it together\u201d and think \u201cyeah right, how much tax are you offsetting offshore? How many of your pals are getting juicy contracts in return for campaign funding?\u201d<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be marvelous to be able to just believe that?<\/p>\n

Growing up in rural Norn Iron as a Catholic, I had heard about how the state there was working to the benefit of one community against the other. And honestly, I never felt it. I cannot say my life has been hindered in any way \u2013 my education was good, job opportunities were good.<\/p>\n

When Hillsborough happened I initially believed the police\u2019s version of events (to my shame to this day). Why would they be making it up? I thought it was a bit strange as the pictures on TV showed fans helping out, and not acting as a drunken mob, but why would they be making anything up. They\u2019re the police right?<\/p>\n

The anti Celtic conspiracy? Again, I m genuinely reluctant to believe in it. Its hard work. Celtic have won so much it doesn\u2019t seem possible.<\/p>\n

Then little things emerge like the Jorge Cadete saga, or the Hugh Dallas e mail and you start to wonder a little.<\/p>\n

The Offshore game report is damning, An independent body with an unimpeachable reputation have expressed their opinion that former Rangers director and SFA President Campbell Ogilvie was massively conflicted in the period up to and following the liquidation of Rangers FC, that the SFA granted a licence to play in Europe to Rangers whilst being aware it would seem they were contravening the rules, that they withheld key information from a review commission into the payment schemes to players of a member club, and in so doing (wilfully it would seem) misinformed the man they had employed to carry out this review. \u00a0 Yes, basically all the things they were accused of by the paranoid, obsessed conspiracy theorists.<\/p>\n

Surely this would bring the walls down? And \u2026\u2026..nothing. Not. A. Word.<\/p>\n

The Press? AWOL. SFA communications? MIA.<\/p>\n

They are following the Scientology practice of fair game: \u201cDon’t ever defend. Always attack\u201d<\/p>\n

They are not coming out to defend their position, as to do so would bring more questions and more scrutiny. Informally they are letting the press, when they do engage, attack the message and the messenger.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are paranoid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cits too complicated for you to understand\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy are you getting worked up over something so irrelevant?\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone trying to get answers from the SFA about the recent Offshore Game Report will be ignored or discredited. Anyone asking why the press doesn\u2019t want to go near what is a huge story about how fit for purpose the SFA are is patted on the head and told, \u201chonestly its not even important enough for us to give any time over to\u201d, if this doesn\u2019t placate them they are \u201cobsessive\u201d, a paranoid Celtic fan or a conspiracy theorist. (one and the same to many in power no doubt.)<\/p>\n

They are so adept at switching defence into attack you find yourself almost agreeing with them. \u201cRight enough, what\u2019s the big deal, a guy had a foot in both camps, Rangers got to play in Europe when they maybe shouldn\u2019t have had a license, the LNS didn\u2019t include some info about DoS for some players, in the bigger picture its not so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it is; it goes to the very heart of a fair game, transparent and equal for all, and the more they \u201cFair Game\u201d us the more I reluctantly have to conclude there is more to this conspiracy theory than being a paranoid Celtic fan.<\/p>\n

Why won\u2019t the press touch it?<\/p>\n

Only last week they were trying to create a slur on Celtic by misleading relatives of Hillsborough survivors around safe standing. Yet an actual real thing falls into their lap and\u2026.nothing<\/p>\n

Not long ago the SFA were baying for blood when Blatter was hanging on to his job by a thread. And now? Fans \/ customers \/ whatever are the lifeblood of the game; administrators and journalists only exist because people want to go and watch games and read about what happened afterwards.<\/p>\n

If customers of every club bar one are mugged off then why continue to keep them in their jobs by taking part in their version of Fair Game?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

El cormaco draws an interesting comparison between a wealthy secretive organisation built around money and secrecy and the church of Scientology. A \u201cFair Game\u201d Policy?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/paranoid-man.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2mJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9097"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9097"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9103,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9097\/revisions\/9103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}