Linkin Park are back together, but their reunion has already been marred by controversy. The band’s new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong was part of a group of Scientologists who showed up at the courthouse to support That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson during his 2020 rape trial, where he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. The choice to have Armstrong fill in for the late Chester Bennington received quite a bit of backlash, notably from Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the Mars Volta/At The Drive-In. His wife Chrissie Carnell-Bixler was one of the four women who pursued rape charges against Masterson, and now, she has spoken out against Armstrong as well.
    • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      51·
      3 months ago

      Should be? No, nobody should be subjected to that abuse. But she is, and has been since she was born into it. Some things just are whether they “should be” or not. It’s life. I bet if when she was born they said “will you defend our cult against rapists? If no say no and we won’t let you in, if yes say nothing.” She probably would have picked “No” had she not been a literal baby who had yet to learn english. But they don’t, they slowly ramp up the abuse until escaping is at least psychologically neigh impossible.

      You can blame her for being a victim of this cult all you want, it’s not really my fight and my guess is you’ll never understand until you’ve been in a comparable situation (which is hopefully never) so it would be a waste of time. I’ve said my piece.

        • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          3·
          3 months ago

          Cedric and his wife are also victims. There are typically more than two victims involved in a cult.

          The difference is I consider all the members of the cult who have been abused and manipulated into the position they’re in by the leadership to be victims, and you only seem to consider someone a victim if they’ve already started the process of breaking free.

            • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              31·
              3 months ago

              Not being familiar with each of their religions they are certainly victims of Masterson, they may or may not be victims of scientology. But the members of scientology (specificially not management), are victims of scientology. Cults prey on the weak, you don’t have to too.

              Tell me, do you also think women are only victims of their abusers once they leave too or is that criticism reserved only for people who are abused on a larger scale by their entire community?

                • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                  21·
                  3 months ago

                  Frankly I use religion and cult interchangeably, there’s not much difference. The main separation is age, really. That means yes I often refer to say, Catholicism, as a cult as well.

                  (Edit: And btw, I referred to Masterson’s victim’s unknown religions as “religions,” not “Scientology.” If some of them are scientologists then I suppose I technically did by happenstance, but you pretending you didn’t understand that just because you don’t want to concede that I’m actually right and use it as a personal attack is pretty funny.)

                  You can just say you have no idea what it’s like to be seriously abused and move on. Tbh, that’s good, I hope for your sake you never know.