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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Tbf I was not, and not knowing specifics of your situation I’m not sure how that translates to long term abusive partners and cults, actually, but on the surface that seems psychologically different. As it relates to the conversation at hand I’m bot sure how much decision making power kindergarteners have, though the abuser uses similar vectors in that kids are vulnerable by default and cult victims are vulnerable by circumstance. Sorry you went through that and all however, of course.