Principia Discordia

Principia Discordia => Aneristic Illusions => Topic started by: Jenne on August 12, 2009, 05:33:22 AM

Title: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Jenne on August 12, 2009, 05:33:22 AM
Apologies if this is cock & repost, but I just saw this guy (http://jeffsharlet.com/) on the week before last's Bill Maher...and zomg!  The shit he was kicking down about "C Street" and "The New Chosen"/"The Family" will make you shit brix...trip balls...I dunno.  Freaky-deaky shit.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone else is following this guy's exposes on the hardcore Fundamentalist agenda behind the "Soldiers for Christ" that have tanks and go in with "Mohammad Kills Jesus" written in Arabic in Iraq, shooting people down, and religious politicians becoming a huge-ass'd cult of Fundamentalist whackos (using PolPot and Hitler as their icons)...for decades.

Jesus Fucking Christo.

Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Cain on August 12, 2009, 05:51:23 AM
He wrote "The Family" which a couple of us here have read, and seems to be a well established religious reporter with years of experience in the field.  Note: this may mean he is a little politically naive, though not necessarily, just due to lack of exposure of the murkier depths of the political scene.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Iason Ouabache on August 12, 2009, 05:57:36 AM
Read his article in Harper's. Heard a good interview of him with Ed Brayton. Saw the interview with Maher. Got a pdf of "The Family" but haven't started it yet. If half the stuff he says is true then I'm fucking scared. :tinfoilhat:
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: LMNO on August 12, 2009, 01:24:53 PM
I'm about halfway through The Family.  It's kind of scary, but Cain's right about his naivete.  Also, his writing style can get... florid.

Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Jenne on August 12, 2009, 01:30:16 PM
Ah.  He interviews well...but then being a Harper's journalist, sometimes I wonder...

Anyway, thanks.  He's about the only one persuing this sort of thing, aside from a very very few others, with any sort of dedication.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Captain Utopia on August 12, 2009, 03:56:33 PM
I would find it more scary if the C Street Family was just one of many, rather than just appearing as an isolated phenomenon. I mean, if I were of that mindset I'd want to position cells throughout all major industries, not just focus upon Washington politics. Does he touch upon that possibility at all?

Or for that matter, how is this different from any local church group covering up local indiscretions - money/power/scale?
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: LMNO on August 12, 2009, 04:02:10 PM
You need to do a lot more research.

"The Family" is worldwide.  They have prayer cells on every continent (I'm putting Antarctica as a possible), in all major countries' governments (G8, G20), and in dozens of lesser countries.

Their aim is World Fascism under God.  And they're good at it.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Captain Utopia on August 12, 2009, 04:17:26 PM
Quote from: LMNO on August 12, 2009, 04:02:10 PM
You need to do a lot more research.

"The Family" is worldwide.  They have prayer cells on every continent (I'm putting Antarctica as a possible), in all major countries' governments (G8, G20), and in dozens of lesser countries.

Their aim is World Fascism under God.  And they're good at it.
Holy Shit. Well. That certainly would make things more interesting.

Has this been independently verified, or is Sharlet the primary source for now? One second.. taking that research clue on board.. holy crap! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_%28Christian_political_organization%29)

They're even behind those fucking manipulative "sponser a child or they WILL DIE" World Vision adverts too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHC7wNem7vU

:argh!:
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Jenne on August 12, 2009, 04:30:29 PM
I hope the pressure is brought to bear to keep exposing this kind of shit.  I dislike the underbellies being so occluded by the bullshit that is our media these days, that real stories never make it out of the fringe.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Captain Utopia on August 12, 2009, 04:46:35 PM
(http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af205/spiff_bucket/wv1.jpg)
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Jenne on August 12, 2009, 04:49:09 PM
:mittens:
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Captain Utopia on August 12, 2009, 04:53:14 PM
QuoteIn a report on famine in Ethiopia, reporter Andrew Geoghegan visited his 14 year old sponsor child. The girl has "been part of a World Vision program all her life" yet says (in translated subtitle) "Until recently, I didn't know I had a sponsor." and when asked about her knowledge of World Vision sponsorship says "Last time they gave me this jacket and a pen." Geoghegan was disconcerted to find that despite being "told by World Vision that [the girl] was learning English at school, and was improving...she speaks no English at all."

WTF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Vision#Criticism)
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Mesozoic Mister Nigel on August 12, 2009, 05:02:45 PM
At first I thought you were talking about these guys: http://www.thefamily.org/en/

I'm actually relieved you weren't.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Template on August 12, 2009, 06:02:53 PM
Quote from: fictionpuss on August 12, 2009, 04:46:35 PM
(http://i1008.photobucket.com/albums/af205/spiff_bucket/wv1.jpg)

The rest goes to administrative costs and marketing?
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Captain Utopia on August 13, 2009, 04:01:53 AM
He's going to be on The Daily Show tonight..
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Jenne on August 13, 2009, 04:35:30 AM
Ah.  TY.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Captain Utopia on August 13, 2009, 04:42:19 AM
Unfortunately he didn't add any new info if you've already seen some of his other interviews - e.g. Maddow.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Jenne on August 13, 2009, 04:49:58 AM
Yeah, it's only 849 pm here, so I'll watch it and compare to his Maher interview.  Maher's interested in this because of his fixation with religion.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Captain Utopia on August 13, 2009, 05:05:18 AM
On Maher: I used to have very much a "live and let live" attitude towards religions and the people who uphold them. But recently I've found myself agreeing more with Maher on the "fuck religion, it's stupid, and it's going to get us all killed if we don't grow out of it" side of the fence.

The Family is a case in point - I don't claim to know the answers, but I'm pretty sure it looks nothing like their vision.
Title: Re: Jeff Sharlet--Anyone heard of this guy?
Post by: Jenne on August 13, 2009, 05:16:55 AM
He has a point.  I have to say I wasn't turned off by "Religulous" as much as some on here have been...I hated the ending, it was a little too self-congratulatory, even for MAHER, for me.  But I think his show's been getting better since it started on HBO.  I was kinda "meh" about it at first, but then I noticed how on-point he's been since Obama came upon the scene.  I like that.  We do need the court jesters to not give up now that "their boy"'s in office.  It's refreshing after the rabid rumor-mongering of the Fux News crews and the rim-jobbing of the (P)MSNBC folks.