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skeptic23
I'm not sure The Zeitgeist Movement is a cult, I've never really agreed with that particular label. But I do think it is an e-sect (or Internet-Sect) that promotes an isolating and unhealthy world view. When something almost entirely exists on the Internet, I think it is fair to criticize how moderation is done. On the surface, yes, it was just a forum. But in the context of the e-sect, the forum was a temple.
The statement that the movement "mostly exists on the internet" is false. Most of the activity goes on in the local chapters, thare are really not that different then being involved in any other activist group. One of the reasons we shut down the forum was to encourage people to get off their computers and get out into the world and get involved.
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Skeptic23
The idea that dissent was accepted is, from my long experience visiting their "temple", simply not true. I specifically remember one user who was cast out and shunned for no other reason than he opposed the inclusion of 911 conspiracy theories.
This is a lie. That person was banned because the only reason they were using the forums was because they wanted to oppose 911 conspiracy theories. One of his roommates told us this to confirm what we had already suspected. We actively moderated posts about 911 in general and moved them to off topic areas of our website because it was not relevant to what TZM is about.
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Septic23
Peter Joseph Merola himself finally banned him because of his continued dissent on an issue the user thought made TZM look bad. There were also users banned and shunned due to personality conflicts with certain moderators and those close to moderators regardless of the users fully embracing the ideology and goals of TZM. This is not indicative of a group that welcomes or even tolerates dissent. It may sound silly, but if you really believed in something and were shunned by a group simply for having different ideas, even one that only really exists online, it probably isn't like being banned from some random forum you rarely visit.
It's interesting that you use charged words like "Temple" and "Shunned" as if people are never banned from using forums that exist for one stated purpose. If you show up on a Republican website posting "Vote Obama 2012" stuff you are not likely to last long. If you go to a Feminist website with an agenda to attack Feminism you are not likely to last long. And in any of these instances if you actively go out of your way to attack the other users on the forum you are not going to last long.
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Skeptic23
The forums also contained an enemies list: a list of people's Facebook accounts that were off limits to members.
This is again, a complete lie. Look at the screenshot. I made it very clear that people were free to do whatever they wanted with that information. And that my motive was that I had noticed a distinct pattern from people on that list to surf around Facebook, sometimes sending false friend requests to members of TZM so that they could take their photos and photoshop them. Or look for things on their wall to screenshot for the purpose of humiliating them. (You know, like actual cults like scientology do?). The language "completely off limits to members" is something you just completely invented on the spot. If you want proof of that, just take a look at Mario's blog, or Kush's blog. NOBODY on that blog gave permission to use pictures from their facebook groups but that is precisely where they got them. Some of those pictures are of friends and family members who have nothing to do with TZM they they are included in the harassement. The final straw for me was when they took a video of me playing with my son and used it to imply my son was retarded. Do people have a right to protect their Facebook profiles? Most people are not even aware of how easy it is to get personal information out of your facebook profiles.
So in the course of this post you have spun, and outright lied.
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Skeptic23
I don't think TZM is necessarily a terrible thing, simply because it's fairly incompetent atgetting any real exposure or acceptance by anyone outside of TZM. But I also think it's an unhealthy organization because it saps the time, energy and money from well intentioned people and sucks them into a bizarre Internet utopian sect.
Unhealthy because of sapping time and energy and money away? What about the countless hours and energy spent by people who ended up on that "list" for seeming to have nothing better to do with their time but stalk members of TZM on the internet? To devote entire blogs to the topic? I have asked many of the "critics" who's critiques usually involve information that they are twisting from extensive research into the personal lives of members of the movement what they are neglecting to spend so much time stalking people on the internet who would never say a word to them if they left them alone.
There is a "sect" of people devoted to trolling TZM on the internet. Every single argument you have tried to make for TZM being a cult or dangerous or unhealthy could just as easily be made for your group. The difference is suggesting that we may have banned people from our own forums means we are dangerous or unhealthy is nothing compared to your "group" spending hours of your time stalking us on the internet.