There is a thread on buddhism.about.com which is almost totally monopolized by The SGI.
Notice how that type of thread is monopolized by members of the SGI, who obviously get direction to go and post there.
Why do none of them post in this thread, when this thread is far higher on the Google ranking?
Because someone from SGI must have told them not to, as they don't want them to read the hundreds of facts about SGI posted in this thread. But they are reading it anyway, as it turns up on the first page of relevant Google searches.
But parts of the thread are interesting. There is some critical SGI info in the thread.
Buying Respect for Ikeda? Barbara O'Brien [
buddhism.about.com]
But Barbara O'Brien seems to have a very distorted and primitive concept of the term 'cult'. As in, they are shaved-head robots banging on drums or something. Modern "cults" or sects, or groups, don't operate like that. Its a lot more sophisticated now. Its more invisible, more psychological, more about belief engineering.
What is interesting, is that Barbara O'Brien from buddhism.about.com says she does not think SGI is a "cult", but she is clearly mistaken in that, probably due to the fact she has a distorted concept of modern sects.
But then, the obvious sickening Vanity of Ikeda buying, and get his followers to buy him these plaques all over the world, doesn't make sense to her. So she criticizes that.
Right after that, there is a string of Ikeda-bots, with a thousand excuses to distract from the obvious megalomania Vanity of Ikeda.
Barbara gets so exasperated, that she sees these followers of Ikeda as being blind to reality. Which they are, its a total indoctrination into SGI.
She correctly sees that SGI is a personality cult around Ikeda, but can't see the other psychological operations at play, which SGI-USA uses to indoctrinate their followers, at various degrees.
By looking at the mountain of evidence, there is no question that SGI is a modern cult, or sect.
But its fascinating to see the pressure put on anyone in the Buddhist area to toe the line about Ikeda, if not, the Ikeda-bots come after them.
One thing is for certain, if Barbara O'Brien leaves buddhism.about.com you can bet SGI-USA has that position locked up.
The real question for buddhism.about.com might be, is SGI really Buddhist?