I am often asked this question, and my answer is usually that while there is no hard and fast rule, scientologists tend to lean Republican because of Hubbard’s words:
He opposed “big government” (pretty much ALL government — it’s “group bank”)
He opposed welfare — that is “rewarding downstats.”
He opposed taxes.
He believed homosexuality is an “aberration”
He opposed government funded medical programs because “they support psychiatry.”
These positions pretty much ensure any good scientologist is a Republican voter. We saw in 2016 that the only precinct in LA that voted for Trump for President was the small area that includes “Big Blue.”
Someone sent the below FB post to me which prompted me to comment about this today. This guy is a pretty typical, KSW scientologist:
Brian Gardner’s website announces the fact that he has been “a parishioner” of scientology since 1979, he was one of the SFO Org “PR’s” (I remember him from my OSA days) and today is the head of the LV Way to Happiness Chapter. About as “all in” as you can get. A good representative of scientology think.
What I find interesting about his post is that he displays the “us vs them” mentality so typical of cults. It’s a simple equation: “Democrats are in league with psychiatry.” A broad, bold statement that cannot be an absolute. But it is in keeping with “scientology think.” Everything about psychiatry is evil. Thus anyone associated with it is evil. No questions asked. And thus all Democrats are bad and all Republicans are good.
His second eye-opening statement is “the murder represented by abortion” as a reason the Democrats “are mainly against scientology.”
I guess Brian is not very well versed in the facts — Hubbard and the Sea Org have promoted, even coerced women into having abortions. Hundreds, if not thousands of times. Hubbard sent his own messengers to terminate pregnancies.
Most scientologists (apparently including Brian) don’t understand Hubbard’s position concerning abortion. They cite Dianetics as their “source” for opposing abortion. In fact, Hubbard in Dianetics was railing against FAILED abortions — specifically how coat hangers and knitting needles and other barbaric efforts to abort a fetus impacted the reactive mind of the child. There wasn’t even such thing as a “thetan” when he wrote Dianetics.
In a subsequent book (History of Man) he claimed a later “discovery:” the thetan attaches itself to the body (“assumption”) “just prior to birth.”
A successful abortion may be traumatic/engramic for the mother, but the aborted fetus is never occupied by a thetan. In the world of Hubbard “science” this is NOT a murder, it is akin to an appendix removal from the mother. A part of the body of the mother is excised, she is not murdered. It only impacts HER.
Frankly, many scientologists do not understand what Hubbard teaches about this subject and assume that because he goes on and on and on about failed abortion attempts in Dianetics he therefore generally opposed abortion. Though he never specifically stated it that I am aware of, I assume he would have been in favor of abortions being legal because it would reduce the number of failed abortions which is the only thing he said was very harmful. (I am not going to get into the further confusing ideas of the Genetic Entity vs thetan, I just want to keep this as simple as possible).
Brian Gardner, like many scientologists, is confused on this issue of abortion. It is the one thing where Hubbard was NOT in lockstep with conservative thinking.
Maybe 20% of the adult population believes all abortion should be illegal and 20% believes abortion should be available at any time for any reason. Florida has a 15 week limit on “optional” abortion with limitations thereafter. I suppose you could call that a compromise but you’ll never please everybody.
Interesting what you pointed out about DMSMH and abortions. That is exactly how I had read it, i.e. it does not state anywhere that abortions should not be engaged in; only attempted and failed abortions are “bad”. However, others categorically stated that Hubbard in DMSMH was against abortions.
Similiarly, I think Hubbard wasn’t always against psychiatry. I vaguely remember an LRH Executive Directive (valid only for one year) in which he formulated a project of how to promote Dianetics to psychiatrists.
Seems to me that this must have changed in the early 1970’s.
David Mantell of the Max-Planck Institute for Psychopathology and Psychotherapy in Munich, Germany publicized a critical opinion about the therapy of Scientologists. Back on the Apollo, Hubbard blew a gasket when he heard about this, “How dare they? The Nazi psychs are obviously still alive and well.” A few minutes later, calmed down, he explained that everyone needs to select an opponent for his lifetime and that he had chosen psychiatrists. In other words, psychiatry was declared an enemy by Hubbard.
(The Guardian Office subsequently in 1972 published its first German “Freedom” newspaper to smear the Institute. It called Mantell a Nazi and alleged that the “bloody crimes of psychiatry didn’t end with the decline of the ‘3rd Reich'”. Hermann Brendel, spokesperson of the Guardian Office (GO), stated that the successors of the nazi doctors nowadays would blame the fact that “they couldn’t order fresh and bloody brain tissues of children like it was done in Nazi Germany”. The Max Planck Institute sued and won an injunction against that Freedom. In 1973 Kurt Weiland started as Scientology’s PR in Germany – nowadays he’s a subservient citizen of the Hole which does not exist.)
I just read your book and I am so happy that I did. I never before learned so much about how this nasty cult operates and all the despicable things it does.
I seemed to me the people who run this cult are very muvh like the horrible monsters that ran POW camps in WW2. Some of the things they did and are still doing is just enough to make one’s blood curdle.
I just cannot unnerstand why the police have shut them down and thrown the leaders in jail.
In any right – thinking society, that would have happened long ago. It just makes no sense these monsters are allowed to torture innocent victims under the guise of religious freedom. What kind of sense can that make?
Great post, Mike! Your observations are so very spot on.
For many years some republicans who are scientologists have been attributing their political beliefs to Hubbard quotes. 20 or more years ago they were doing this on the old “RAZZLINE” in LA. I pointed out to them the Scientology policy which says the Scientology is supposed to be non political. When they ignored me and kept doing it I started referring to them as “Republicologists” which eventually got me uninvited from that forum.
Your comments about what Hubbard said about abortion show that you unlike Bryan have actually read the writings that he quotes.
Over the years his writings as well as his life had many contradictions.
For instance, despite saying that homosexuality is an aberration, he also said that any society that either condones OR suppresses homosexuality is basically on the way out. And despite having chastise one of his sons for being gay, he also considered the famous pianist Mario fenninger to be a personal friend And despite having chastised one of his sons for being gay, he also considered the famous pianist Mario Fenninger (who was always openly gay) to be a personal friend and awarded him free auditing at any org in the world for his whole life.
The truth is the truth. Thanks for telling it like it is.
Now I am going to go out and smoke a pack of cools so that I don’t get cancer -NOT. 😁
Let’s see he’s been on 24,000 radio shows! That’s one every day for 65.75 years…if I’ve done my maths correctly. I wonder if those are like Mappins ‘TV channel’…all on the net.
From the synopsis the only thing ‘award winning’ that I spotted was he supposedly won an unnamed award for a review in a motor sports mag. He was on a local cable access show that won a local ‘CableACE’ award. The show won the award…not him. Plus he fails to mention that the CableACE awards bit the bullet in 1997.
He’s written what looks like yet another ‘Why I love Trvmp!’ self published book…one of the many that litter up Amazon.
And he’s a hard core lover of all things Hubbard and Miscavige.
So a lot of words signifying nothing.
A fiction writer writes fictitious things, so it’s not how much truth in it, rather how much appealing to readers
For example now Quantum physics ( a.k.a theoretical physics) about time travel , teleportation, black hole etc etc etc is popular amongst science fiction readers.
Two decades back it was Alien invasion.
You may find, fiction as alternative thinking of that era , no more no less.
That’s why Cults ,which are also part of fiction , representing conspiracy theories of that era , expires in next 50 years as it cannot survive of redundant conspiracy theories.
Now we have crypto currency Cults , dark web Cults, and ….Harry Porter inspired Cults. Its all about business, mental slavery , Stockholm syndrome and ‘ bring us the money”
That’s why, Do not lose your breath in eternity, go to mid west , start poultry and dairy farming……Harry Porter as new tech.
Otherwise, 2025 ,Age of Extinction, is not so far away . It’s not me ,it’s written on the wall.
He’s a RWNJ and, it appears, a big fan of Trumpty Dumpty.
This the only Amazon listing I can find so far about his “book”.
https://www.amazon.in/Plan-America-World-discussions-solutions-ebook/dp/B095HBSV45/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1668368695&refinements=p_27%3ABrian+Gardner&s=books&sr=1-1
Then have a look at this. There must be all of, maybe, four people listening to him at a Las Vegas Writers and their Books’ Book Signing Event at City Lights Gallery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AMYCiEug6w
Of course trying to find out what awards he’s supposedly won has turned up a great big nothing. Yet another $camologist who is a complete non-entity outside the collapsing bubble.
In LA during Hillary vs. Trump the only real areas that were not blue or white (neutral) but were pink were: THE FLATS OF BEVERLY HILLS AND PAC BASE AREA.
Hubbard himself referred, in a letter to the Prime Minister of South Africa, to “our loyalty to the Rightist cause.” I’ve often thought that, with the Sea Org especially, he perfected a system of turning hippies into fascists.
“he perfected a system of turning hippies into fascists.” Well put! So that’s where sometime scientologist Charles Manson got it from.
If Brian Gardner were to read Mike´s text above he would just conclude:
“Hate speech from a typical SP”
What matters is what’s good for LRH (or later DM).