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United Kingdom Businesses Education

Amazon Is Collecting Donations For a Scientology-Linked Anti-Drug Charity (theguardian.com) 45

Posted by EditorDavid from the not-actually-science dept.
An anonymous reader quotes the Guardian: Amazon has agreed to channel funds to a controversial drug rehabilitation charity linked to the Church of Scientology, the Guardian has learned. The web giant will make donations to Narconon — which runs programmes for drug addicts based on the teachings of the Scientology founder, L Ron Hubbard — when supporters buy products through the site, with shoppers able to pledge 0.5% of purchases to selected charities under Amazon's "Smile" feature...

Experts have warned the charity's methods have no scientific basis and its link to Scientology has prompted criticism that it is a front used to convert people to the religion, which some former devotees have labelled a cult... The Guardian discovered that Amazon US allows shoppers to donate funds to more than a dozen Narconon-related charities, including its international branch based in Clearwater, Florida, near Scientology's "spiritual headquarters".
"The Narconon treatment invokes concepts of residual drug in body and brain which have no scientific validity," complains professor David Nutt, who formerly chaired the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. And he also tells the Guardian Narconon's anti-drug talks in schools aren't "truly scientifically or evidence based.

"Sadly we have known for years that Scientology is the main provider of 'teaching' materials on addiction to schools, as the UK government doesn't fund any alternative sources."
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Amazon Is Collecting Donations For a Scientology-Linked Anti-Drug Charity More

Amazon Is Collecting Donations For a Scientology-Linked Anti-Drug Charity

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  • Smile donates to the charity of the user's choice. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nonesuch ( 90847 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @07:46PM (#59755480) Homepage Journal

    It's not like Amazon/Smile is directing unknowing user's funds to this entity -- you choose where the money goes when you enroll in smile. Amazon relies on the listings at GuideStar [guidestar.org] to determine charity status, pretty much only blacklists groups on the naughty lists maintained by OFAC and SPLC [amazon.com].

    There are many questionable groups among the "over one million eligible 501(c)(3) public charitable organizations [amazon.com]" enrolled in the program.

    • Re:Smile donates to the charity of the user's choi (Score:4, Informative)

      by Tim Hamilton ( 5961502 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @08:03PM (#59755528)
      Yeah, and it's a clickbait headline. If you want actual information, check out this ytmnd [ytmnd.com] about scientology. It's funny how ytmnd is more accurate than clickbait slashdot these days.

      • Re:Smile donates to the charity of the user's choi (Score:5, Interesting)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @11:14PM (#59755872) Homepage

        There is a whole program https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]. The only way Amazon could miss it, they have scientologists employees who did this and of course do not forget google and youtube "Scientology - Free Personality Test It's time to rediscover the human soul. Get to know the real you. Your first step to find out more can be as simple as a free Personality Test. Original Series and Films. Download App on Mobile. Get App on your TV. Streaming Live Now. New Episodes Weekly. Shows: Inside Scientology, Meet a Scientologist, I am a Scientologist, Voices for Humanity, Destination: Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard. Ad www.scientology.tv/Free/PersonalityTest" Right off their web site, now. So there are scientologists working at google and youtube peddling their for profit corporate cult.

        In both cases, definitely an inside job. This considering the documentaries put out and them being banned in many countries.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There's no way that Amazon or any other company that lets customers choose charities for donations, could vet a million organizations. For all they know, the local library foundation that I donate to via Amazon could be questionable. (It isn't.)

      • Seems like they imported an IRS list... not every charity is supported by everyone, but to each their own. For the record, my AmazonSmile donation goes to code.org .

        • Yeah, Scientology had a really dodgy and shady history with the IRS. They finally got what they wanted when they had their members sue not the IRS, but every individual person who worked at the IRS, and hired private investigators who dug up as much they could about the lives of officials, asking building co-tenants about them, etc. The IRS finally capitulated and granted all Scientology organizations tax exempt status, and the lawsuits were dropped.

          Yeah, Scientology had a lot more power and influence 20 ye

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        No one has asked them to vet a million organizations. Narconon is infamous for being a Scientology front group, and outright lying to its victims to segregate them from other, far more effective treatment. They especially prey on people in jail, their practices are embedded in the Scientology's fraudulent medical claims as a "science of the mind". Scientology only became a religion to aovid punishment by the FDA for their medical frauds back in roughly 1970, back when they were hiding secret agents in the F

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AK Marc ( 707885 )
          Amazon shouldn't have to vet charities. That's something the IRS should do. If a 501(c)(3) is a "fraud" then the IRS should revoke its status, and Amazon can be confident the 501(c)(3) process is "secure".
    • Yeah... Amazon Smile even show "Warpstock Corp" which is a non-profit to support the annual OS/2 Warp meeting. See you all at Warpstock 2020 !!!!!

    • Yea in the navy every year there was a charity drive. They handed you a catalog and you could pick as many, or as few, as you wanted to donate to, and how much. There were clearly charities on there that were not always in the Navys best interest. This was in 1990,long before dont ask dont tell. So donating to a charity working with Lesbian/gay (only 2 letters back then), or donating to greenpeace was a funny way to give a silent middle finger if you were unhappy with your job. It certainly did not imply t

  • Clickbait nonsense (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Fnkmaster ( 89084 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @07:46PM (#59755484)

    Amazon processes donations through smile.amazon.com to random PTA groups, to major charities and everything in between. I don't know much about Narconon, it may be shitty and Scientology associated, but if people opt in to supporting it on smile.amazon.com that is their business.

    I personally use smile to support a charity in New York that develops schools and employment opportunities in a developing country in Europe. If that's not your cup of tea, that's cool, Amazon making that available on smile isn't an endorsement of the particular charity.

    I hate Scientology personally, but Amazon processing donations to a vaguely Scientology-affiliated charity is no worse than lots of other causes or charities that I don't support or agree with and is not some sort of secret endorsement by Amazon of Scientology.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      It's not a "vaguely Scientology-affiliated charity". It's a money making and recruitment front for the cult. It charges addicts a fortune for an worthless treatment consisting of saunas and vitamin shots while undergoing a sanitised version of the cult's own rundown procedures. It is their cult dressed up in the trappings of pseudo science for the purpose of profit.

      It has a long history of lawsuits concerning deaths, hospitalizations, malpractice, insurance fraud and other red flags. In many countries it

      • As you can see from other threads here, Amazon gets a list of 501c3s from the IRS and filters out bad actors from a list managed by the SPLC. If the government views it as a legitimate not-for-profit and the SPLC doesn't classify it as a hate group or other socially undesireable org, then Amazon is trying not to be in the business of curating which nonprofits are good or bad, given that there are apparently around a million on this list.

        Maybe there is another category of organizations that support unscienti

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          Filtering charities into good and bad groups should not be a hard thing to do. They submit public documents and there are already services that offers ratings based upon that information. I suspect that Amazon didn't even bother to do that.

  • So what? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by msauve ( 701917 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @07:52PM (#59755504)
    Amazon customers have a choice of who to support via the Smile program. Someone's trying to turn it into a political slippery slope. Narconon is a 501c3 organization, and it's not Amazon's role to judge whether it passes someone else's critical judgement. If you don't agree with what they do, don't choose to donate to them, and feel free to try and convince others likewise. But to criticize Amazon for simply offering the choice is wrong.

    They offer lots of choice to support other churches - Catholic, Lutheran, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. Should they be criticized for that, too?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nonesuch ( 90847 )
      Amazon relies on the lists published by Southern Poverty Law Center, and in doing so actually does block donations to many Catholic and christian groups.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        "Amazon relies on the lists published by Southern Poverty Law Center, and in doing so actually does block donations to many Catholic and christian groups."

        OK, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Back up your claim with hard facts. Exactly what groups have they denied, and point to the proof. Were they 501c3?

      • If by "Catholic and Christian groups" you mean "Organisations that campaign against LGBT rights." The SPLC does list reasons why organisations are placed on their list. There are a lot of organisations around to at advocate awful things, but do so claim that they have the moral high ground because Jesus Said So.

    • "Narconon is a 501c3 organization, and it's not Amazon's role to judge whether it passes someone else's critical judgement."

      Well yes it is, 501c3 doesn't magically mean it isn't poorly administered or an outright scam. How is it not their role to filter out scams from their marketplace and charity programs? Anyone can donate to a scammy charity directly if they really want to.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by msauve ( 701917 )
        "How is it not their role to filter out scams from their marketplace and charity programs?"

        So, you're good with them removing all religious charities, who try to scam people into believing in some invisible guy in the sky?
  • Don't buy your E-meter on Amazon.

    What a piece of Chinese crap.

  • You can donate to the NRA and PETA, too! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Arthur, KBE ( 6444066 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @08:34PM (#59755616)
    Total click bait This just allows Amazon customers to donate to a charity. It's not a case of Amazon "supporting Scientology" any more than any other tax exempt charity. .

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      There are charities and there are "charities". Amazon should be performing due diligence to ensure it only offers donations to the former, not the latter.
      • That would entail them making value judgments about those charities. I'm sure plenty of people who donate to those charities believe they're doing the right thing.

        Amazon lets the user pick what charity they want to donate to. If the user decides they want to donate to a shitty charity, that should be on them, not on Amazon.
  • What about all the other religious based treatment programs like all the 12 step programs?

  • ... the addict industrial complex complaining that the CoS is siphoning off funds that could be used to hand out free needles and run safe injection sites.

    • Whatever you think of Scientology -- I'll bet they created less addicts than the pharmaceutical-industrial complex you seem so supportive of.

      • Re:This is just ... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by meglon ( 1001833 ) on Sunday February 23, 2020 @12:16AM (#59755978)
        For all the downside of big pharma, pharmaceuticals do tend to help people.... as opposed to the delusion enabling bullshit that is Scientology.

      • Would you count addiction to "auditing", the fraudulent recover of past lives of "thetans", the slaughted members of the Marcab Confederacy who comprise our minds and bodies and especially out bad thoughts, illness, and addictions as describe in the secret Scientology document "Operating Thetan Level Eight"?

        There is a harsh but clear explanation of the destructiveness of Narconon and the cult itself at https://www.muckrock.com/proje... [muckrock.com] , and among many of the stories written by former cult member.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        the pharmaceutical-industrial complex you seem so supportive of

        Whoosh!

        I think you missed the obvious sarcasm there. Big pharma IS the heart of the addict-industrial complex. And the people who are keeping the customers comfy between fixes are complicit.

  • This is just Amazon Smile. The user has to specifically choose which 501c3 they want to support with their purchases. Any 501c3 qualifies for Amazon Smile donations.

    What the fuck, Slashdot?

  • "which some former devotees have labelled a cult." (Score:4, Interesting)

    by magusxxx ( 751600 ) <magusxxx_2000 AT yahoo DOT com> on Saturday February 22, 2020 @11:30PM (#59755896)

    Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom

    All have rejected its applications for tax-exempt, charitable status or recognition as a religious organization.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday February 22, 2020 @11:44PM (#59755926)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Sometimes charities have misleading names and branding though. Narconon does not scream 'cult!' at potential donators. Easy to fleece people by just hiding their real connections and motivation.

    • ...I support St Jude's because I worked for awhile for a children's hospital and frankly anybody who can handle being around so many dying kids without wanting to jump off the nearest bridge? God bless 'em, I know I couldn't take it it was just too damn depressing.

      I donated to them and they sent me a calendar with a different dying kid each month. It made me dread the first of every month. So depressing...

  • Has the author been sleeping under a rock? Try to look at the definition of a cult and read some independent writings about Scientology.
  • Ironically FSF and EFF are not select-able charities on amazon smile. Now I understand they are probably against everything amazon stands for (tracking, DRM, monopolies, invading privacy etc.) So of course it would be fun (and hypocritically ironic at the same time) if they were on there.

  • So I guess we are even, Tom Cruise.

    ( By channeling I mean, like, I donate them some of my income instead of spending it on Starbucks or whatever. )

  • Another cult that preyed on drug addicts looking for rehab.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon

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