this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2024
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Ok, thank you for the wikipedia links. What's your beef with them, anyways? There are lots of people in the world who share in one or more of Falun Gong's beliefs. What makes "this terrible cult" special? Why, in your opinion, have many members been imprisoned, physically beaten and politically silenced by the Chinese Communist Party?
I have no beef with them, i didn't even knew they existed before today, but any group that is against all of the aforementioned groups (which I personally am a part of a lot of them) is just a terrible group, not differently then many religious or political extremist groups. Also, as it states in the next paragraph of the Wikipedia article they are connected with far right politician and Qanon, which doesn't gat any positive opinions from me.
The reason for why they are persecuted (in my 5 minutes Wikipedia search opinion) is not because they are special in any way, if not that they are kinda popular, it's that (like many other political groups, and not only the more extreme ones) the CCP doesn't like them, also the fact that they are against the CCP itself, as it is stated in the Wikipedia article probably is a huge factor.
Correction.
As somebody else said in the thread, the group was once affiliated with the CCP but they grew in popularity too much and started to pose an actual threat to the state and because of that the persecution started.
Also they have infiltrated a lot of organization, I've looked at other Wikipedia article and I found bizarre that there was no mention of their extremist practices and so I went back to the main article and I found that they managed to censor other Wikipedia pages:
"According to scholar James R. Lewis writing in 2018, Falun Gong adherents have attempted to control English Wikipedia articles covering the group and articles related to it. Lewis highlights Falun Gong's extensive internet presence, and how editors who have to date contributed to English Wikipedia entries associated with Falun Gong to the point where "Falun Gong followers and/or sympathizers de facto control the relevant pages on Wikipedia", and how this is particularly important for Falun Gong as an organization due to the search engine optimization results of these entries, and how the entries can influence other media entities. Lewis notes also how this fits in as part of Falun Gong's general media strategy, such as Falun Gong media like The Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty, Sound of Hope Radio, and, as Lewis discusses, the Rachlin media group. Lewis reports that the Rachlin media group is the Falun Gong's de facto PR firm operated by Gail Rachlin, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Centre. Lewis says that Amnesty International does not independently verify its reports from Falun Gong groups, accepting material directly from Falun Gong organizations as fact. According to Lewis, "[Falun Gong] has thus been able to influence other media via its presence on the web, through its direct press releases, and through its own media."
And even on my native language Wikipedia article about then nothing is stated about the practices.
They feel a lot like Scientology, but it's scarier because nobody know about them, and that let's them get away with a lot more shit.
This video is a good example of what they are about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mQ8plzWl9g