NationStates Jolt Archive

Tom Cruise compared to Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels
BERLIN - Germany's Protestant Church compared the Hollywood film star Tom Cruise to the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels yesterday and claimed the actor was using his celebrity status to publicise the controversial church of Scientology of which he is a prominent member.

The criticism of Cruise, who is in Germany to make a film about an attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, was the most vitriolic in a series of attacks on the actor over his membership of Scientology - an organisation regarded as a cult in Germany and kept under intelligence surveillance.

Thomas Gandow, 60, the German Protestant Church's chief spokesman on religious cults described Scientology as a "totalitarian organisation" and said that, because of his position as film star, Cruise had become "The Goebbels of Scientology."

In his film Valkyrie Tom Cruise, 45, plays Claus von Stauffenberg, a German army officer and aristocrat who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944 by planting a bomb inside the Nazi leader's East Prussian headquarters.

However Gandow dismissed the film yesterday as "Propaganda for Scientology".

He added in a reference to the favourable publicity won by Hitler's Nazi party during the 1936 Berlin Olympic games: "This film will have the same propaganda advantages for Scientology as the 1936 Olympics had for the Nazis."

Gandow insisted that Cruise had simply come to Germany to campaign for restrictions on Scientology to be lifted.

His attack on the actor followed criticism from the German Defence Ministry which banned the actor from filming at key military sites in Berlin which were authentic locations during the 1944 plot against Hitler.

The ministry made it clear that it objected to the fact that von Stauffenberg, one of Germany's few anti-Nazi resistance heroes, was being played by a Scientology member.

Berlin police subsequently refused to allow the actor to film at a police station in the city's Kreuzberg district.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling conservatives disagreed - but only slightly - with the church's Goebbels-Cruise comparison.

Antje Blumenthal, a conservative MP and leading Scientology critic said: "Unlike the Nazi propaganda minister, Tom Cruise has the sympathy of the public. As a Scientology ambassador he uses his popularity very cleverly in the interests of the totalitarian sect," she added.

Goebbels Cruise (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10453262)

Does this count as a Godwin?

Does this count as a Godwin?
It does.

I mean, I don't really like Tom Cruise and I loathe Scientology. I think it's a dangerous cult and I have it up to here with their "let's sue everybody" mentality. I can fully understand if the German government doesn't want to make sites available to him to make his movie (not least because I think it will be a horrible film, everybody would be better off just renting "Downfall" on DVD).

But that doesn't make him a Nazi, and the fuss people make about the film sometimes has just a faint whiff of rather intolerant "he must be outlawed because he doesn't think like me" about it. Especially in the older generation tolerance is not as widespread as I would like it to be. Much like in the US people of Gandow's age had the choice to either join the anti-authoritarian tendencies (the Hippies and anti-war movement in the US, the '68 generation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_student_movement) in Germany) or become part of an establishment that taught conservatism and to some degree intolerance (the latter probably moreso in Germany than the States). The people who now lead the church chose the latter, so I have my doubts that one should listen to them on matters like these.

Tom Cruise? Ugh.

I'll watch it only if they subtitle it "The Li'lest Nazi." :p

LOL! Ooooh ouch, but you know, you better be careful, Tom Cruise might read that comment and sic his Scientologist attack dogs on you.

Tom Cruise? Ugh.

I'll watch it only if they subtitle it "The Li'lest Nazi." :p

So, a church is outraged that a....ammmm....another church has a bigger celebrity than their own church.

They should try signing someone bigger than Tom Cruise - who would that be?

Anyone older than 10 in Hollywood?

So, a church is outraged that a....ammmm....another church has a bigger celebrity than their own church.

They should try signing someone bigger than Tom Cruise - who would that be?

I think they should get Nicole Kidman and spice things up a bit,

The Pope is the Goebbels of Catholicism is a natural extension of this rant

and you totally didn't get the joke....

Anyone older than 10 in Hollywood?

I think they should get Nicole Kidman and spice things up a bit,

The Pope is the Goebbels of Catholicism is a natural extension of this rant

He's small - I got it :rolleyes:

Hey, at least I didn't use the gay joke.

and you totally didn't get the joke....

He's small - I got it :rolleyes:

Hey, at least I didn't use the gay joke.

Will you please STOP jolting above me joltin' Joe!

It confuses people :(

Also, I don't know the gay joke, pray tell with spoilers so the kiddies are not mortified?

Will you please STOP jolting above me joltin' Joe!

It confuses people :(

Also, I don't know the gay joke, pray tell with spoilers so the kiddies are not mortified?

Eh it's nothing really special, if you watch the South Park episode with Tom Cruise and Scientology in it, you'd pretty much understand what a Tom Cruise is gay joke sounds like.

I think Germany's a little bit too paranoid of cults since Hitler came along.

I think Germany's a little bit too paranoid of cults since Hitler came along.

Well to be fair, Scientology's operations isn't exactly legal in any stretch of the imagination. They had a long history of criminal behavior starting with the founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

Well to be fair, Scientology's operations isn't exactly legal in any stretch of the imagination. They had a long history of criminal behavior starting with the founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

True, but neither is it in the same league as the NSDAP. Yet, maybe. Comparing the two at this point is a slight overreaction.

Goebbels Cruise (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10453262)

Does this count as a Godwin?


A pointless one, as a sarcastic welcome saying they want to hear all about the aliens and their 'atom bombs' would do the job twice as good.

True, but neither is it in the same league as the NSDAP. Yet, maybe. Comparing the two at this point is a slight overreaction.

If society wasn't as stable as it is now, it COULD be in the same league as the Nazis.

If society wasn't as stable as it is now, it COULD be in the same league as the Nazis.

I think they'd like to be in that league, no doubt. But they aren't, and making a political statement comparing them is just trying to emotionally influence the public.

Scientology is nothing but a cult designed to part fools from their money. I don't normally attack other religions, but Scientology is laughable... It's so evidently fake that I'm amazed people in the "religion" don't see it.

I don't get the whole "Tom Cruise is short" jabs. It's not like Americans are all that tall. Where I'm from, I'm just as tall as Tom Cruise(assuming he's actually 5'8" and not that much shorter), and I'm banging my head against the roof of the upper deck of the bus. From what I've read, the "average height" of an American male is somewhere around 5'9"(5'10" if the source is feeling a little nationalistic), which is what, 3 inches taller on average? Unless you're in a community which regularly breaks 6'(ie, all them Viking countries), you really don't have any business deriding someone as "short" once they break 1.7m.:upyours::p

I don't get the whole "Tom Cruise is short" jabs. It's not like Americans are all that tall. Where I'm from, I'm just as tall as Tom Cruise(assuming he's actually 5'8" and not that much shorter), and I'm banging my head against the roof of the upper deck of the bus. From what I've read, the "average height" of an American male is somewhere around 5'9"(5'10" if the source is feeling a little nationalistic), which is what, 3 inches taller on average? Unless you're in a community which regularly breaks 6'(ie, all them Viking countries), you really don't have any business deriding someone as "short" once they break 1.7m.:upyours::p

I hate it when people call me tall just cause I'm about 6'2". I see plenty of people taller than me. what does that make them?

Giants. They should be hunted for the magical properties inherent in their bones.

Giants. They should be hunted for the magical properties inherent in their bones.

Tom Cruise: Don't you know about bone dust? Don't you know its now a street drug?

:D

Giants. They should be hunted for the magical properties inherent in their bones.

No no, it's those over 6"4' who are giants. Those of us at or below that level are perfectly normal.

Now if I could find a sink not mounted at crotch level.

Tom Cruise: Don't you know about bone dust? Don't you know its now a street drug?

:D

"If vitamins and exercise alone explain why Tom Cruise is so, um, knowledgeable and well-grounded, pass the Prozac."

No no, it's those over 6"4' who are giants. Those of us at or below that level are perfectly normal.

Now if I could find a sink not mounted at crotch level.

Most commodities are built for people around 5'10"

"If vitamins and exercise alone explain why Tom Cruise is so, um, knowledgeable and well-grounded, pass the Prozac."

I find Zoloft has a cleaner aftertaste. :p