For people who misread the headline and are confused: one of the people Masterson allegedly raped (her trial specifically is still ongoing according to the article) is firing shots at Linkin Park's new singer because she is a scientologist who turned out in support of Masterson.

That's convicted rapist Danny Masterson if anyone was wondering who that was.

Personally as a life long LP fan, Chester's death hit when it happend. At the time I wasn't in the best place mentally and to hear someone's work I enjoyed committed suicide was not a positive event. Through counselling and therapy I was able to work through my problems in a healthy way and I suggest anyone going through anything similar to try the same. Scientoligists are anti therapy and anti psychology. The thought that proven methods of counsellings and psychological aid could of helped Chester or anyone in a similar situation being undermined by his replacement hurts to my core. I won't go into the other allegations this fact resonates with me the most but I don't think I can be a LP fan right now, with my personal feelings.

It's good to see so many people now recognize scientology for the dangerous and manipulative cult it is and hope this starts to extend to the others like Falun Gong who are objectively worse in many regards but their propaganda tools like Epoch Times and their show Shen Yun are bizarrely popular in the US and much of Europe with hardly anyone ever commenting on the torture, rape, murder, and all the typical evil cult stuff they do.

On Saturday Carnell-Bixler condemned Armstrong and Linkin Park in a statement, writing:

Dear Emily, If you’re not going to speak out against the human and child trafficking cult in which you are apart of and in which you enable by remaining silent on the crimes you know about then you have no right to fill the shoes of Chester Bennington, a true advocate. I don’t give a fuck that you are very close to the serial rapist. I don’t give a fuck that you lied in your “apology” instagram story. I do care that you participated, after being asked, in the cruel intimidation of Jane Doe 1 with your cult pals at court. I do care that you didn’t once mention that you are a member of a child and human trafficking cult that covers up the abuses and rapes of CHILDREN and adults. I do care that your parents work for OSA (the office of special affairs) of the cult of Scientology which have been ordering attacks on me and my family which includes murdering my dogs in the most inhumane and evil ways. I do care that they have been attacking and harassing my fellow sister survivors. You don’t speak out against Scientology not because you’re terrified of them. You don’t speak out because you are one of them. Shame on Linkin Park. Fuck you.

“Scientology P.I.’s outside our house all day,” she also wrote in an earlier Story. “Stole our trash… And other things. Documented.” Bixler-Zavala shared his wife’s statement, adding additional context and telling Linkin Park, “You should fire your entire team for not thoroughly vetting your choice. You’re a Disney level brand trying to make a comeback and you didn’t think to spend a little money on looking into her? Stop playing at the drive in’s music on your pre show playlist.”

Cool way to respect the memory of Chester you got there LinkedIn Park.

I'm not going to fault anyone for having problems with this. I definitely am not comfortable with someone who comes out of a cult that actively opposes treating mental health "replacing" Chester, a man who struggled all his life before tragically taking his own life.

But people do need to understand: The reason scientology STILL has so much power is not because tom cruise has so many thetans. It is because, like all good cults, they have MASSIVE amounts of dirt on their members. And they make it very clear that anyone who speaks out against them will be destroyed. If you thought a British PM fucking a pig's carcass was a shock... There are similar stories with every cult and secret society.

So if the cult says jump? You jump. And while I remain very very conflicted, I do give Emily credit for being openly gay (a huge no no) and talking around regretting being part of the crew that was used to try to protect masterson. I would rather outright condemnation and apologies but... that probably won't happen unless she is ready to be destroyed by the cult.

Leah Remini deserves mad props for how incredibly brave she has been speaking out against scientology. But she also is MASSIVELY "lucky" that she basically escaped while they were running massive damage control for tom cruise vanceing up oprah's couch. And by the time they "recovered" she had gone from "Weren't you on the beach episode of Saved By The Bell?" to too high profile for them to really go after. Almost nobody else is going to have that luxury.

And as purely a music fan? Not huge on The Emptiness Machine outside of that initial reveal. But I kind of loved most of the Emily covers of the hits and give mad props to the band for making it a point to change the tempo or remix the songs a bit so she isn't just singing Chester's part. Time will tell what the album versions are and if they touch some of the songs they REALLY REALLY REALLY should not touch

Stupid twat. RIP Chester and LP. That name shouldn't be continued.

Hmmm, is she still a scientologist? Seems like a weird choice if she is, although a cult is a cult and that one is brutally hard to get out of. I think I can forgive people who sided with Masterson initially if their cult told them to (maybe not at much post-conviction) but I think it's problematic having anyone like that as the front to LP because of the suicide.

That said, if she renounced the cult at part of this gig (and ideally Masterson too) I think I'd be ok with her. I think what LP is trying to do is ultimately as good thing, especially since they're not trying to find someone exactly like Chester.