Debunking the Media

Welcome to the Website

Welcome! This website has been created in cooperation of several locals in Tyalgum to expose the reckless journalism communicated about our village that has caused harm, vandalism, and distress to locals unnecessarily. Our aim, to fight newspaper and television journalists publishing falsities that cause harm to innocent people. How are we going about this? Providing a medium for people to find out THE TRUTH, with statements from locals, openly provided information from Hermes Far Eastern Shining.

WHY THIS SITE EXISTS

Brief introduction:
Hermes Far Eastern Shining (Hermes for short) has been the subject of sensationalist media reporting for nearly 20 years. Yet with all the accusations that have been laid by the media not a single charge has ever been laid by the police or any authorities. It is unfair that a group of people can be so regularly vilified with no basis.

With the expansion of the internet, these stories are endlessly replicated. In a process of Chinese whispers they are exaggerated and added to by every hack teasing out as much sensationalism as they can to attract ever more readers.

The real human beings associated with Hermes are left to bear the consequences of this. There are more than a hundred incidents over the years: from abusive phone calls to violent assaults and even the burning down of three shops.

Credibility:
The tone of this site is humanist and rational. For the purpose of credibility, it is edited by a person who is not part of the Hermes community but has witnessed the injustice they have suffered for more than a dozen years. Additionally, the pieces here are written by many different individuals. While Hermes might be a spiritual based organisation, it is through the presentation of factual information that these stories can be revealed as sensationalist concoctions.

Media injustice:
In Australia, where 70% of print media is owned by Rupert Murdoch, justice is only available to the wealthy, if at all. This site exists to provide some response to the stories that have propagated over the years in the absence of any effective avenue of redress. Metaphorically, it is a stone thrown by hand at castle walls. However, it is our ‘right of reply’ in the face of a reckless and irresponsible media that has caused real harm to real people and their businesses, and the wider community where we live.

It should be concerning that in so many of these articles inaccuracies were published that are easily refuted, yet no correction could be obtained even after extensive communications with the media outlets directly, or with authorities charged with protecting people against such abuse.

While the media has sought only the sensationalist and inaccurate representations of the Hermes community there is a real story here: the conscious publication of inaccuracies, the wanton disregard for causing real harm in the pursuit of profit, the absence of justice and protection from media vilification occasioning real harm, the deliberate and ongoing abuse of human rights and the lack of protections therefrom.

Others that may find this site useful:
Beyond our own purposes for creating this site there are many other people and organisations that might be interested as it provides examples of several major issues:

• How minority groups that are ‘different’ are sensationalised and used by media outlets for profit.
• The irresponsibility shown by media outlets when real harm is caused by publishing inaccuracies.
• The impossibility of getting a retraction or correction when harmful inaccuracies are published.
• The failure of the Australian Press Council to provide justice for these published inaccuracies.
• Human rights abuses in relation to religion and belief.
• The real-world effects of media vilification of innocent people.
• The amplification of published inaccuracies through social media.
• This type of media sensationalism can also be seen as a precursor to the unleashing of Q conspiracies during the Trump era, and the media’s role in perpetuating and failing to rein in some of the most dangerous, divisive, and absurd fallacies.

Finally, this site is a work in progress.

It has initially been published with only minimal information, there is a great deal of information to put together: there are many articles to refute, and many instances of abuse, assault, intimidation, and vandalism to expose.

However, there is also a story of resilience, of how a group of people with an alternative and utopian vision have continued to live as an open community in the face of such adversity.

A QUICK WORD ABOUT THE C-WORD

 How the word ‘cult’ functions as a super-curse when used by the media

Once the media has labelled a group of individuals as a ‘cult’ the ground is set for any number of absurd accusations.

‘Cult’ as a simile for the most evil organisations in the world
The word ‘cult’ has a purely negative meaning in the modern context, it invites all the stereotypes and tropes of the most dangerous and destructive organisations. For example, a ‘cult’ typically separates itself from the outside world, members live in a closed compound, there are apocalyptic predictions about the future, children are ‘indoctrinated’ and possibly abused, the ‘leader’ is usually a male with multiple sexual partners, and so on. In the readers mind ‘cult’ brings up the Manson family murders, Jim Jones’ mass suicides, Aum Shinrikyo’s gas attacks in Japan, and the Branch Davidians’ massacre at Waco. These organisations would more accurately be called mass murder / suicide groups, they are not ‘cults’ in the classic Dionysian drunken orgy style.

Drawing upon the public’s superstition
Many people are also quite superstitious, irrespective of their public persona. There’s plenty of subconscious fear of ghosts, spirits, mind control and supernatural powers driven by consumption of horror films & books. When the word ‘cult’ is thrown about it connects with those subconscious fears, bringing about intense distrust, fear, and often outright hostility. Moreover, because it connects to supernatural fears it allows anything, literally anything at all, to be irrationally put forward as a possibility.

How Covid drew out all the crazies once a secret global ‘cult’ was imagined
In the covid world this is generally understood. Once the government is labelled as a ‘cult’ group of satanic pedophiles it is easy to imagine anything. For example, I was told by a fanatic that the reason for the Melbourne covid lockdown was so that children being kept as slaves in tunnels under the city could be moved by the aliens in human suits that secretly rule us. That’s what I mean by imagining ‘anything’. This is what the word cult does, it inspires some of the most vividly absurd pieces of sci-fi supernatural horror writing ever produced, 2020-21 is replete with it.

A reversal of justice: guilty until proved innocent
Once the label ‘cult’ is applied, the values of justice are reversed. For many people, any ‘cult’ group of individuals is considered guilty until it can prove itself innocent, it becomes a given, and for many a fanatical obsession that no amount of evidence can refute – that because they are a cult they must be up to no good.

Importantly, the word ‘cult’ allows for a negative public perception to be created without any evidence at all. One look at the enormous following Q managed to attract during the Trump administration and we can realise how easily millions of people can be swayed into absurd beliefs about ordinary people.

Hermes has been the victim of endless media rehashing of empty sensationalist stories, although not a single police investigation has ever been launched into any of these claims. There is just no evidence to support them.