I don't have anything to back this up, but I wonder if there's a strong correlation between a religion being minority in a region and how "peaceful" it is, because my suspicion is that majority/power of any kind will always come at the risk of attracting chuds or corrupting the fearful into protecting themselves by attacking others. Literally "others" I guess.
And a sect of the TST was removed because they started pushing for violence. Every religion is vulnerable to corruption by people's pride and other hindrances. Buddhism is no exception. Nor is any imaginary one folks come up with in this thread.
Anyway, power corrupts. We've always known that. The 'devil' in Buddhism is the lust or will to power. Lies and manipulation are simply a tool it uses. And, like Buddha Nature, we all have it.
That's a gross over generalization. I get it, I was a militant atheist at one point in my life too and still have a lot of similar biases in my religious views.
There are sincere Christians and ones that pay lip service. Same with Buddhism. There are many Christian sects, some dogmatic, some not. Same with Buddhism.
Half the TST principles are Buddhist. Either being path factors (Right View, Right Action) or expressions of the four immeasurables (compassion, justice).
And I just watched a documentary on TST. They've had issues with members too. Militant sects forming that forgot about compassion as a principle. Etc.
Anyway, your 'they're all bullshit' comment makes it clear you didn't join this thread to have a good faith discussion, but rather to shit on views different from your own.
Religion/Community. In a brighter world those words would be interchangeable.
I am an atheist at heart, but you still have to acknowledge that the core values of a lot of religions are for the betterment of others.
People don't seem to be capable of being uncorruptable. You can have a perfect religion, or one that only adheres to goodness (like tst) and it will be PEOPLE who abuse it. Not the religion itself, just people cherry picking what they want.
It could be laws, it could be a cult, it could be a religion, it could be a government. Some people just fucking suck, end of story.