What does it mean for an object to be unscriptable?

The error is "unSUBscriptable". Your user_profile object isn't a dictionary. Use user_profile.beta, not user_profile['beta'].

Alternatively, you can use a string with getattr:

getattr(user_profile, 'beta', False)

False is the default value; which, in your case would work with checking if the value is set or not. I found this very helpful, so I thought I would post this solution, even though the question was asked years ago. :)