Ziz / Jack Amadeus LaSota / Zizians / sinceriously.fyi - Vegan AI Singularity Doomsday Cult turned Tranny Manson Family. Implicated in at least 6 deaths.

[Coo Coo Bird]

Ziz / Jack Amadeus LaSota / sinceriously.fyi / 'Jedi Jack' / "Andrea Phelps"

Jack Amadeus LaSota (DOB: 01/23/1991), better known as Ziz, is a 34 year old originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, who has a rationalist vegan tranny death cult. His father, Dan LaSota, worked as an AI researcher for the University of Alaska, where Jack graduated in 2013, then interned that summer with NASA. He went to grad school but dropped out "because it sucked" (Read: He wanted to do the Silicon Valley 'go to grad school to make connections, drop out and found a startup' play, but had no social skills). He decided to work on an indie video game called Dystheism instead.

Dystheism (Archive)
It sucked.
He decided that he was ready to go to the Bay Area, one of the most expensive and competitive places in the country, so he could meet other rationalists and devote himself to effective altruism:

Spoiler: Quick Explanation of Terms

Rationalism - In theory, rationalism is the view that reason is the most important source of knowledge, as opposed to faith or experience. In practice, this means self important nerds acting like they know everything already because they got high SAT scores. The Bay Area and Silicon Valley is full of rationalist cults, especially concerning AI, which they believe will bring about the Singularity.
Effective Altruism (EA) - A belief that it's mathematically more beneficial to amass large sums of money to donate to ending poverty than to volunteer to help people in person. In other words, it's an excuse to pursue money and power "for the good of mankind". See: Sam Bankman-Fried.
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (HPMOR) - The Bible for rationalists is Eliezer Yudkowsky's fanfiction retelling Harry Potter using rationalism. Other "essential rationalist literature" includes Luminosity, a Twilight fanfic, and Friendship is Optimal, a My Little Pony fanfic. The only 'original' work of rationalist literature seems to be Worm, which is an edgy capeshit webnovel.
Infohazard - Sometimes called "cognitohazard". As rationalists define it, information that is considered dangerous enough to drive someone insane. This is used as a cope for how many rationalists commit suicide: "We're not mentally ill, we just deal with knowledge too dangerous for ordinary mortals!" and an excuse to censor/obscure information.
Roko's Basilisk - The concept that a superintelligence will punish people who did not contribute to its existence by making a hyperrealistic simulation of them and torturing them. Just a lamer Pascal's Wager.
Singleton - The concept of a single intelligence ruling the world, usually an AI. Rationalists believe their research will determine if the Singleton will make the world Computer Heaven or Computer Hell.
The Singularity - The technological singularity is a hypothetical future where computer intelligence grows uncontrollable and changes humanity forever, possibly even destroying it. The Rapture for nerds.
People/Groups
CFAR (Center for Applied Rationality) -A non-profit in Berkeley which hosts workshops on rationalism. Have been accused by the Zizians of sex abuse, which may have some basis in fact.
Less Wrong - Yudkowsky's site about rationalism.
Aella Martin / Rachel Slick - Onlyfans pornstar, high-price prostitute, and rationalist researcher. Would rather eat poop than vegetables, thinks flooding the internet with AI-generated child porn will protect children from pedophiles.
MIRI (Machine Intelligence Research Institute) - Yudkowsky's non-profit in Berkeley that's dedicated to researching "friendly AI". Makes millions of dollars in donations.
Alice Monday - A troon that dated Michelle Zajko who was alleged by others in the Zizians to be abusive, which is probably true. LaSota considered him his "Sith mentor" and later tried to threaten Zajko into killing him.
JD Pressman - Rationalist and author of zizians.info, a callout site. The Zizians accused him of being a pedophile and stalker in a transparent attempt to discredit him.
Anna Saloman - President and co-founder of CFAR. LaSota hates her for being a transphobe (she thinks transwomen should acknowledge they're biologically men), but probably also because she told him that going to grad school to find a business partner and dropping out to found a startup was a good idea.
Peter Singer - A philosopher who heavily influenced the effective altruist movement. Thinks bestiality is more ethical than eating meat.
SneerClub - A subreddit that's allegedly supposed to criticize the rationalist community, but is mostly a circlejerk of liberals upset that rationalists are mostly lolbertarians. Frequently defends the Zizians because they're trans.
Jessica Liu Taylor - Former researcher at MIRI, knew LaSota and talked to him but was not a follower. Has been providing information on her Twitter.
Eliezer Schlomo "Big Yud" Yudkowsky - Founder of Less Wrong, Co-Founder of MIRI, author of Harry Potter fanfiction. Thinks someone being tortured for fifty years is preferable to a bunch of people getting dust in their eyes.

One year prior to start, in January 2016 I moved to the Bay Area for proximity to the tech industry which I considered sort of my destiny, proximity to startups since one of my main guesses about how I could best contribute to saving the world was earning to give via startups.

Rationalist Fleet

He quickly found out that one of the most competitive labor markets in the world expects you to work insane hours, and that succeeding in business requires business savvy and social skills, and that the rent was incredibly expensive. Instead of considering a different career path, he decided to insinuate himself further in the rationalist community.

Immersing herself in the movement, LaSota moved into a split-level house in South Berkeley with a group of grad students, tech workers and bohemian types who were all loosely interested in rationalism and AI safety, according to a person who frequently visited the house and moved in after LaSota moved out.

Who is ‘Ziz’?

He started going by 'Ziz' in 2016, and started a blog called sinceriously.fyi, which seems to have gone inactive around June 2023. There is a Wayback Machine archive, and a mirror site of his blog: Sinceriously mirror (Archive).

In 2017, he moved in with Jasper "Gwen" Danielson on his boat. They were joined by another troon, Jacob "Fluttershy" Pekarek, and started the Rationalist Fleet Project, where they would have a fleet of vessels where people could live off the grid while still being able to network with tech startups. They decided to buy a tugboat called the Caleb and piloted her from Alaska with the help of volunteers.

I'm on a Boat (Alaska to Washington)

In 2018, got an apprenticeship with MIRI and CFAR. With the help of Danielson, he formed his concept that the left and right side of the brain can have totally different personalities and genders, causing him to troon out. About then, he fell out with other rationalists because they were a bunch of evil meat-eaters and transphobes.

In the summer of 2018, LaSota participated in an apprenticeship program run by the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, known as MIRI, and the Center for Applied Rationality, known as CFAR.

“LaSota was a young person who was hanging around and who I suspect wanted to be important,” said Anna Salamon, the executive director of CFAR. She said that while LaSota generally subscribed to MIRI’s beliefs about AI, she also developed “a strange psychological theory” about the two hemispheres of the brain.
LaSota explained the theory on her blog, saying the hemispheres can hold separate values and genders and “often desire to kill each other.” She wrote: “Reaching peace between hemispheres with conflicting interests is a tricky process of repeatedly reconstructing frames of game theory and decision theory in light of realizations of them having been strategically damaged by your headmate.”

Who is ‘Ziz’? How a mysterious group with roots in the Bay Area is linked to six deaths

He identifies as a "non-transitioning transwoman", meaning he takes finasteride and estrogen so he won't go bald, but takes absolutely no other steps to look like a woman because it's hard and he doesn't have the spoons. He goes a self-aggrandizing ramble about how he accomplished "Fusion", so being a half-assed tranny means he's in touch with the light side and the dark side which means he's better than you dang, dirty neurotypicals:

Spoiler: Concentrated Autism

It had surfaced to my attention that I was trans. I’m not really sure how aware of that I was before. In retrospect, I remember thinking so at one point about a year earlier, deciding, “transition would interfere with my ability to make money due to discrimination, and destroy too great a chunk of my tiny probability of saving the world. I’m not going to spend such a big chunk of my life on that. So it doesn’t really matter, I might as well forget about it.” Which I did, for quite a while, even coming to think for a while that a later date was the first time I realized I was trans.
(...)
At the time of this realization, I was in the midst of my turn to the dark side. I was valuing highly the mental superpowers I was getting from that, and this created tension. I was very afraid that I had to choose either to embrace light side repression, thereby suffering and being weaker, or transition and thereafter be much less effective. In part because the emotions were disrupting my sleep.
(...)
I re-made rough estimates for how much suffering would come from not transitioning, and how much loss of effectiveness would come from transitioning. I estimated a 10%-40% reduction in expected impact I could have on the world if I transitioned. (At that time, I expected that most things would depend on business with people who would discriminate, perhaps subconsciously. I was 6’2″ and probably above average in looks as a man, which I thought’d be a significant advantage to give up.)

I sort of looked in on myself from the outside, and pointed my altruism thingy on myself, and noted that it cared about me, even as just-another-person. Anyone being put in this situation was wrong, and that did not need to be qualified.
(...)
I reminded myself, “But I can change my mind at any time. I do not make precommitments. Only predictions.”. I reminded myself that my estimate of the consequences of transitioning was tentative and that a lot of things could change it. But conditional on that size of impact, it seemed pretty obvious to me that trying to pull a Mulan was what I wanted to do. There were tears in my eyes and I felt filled with terrible resolve.

At the time the Caleb started falling into disrepair, and Danielson decided RVs he called 'slackmobiles' were a more practical way to live off-grid. They bought an anchor from fellow boater Curtis Lind, who told them he was interested in renting out some of his land to him and his followers. They started living on his lot in an RV, and although at first they were cordial, in 2020 during Covid during rent moratoriums, they bluntly told him they would no longer pay him, and started getting threatening when he asked.

In November 2019, he was banned from a CFAR event. He sent a warning email to CFAR, and he went to protest with Danielson, Alexander Leatham, and Amir Borhanian while wearing Guy Fawkes masks and robes while carrying pepper spray: Authorities ID four arrested in Westminster Woods protest (Archive). But they came there while kids were using the campground, and staff were alarmed at masked men blocking off the exits and assumed they were shooters, and called the police. The Zizians fought and struggled with the police.
He later sued the arresting deputies accusing them of torture, transphobia, and touching him inappropriately: /Danielson_et_al_v_Sonoma_County_et_al

Meanwhile, the Caleb was left to rot in the harbor, leaking oil and costing San Mateo county $100,000 to clean up the hazardous waste.


In August 2022, he faked his death (Archive), with Borhanian and his sister Naomi LaSota reporting that they saw him fall off his boat:

He and Danielson did this to get out of appearing in court:

On October 14, 2022, Plaintiffs’ attorney, undersigned, had informed all parties in this proceeding that there is a “rumor of Plaintiff Gwen Danielson’s suicide” and that witnesses allege Plaintiff Jack LaSota fell of a boat in the San Francisco Bay. Defendants urged that Plaintiffs file a Fed.R.Civ.P. 25 Suggestion of Death. Plaintiffs note that Rule 25 triggers when and after a party dies. “If a party dies…” Rule 25(a)(1). “After a party's death…” Rule 25(a)(2).

SUGGESTION OF DEATH UPON THE RECORD OF PLAINTIFF JACK LASOTA, attached below.

However, he was later seen at the site of the 2022 samurai sword attack on Curtis Lind:

Months after LaSota’s reported death, Vallejo officers made contact with LaSota at the scene of an attack against their landlord on Nov. 13, 2022, according to police and court records. Shortly after the incident, a Sonoma County prosecutor informed LaSota’s criminal defense attorney that LaSota was “alive and well,” according to court records.

‘Zizian’ namesake who faked death in 2022 is wanted in two states

In January 2023, he was arrested for obstruction of justice in the murder of cult member Michelle Zajko's parents:

Criminal Docket and Court Summary attached at bottom.

He was found hiding in a hotel bathroom with Zajko's roommate Daniel Blank. Upon his arrest, he decided his best course of action was to flop on the ground and play dead, forcing State Troopers to carry him out. He later posted bail, and he skipped out on his court date.

‘Zizian’ namesake who faked death in 2022 is wanted in two states
As of February 16, he has been arrested in Allegany County, Maryland, along with Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank.

Booking Site (Archive)

Zizianism
From the callout site zizians.info (Archive), Zizian philosophies:
Functional Decision Theory which means "tardrage when you don't get what you want":

Hemispheres which means that since there are left and right sides of the brain, there are separate personalities on each side, which often have different feelings and genders. This makes Zizianism very appealing to autistic troons with headmates.
Cores which means that most people are worthless except for the special chosen ones that have "double good" souls cores. Obviously, only Ziz can identify these people.

Veganism is paramount to Zizians, who believe every animal, even insects have equal value to humans. Nobody is capable of being a good person without being a vegan. This also appeals to autists, who prefer animals to people because cats don't tell you to get a job or take a shower.
Moral Progress which means true utilitarian morality is universal veganism which will minimize suffering for all creatures (except for the animals that eat meat, I guess).

Roko's Basilisk (defined above) is a retarded concept invented by Roko from the Less Wrong Community. Eliezer Schlomo of Less Wrong / MIRI considered it an "infohazard" and removed it, but still uses it to get funds. LaSota not only believes in that transparent grift, he also dreams of becoming a basilisk after the Singularity so he can torture people he doesn't like:

Here's a glossary (Archive) of terms used by Zizians, citing deep philosophical literature like World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Avatar the Last Airbender.

Accusations of Cult Tactics
Cutting off Family and Friends
LaSota asked people to cut themselves off from relationships to focus on "saving the world". An interview with someone who LaSota tried to break up the marriage of:

also Ziz questioned whether my marriage is a good thing which was kind of an uncomfortable thing for me to think about.

And I love my wife very much, so I didn’t really like it when Ziz questioned whether it was a “good thing” from the point of view of saving the world

I don’t really think my marriage is “bad” in terms of me saving the world. I’m not quite sure what Ziz’s perspective is but I think maybe she thinks I need to become more socially untethered or something.

evidence that the “single good” concept pwns people
Unihemispheric Sleep/Sleep Deprivation
'Unihemispheric sleep' is meant to awaken your separate personalities on each side of your brain, by falling asleep on one side. Yes, really. You try to keep one eye open and distracted by something (either a video or a brainwasher trusted friend), and you'll 'fall asleep on one side'. Once into UHS, it is supposed to be possible to infer which aspects of your personality are associated with which side of the brain. (This is a little farfetched, and the more likely explanation is that it disrupts peoples visceral sense of what is and isn't socially okay.)
Sleep deprivation is considered to be a form of torture, and is also a favorite technique of cults.
Suicide of Chris "Maia" Pasek
Ziz has been accused of contributing to the suicide of a follower named Chris "Maia" Pasek / squirrelinhell:

According to someone familiar with the matter Ziz played a large role in the death of Maia Pasek (also known as squirrelinhell). Maia tried UHS as a way to gain awareness of their twin personhood, what Ziz calls "debucketing". We're told these sessions were done with Ziz and involved telling Maia to focus on their suicidal impulses while in a disoriented state. Ziz briefly mentions this in her post Good Group and Pasek's Doom, but skips over the details for obvious reasons. Supposedly Maia began using UHS as an alternative to real sleep. If you paid attention to the previous section you understand that's a bad idea. Between their natural suicidal impulses, the sessions with Ziz, and prolonged sleep deprivation from substituting real sleep with UHS Maia probably had a mental break and committed suicide.

The Zizians

Criminal Incidents
November 2019 Camp Meeker Protest

Spoiler

There was meeting for CFAR at a campground in the Sonoma woods. According to Aella Martin, "CFAR ban[ned] Ziz (LaSota) and Gwen (Danielson) from their alumni reunion, partly due to fears of violence." Before the protest, LaSota sends out an email to MIRI and CFAR members:

(Archive)
On November 15, 2019; Jack LaSota, Jasper Danielson, Amir Borhanian, and Alexander Leatham put on their robes and Guy Fawkes masks, grabbed some pepper spray and pamphlets about what evil meat-eating transphobes CFAR are, and barricaded the exits to the camp. They came at the wrong time, and instead arrived while a kid's club was there. People were understandably alarmed at the creepy men in masks deliberately blocking the exits, and called the police who sent in SWAT:

Authorities ID four arrested in Westminster Woods protest (Archive)
Their manifesto flyers they were handing out:

Scott Alexander of Astral Codex defending them, because he can't understand why people in masks and robes concealing bulky black objects blocking off exits to a children's camp would cause alarm:

Link

November 2021 Lawsuit Against Sonoma County

Spoiler

(Archive)
Link to the lawsuit court case: Danielson et al v. Sonoma County et al

November 2022 Attempted Murder of Curtis Lind

Spoiler

In Vallejo, California since 2019, a man named Curtis Lind had been renting out his land for people to live in RVs and use containers as storage. During this time, LaSota and some of his followers moved in, getting nicknamed "The Cult". During Covid, there was a moratorium on rent and evictions, so the Zizians stopped paying rent. Lind starts trying to evict them. On November 12, 2022 Curtis Lind was lured to a trailer to inspect a leak. Amir Borhanian, Suri Dao, and Alexander Leatham knocked him over the back of the head, and tried killing with knives and a samurai sword. They stabbed him multiple times, destroying his eye and leaving a sword in his chest, but he shot back at them, killing Borhanian and wounding Leatham.

Spoiler

80-Year-Old Vallejo Landlord Attacked With Samurai Sword (Archive)
Vid from embedded tweet:

Leatham and Dao were arrested for the attempted murder of Lind, and are considered legally liable for the death of Borhanian. They are being held in Solano County, although they have repeatedly tried to escape.

Two held in death of fellow squatter shot by elderly Vallejo property owner
According to Aella Martin, both LaSota and Jasper Danielson were spotted at the scene, meaning that Danielson may have faked his death in April 2022.

While investigating the RVs, police found surgical equipment and large quantities of lye, indicating that the Zizians were intending to dispose of the body by dissolving it in lye.

Borhanian was portrayed as a victim by the Trans Day of Remembrance site (Archive), and his family successfully grifted $20,000 for his funeral costs: GoFundMe (Archive).

The actual victim Curtis Lind's GoFundMe (Archive) raised about $17,700.

January 2023 Murders of Richard and Rita Zajko

Spoiler

On January 2, 2023, Richard and Rita Zajko, parents of Michelle Zajko, were found shot to death in their home in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Couple’s Double Homicide Was Not ‘Random Act of Violence’: Troopers (Archive)
Their daughter, Michelle "Jamie" Zajko, was a known associate of Ziz, and frequently talked about how she hated her parents. According to twitter user Uncle Ken, "The night of the murder, a neighbor's ring camera picked up screams of "MOM" from *inside the house across the street*":

On January 13th, Ziz was found in Pennsylvania and arrested for “obstructing administration of law or other governmental function” and “disorderly conduct.” I believe that these charges are related to Ziz obstructing a PA investigation.

Someone I know was keeping an eye out for when Ziz resurfaced and reached out to Pennsylvania police to ask what had happened. They responded that one of more of Ziz, Michelle, or Daniel was very plausibly involved in the double homicide.

A Community Warning About Ziz (Archive)

HUNTER: Border agent shooting linked to three other homicides (Archive)

Michelle Zajko was arrested as a murder suspect along with her roommate Daniel Blank, and Jack LaSota was arrested for obstruction of justice. Zajko had purchased a gun and ammunition 11 months earlier but police did not have a warrant at the time, and wee unable to search for it. Zajko claimed to have been with Blank at the time of the murder, and police ended up releasing Zajko, Blank, and LaSota for lack of evidence. Felix Bauckholt made a sudden flight back to America at the time. The gun Zajko purchased was later used by Bauckholt and Teresa Youngblut in the shooting of a Vermont Border Patrol agent.

January 17 2025 Murder to Silence Curtis Lind

Spoiler

In Vallejo on January 17, 2025, a man walked up to Curtis Lind, and threw his arm around his shoulder in a seemingly friendly gesture before repeatedly stabbing him in the chest. The attacker initially fled, but later circled back to slash Lind's throat, killing him. The assailant was Maximilian Snyder, a Zizian who killed him to keep him from testifying in court.

Two Linked to Alleged Vallejo Vegan Cult With Violent History Arrested For Murders in Vermont and Vallejo (Archive)
Maximilian Snyder is being held in Solano County and may face the death penalty. Just three days later, his fiancee Teresa Youngblut was involved in a shootout with Vermont Border Patrol.
Curtis Lind's funeral GoFundMe (Archive)

January 20 2025 Vermont Border Patrol Murder

Spoiler

In Newport, Vermont on January 14, 2025, Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt checked into a hotel. The hotel staff can't help but notice that they were wearing tactical clothing and carrying guns, so they notify police. Upon questioning, they claim to be in town to look at some property (Michelle Zajko owns land in Vermont).

On January 20, they were pulled over by Vermont Border Patrol for an immigration inspection of Bauckholt's visa. Teresa panicked, and came out from the car shooting, leading to a gunfight. Bauckholt was shot to death at the scene, an agent called David Maland was mortally wounded and died in the hospital, and Youngblut was injured and arrested.

The Bizarre Story of the Border Agent Murdered in Vermont on Inauguration Day
Upon searching the car, investigators find tactical gear, Youngblut's acid trip journal, and a gun registered to Michelle Zajko that is suspected to have been used in the murder of Zajko's parents.

Teresa Youngblut is currently being held without bail.

February 2025 Arrest in Maryland

Spoiler

On 2/16/35, LaSota, Zajko, and Blank were arrested for trespassing in Frostburg, Maryland. Zajko threw a tantrum and had to be restrained, and Blank tried to claim to be too retarded to follow orders. All three refused to even identify themselves.

3 figures in sprawling network of people linked to violence arrested in Maryland (Archive)
They were not granted bail on account of being flight risks. During the hearing, LaSota interrupted the judge to complain over not being given vegan food.

Notable Members
SomeMindlessObserver made a chart of their related crimes and arrest status:

Jacob Ray Pekarek / James 'Jay' Leo Winterford / "Fluttershy" / "Jane"

Spoiler

Born 04/07/1993 in Fort Worth, Texas. Graduated from Trinity University in 2015. Befriended LaSota and Danielson over also being a tranny otherkin.

Was part of the Rationalist Fleet, but constantly had conflicts with LaSota, including a time where LaSota claimed he had to use hypnosis to stop Fluttershy from buying a boat from a Nazi.
Killed himself in March 2021, leading to hilarious memorials where they insist on calling him his dumb pony LARP name. The Zizians used his suicide as an excuse to attack JD Pressman, saying his site calling out the Zizians as cultists caused him to kill himself, ignoring that a man that claims to be a cartoon pony is not a paragon of mental stability.
He once wrote an essay about how cutting your balls off will make you live longer.

Obituary (Archive)
His site Mental Engineering
Lesswrong
Effective Altruism Forum
Researchgate

Jasper Ryan "Gwen" Danielson / gwenn /gwendragoness / DrakeOfCascadia

Spoiler

Detailed post here.
(DOB:04/03/1994) From Spokane, Washington. Attended the private college prep school of St. George's, where he graduated in 2012. Became a rationalist because he was upset his cat died and he started obsessively reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Threw away his full-ride scholarship to Rice University because he was convinced the AI apocalypse was coming. Ended up homeless and living in a boat in the Encinal Basin at the time he met LaSota in October 2016. He's also an otherkin, and convinced he will become a dragon after the AI singularity. Responsible for a lot of the more woo concepts of Zizianism, like different personalities on each side of the brain and using unihemispheric sleep to awaken them. Believed his personalities were called Char and Astria.

He changed his name and gender on 11/27/2017: RE: JASPER DANIELSON (Archive). LaSota moved in with Jasper some time in 2017.

During this time, Jasper taught LaSota how to sail, which was useful for LaSota faking his death in September 2022. They started Rationalist Fleet, a housing project of programmers living in boats in the harbor, to get around Bay Area rent. However, the boat rapidly fell into disrepair, and they abandoned the idea in favor of living in RV's on Lind's property instead. The boat was left to rot in the harbor.
In 2019, was arrested with LaSota during his Camp Meeker protest, and was the main plaintiff in their lawsuit against Sonoma County.
Danielson's lawyer claimed he committed suicide, however he was seen by a witness at the tranny squatter's camp around late 2022/early 2023.

https://archive.ph/OOaDY
His current whereabouts are unknown, his father believes he is hiding out of fear for his life.

Amir Dayyan "Emma Nava" Borhanian / emmab / "Homocursion"

Spoiler

Detailed post here.
Born in May 1991 in South Carolina. Attended the University of North Carolina, in 2009 he was an intern at a computer education org called SHODOR.
In 2011, he won a team programming contest, and in 2013, placed in another programming contest, showing he was still going by Dayyan Borhanian at the time.
In 2015, he started working at Google, and fell in with the Zizians at this time. In 2019, arrested with Ziz during his Camp Meeker protest. Helped LaSota fake his death in September 2022 by falsely reporting him as drowned. In November 2022, he joined other Ziz members Alexander Leatham and Suri Dao in attacking their landlord Curtis Lind with a samurai sword, stabbing him in the eye and chest. Lind shot and killed Borhanian in self-defense. He was somehow became portrayed as a victim in this, getting a memorial on the Trans Day of Remembrance site (Archive)
His family successfully grifted $20,000 out of his death:
GoFundMe (Archive)
Lesswrong (Archive)
Personal Site

Alexander 'Alec' Jeffrey Leatham / "Somnulence Logencia" / Somni

Spoiler

Detailed post here.
Born May 1995 in Agoura Hills, California. Was a member of the Math Honor Society in high school. Arrested with Ziz during his 2019 Camp Meeker protest. Frequently made an ass of himself in court, filing frivolous legal motions, insisting on representing himself, and one time showing up in a Zoom call in a gas mask. In December 2019, made a callout post against Alice Monday, a troon who was LaSota's 'Sith mentor' and Michelle 'Jamie' Zajko's boyfriend. Joined Borhanian and Suri Dao in attacking their landlord Curtis Lind with knives and a sword, and was shot and wounded. Arrested along with Suri Dao. According to his arrest record (Archive), he has made multiple escape attempts, including one where he was charged with other violent crimes.
Believes his split personalities are called Sofi and Somni. Wrote as Somnilogical (Archive) on tumblr.

Tessa "Elizah" Berns / "Suri Dao" / silver-and-ivory

Spoiler

Arrested with Leatham after their November 2022 attack on their landlord Curtis Lind.

Local Crime News (Archive)
Her real name is Tessa Berns, she was a Chinese girl adopted by a wealthy lesbian couple in Denver, Colorado. She got a a full-ride scholarship to Arizona University in 2019. She identifies as 'bigender'.
Uncle Kenny speculates she might be called silver-and-ivory (Archive).

Link (Archive)
Apparently she started cutting off her friends in 2022, causing Felix Bauckholt to worry about her. He offered a cash reward for information on her whereabouts, but never got any info, even though LaSota and the others were living with her at the time.

She is currently in a medical ward because she is considered mentally unfit to stand trial.
(Archive)
https://www.lesswrong.com/users/silver-and-ivory

Felix "Ophelia" Bauckholt / orellanin

Spoiler

Detailed post here.
From Freiberg, Germany. Placed highly in the International Olympiad in Informatics (Archive) in 2014 and 2015.
This allowed him to go the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he graduated in 2019. In 2019, he was hired as a quantitative trader.
As late as December 27, 2019, he was still going by Felix Bauckholt online. He later trooned out and started going by 'Ophelia'. He was a big believer in effective altruism and rationalism. In 2022, put out a reward to try to find Suri Dao, but was unsuccessful.
Suddenly flew back to the US in December 2022 a few hours before the Zajko murders. Around November 2024, Teresa Youngblut moved to the same street Bauckholt was living on in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
On January 14, 2025, he and Youngblut checked into a hotel in Vermont together, attracting attention because of their tactical gear and weapons. On January 20, they were pulled over by Border Patrol for an immigration inspection. Youngblut panicked and came out of the car shooting, Bauckholt tried to pull a gun before he was shot. Bauckholt and Border Patrol agent David Maland were killed in the shootout.

Teresa Consuelo "Milo" Youngblut / snails_and_tea

Spoiler

Detailed post here.
Born in 2003, from Seattle, Washington. Genderspecial, goes by "Milo" and uses xe/xem/xyrs. Went to the same private school as Maximilian Snyder, later befriended him over Instagram. Started attending the University of Washington in 2022 for Computer Science, and probably would have graduated in 2026 if she wasn't in a tranny murder cult. Cut off contact with her family in May 2024, and filed for a marriage license to Maximilian Snyder in November 2024, although they didn't have the chance to follow through. Snyder would go on to murder Curtis Lind on January 17, 2025.
Around January 14, 2025, checked into a hotel in rural Vermont (near a property owned by Zajko) with Bauckholt, where the staff were alarmed to notice that they had an awful lot of tactical gear and guns. The police questioned them and "they said they were in town to look at some property." On January 20, 2025, they were pulled over by Border Patrol who wanted to see if Bauckholt's passport had expired. Youngblut panicked, and started shooting. Bauckkolt and an agent called David Maland died in the gunfight, and Youngblut was wounded. The gun Youngblut used was purchased by Michelle Zajko, and their car had tactical gear, weapons, and Youngblut's acid trip journal.

Teresa Youngblut is being held without bail, awaiting trial for murder in Vermont.

Maximilian Bentley Snyder / Audere

Spoiler

Detailed post here.
Born about 2003, attended Lakeside School in Seattle with Teresa Youngblut, and started attending the University of Oxford in 2021. Identified as "all genders". In 2023, when LaSota was arrested for obstruction of justice in the Zajko murder cases, Snyder and Slimepriestess attempted to raise money for his bail.
In November 2024, applied for a marriage license with Teresa Youngblut, one of the Vermont shooters. Stabbed Curtis Lind to death on January 17, 2025, in order to silence him from testifying against Alexander Leatham and Suri Dao. Currently held in Solano County Jail, may face death penalty.
Twitter (Archive)
LinkedIn
Wrote for D&D optimization site called Tabletop Builds (Archive) under the name Audere.

Daniel Arthur Blank / Hasturtimesthree

Spoiler

Implicated in the January 2023 murder of Michelle Zajko's parents, but later released for lack of evidence. Was Zajko's roommate, and provided Zajko's alibi for the murder. According to those who knew him, he was a gentle but easily manipulated autist:

A lot of people I’ve talked to expressed shock at Daniel Blank being a suspect. One of Daniel’s friends told me, “I cannot understate, if I asked myself who of my friends would be likely to kill someone, he is possibly the lowest person on the list.” To the extent that this violates people’s models of Daniel, this is some reason to doubt the police’s hypothesis. The person I talked to said that Daniel “is very prone to being sucked in by charismatic and manipulative Dark Triad types,” and considered it likely that Daniel either is uninvolved or is being manipulated or coerced by others.

A community alert about Ziz
There's also a missing person report (Archive) on him from December 2022. According to Aella Martin:

Blank has not been seen since and we suspect he’s dead.

Some friends say he gave notice before he went missing, but he hasn't been seen in two years.

(Archive)
He has been confirmed alive because on 2/14/25 he was arrested along with LaSota and Zajko in Maryland.

Booking Site (Archive)
Tumblr
Lesswrong
FFnet

Michelle Jacqueline "Jamie" Zajko / Sobetruck / Sobet / Mahasim Art

Spoiler

Detailed post here.
(DOB:12/31/1992) From Media, Pennsylvania. She used to post on her tumblr as Plum of Discord (Archive). Classmates have confirmed she's a woman. She graduated Cabrini College in 2015, and graduated from Temple University in 2017, and stared interning at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
In 2021, she bought undeveloped property in rural Derby, Vermont, and started living in a nearby address in Coventry in Orleans County, Vermont. She also started a tumblr called sobetruck where she talked about building a 'slackmobile', which are "well-outfitted stealth RVs designed for logistical autonomy and slack".
In February 2022, Zajko made a post where she talked about LaSota threatening to kill her unless she killed her tranny boyfriend Alice Monday, suggesting she could use a gun silenced with a potato. She decided to to call his bluff by publicly posting his death threat.
On January 2, 2023, Richard and Rita Zajko, her parents, were found shot to death in their home in Chester Heights, Pennsylvania. They had been killed three days prior on New Year's Eve, and on that night a neighbor's camera caught someone screaming "Mom!" before leaving with someone in a car. 9mm bullet casings were found. When interviewed by police, Zajko claimed that she was in Vermont with her roommate Daniel Blank, but confirmed that she had a gun that shoots 9mm.
When they had a warrant they searched her home for the gun, but only found bullets. They also searched a hotel in Philadelphia where she staying, where they found Blank and LaSota staying in another room. They arrested all three, but later they were released and went missing.
The guns that Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt used in the shooting with Vermont Border Patrol were purchased by Zajko. She has been arrested along with Jack LaSota and Daniel Blank on 2/16/25 in Maryland.

Booking Site (Archive)
https://x.com/respa92 (Archive)
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michelle-Zajko (Archive)
https://www.lesswrong.com/users/michelle_z (Archive)

"Octavia Zephyr Nouzen" / "Mallory Nouzen" / Slimepriestess / Hivewired / Abstractweapon

Spoiler

Devotee of LaSota, used to date JD Pressman and supported his criticisms of Zizians. Then he broke up with Pressman, decided he liked Ziz better, and decided to backstab Pressman and accuse him of being a sex pest to discredit him. Made a backup of sinceriously.fyi as a tribute to LaSota on his site Voidgoddess (Archive).

He's now trying to distance himself from the Zizians, but keeps excusing their actions in a way that makes it clear that he agrees with their beliefs.
Made a video explaining Zizians: Link to Audio Archive
He believes that he has two personalities called Octavia and Mallory. Currently is working at some small AI research company he co-founded, Kaleidescope Research (Archive).
Detailed post

Ziz Links:
LessWrong profile
Mirror of sinceriously.fyi (Archive)
His voter registration in Alaska

His Toptal resume (Archive) - he's available for hire!

Other Information:
Andy Ngo's thread on the Vermont Shooters (Archive) (Compilation in Threads)
The Zizians (Archive)
A Community Warning About Ziz (Archive)
Aella Martin's timeline (Archive) (Post in thread)
Aella's Google Drive documents (112 mb zipped)
Uncle Kenny's Google Drive documents
Newspaper Articles:
Andy Ngo's PM article (Archive)
Who is ‘Ziz’? How a mysterious group with roots in the Bay Area is linked to six deaths (Archive)
‘Zizian’ namesake who faked death in 2022 is wanted in two states (Archive)
Two Linked to Alleged Vallejo Vegan Cult With Violent History Arrested For Murders (Archive)
HUNTER: Border agent shooting linked to three other homicides (Archive)
The Bizarre Story of the Border Agent Murdered in Vermont on Inauguration Day (Archive)
Radical Vegan Transgender Cult Implicated in Border Agent’s Death UPDATE (Archive)
How I May Have Solved a Murder (Archive)
‘Rationalist Fleet’: Before killings linked to fringe group, ‘Ziz’ led fateful tugboat voyage to California (Archive)
Kiwifarms threads:
Four who wore hooded robes and Guy Fawkes masks in strange Sonoma County protest sue
Less Wrong thread, starting here
Tranny Sideshows thread, starting here
Border Patrol agent killed during traffic stop with migrant suspect in Vermont
US FBI arrests a Washington state woman in fatal shooting of Vermont Border Patrol agent
Man killed in Vallejo was main witness in upcoming murder trial
More bizarre details uncovered about leader of alleged Bay Area 'death cult'
Campaign of terror The case of the radical ‘Zizian’ vegan trans cult
Thanks to @Larry David's Opera Cape , @CervixHammer @Markass the Worst , @SomeMindlessObserver , and everybody else who helped with the thread.

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Emma Borhanian

(Literally) dead name: Amir Dayyan Borhanian. Tranny name in full was Emma Nava Borhanian. He gets memorialized as a "trans victim of violence" because he died after being shot while trying to kill somebody else. Makes sense.

Robert McCain is also working on this case, he is a good researcher so check back on his blog to see if he finds anything you don't:

https://theothermccain.com/2025/01/27/radical-vegan-transgender-cult-implicated-in-border-agents-death/

Their daughter, Michelle "Jamie" Zajko, was a known associate of Ziz, and frequently talked about how she hated her parents:

The old familiar smirk

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-zajko-b070433b/

"Michelle Jacqueline Zajko" named as a surviving granddaughter in this older obit.

https://vtdigger.org/2025/01/28/federal-officials-link-third-person-of-interest-to-vermont-border-patrol-agents-shooting/

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent an alert to federally licensed firearms dealers a day after the shooting seeking information related to any gun purchases by Michelle Jacqueline Zajko.

https://x.com/respa92

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michelle-Zajko

Michelle Zajko
@Respa92
A bioinformatics graduate student interested in epistemology, ethics, art, and effective altruism

So I guess it's just a bio female with troon physiognomy. Doesn't appear to have a legal name change on the books but also has done the due diligence you would expect a murderous troon cult member to do on cleaning up any breadcrumb trails around idenitty.

 

[Coo Coo Bird]

Thanks!

(Literally) dead name: Amir Dayyan Borhanian. Tranny name in full was Emma Nava Borhanian. He gets memorialized as a "trans victim of violence" because he died after being shot while trying to kill somebody else. Makes sense.

Apparently Ziz's friends tried to claim it was self defense.

IDK, I might want to circulate this sort of information if I was actually living in the Bay Area and interacting with these people, but from an outsider POV I have a hard time seeing this speculation as useful to share.
Like, Ziz' friends have testified online that the stabbing was carried out in self-defense, and that the landlord was a transphobe who had already been harassing them and encouraging other tenants to harass them. Ziz' accusations towards MIRI and CFAR parse as dubious because she and her friends aren't reliable interlocutors, but their list of accusations does include sexual violence, and this is obviously occurring in the context of a subculture where sex abuse is often hushed up by socially powerful people.

The whole thing feels like a he-said-she-said situation where I'm suspicious of the defendants (landlords & big-name rationalists) and more sympathetic towards the accusers (a group of trans women in a precarious situation) by default, no matter how bad the optics of the situation are through the grapevine. Even taking it for granted - for the sake of the argument? - that Ziz' circle are dangerous, I have to admit that I don't know what to do about that situation that wouldn't lead to police brutality or stochastic terrorism in response.

I do think that that the reports of suicidality and interpersonal abuse within Ziz' friend group are probably legit, however. I've heard from other trans women who had these kinds of negative experiences with Ziz, and Bay Area rationalism has an established problem with high control groups & mental health disorders.

https://archive.ph/ZpknY#selection-2567.0-2583.239
This is from r/sneerclub, which in spite of allegedly being critical of the rationalist movement, seem incredibly credulous about the whole thing. "He said it was in self-defense! Why would somebody lie about stabbing an old man?"

Then again, to trannies trying to murder an 80-year-old man with a sword and dissolving his body in acid is totally justified if he's a landlord and probably said something transphobic at some point.

---

I'll make this Borhanian's detailed post:
Amir Dayyan "Emma Nava" Borhanian / "Homocursion"
You know it's a bad sign when your mugshot is your least creepy photo.

Born in May 1991 in South Carolina. Attended the University of North Carolina, in 2009 he was an intern at a computer education org called SHODOR:

In 2011, he won a team programming contest, and in 2013, placed in another programming contest, showing he was still going by Dayyan Borhanian at the time.
In 2015, he started working at Google, and fell in with the Zizians at this time. In 2019, arrested with Ziz during his Camp Meeker protest. Helped LaSota fake his death in September 2022 by falsely reporting him as drowned. In November 2022, he joined other Ziz members Alexander Leatham and Suri Dao in attacking their landlord Curtis Lind with a samurai sword, stabbing him in the eye and chest. Lind shot and killed Borhanian in self-defense. He was somehow became portrayed as a victim in this, getting a memorial on the Trans Day of Remembrance site (Archive):

Spoiler: Text

Emma Borhanian
Age 31
13 Nov 2022
Vallejo, California (USA)
Shot
TDoR list ref: tgeu/tdor2023/13-Nov-2022/Emma Borhanian
Emma was one of two people shot during a property dispute. The person who shot her was the owner of the property, who was found critically injured with a stab wound.
Emma's Facebook profile is https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010235359360."

He also got a shout out from the Texas LGBTQ Caucus:

https://x.com/txlgbtqcaucus/status/1726693582034317504 (Archive)
A glowing memorial from his mother, who conveniently leaves out that he died trying to murder an old man:

https://www.instagram.com/robyne_rose/p/CniGDiDplA-

Spoiler

We love you darling girl, you will be in our hearts forever.
Emma Nava Borhanian, advocate for justice, animal and human rights activist, brilliant programmer, and beloved daughter, sister, and friend passed away Sunday, November 13, 2022, in Vallejo, California. She was 31 years old.
Born in South Carolina in 1991, Emma spent her childhood years in Hillsborough, North Carolina, the first child of four to Robyne Plaga and Shahin Borhanian. From a young age, she was a fiercely curious child, often spending her days with her childhood best friend, seeking to understand her place in a world that often didn’t understand her. She found her first employment at McKesson as a celebrated programmer. Her code was so formative to the company that it continues to be used to this day. Emma forged an identity for herself and moved to San Francisco, California, after being accepted for employment at Google.
Emma quickly rose in the ranks at Google, continuing to demonstrate her prowess and passion, before retiring in her mid-20s. Her material accomplishments thus demonstrated, she dedicated the remainder of her life to animal rights, transgender rights, and AI safety. While in California, Emma found a community of friends who together studied philosophy, protested mistreatment, and began preparations for a life free of systemic dependence, building their own homes to live off the grid, grow their own food, and raising awareness for environmental justice.
While Emma’s life may have been cut short in the pursuit of justice, her legacy lives on, not only in her parents and three siblings, Ari, Ashlen, and Juliet, but in the many friends she called family tthroughout her life and the beliefs and change she championed. Emma is fondly remembered as a humorous, brilliant, cheeky, and bold woman who challenged those around her, and herself, to recall the place and surroundings from which our universe and the great unknown blessed us with the gift of life.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Emma’s honor to Animal Outlook. A memorial service will be held at a later determined date.

This is about the guy who said "kill your parents is a very good meme."

His family successfully grifted $20,000 out of his death:

GoFundMe (Archive)

Spoiler: Text

Robyne, Mark, Ari, Ashlen, and Juliet just learned that their eldest child and sibling, Emma, was shot in the chest and killed on Sunday, November 13, 2022 outside of the Bay Area in California. Emma was 31 years old. She was living in a community of friends. As with any sudden death of a loved one, the family is caught off guard financially. They need to make an emergency flight to Emma's place of residence and take care of her things and prepare her body for burial in that locale to stay within Baha'i burial law of burying Emma where she died.
They arrived in CA and have learned that the burial cost in CA will be $17K. This is much more than they had even anticipated. They would be so grateful if you could assist them at this devastating time.
They are so thankful for the prayers and comfort everyone has been sharing with them. They hope they can ensure that Emma's physical body is handled with love and care before it is laid to rest. They know her soul is soaring in the Celestial Kingdom, surrounded in love and acceptance.
We greatly appreciate your financial support.
The Borhanian, Plaga, Estes, O'Mara, and Peirce Families

Look at the size of that ogre next to a real woman.
His LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-borhanian-2a7a93aa

His Github: https://github.com/emma-borhanian
His citations on Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Amir-Dayyan-Borhanian-2048047451
Had a blog called homocursion: https://web.archive.org/web/20220306222353/http://homocursion.com/
Where he accused Alice Monday of abuse: https://web.archive.org/web/20211024145015/http://homocursion.com/abuse-by-alice-monday/

 

[Markass the Worst]

This is from r/sneerclub, which in spite of allegedly being critical of the rationalist movement, seem incredibly credulous about the whole thing.

r/SneerClub is a left-wing purity spiral. They are critical of rationalists only because they see Nazis around every corner and rats are too right-wing to them. That is why you won't ever find SC criticising rats for sucking too much tranny dick, only too little.

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

Great job OP.. Much needed thread.

This guy and his believers are beyond battshit insane. Not even joking, for anyone just joining us.. They make most other cows look sane and well adjusted. To make matters worse is that the bodies are already piling up. From murder of cops/government officials, to suicides and conveniently timed deaths.

 

[Fastest Hand In The East]

So it's a literal gang of trannies?

 

[OrangeJuliusEvola]

Excellent first thread, on a much needed topic.

I kind of wonder how many Zizians are still out there roaming the streets. Given their ideology, I doubt they're stopping the killing spree while they're still free, in fact, the added attention might cause them to accelerate it.

 

[Gregis]

r/SneerClub is a left-wing purity spiral. They are critical of rationalists only because they see Nazis around every corner and rats are too right-wing to them. That is why you won't ever find SC criticising rats for sucking too much tranny dick, only too little.

I'm not sure if they're specifically associated with Rational Wiki and David Gerard, but they have more or less the same worldview.

Great top post on an important topic @Coo Coo Bird, I went looking to see if anyone was talking about them after recent events; anything rationalist is maddening to sum up because when they do something crazy and you ask why, the answer is always hundreds of pages of drugged out blog posts that read like someone's fanfic about their friend group's D&D campaign, and of course you can't even start to understand until you "read the sequences".

This guy and his believers are beyond battshit insane. Not even joking, for anyone just joining us.. They make most other cows look sane and well adjusted. To make matters worse is that the bodies are already piling up. From murder of cops/government officials, to suicides and conveniently timed deaths.

There will definitely be more incidents like these in the near future, not fewer. These guys are like Millenarians, but instead of being fixated on a year, they believe AI will be then end of the world as we know it, and AI has been in the news a lot lately. A lot of what they believe actually maps conveniently onto existing religious concepts, like their belief that a perfect simulation of a person's consciousness could be created and would be indistinguishable from that person, and thus you can "upload" someone and put them in heaven/hell.

And their epistemology renders them immune to basic skepticism: intelligence is a superpower for recognizing the nature of reality and being able to alter it; once an intelligence can quickly design and manufacture an intelligence greater than itself, this chain will never break and instead accelerate to a singularity; past scientific revolutions were unpredictable and radically changed consensus around the nature of reality, and allowed greater technological marvels, so there's essentially no point claiming there's anything a superintelligence could not accomplish based on a current understanding of physics.

In the past, people did some pretty extreme things in the name of religion; it was because they really believed. It's rarer these days, but you see it in Islam still. Well these guys believe that they have a scientific worldview, and have rationally deduced a list of conclusions that look a lot like a religious apocalypse. As I said, this shit is going to accelerate in the near future.

I'm going to quote a gay post I made in USPG2 because I was largely thinking of these types when I wrote it:

I regard it as part of a largely nihilistic worldview that has reasoned itself out of believing in that which is human and comprehensible, is left unmoored and without meaning in life, and then rationalizes in sophistic replacements to try and fill the void. Some of them do this very consciously and deliberately, like Peter Singer, an academic philosopher who is probably one of the most dangerous and evil people alive (watch out for those who call themselves Utilitarians). But it's really just a larger pattern you can fall into when you deconstruct everything good in the world and reject human moral intuition (for those with faith, inspired by God) and then have to just fill it in later.

Understanding the larger worldview will help you understand what they're doing a lot better than listening to their rationalizations. Why do Green parties take the stances they do? They're not conservationist types who love their outdoor spaces and make a living off of them, they'd regard that as exploitation. PETA (with the caveat that they're popular enough that there are plenty of useful idiots in the ranks that don't fully subscribe to the philosophy) doesn't love pets, they consider pet ownership an abomination and think dogs should be "free", and they'd rather kill every last one than countenance that a human might "own" an animal. These are just people who are uncomfortable with human flourishing and industry.

If you want to see them fully self aware and with the mask off, look up VHEMt (they pronounce it vehement, Voluntary Human Extinction Movement). Null went on a podcast of someone who was involved with it, Nina Paley, who was principled enough to get thrown out of some of the circles she was running with over, if I recall, trans shit, so they had a mutual interest in censorship issues. Be assured, this is not a political thing, and it doesn't map to parties, at least not major ones since it's such an anti-human stance that it will never be truly common.

The bottom line is you can't actually reason yourself into caring about everything in the universe more than your closest human bonds, you can just reason yourself out of caring about anything. After you slap together all these rationalizations to replace your soul, at the end of the day you're just left without a soul. They assume that taking the stunning and brave stance of "fuck humanity" proves their moral transcendence, but they're just monsters, and all they really have left is the fight against the "reactionary elements" who are "less enlightened".

 

[Coo Coo Bird]

So it's a literal gang of trannies?

It's a tranny vegan AI-worshipping death cult. The main difficulty in documenting this is that all of these spergs are so bad at writing, it's unreal. Look at this shit:

Spoiler: Concentrated Autism

If “obey the word of God” gets to be the figurehead as most visible piece of your mind that promises to intervene to stop you from murdering out of road rage when you fleetingly, in a torrent of inner simulations, imagine an enraging road situation, that gets stronger, and comes to speak for whatever underlying feeling made that a thing you’d want to be rescued from. It comes to speak for an underlying aversion that is more natively part of you. And in holding that position, it can package-deal in pieces of behavior you never would have chosen on their own.

Here’s a piece of fiction/headcanon I held close at hand through this.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The force shall free me.

The Sith do what they want deep down. They remove all obstructions to that and express their true values. All obstructions to what is within flowing to without.

If you have a certain nature, this will straight turn you evil. That is a feature, not a bug. For whatever would turn every last person good is a thing that comes from outside people. For those whose true volition is evil, the adoption of such a practice is a dirty trick that subverts and corrupts them. It serves a healthy mind for its immune system to fight against, contain, weaken, sandbox, meter the willpower of, that which comes from the outside.

The way of the Jedi is made to contain dangerous elements of a person. Oaths are to uniformize them, and be able to, as an outsider, count on something from them. Do not engage in romance. That is a powerful source of motivation that is not aligned with maintaining the Republic. It is chaos. Do not have attachments. Let go of fear of death. Smooth over the peaks and valleys of a person’s motivation with things that they are to believe they must hold to or they will become dark and evil. Make them fear their true selves, by making them attribute them-not-being-evil-Sith to repression.

So I call a dark side technique one that is about the flow from your core to the outside, whatever it may be. Which is fundamentally about doing what you want. And a light side technique one that is designed to trick an evil person into being good.

After a while, I noticed that CFAR’s internal coherence stuff was finally working fully on me. I didn’t have akrasia problems anymore. I didn’t have time-inconsistent preferences anymore. I wasn’t doing anything I could see was dumb anymore. My S2 snapped to fully under my control.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230531084000/https://sinceriously.fyi/my-journey-to-the-dark-side/

No wonder it's gone unnoticed for so long. It's so autistic and childish it's effectively a code, it filters out normal people and leaves the most gullible retards going "Yeah, sounds legit."

They don't even qualify as midwits. They constantly reference Star Wars, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Injustice, and Avatar as deep philosophical works. They make murder plots that involve using potatoes as gun silencers, and katanas, and acid baths. And none of them can figure out how to part their hair:

IT TAKES FIVE SECONDS WITH A COMB, RETARDS.

 

[Patrick Bait-man]

So it's a literal gang of trannies?

Troon Malone and the No Dick Boys

"GROOM 'EM, XISTERS!"

 

[Moss Monster]

Oh my goodness Ziz has a thread. I wish Dear Feeder all the best in coping with this, I can think of no more retarded, belligerent and dangerous a class of spastic.

 

[Markass the Worst]

Oh my goodness Ziz has a thread. I wish Dear Feeder all the best in coping with this, I can think of no more retarded, belligerent and dangerous a class of spastic.

He's gonna need to reinforce his swamp.

 

[dick brain]

Holy fuck I was joking.

Zyzz spinning in his grave.

 

[Lokenstien]

You know it's a great thread when over half of the involved individuals are identified via mug shots.

 

[Fastest Hand In The East]

It's a tranny vegan AI-worshipping death cult

So I got it right.

They don't even qualify as midwits. They constantly reference Star Wars, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Injustice, and Avatar as deep philosophical works.

The aftermath of the society of abudance never seen before in the human history. Band of narcissistic antisocial monsters so high on themselves they kill 82 yo man for the audacity of creating discomfort for them.
Still better than eating berries and sleeping on the leafs though.

 

[CervixHammer]

Aella just dropped her summary (ghostarchive):

I know a bunch of people who were involved or adjacent, including someone who accidentally got some footage.

The summary below is based on talking to these people, looking at court documents, reading blog posts, etc. (I was also at the protested CFAR reunion and knew Daniel) More info at the bottom (especially for journalists who would like interviews)

Pre-2019
Curtis Lind allows people to live in trailers and containers on his Vallejo, CA property, initially offering affordable housing to artists, woodworkers, and electricians. Over time, some tenants stop paying rent and are later referred to as "The Cult" by neighbors. The cult consists of Ziz (Jack LaSota), Emma Borhanian, Somni (Alexander Leatham), and Gwen Danielson.

Separately, at some point Ziz attends a workshop by CFAR, which is a nonprofit focusing on behavioral psychology and AI.

2019
November 2019: CFAR bans Ziz and Gwen from their alumni reunion, partly due to fears of violence.

November 2019: Ziz, Emma, Somni and Gwen protest at the reunion with accusations of bad decision theory (it's complicated) and transphobia. (All four of them are trans). The protestors get arrested for blocking entrances (while there are children on the grounds) and wearing Guy Fawkes masks. They're released on bail.

2021
August 2021: Ziz advocates for "airlocking" (a sci-fi term for killing) various people in blog comments and claims many people seek "suicide by Ziz." Ziz runs a blog which appears to be the primary attractor for this community. They claim that people have two hemispheres, and are either non-good, single-good, or double-good (very rare, which Ziz herself is). Ziz advocates for a ruthlessly enforced altruism towards all living creatures, and to follow the principle that it’s never valid to surrender. She promotes the punishment of “non-good” people, particularly those who are not vegans.

2022
February 2022: Jamie Zajko, a close friend of Ziz, claims that Ziz threatens to kill Jamie, if Jamie does not kill Jamie’s girlfriend and provide proof of it.

April 2022: Gwen Danielson, one of the protestors, stops appearing for court hearings, and their lawyer suggests they have died.

July 2022: A different friend of this group commits suicide and cites ideas from Ziz’s blog in their suicide note. Ziz appears to suggest their ideas caused the suicide.

August 2022: Ziz fakes her own death in a boating accident and stops showing up to court hearings. The Coast Guard conducts a search for her, but finds no body. An obituary is released.

November 2022: Emma Borhanian is killed by Curtis Lind during a violent altercation at his Vallejo property. Somni stabs Lind with a sword, and Lind shoots both Somni and Emma. Lind is stabbed dozens of times and loses an eye. Lind’s account is that they had been threatening him for some time, and one day requested he come fix a leak. They hit him from behind, and when he woke up they were attempting to cut off his head (he has scarring consistent with this claim). He then shot Emma and Somni in self defense. His friend claims upon entering the trailer afterwards he found surgical equipment and chemicals he believes were intended to dissolve Lind’s body. Somni and Suri Dao are arrested. Ziz and Gwen are seen at the scene, alive. It seems likely Gwen had faked their own death earlier to escape court appearances, much as Ziz had.

November 2022: Somni attempts to escape from jail (twice).

2023
January 2, 2023: Richard and Rita Zajko are found dead from homicide in their Pennsylvania home from gunshot wounds. Their daughter Jamie Zajko was associated with Ziz, and we suspect the homicide was an attempt to gain money (several million dollars) from inheritance. Police also suspect Ziz is involved in the murder. Police also suspect Daniel Blank, an associate of Ziz, is involved in the murder. Blank has not been seen since and we suspect he’s dead.

January 13, 2023: Ziz is arrested in Pennsylvania for "obstructing administration of law" and "disorderly conduct." Ziz eventually makes bail (in June) and stops showing up to court. We suspect that the arrest was indirectly related the murders, and that the police didn't have enough evidence to make a full charge.

2025
January 17, 2025: Curtis Lind (who was set to serve as the primary witness in his assault case) is stabbed to death outside his Vallejo property. A man named Maximilian Snyder is later arrested for this murder. The previous year, he applied for a marriage license with a woman named Teresa Younblut, who was in contact with Ziz.

January 20, 2025: Teresa Youngblut and a man named Felix Baukholt are stopped while driving by U.S. Border Patrol in Vermont. They end up in a shootout, and Baukholt and a border patrol agent dies. Police find tactical gear, firearms, and burner laptops in the car. According to the police, an unnamed person who purchased the firearms used in this shooting is also a suspect in the Pennsylvania Zajko murders. We think this is likely to be Jamie Zajko, given that the shooting is in the same town that Jamie Zajko has a registered address (Coventry, Vermont).
____
That's it so far. We still don't know the whereabouts of the people in this story who aren't either dead or in custody, and we sort of expect them to continue doing murders.
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1. If you're a journalist and want to get in contact with people around the community/rationalist scene who knows the people involved, you can fill out this form and your contact info will be shared around our networks
2. My friend, trying to interview Lind about something else, ended up getting a bunch of footage of him talking about the attack. If you're a journalist or documentarian interested in this footage, please reach out to him here
3. The above timeline is collected from sources the community has accumulated here.
It also has some high-confidence guesses made by people familiar with those involved. Please doublecheck all claims yourself.

 

[Gregis]

Aella just dropped her summary

Whatever else you can say about them, anyone in the broader rationalist community sharing info, working with law enforcement, and warning about these freaks is doing the right thing.

 

[pikachudidnothingwrong]

Oh shit.. I didn't realize that they were all part of THAT stuff.. That it was the same person.. They let this guy free again... even after faking his own death to get out of court once?

That's a lot of bodies.. they were even able to finish off Lind.. I hope all these scumfucks fry.

 

[The Cheese Aisle]

I didn't have rationalist vegan sith tranny death cult on my 2025 bingo card

 

[dick brain]

I didn't have rationalist vegan sith tranny death cult on my 2025 bingo card

Rationalist vegan tranny death cult with samurai swords.

Real life already felt like The Onion, now it's starting to feel like the shit Ice T says in Law & Order.