4 ms·

it's very common for violent cults of personality to target potential members who are social outsiders, there's a dual benefit that such individual are more lik

it's very common for violent cults of personality to target potential members who are social outsiders, there's a dual benefit that such individual are more likely to offer loyalty in exchange for membership and they also provide ideological cover as the cult can blend in to a larger perceived movement the fact that this particular set of outsiders creates skewed media reactions (from total misdirection on one end to unfair over indexing on the other) is a novel third benefit

mvdtnz 2y ago
I don't doubt at all that that's a major or even complete explanation of why trans women have been targeted by this cult. I am most certainly not making the claim that they're doing this because they are trans. I just think that it's interesting that this very notable fact is being ignored - if this group were made up entirely of right wing men, or ballet dancers, or museum curators this would no doubt be reported on.
- _--__--__ 2y ago
  Yeah I agree, I think that this is just a case where the transness of the cult members was actually beneficial in a Darwinian memetics sense - there have been public warnings about the Zizians for half a decade but they were all pattern matched to 'bigoted transphobic fear mongering' and excluded from the Overton Window. It took the random murder of a federal agent (which got media coverage on an entirely separate axis of attention) to break this, and I wonder how long Ziz would have walked free even if the group continued to commit less headline worthy crimes.
  - userbinator 2y ago
    The Overton Window has also shifted significantly within the past year or so.
  - prododev 2y ago
    Bigotry causes cover for this shit. If trans people were just accepted for humans who just want to live their lives, then the pattern matching defense wouldn't need to exist. There'd be no need to assume "well, first and foremost, this is probably just some bigot claiming trans people are evil again". But no, some people have to punch down, which means others have to develop defenses that assume all punches are punching down. If nothing else, it would seem bigotry is highly inefficient.
- XorNot 2y ago
  How is it being ignored? It's literally the primary thing which is being reported on about this, because 6 murders in the US is a drop in the bucket of murders which happen in a non-mass shooting week.
  - mvdtnz 2y ago
    Is it? In the linked article as well as the source article posted elsewhere in this thread it's not mentioned at all. I confirmed this by googling the story and clicking on other mainstream websites like The Guardian and it was the same. They mentioned the gender situation of LaSota but not that the cult is almost entirely the same.

mvdtnz 2y ago

I don't doubt at all that that's a major or even complete explanation of why trans women have been targeted by this cult. I am most certainly not making the claim that they're doing this because they are trans. I just think that it's interesting that this very notable fact is being ignored - if this group were made up entirely of right wing men, or ballet dancers, or museum curators this would no doubt be reported on.

_--__--__ 2y ago
Yeah I agree, I think that this is just a case where the transness of the cult members was actually beneficial in a Darwinian memetics sense - there have been public warnings about the Zizians for half a decade but they were all pattern matched to 'bigoted transphobic fear mongering' and excluded from the Overton Window. It took the random murder of a federal agent (which got media coverage on an entirely separate axis of attention) to break this, and I wonder how long Ziz would have walked free even if the group continued to commit less headline worthy crimes.
- userbinator 2y ago
  The Overton Window has also shifted significantly within the past year or so.
- prododev 2y ago
  Bigotry causes cover for this shit. If trans people were just accepted for humans who just want to live their lives, then the pattern matching defense wouldn't need to exist. There'd be no need to assume "well, first and foremost, this is probably just some bigot claiming trans people are evil again". But no, some people have to punch down, which means others have to develop defenses that assume all punches are punching down. If nothing else, it would seem bigotry is highly inefficient.
XorNot 2y ago
How is it being ignored? It's literally the primary thing which is being reported on about this, because 6 murders in the US is a drop in the bucket of murders which happen in a non-mass shooting week.
- mvdtnz 2y ago
  Is it? In the linked article as well as the source article posted elsewhere in this thread it's not mentioned at all. I confirmed this by googling the story and clicking on other mainstream websites like The Guardian and it was the same. They mentioned the gender situation of LaSota but not that the cult is almost entirely the same.