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Wired: The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians (archive)
Evan Ratliff has apparently been tracking the Ziz cult since 2022 and when it blew up into mainstream news, he was ready
Good point.
Oh, the warping and twisting started long before Ziz. (The Sequences are cult shit.)
I mean, sure,
could “could read like the work of an intelligent but unhinged mind”, if you also think Gene Ray was “intelligent but unhinged”, they both use big words in wrong ways.
Below a minimum level of hingedness the actual mental ability of the cult leader in question is irrelevant. On one hand it speaks to an ability to invent and operate incredibly complex frameworks and models of the world. On the other hand whatever intelligence they have isn’t sufficient for them to realize (or be convincible) that they’re fucking nutters.
This leads us into part 17 of my ongoing essay about how intelligence - as in “the raw mental resources supposedly measured by IQ or whatever other metrics” is useless and probably incoherent.
The leadership can’t be transphobic because 20% of the membership is trans. In related news, the United States government cannot be sexist because [breaks down into bleak and bitter laughter]