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Jamie will soon report to Aunt Rosanne that they’ve cracked the case: it’s LessWrong* who dunnit— & they’re trying to frame Jamie!
*LessWrong: The Rationalists' main discussion board. We last saw its "benevolent dictator for life", Matthew Graves, in pt. 21: speculating on whether the girls were sexually abused, & banning both Ziz & Gwen, under what Gwen called the "false" allegation that they had a "track record of being aggressive".
When we'd first read Jamie's theory, we’d thrown up our hands & shaken our heads. These sounded like the words of a guilty & panicking person. Now, tho… now is the time to don our tinfoil hats.
We at Strange New Vegan Death Cult Murders aspire to tell the “true story of Mz. Ziz LaSota”— to the best of our limited abilities (LA). Today, we would like to throw aside such noble burdens, & instead aspire to tell the “speculative story of Mz. Ziz LaSota”— to the best of our LA.
We would not be surprised if Jamie were being framed— nor if some Rationalists weren’t behind it.
We do not necessarily mean “LessWrong”*!
*In pt. bc we do not quite know what Jamie means by this- was it individual posters? Was it all of them together? Did everybody pitch in & hire a hitman? What do you mean, Jamie...
While LessWrong has, as a whole, behaved abominably towards the girls— Jamie is not “one of the girls”. Jamie, remember, used to be in the inner circle of John David Pressman— alleged author of The Unnamed Site (TUS). They were in John’s “inner circle” when he (allegedly) published the site; they may have participated in the massive campaign of online harassment which the girls endured in late 2019-early 2020- & which LessWrong overtly or tacitly endorsed. As of Feb. 10th, 2022, they are describing Ziz like this: “while I no longer have any interest in working with her, we are still on the same side…” (bolded text ours).
Now, to be fair: we don’t know what Jamie’s up to between Feb. 11th 2022-Jan. 8th 2023. That’s plenty of time for a friendship w/ Ziz to blossom! Goodness knows Ziz ~somehow~ shows up in Daniel’s hotel room— we may, tentatively, assume that, by Jan. 2023, Jamie & Ziz are “teammates”.
There’s a possibility that “LessWrong" learned of this, & arranged the murders to further their narrative of “Ziz’s crazy cult”; but— keep those tinfoil hats on tight— we can imagine a simpler explanation.
The only time “murder” comes up on Jamie’s tumblr, it’s in reference to murdering Alice. Alice might easily have seen this— and/or Jamie might have told them about this; they are still, in Feb. 2022, in regular communication w/ Alice, whom they call “my friend”. Jamie is regularly talking to Alice abt Ziz: this is one of the things which makes Ziz so upset— she doesn’t want Jamie exposing her ~secrets~ to the likes of Alice (Jamie objects: these “secrets” may easily be deduced by reading Ziz’s blog; we can neither confirm nor deny.)
Could Alice have committed the murders w/ a Rationalist ally— in order to frame Jamie— in order to land Jamie in jail— where Jamie wd no longer be even a potential threat to them? Recall that Alice is a maniac. Recall that they have abused Jamie physically, sexually, emotionally, psychologically… &, possibly, so on! Recall that they have quoted Nazi propaganda while beating Emma w/ a bamboo rod. In this purely hypothetical scenario (ITPHS), framing Jamie may have functioned, for Alice, partly as retribution— for breaking up w/ them, &/or for past “offenses”. Jamie would be silenced & discredited— unable, in future, to challenge Alice’s reputation or turn Alice’s allies against them.
Jamie brought their 9mm w/ them to Pennsylvania for the funeral— quite inexplicable, but it implies that Jamie is used to carrying their gun everywhere they go. If so, then Alice would have known this: the two lived together for years. Alice would have had just under a year to buy a 9mm, fly one of their many Rationalist allies out from CA, & kill Jamie’s parents. ITPHS, such a dastardly scheme may additionally have served as a means for Alice to reassert control over Jamie’s life & narrative.
ITPHS— where this is a setup— several odd details of the crime might click into place. To name just one: why would a mysterious figure shout, “Mom! Oh my God. Oh God, God!”— before entering the Zajkos’ home? Was this figure trying to draw attention to themselves? If so, they have succeeded! Other odd details— like the presence of a gun at Jamie’s VT residence— may be spotted in pt. 33.
So why hasn’t anyone gone & asked Alice? We don’t know what (hopefully) keen detective work is taking place in the shadows; but as far as the press is concerned… Alice seems to be a v. shy individual. They don’t answer interview requests; they are perpetually “unavailable for comment”.
Removing our tinfoil hats, we can confidently, w/ documented evidence, say that they have plenty of behaviors which they’d prob. want the press to keep ignoring!
In this sense, they benefit from “Jamie’s crime” even if they had no direct involvement in it: w/ Jamie as the prime suspect, Alice can further deflect attention from their own past (& dare we speculate, ongoing!) actions. “Jamie’s crime”, in this sense, functions as a smokescreen for Alice: allowing them to maintain their rank w/in the “circle” of Michael Vassar, w/out nosy outsiders looking too closely at their role in the broader zsituation (Ziz situation).
By this token, ofc, the Rationalists stand to benefit from this crime as well— even if only coincidentally.
If the murders are framed as an act of violence by a “crazy cult”, the Rationalists may go on posing as the “rational” ones who oppose such “extremism”. These murders— or rather, how they have been framed by the media, as one crime w/in the “Zizian crime-spree”— ofc further discredit Ziz, weakening her influence & credibility chez the Rationalists— isolating her from would-be allies, & making *her* story of what *she* saw among the Rationalists into that much more of an “open secret”— making it that much harder to “see” thru the haze of accusations (to "see" this story for yourself, pls review pts. 3-30).
Ofc, the figure whose influence is most often blamed for these murders— Ziz herself— has the least to gain from them, & the most to lose— second to or tied w/ Jamie! We suppose you could argue that, if Jamie did kill for money, & if Ziz is their ally, then Ziz has much to gain. Even then, double murder when you are already on the lam is a huge risk.
Apart from, y’know, the prison aspect, we have already mentioned what Ziz stands to lose: chiefly, potential allies— which, we’d think, would be of great importance to her in her in her present tenuous situation. Ziz, if she keeps her nose clean, might hope to someday be vindicated, as one who spoke truth to the Rationalists, & as one who was grotesquely witch-hunted by way of thanks.
To throw this redemption arc away, Ziz would have to be crazy. So, we guess, those are the stakes in this black box: is Ziz crazy? We, as exhaustively described, do not believe Ziz is crazy. But beyond that, our abilities to see in this darkness peter out. Back into the light: away from pure hypotheticals, & back into the (so far as we can tell) true story of Ziz & compatriots.
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Next: Cruel & Unusual
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