Get off the stage, get off, get off! Welcome back to News on News: pt. 2 of our look at how the press is handling Jamie’s bombshell letter.
We have just clambered out of VTDigger’s hole to nowhere, & are abt to clamber into the Independent! We’re v. curious to hear the rest of what they have to say.
***
They do not win our heart w/ this opening mind-bender:
A member of the radical vegan group known as the “Zizians” (TRVGKATZ) has insisted [they] and [their] friends are "not a murder cult”
TRVGKATZ helpfully links to the Independent's past coverage of this “cultish crew”— which includes another line from the courageous & apparently exasperated entity:
There's no organization. There's no centralization. We're just a bunch of anarchist trans leftists that are trying to exist in [the] current year in this world.
***
We will not pretend to have cracked the case of why deaths have occurred around this friend group— but if you held a gun to our head, we would blurt out: “is it bc being marginalized increases the odds of ending up in violent situations? Is it bc being enemies w/ the Rationalists further raises these odds?”
We do not know. We, like the Independent, are speculating. Unlike the Independent, we are not speculating in counterpoint to our own quotes! We are not publishing Jamie’s refutation w/ one hand, &, w/ the other hand, calling Daniel Blank a “disciple” of this friend group— nor are we, for good measure, calling Jamie a “true believer” (ATB). ATB in what, their friends? 🤷🏻♀️
***
Like Peter back in VT, the Independent makes much of the fact that Jamie does not speculate on whom, if not they, killed their parents. They seem to have no clue.
Btw, could their lack of speculation be motivated, in part, by legal reasons?
Could their lawyer have urged them to keep mum, for fear that speculations could later be used against them— w/ “later” imagining a future where they *are* on trial for murder charges?
We also have no clue. We will move on— onto a true reason for celebration!
The Independent has decreed:
[Jamie] made detailed allegations of sexual abuse against multiple people in the San Francisco Bay Area's cultish “rationalist” community
👏👏👏👏😮💨🙌🙌
We cannot contain ourself. We are buying a round for you all! We don’t even care that they follow this w/:
The Independent is not printing the specifics of the allegations because it has not been able to independently corroborate (IC) them.
It is being honest! It has indeed been “unable” to IC these allegations, having been soooo busy publishing cockamamy cult commentary.
***
What’s confusing is that the Independent does whisper one of these unverified claims. It whispers that Alice Monday beat Jamie “with bamboo sticks without consent and gave [them] a concussion.”
Ofc it doesn’t name Alice— but this is the most specific whisper we have ever seen the press make against any Rationalist!
& we clap a few times at their acknowledgement that others may be beaten w/ as many bamboo sticks as they like, & have it all be GGG.
***
But we are back to pursing our lips once the Independent opines: “Some of [Jamie’s] statements in the letter appear conspiratorial”!
How can they judge the appearance of statements they have yet to investigate? Esp. as they, in the next breath, quote Jamie asserting: “If I weren't in jail, I could provide chatlogs, screenshots, audio confessions, video footage, tax filings, statements made under oath, and other records”?
We don’t think most conspiracy-mongers gesture towards so many different types of specific evidence. Ofc, you could argue that Jamie’s gesture perfectly absolves them from having to give evidence— but, by that token, so does Patrick McMillan’s.
Patrick’s testimony boils down to, “If I hadn’t lost my memory, I could provide a watertight story of Lind’s battle w/ violent cultists.” But only Jamie’s claim is drawing the press’s attention.
***
Our Independent journalist, btw, is Io Dodds.
Io has one of the best first names that we at zizians.co have ever seen— & she also has some v. funny comparisons to make abt Jamie. It’s almost poetic how she notes that Jamie’s own letter is “cast[ing] [them] as something of a political prisoner”. Almost.
How has Jamie made themself sound like a self-declared political prisoner? By saying they have been “unjustly detained based on a ‘false narrative’ by shadowy conspirators”, & by “urg[ing] outsiders to investigate [their] allegations.”
Aren’t the enemies of most political prisoners well-known? Aren’t they mostly specific political regimes? Which political prisoners would call their opponents “shadowy”? Other than that, it’s an okay comparison. Many political prisoners are would-be whistleblowers, just like Jamie. Many are also given trumped-up backstories.
On the other hand, we dk if political prisoners are *particularly* known for “urg[ing] outsiders to investigate [their] allegations”! Many are never given the chance— &/or would fear retaliatory violence against themselves/their families.
Meanwhile, wouldn’t lots of regular prisoners want the public to investigate their cases?
It’s overall a strange thing for Io to say, & we’re not sure what she means by it.
***
We continue to almost get a sense of poetic symmetry, as Io leads us straight back around to VTDigger… unfortunately, it’s VTDigger quoting Kati, the jail spokesperson:
Allegany County Detention Center takes all medical concerns seriously and has established procedures for timely evaluation and treatment by qualified healthcare personnel.
W/ that, Io wraps up! & so, we guess, must we. What are we to make of this?
***
If VTDigger led us down a hole to nowhere, Io led us to a modest, 2-room warren.
She led us to a long-desired “cultish 'rationalist'” room, & she mostly led us to a room of Alice Monday abuse (AMA)— from which she showed us a flash of one item, taken from a probable shelf of AMA stories.
It was cozy visit; it made us feel like a Borrower. We would encourage Io: keep decorating! Keep building, building, building off this nice warren. Gather lots of scraps & snippets, & plaster the walls w/ what you find! Your scraps might read:
The one w/ the bamboo stick was Alice Monday.
They might read:
Many others echo Jamie’s concerning words abt health conditions in ACDC.
They might also read:
I have, in the past, called Jamie’s friends a “radical vegan group known as the ‘Zizians’.” I have sthng to admit. It came to my attention a while ago that they do not like to be called the Zizians. I was told it was a nickname made up by an abusive boy w/ a hate boner. I kept calling them this; sometimes, I also called them a “cultish crew”. But now a 2nd person has brought the weirdness of this choice to my attention.
They could read many things. Anyway, Io, we encourage you to keep going! You have already written 7 articles abt these young ppl. Write 7 more— this time, w/ original, innovative investigative reporting 😋
***
That’s all for this News on News. We are, unexpectedly, in a better mood than when we started. Io has made many visions dance in our head: visions of all that the press could build, & of all the charming paths it could lead us down.
In the meantime, our advice is to keep borrowing your own snips & scraps, & keep making lovely decoupages out of them all over the internet. 👨🎨
*****
Next: The Strangest Dream