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We are, as mentioned, a slavering true-crime (TC) enthusiast 😋 We love nothing more than a TC longread— better still, a cult longread— & in our opinion, The Cut has some of the best, most sordid longreads around.
We, to keep the lights on at zizians.co, tutor the youth of America in reading. We esp. love to read, w/ our high school students, somewhat cheeky longreads: stories that’ll grab their interest, teach them the art of digesting 15+ pages of narrative detail, &— we hope!— leave them w/ a v. vital piece of New News: that even “true” stories are constructions: constructions you can lift the hood on; constructions whose sturdiness you can test before making a down-payment on their claims.
We have, w/ our high schoolers, read 3 diff. longreads from The Cut: chosen mostly for their cheekiness, but also bc The Cut is a v. precise & skilled storytelling artisan. Their longreads are like the work of a masterful joiner: seamless, elegant, exquisitely engineered. They understand the invisible geometry inside even— or especially— the most sordid of tales.
***
We woke up this morning to the Zizians Signal in our skies. We threw on our cape,
& flew over the city w/ the entire News on News crew. Who possibly could be causing such commotion? Who pos— oh, It’s The Cut 😯 It’s The Cut w/ a tantalizing headline/byline:
Two Vegan Lovers, an AI ‘Cult,’ and a Trail of Dead Bodies
[Audere] and Milo saw a future where meat-eaters enslaved all. They would do anything to stop it.
Our curmudgeonly reaction may be to grumble at a few things here & there— most vitally: did any of these “Zizians” see a future where meat-eaters enslaved all? We are furrowing our brow & darting our eyes back & forth in an effort to remember. But we don’t want to go into this as a curmudgeon— we never want to go anywhere as a curmudgeon, despite the grumpy moods in which we sometimes close our News on News segments. Anyway, there’s sthing here to be joyous abt: never have we seen a story that focuses on Milo & Audere. These second-gen. “Zizians” are often treated as an afterthought, & we want to learn so much more abt them!
This cut took all of the News on News crew to lift & carry back to our studio, where a team of chefs has tenderized it, & where it has been marinating for 4 hours. We are excited to see how it will grill up 🍽️
***
Tonight’s meal is delivered to us by Ezra Marcus: a graduate of 😮 Sarah Lawrence— & a fellow cult enthusiast! We are, tbh, bashful & tongue-tied 🫣 We are suddenly noting all the grimy baseboards, dusty fluorescent overheads, & scattered Red Bull cans in our little studio. We hope Ezra is in a generous mood, as we rush thru our makeup & as our cameraman counts down: three, two, one.
Ezra, you bring us some excellent New News: Milo’s fam. is devoutly Christian, & homeschooled Milo thru the 6th grade: “careful to balance algebra lessons with creationism”.
Milo, Milo: 👋 hello from one who is a decade older than you! We were also homeschooled, thru the 8th grade. In our experience, there were some good things abt this, & some v. claustrophobic, somewhat over-reaching things abt this. We are curious to hear what your experiences were, bc, if you don’t mind our saying so, we’ve come to feel v. protective of you. If we were not a total stranger, we might wish to offer ourself as an adopted aunt w/ whom you could chat all abt this strange, strange world.
Ezra, we call this New News excellent not bc we love Christendom or homeschooling, but bc this, perhaps, adds another layer to our suspicion that Milo was not out to xier fam., & maybe not to their childhood friends (CF)— & that xier pulling away from these CF, & their sneaky behavior around xier fam, speaks more to a common pattern seen among closeted young ppl than it does to a sensational pattern of cult indoctrination. You, however, quickly puncture these suspicions w/ the news that Milo came out as nonbinary in 9th grade! You tell us this was when Milo changed xier name, & give us a charming name origin story: it is from the boy in The Phantom Tollbooth.
Milo, we also adored The Phantom Tollbooth— it brings a lump to our throat to remember. Our fav character was the DYNNE.
Which— 😅 apart from Milo— was yours?
***
Next, Ezra, you tell us one pompous thing abt Audere— that they “strode purposefully around [their high school], roller-suitcase in hand”— & a 2nd thing abt Audere that makes us walk our judgment of “pomposity” right back. You tell us Audere’s father died by suicide when Audere was 16. How does this tragedy relate to a child’s purposeful striding? We can’t quite say, but suddenly, we feel less confronted by Audere. We are, once more, beginning to soften.
Their classmates are not: they describe Audere as “aloof, argumentative”, arrogant, condescending, & as “[wearing their] intelligence poorly”. 🤷🏻♀️ Call us a sap; we are in the mood to indulge them.
***
We are not, tho, in the mood to indulge you, Ezra, as you engage in a strange act of splitting. That is to say, as you assign the kooky side of Rationalism to “the Zizians”, & as you grant the Rationalists a description that captures only the most superficial & banal sides of their true beliefs.
Of “the Zizians”, you say:
The Zizians, a Bay Area-based “cult,” had a very specific vision for the future. They were convinced that some day soon, AI would surpass human intelligence and take over the world.
Of the Rationalists, you say:
a burgeoning scene of nerdy, tech-adjacent young people obsessed with achieving self-improvement through clearer thinking.
Readers, if you are w/ us for this News on News segment, you almost certainly know what we are kvetching abt. If not, pls go here & here for a more well-rounded look at what the Rationalists rlly believe, & pls go here & here for 2 case studies of how prominent Rationalists have, so far, worked to clarify their thinking, & improve their characters, for the sake of not hurting their more marginalized group-members.
***
Ezra, we must confess: we have, from under our anchorperson table, been playing bingo.
We hid this info from you bc we didn’t want to seem unserious in front of a Sarah Lawrence grad. Incidentally, Ezra, in a parallel world we are co-alums. In this world, Ms. Sarah gave us too little of a scholarship 😞
We still occasionally pine for Ms. Sarah, somewhat as the-one-who-got-away, & wonder what you studied w/ her: did you ever, we wonder, come across the figure of the double or doppelgänger (DOD)? You prob. did: we personally stared down the DOD in a Gothic lit class, & then again in a postcolonial lit class, & then again in a lit & psychoanalysis class. It skulks around many genres & theories, & sthng abt it, then & now, thrills us.
***
What’s thrilling abt the DOD is that it is an “unreal person”. It is not an independent entity; it is always tied to another: another who has attempted to offload their own repressed or contradictory traits.
For ex., Mr. Hyde is the DOD of that upstanding Dr. Jekyll. Dorian Gray’s hair-raising portrait is beautiful, youthful Dorian’s DOD. Women, ppl of color, the queer community, subjects under colonial rule, & even children are all perpetually at risk of being perceived & treated not as themselves, but as another’s DOD.
It is a v. strange thing to be treated as a DOD. You get blamed for personifying all the traits which others do not want: madness, aggression— all kinds of excesses. What makes it even stranger is that, when forced to play another’s DOD, most reasonable ppl would feel mad & aggressive! It is therefore easy to look at one’s own angry moods, or at the angry moods of others, & to think no DODdery is afoot: to think that you are simply seeing one calm, upstanding person, & their inexplicably wrathful neighbor.
This is a big mistake: this reifies the DOD, & ignores the humanity in those who’ve had a DOD thrust upon them. This enables whoever has thrust the DOD to continue denying their own complex, stigmatized, or unattractive traits. Nobody wins, nobody grows, nobody comes any closer to truth.
***
We brought this aaaall up, Ezra, bc we have just checked the bingo box that we always check, no matter which article we read. We can go high, we can go low: we always find ourselves back at the bingo box of “😇 Benign Rationalists”.
The Rationalists are not benign; they simply have a v. well-constructed DOD in “the Zizians”, who can siphon away all their madness, aggression, & excesses.
Their DOD is now stumbling thru the press nationwide, which we’re sure delights them. It makes us feel like we’re losing our mind. We are this close to writing federal agencies, begging them to make a DOD Awareness Month, during which we can warn the American public: when you see a DOD, there is inevitably a calm & upstanding counterpart (CAUC) whom you are overlooking. Readers, do not be like Ezra: do not overlook the CAUCs of this world. Spot the CAUCs. Give them back what is truly theirs, & unburden their poor neighbors from the heavy weight of DODdom.
***
Time for a commercial break. Ezra, we are sorry for laying into you. We are Italian. We wear our heart on our sleeve. We are, in fact, enthused that you are the first reporter we’ve ever seen calling Milo Milo— rather than [Deadname] or “Milo”. You are welcome to join us in the Green Room for a snack & for a Pepsi— we are not endorsed, we simply have a broken vending machine 😔 We promise we don’t bite! Or if we do, we only sometimes have the goal of breaking skin. We are excited to get back to your article, & to hear all abt our mutual friends Milo & Audere. How wonderful that the media has taken an interest in these young ppl ☺️
*****
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