Leader of the "Zizian" transgender vegan cult arrested in Maryland. The cult was linked to several murders.

 

The mugshots of Jack "Ziz" LaSota and Michelle Zajko. Fox News.

The leader of the "Zizian" cult, a group of mostly transgender radical vegans, has been arrested in Maryland. Fox News. Jack "Ziz" LaSota and Michelle Zaiko were arrested by police in Maryland after a manhunt. The cult, which is a group of so called "rationalists" that are greatly concerned about AI, is linked to several homicides, including the murder of Border Patrol agent David Maland. The two were charged with firearms charges and trespassing while  Zaiko was also charged with resisting arrest. Zaiko was accused of purchasing the firearms that two cult members, Felix "Ophelia" Bauckholt and Teresa "Milo" Consuelo Youngblut, used in the shootout with the border patrol. Bauckholt was killed in the shootout. Zaiko is also a person of interest in two other murder cases, one a double homicide in Pennsylvania and another homicide in California. 

My Comment:

I've been following this case since the shootout with the border patrol and I was very surprised at the connection to the rationalists. I've been reading some of the folks from the rationalist movement for awhile now, most notably Scott Alexander and some of the spinoff sites from his blog, including the former blog and now the spinoff site, TheMotte. They are, at least, interesting and have had some influence in America today. 

The rationalists were supposed to be about using good reasoning to discover the best way to do things. Generally speaking they are center-left (though the spinoff sites like TheMotte are more right wing) and somewhat opposed to the far left "woke" people, but they are also focused on some strange things. Certainly the focus on veganism always baffled me as it seemed like an obvious flaw to lump in animals as the same moral worth as humans. And they are also extremely concerned about AI, to the point where some folks literally drove themselves insane worrying about it. 

The Zizians appear to have spun off from them and are dramatically more radical. They are extremely vegan and justify violence because of it. They are also mostly (completely?) made up of transgender people, which means reporting on it is extremely difficult due to trying to figure out who is a biological male or female. 

The murder of the border patrol agent David Maland was the biggest story for them, but it's hardly the only crime they have committed. They were involved in a major disturbance at a AI conference but it's the other homicides that are really disturbing. The Pennsylvania homicides were supposedly about the parents of one of the cult members, Michelle Zaiko, not accepting their transgender status. 

But it's the California homicide that really gets to me. Curtis Lind was an 80 year old landlord that was renting property to the Zizians and when the group devolved from tenants to squatters he threatened to evict them. In response, two Zizians attacked him with knives and swords. Despite having a sword literally sticking out of him, Lind was able to retrieve a firearm and shot his attackers, killing Emma Borhania. Two other Zizians were charged in the crime for the attack and the death of Borhania. Lind survived the attack but was hospitalized for months, and lost one of his eyes. 

Those two, Suri Dao and Alexander Jeffrey Leatham, were set to stand trial and Lind was going to testify against him. But at 82 years old Lind was stabbed to death after fleeing his home and living in fear that the cult would kill him. It appears they have succeed and Zaiko may have been the one responsible. 

Curtis Lind's Gofundme page before his death. Open Vallejo. 

This is probably the most heinous crime that the cult was involved with. Lind survived a horrible attack and saved his own life through extreme determination and bravery. And he was brave enough to testify against the folks that almost killed him. But he was murdered at 82 years of age because the cult wanted to silence him. It's horrible and one of the worst crimes I have heard of in awhile. 

The real question with the Zizians is what caused their violence. Ziz himself doesn't seem that charismatic but that isn't surprising to me. It's hard to tell how influential people are without meeting them in person. But was the violence due to their rationalist beliefs? Their veganism? Their transgenderism? Or the fact that they were all incredibly unattractive? 

Either way it's a fascinating story and it's one I would like to read more about. I know Kiwi Farms (NSFW link and a fairly notorious website) has a thread which I haven't had a chance to read yet and the rationalists themselves have put out some information. I hope that this is the end of this story but who know? This group has already been linked to six deaths (four murders and two cult members killed during their crimes) and if there are still more of them out there, we could see more...