Zizians: What we know about the vegan ‘cult’ linked to six deaths
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Jack Lasota, 34, who allegedly leads a group of a few dozen followers known as Zizians, was arrested on Sunday alongside Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Blank, 26, on charges including trespassing and obstruction.
Authorities say they are investigating at least six killings across the US that are allegedly connected to members of the group, including a double homicide in Pennsylvania, a knife attack in California, and the shooting of a US border guard in January.
Four other alleged members of the group have already been charged with murder.
Lasota, a transgender woman, is allegedly the leader of the group.
She earned a degree in computer science from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in 2013 and, according to her blog, moved to the San Francisco area three years later.
There, she wrote that she applied for a series of jobs at tech companies and startups – including a brief internship with Nasa – and began to associate with people involved in the rationalist movement, an intellectual trend popular in Silicon Valley that emphasises the power of the human mind to see clear truth, eliminate bias and bad thinking, and improve individuals and society.
Lasota began blogging using the alias “Ziz”, but soon fell out with mainstream rationalists as her writings spun off in bizarre directions.
The blog included posts of thousands of words, blending Lasota’s personal experiences, theories about technology and philosophy, and esoteric comments about pop culture, computer coding and dozens of other subjects.
At one point, during a long diatribe about the TV series The Office, artificial intelligence and other subjects, she wrote: “I realized that I was no longer able to stand people. Not even rationalists anymore. And I would live the rest of my life completely alone, hiding my reaction to anyone it was useful to interact with. I had given up my ability to see beauty so I could see evil.”
Other themes included veganism – total avoidance of any animal food or products – and anarchism.
In 2019 Lasota and three others were arrested while holding a protest outside an event held by a rationalist organisation. The last posts on her blog date from around this time.
Content retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy83958r2d0o.
