Zizians, a transgender cult, labeled as extremists by U.S. regulation enforcement, was a radical vegan anarchist group linked to at the least six murders.
In November 2019, a gaggle of Zizians, wearing black hooded robes and Man Fawkes masks, staged a protest exterior a retreat for the Middle for Utilized Rationality (CFAR) in northern California. Claiming CFAR was responsible of transphobia, secrecy, and moral violations, they blocked entrances earlier than being confronted by SWAT officers, who mistakenly feared an energetic shooter state of affairs. Whereas the incident appeared minor on the time, it marked the start of the Zizians’ radicalization, as their beliefs in secrecy, persecution, and an alternate actuality grew to become extra excessive—in the end culminating within the violent murders and assaults linked to the group in later years.
Jack LaSota, the chief of the extremist group often called the Zizians, was denied bail in Maryland after being arrested alongside followers Michelle Zajko, 32, and Daniel Clean, 26, for trespassing and obstructing regulation enforcement. Authorities take into account LaSota a flight danger, citing his historical past of faking his personal demise and the multi-state warrants issued for his arrest in California and Pennsylvania.
The Zizians originated as a transgender, vegan anarchist group composed of extremely smart laptop scientists who met on-line and steadily turned to violence. Their final objectives stay unclear, however their writings lined matters akin to radical veganism, gender identification, and synthetic intelligence. On the middle of the group is LaSota, a transgender lady and laptop engineer from Alaska, who revealed a darkish, typically violent weblog below the identify Ziz.
The group has been linked to at the least six killings throughout three states, together with the execution-style homicide of Zajko’s mother and father on New 12 months’s Eve 2022, the killing of a California landlord, and a January 20 shootout in Vermont that left U.S. Border Patrol Agent Chris Maland and anothis individual lifeless. Zajko had additionally bought weapons later linked to Maland’s killing.
Throughout his courtroom look, LaSota denied any wrongdoing, as a substitute pleading for a vegan weight loss program, claiming she was delirious from lack of meals. His public defender, Rebecca Francoeur-Breeden, described LaSota as extremely smart, highlighting his diploma in laptop engineering. She additionally represented Zajko and Clean, each of whom had been characterised as shiny however troubled people. Clean, who has critical psychological well being issues, was beforehand listed as a lacking or endangered individual.
Authorities imagine the Zizians developed from an internet ideological group right into a violent extremist faction, with Jack LaSota (Ziz) at its core. The group, estimated to have round 30 members, consists primarily of younger transgender girls with backgrounds in arithmetic, laptop science, and finance, together with former workers of NASA, Google, and Wall Avenue. Their ideology blends Silicon Valley Rationalist theories, animal rights activism, anarchism, and esoteric religious practices, making them notably troublesome to trace.
LaSota was closely influenced by rationalist and efficient altruist actions, notably their perception that synthetic intelligence may obtain godlike energy and, if mismanaged, would possibly destroy humanity. She participated in applications linked to the Middle for Utilized Rationality (CFAR) and the Machine Intelligence Analysis Institute, later growing his personal radical philosophy that included vegan extremism, leftist ideology, and distinctive jargon akin to “anti-ethics,” “dichotomy leakage,” and “timeless gambits.” She categorized folks into hierarchical labels like “zombies” and “vampires” or “single good” versus “double good,” whereas seeing society as stuffed with “flesh-eating monsters” who undervalue non-human life. She believed any future super-AI should prioritize animal welfare, additional isolating his from mainstream rationalist circles and fueling the Zizians’ more and more excessive ideology.
The Zizians’ practices embrace “unihemispheric sleep”, a method the place members prepare themselves to sleep with one eye open, believing that every mind hemisphere is a definite identification—one male, one feminine, one good, one evil—that will search to destroy one another. Investigators suspect that this philosophy of self-destruction has straight contributed to suicides inside the group, together with Maia Pasek (2018) and Jay Winterford (2021). LaSota’s weblog strengthened these concepts in a fatalistic method, suggesting that self-annihilation or homicide may very well be a logical extension of their beliefs.
Authorities describe the Zizians as a decentralized extremist faction, utilizing a number of aliases, shifting pronouns, and frequent motion throughout California, Vermont, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania to keep away from detection. They’re believed to be anti-sex, with many members taking hormones for gender transition, and are sometimes estranged from their households, with some suspected to be on the autism spectrum. The group has referenced supernatural skills and handled motion pictures like The Matrix as actuality, additional complicating efforts to grasp their motives.
Because the investigation unfolds, regulation enforcement is working to piece collectively the total extent of the Zizians’ crimes. Some officers imagine their ideology justifies homicide, notably in instances like Curtis Lind’s, the place a sufferer seen as an impediment was eradicated to keep up group secrecy.
