My ignorance of popular culture surprises me. “I was unaware” pops into my head nearly daily when I read the news and find I can no longer name professional baseball players as I did as a kid when I daily followed Roberto Clemente and company. I can’t tell you anything about popular actresses and actors or current popular music acts—except for Taylor Swift because I have watched the Chiefs play during which games the network directs an obligatory camera swing to Swift after her boyfriend makes a catch (Could we focus on the game, please?). Brad Pitt? I do know him from two movies I saw, but hey, did you know he divorced Jolie? I just found out today. Yes, that’s how ignorant I am about current stuff reported on page 6.
Now, I think I know a lot of other stuff, but I could not answer many questions on contemporary film, Hollywood’s elite, or contemporary fashion on the quiz show Jeopardy. Nor could I tell you much about West Coast values and subcultures, among which I recently discovered the “Rationalist” movement and its offshoot Zizian cult. Give me a sec to provide a brief background.
Subcultures
To what extent does your subculture drive your behavior?
Subculture? Almost any societal behavior or belief system. Sports fans, hobbyists, even physicists. America has more subcultures than you can, as “they” say, “shake a stick at,” and I can imagine there is even a stick-shaking group.
America is a “melting pot” of subcultures. I suppose I always knew that the country had a plethora of niche groups, but upon learning decades ago of a group of musket shooters that met rather regularly, I asked myself how many subcultures I knew. The musket shooters weren’t Revolutionary War reenactors gathered on the Fourth of July or people traipsing across the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg. They were men and women meeting on weekends to shoot muskets without the period accoutrements. And that group’s existence catapulted my brain into awareness of others committed to all sorts of activities, such as star parties, those nighttime gatherings of amateur astronomers in remote places where light pollution is minimal and a field is available for people to park RVs and set up expensive personal telescopes for viewing celestial objects. The star gazers socialize, drink beer, and allow their computer-guided scopes to follow a distant object as rotating Earth “turns the night sky.” The star partygoers know about optics and special celestial events and about planets, stars, and galaxies. Being part of that subculture requires considerable knowledge of astronomy and a nightshift constitution: They meet while most of us sleep. When I did attend one such party to see what it was about, I discovered I wasn’t star party material. Staying awake into the mosquito hours just to see the Ring Nebula or one of the Galilean moons of Jupiter dissuaded me from becoming a card-carrying member willing to spend thousands of dollars on equipment and travel. Scratch my name from that subculture. I can see Hubble, Vera Rubin, and JWST images online in my library.
So, yes, there are many subcultures, and I suppose one has to have a certain bent to join. I’m not of a mind to riot, so scratch me from that Antifa group, also. I’m not of a mind to parade for a gender, so scratch that public display niche as another group I won’t join. In fact, I’m not much of a joiner. Period. But I realize that I probably belong to several subcultures by default: Parent, husband, neighbor, political and economic bent, etc. I recall moving into the Monongahela Valley years ago and hearing someone say, “You’ll get used to the culture of the Mon.” Heck, I’ve probably assimilated unconsciously over decades though I still resist pronouncing “iron” as “arn” and “fire” as “fair.” Have I acquired Mon Valley values? I probably have, making me a member of that subculture.
Subcultures and Behavior
Generally, fans of the home team at a game are recognizable by their dress and behavior. Does that principle apply to groups of scientists? Think white lab coats even though that’s a stereotype. But then, not all fans wear team shirts to games. What of behavior, demeanor, and thinking?
One might think that a subculture of people devoted to reason might be free from violence. Members of Rationalist International * are all cool-headed, aren’t they? Analysis prevails, one might think, during meetings with every member dedicated to deduction, clear-thinking, and precise language. No obfuscation. No non sequiturs. Coherence all around the table, as discussions are rooted in unified presentation, all the thoughts relevant to the topic act hand. The opening line of Rationalist International’s website proclaims, “Rationalism is a movement that emphasizes science and reason as the primary source of knowledge and understanding.” Certainly, that bespeaks of civilized behavior. It makes me think of Socrates and Plato debating students on subjects like the nature of Nature, the nature of politics, the nature of ethical behavior.
Not so, it seems, for all who include themselves in the rationalist subculture.
Enter the Zizians. ** “At first, Ziz LaSota seemed much like any other philosophically inclined young tech aspirant. Now, she and her followers are in jail, six people are dead, and Rationalists are examining whether their ideas played a role.” That’s the subheading on a well-written article by Christopher Beam for the New York Times. Beam traces the history of LaSota and followers from concern about the dangers of artificial intelligence to murders.
In essence, the story tells of a disgruntled trans person obsessed it seems with the dangers of AI. LaSota then recruited followers, and the crimes accrued. This is Beam’s quick overview:
“Ziz, who is transgender, started as a typical Rationalist — a geeky optimist hoping to save the world — but turned toward an ultraradical strain of the philosophy. She wrote favorably of violence, said she was willing to sacrifice everything to achieve her goals and considered A.I.’s threat to humanity “the most important problem in the world,” she once wrote. Now six people are dead, landing her and several friends and allies, known as the “Zizians,” in jail, awaiting trial.”
Can Anyone Say, “Subculture Turned into Cult”?
In short, Ziz led a group by convincing them that 1) they should do all they could to prevent A.I. from destroying the world, 2) their approach was “rational” in spite of discombobulated arguments reminiscent of a Kamala Harris speech, 3) any refutations of their arguments were driven by trans phobia, and 4) they were free to consider anyone who got in their way as expendable.
Can You Say Your Particular Subculture Is Not a Cult?
There’s a thoroughly documented book entitled Rebels with a Cause: The Minds and Morality of Political Offenders by Nicholas N. Kittrie. In the book Kittrie details the various forms of rebellious behavior. Some rebellious behavior might be considered as positive: The American Revolution, for example. Does any of it apply to Zizians? They supposedly had a positive plan in a rebellion to save the world from A.I., but they ended as a kind of Manson cult whose only legacy is one of needless death, including the stabbing death of their one-time landlord and the shooting death of a border patrol agent. Using the guise of rationality, they did little that was rational.
I suppose one could argue that the Zizians are an exception and that only a few subcultures turn their members into agents of destruction, harm, and death. But I wonder whether those exceptions aren’t more numerous than one might suppose. And I wonder about the persistence of some negative subcultures like anarchists. The subculture has persisted since the nineteenth century, at no time during which one could say their actions resulted in a positive change for humanity. The more recent anarchist riots are a case study in how a subculture can resurface over generations without a positive legacy. Loosely affiliated individuals or not, they seem to destroy for destruction’s sake, and they remind me of all the “haters” posting online against those with whom they disagree.
I’m going to examine all the subcultures to which I belong to see whether any of them harbor negative tendencies that might somehow lead to dire consequences for others.
*https://www.rationalists.net/post/exploring-the-core-principles-of-rationalist-movements
**https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/business/ziz-lasota-zizians-rationalists.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UU8.Y02D.NsKdLK-KWM4n&smid=url-share A version of this article appears in print on July 6, 2025, Section BU, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: They Fought Against A.I., Then People Started Dying.
Now, I think I know a lot of other stuff, but I could not answer many questions on contemporary film, Hollywood’s elite, or contemporary fashion on the quiz show Jeopardy. Nor could I tell you much about West Coast values and subcultures, among which I recently discovered the “Rationalist” movement and its offshoot Zizian cult. Give me a sec to provide a brief background.
Subcultures
To what extent does your subculture drive your behavior?
Subculture? Almost any societal behavior or belief system. Sports fans, hobbyists, even physicists. America has more subcultures than you can, as “they” say, “shake a stick at,” and I can imagine there is even a stick-shaking group.
America is a “melting pot” of subcultures. I suppose I always knew that the country had a plethora of niche groups, but upon learning decades ago of a group of musket shooters that met rather regularly, I asked myself how many subcultures I knew. The musket shooters weren’t Revolutionary War reenactors gathered on the Fourth of July or people traipsing across the Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg. They were men and women meeting on weekends to shoot muskets without the period accoutrements. And that group’s existence catapulted my brain into awareness of others committed to all sorts of activities, such as star parties, those nighttime gatherings of amateur astronomers in remote places where light pollution is minimal and a field is available for people to park RVs and set up expensive personal telescopes for viewing celestial objects. The star gazers socialize, drink beer, and allow their computer-guided scopes to follow a distant object as rotating Earth “turns the night sky.” The star partygoers know about optics and special celestial events and about planets, stars, and galaxies. Being part of that subculture requires considerable knowledge of astronomy and a nightshift constitution: They meet while most of us sleep. When I did attend one such party to see what it was about, I discovered I wasn’t star party material. Staying awake into the mosquito hours just to see the Ring Nebula or one of the Galilean moons of Jupiter dissuaded me from becoming a card-carrying member willing to spend thousands of dollars on equipment and travel. Scratch my name from that subculture. I can see Hubble, Vera Rubin, and JWST images online in my library.
So, yes, there are many subcultures, and I suppose one has to have a certain bent to join. I’m not of a mind to riot, so scratch me from that Antifa group, also. I’m not of a mind to parade for a gender, so scratch that public display niche as another group I won’t join. In fact, I’m not much of a joiner. Period. But I realize that I probably belong to several subcultures by default: Parent, husband, neighbor, political and economic bent, etc. I recall moving into the Monongahela Valley years ago and hearing someone say, “You’ll get used to the culture of the Mon.” Heck, I’ve probably assimilated unconsciously over decades though I still resist pronouncing “iron” as “arn” and “fire” as “fair.” Have I acquired Mon Valley values? I probably have, making me a member of that subculture.
Subcultures and Behavior
Generally, fans of the home team at a game are recognizable by their dress and behavior. Does that principle apply to groups of scientists? Think white lab coats even though that’s a stereotype. But then, not all fans wear team shirts to games. What of behavior, demeanor, and thinking?
One might think that a subculture of people devoted to reason might be free from violence. Members of Rationalist International * are all cool-headed, aren’t they? Analysis prevails, one might think, during meetings with every member dedicated to deduction, clear-thinking, and precise language. No obfuscation. No non sequiturs. Coherence all around the table, as discussions are rooted in unified presentation, all the thoughts relevant to the topic act hand. The opening line of Rationalist International’s website proclaims, “Rationalism is a movement that emphasizes science and reason as the primary source of knowledge and understanding.” Certainly, that bespeaks of civilized behavior. It makes me think of Socrates and Plato debating students on subjects like the nature of Nature, the nature of politics, the nature of ethical behavior.
Not so, it seems, for all who include themselves in the rationalist subculture.
Enter the Zizians. ** “At first, Ziz LaSota seemed much like any other philosophically inclined young tech aspirant. Now, she and her followers are in jail, six people are dead, and Rationalists are examining whether their ideas played a role.” That’s the subheading on a well-written article by Christopher Beam for the New York Times. Beam traces the history of LaSota and followers from concern about the dangers of artificial intelligence to murders.
In essence, the story tells of a disgruntled trans person obsessed it seems with the dangers of AI. LaSota then recruited followers, and the crimes accrued. This is Beam’s quick overview:
“Ziz, who is transgender, started as a typical Rationalist — a geeky optimist hoping to save the world — but turned toward an ultraradical strain of the philosophy. She wrote favorably of violence, said she was willing to sacrifice everything to achieve her goals and considered A.I.’s threat to humanity “the most important problem in the world,” she once wrote. Now six people are dead, landing her and several friends and allies, known as the “Zizians,” in jail, awaiting trial.”
Can Anyone Say, “Subculture Turned into Cult”?
In short, Ziz led a group by convincing them that 1) they should do all they could to prevent A.I. from destroying the world, 2) their approach was “rational” in spite of discombobulated arguments reminiscent of a Kamala Harris speech, 3) any refutations of their arguments were driven by trans phobia, and 4) they were free to consider anyone who got in their way as expendable.
Can You Say Your Particular Subculture Is Not a Cult?
There’s a thoroughly documented book entitled Rebels with a Cause: The Minds and Morality of Political Offenders by Nicholas N. Kittrie. In the book Kittrie details the various forms of rebellious behavior. Some rebellious behavior might be considered as positive: The American Revolution, for example. Does any of it apply to Zizians? They supposedly had a positive plan in a rebellion to save the world from A.I., but they ended as a kind of Manson cult whose only legacy is one of needless death, including the stabbing death of their one-time landlord and the shooting death of a border patrol agent. Using the guise of rationality, they did little that was rational.
I suppose one could argue that the Zizians are an exception and that only a few subcultures turn their members into agents of destruction, harm, and death. But I wonder whether those exceptions aren’t more numerous than one might suppose. And I wonder about the persistence of some negative subcultures like anarchists. The subculture has persisted since the nineteenth century, at no time during which one could say their actions resulted in a positive change for humanity. The more recent anarchist riots are a case study in how a subculture can resurface over generations without a positive legacy. Loosely affiliated individuals or not, they seem to destroy for destruction’s sake, and they remind me of all the “haters” posting online against those with whom they disagree.
I’m going to examine all the subcultures to which I belong to see whether any of them harbor negative tendencies that might somehow lead to dire consequences for others.
*https://www.rationalists.net/post/exploring-the-core-principles-of-rationalist-movements
**https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/business/ziz-lasota-zizians-rationalists.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UU8.Y02D.NsKdLK-KWM4n&smid=url-share A version of this article appears in print on July 6, 2025, Section BU, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: They Fought Against A.I., Then People Started Dying.
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