Ah, collateral…A commenter, It’s not so black and white, wrote, “Many women wrote falsified stories about loved ones. Some wrote them in envelopes addressed to the press or law enforcement with stamps on them. What if someone were to drop them in the mail? If these letters reached, say, a local sheriff’s office, it might not be immediately clear that they were collateral. Additionally, I think it’s a little sweeping to say all women in DOS were ‘stupid.’…
“All these women had to give collateral just to learn was DOS was, and then more collateral to join and stay in. They were recruited by people they knew and trusted, who told them it was safe and would be a positive experience.
DOS First-Line Masters: Did all of them lie to their slaves about the sorority?
“DOS masters in most (all?) cases withheld information and lied about fundamental elements of DOS. It’s easy for us to armchair quarterback and say ‘They should have known better’ but how were they supposed to know that when they were being lied to by people they trusted? By the point that Raniere started being asked for monthly collateral and some were assigned the seduction assignment, they were already collateralized, and as a result, some testified that they did not feel as though they could say ‘No’. I think Raniere very intentionally designed it that women would be approached the first time by someone they very deeply trusted; otherwise no one would have ever given collateral, ever. He weaponized trust.”
In reply to It’s not so black and white, Aristotle’s Sausage wrote:
By Aristotle’s Sausage
“I think it’s a little sweeping to say all women in DOS were “stupid”…. ???
Is it stupid to stick a finger in a light socket? Is it stupid to play golf in a thunderstorm? Give strangers your Social Security number ‘cuz they ask and seem nice on the phone?
Lots of things are stupid. And the people who do those things demonstrate their stupidity by doing them.
Which doesn’t mean stupid people don’t deserve sympathy. I feel pity for these weak-minded fools. As that great philosopher Mr. T said, “I pity the fool…”
They also deserve the full protection of the law. Just because they lack common sense doesn’t mean they should be left out in the cold.
I just don’t think we should ignore the fact that it’s pretty stupid to give up explicit naked pictures of oneself as a precondition to joining some alleged feminist self-help group.
“…how were they supposed to know that when they were being lied to by people they trusted?”
Because maybe it was time to rethink that trust when they demand blackmail material?
What honest organization demands crotch shots of prospective members? Demands compromising (factual or fictional) statements implicating loved ones?
When someone you trust asks you for something like that, it’s time to tell them to f*ck off. And maybe stop trusting them. And the organization they represent. That’s what any person with morals would do, anyway.
Which brings me to another point. Note that these women willingly gave up damaging information, much of it lies, about other people. friends and relatives. They did this for personal advancement. The “poor misled victim” Allison Mack concocted a tale of child abuse against a relative. This proved them, and her, to be much worse than merely stupid and foolish. They are also vicious liars, selfish beyond belief.
MK10 Art’s portrait of Allison Mack.
Digital Mess
Where’s the collateral? Who has it, who had it?
Who cares?
These digital files are floating around out there somewhere. Or maybe they’re not. No way of telling how many copies were made. Whether they were erased, deleted, lost, forgotten. If Raniere knows where they were or are, he’s not telling and there’s no way to make him.
Any more than they can make him pay the three million bucks in restitution.
Is this a victory for Raniere? Hardly. He’s in a prison cell for the rest of his life.
The worst that can happen is if the vagina pictures end up online. Where they join the millions of pictures of people’s genitals (ick) available for free to anyone who knows how to click a “yes I’m 18” box.
Great victory for The Vanguard as he enjoys his hot dog and salad in USP Tucson.
Keith Raniere gets some of the same good eats as other prisoners do — like the meal shown above.
So maybe Allison Mack is kept awake nights in her prison cell worrying that her pussy pics will be plastered all over Porn4Sale.com. Too effin’ bad.
I have sympathy for some of these women but seriously, how stupid do you have to be to turn over blackmail material to a cult? Don’t questions arise when someone says, “Hi, there’s this cool women’s empowerment group we think you might like, but first we need naked explicit pictures of you” ?
Ain’t no cure for stupid.
***
Marie White’s extraordinary painting of the man who devised collateral for the slaves and effectively wound up being a slave himself for this wise idea.
[Editor’s note: if there ain’t no cure for stupid – which is most likely true — what can you say about the dunce who came up with the idea to have a blackmail and branding, master-slave multilevel marketing sorority which he would secretly lead? His branding gimmick was smart, smart to make it his initials without telling the women, and the idea of taking collateral – stuff that would destroy a woman’s life if it was revealed, that was real genius. But the greatest bit of smart from the world’s smartest man is that he thought 1000s of women could keep this all a secret. Ain’t no cure? He has 120 years to figure it all out… Viva Executive Success!]
