A man who will lie about being a judo champion will lie just about anything.
It is such a ridiculous lie and so easily disproven that such a liar must necessarily be brazen.
If he is lying.
Keith Raniere claims on his bio on his website that he was an East Coast Judo Champion when he was 11 years old. He gives no qualifiers – like date, place, or who it was that he defeated.
Things you would normally expect to find on any kind of record of a sporting event victory.
Being a judo champ is a masculine thing. It shows you are a tough hombre and have athletic ability that surpasses almost everyone. It is a fundamental thing for men from time immemorial to be able to defend themselves and protect women.
Keith Raniere claims he could do so at a man’s level since he was 11.
To be a champion of the East Coast of the USA at age 11 shows you have the strength of an adult at the prepubescent age of a child.
It is either a stupid lie or it’s true.
Or it’s rather a lie by omission. Maybe he beat another child in judo but by not qualifying it, he will lead readers to believe he was an East Coast Judo Champion.
It implies a sanctioned event. Something monitored and refereed and recorded somewhere.
I could find no record of this. James Odato of the Albany Times Union could find no record of this.
As for me, if Mr. Raniere is telling the truth about being a judo champion at age 11 [if that means he beat all comers regardless of age], then I would have an entirely different view of Mr. Raniere.
Right now I think he’s a liar.
I believe it’s possible that he took judo classes when he was young and maybe he went to some tournament and possibly beat another small boy his own age to win some kind of a ribbon and he conflated that into a championship.
What I think really happened is perhaps one year he attended the East Coast Judo Tournament – a rather large sounding name for a local Newark New Jersey mostly children judo competition where children competed against children of their own age.
He conflated that into his being an East Coast Judo Champion.
If he were honest, he would say he competed as a boy of 11 against other children his own age – and won in competition in the East Coast judo tournament.
Then it would be revealed as what it was – something rather ordinary.
Nothing remarkable about a small boy who took judo classes competing against other boys his age and even winning.
It is remarkable to downright astonishing if a boy aged 11 could defeat adults in judo to win and be recognized as the champion in judo of the entire east coast.
A number of readers are claiming that my focus on this is irrelevant.
Even if he is lying, they say, it doesn’t matter compared to the greater misdeeds he is alleged to be doing.
Yet if he lied about this, something we can pin down as either fact or fiction, we can begin to acknowledge the truth about Keith Raniere.
He is a liar.
This is important because he claims to teach truth.
Even the most hypnotized person will know that someone who claims to teach truth must tell students and the world the truth.
He must set an example.
It is understood that Mr. Raniere teaches lying can be acceptable in cases where one has to protect a cause or a person. But what reason is there for lying about one’s accomplishments in judo other than to deceive people?
Mr. Raniere did not likely win an East Coast Judo Championship when he was 11 [or according to an earlier interview at age 12]. Or, for that matter, at any age.
If that is the case, he is a liar.
Someone who’s reading this site who is in contact with him will have the gumption to ask him directly.
He will likely lie to her and she will know it.
This is how the process of deprogramming works. It must work this way or there can be no deprogramming.
The mind that said he is infallible must slowly learn he is a liar.
From there, one learns that he can mean no good to me or for that matter the world.
Many people have seen this in Mr. Raniere.
Perhaps one of the next people to see such a thing is Clare Bronfman.
This could happen. And if it does, then Mr. Raniere – and all his crazy pathological lies – will be revealed for what they are. Or, more accurately, for what they’re not.
