I have been deeply interested in cults and coercive mind control for years. To me, there is no greater violation than to take the very essence of someone’s mind from them, unless you’re doing it for the money.

So, after years of trying to come up with an idea for a podcast that I knew I would be able to produce with some regularity, it hit me (of all places, on a massage table): Talk about cults.

There are tons of podcasts that cover cults on the web. I’ve listened to a bunch. But most of them come from a place (at least partially) of using the subject of cults and mind control as entertainment. It’s their right to do that, and if it gets people interested in knowing more, then good on them.

What I wanted to do was to create a podcast where I sit down with someone who has very close (preferably firsthand) knowledge of a cult, leader, coercive group, etc, and get them to tell me their story. I wanted to know about the people who get ensnared.

That’s what On Belief is.

On Belief is a Podcast about how ordinary every single person I spoke to about cults is. It’s about how smart they are. It’s about how capable they are. And it’s about how they spent the time when they were being mind controlled, and how they got out.

In the coming weeks, you will hear stories that with shock you and make you cry, but my goal isn’t to scandalize. It’s to raise the alarm that thought reform is insidious and omnipresent. We’re living in a post truth society where even though you can Google any cult and find out in 10 seconds whether they are a cult, the allure of charismatic leaders who can make sense of our tough world is stronger than ever.

The first episode in this series is an interview with Rick Alan Ross of the Cult Education Institute. He tells me, among many other things, that while he has studied cults for decades, given the right conditions, he could be thought reformed.

I hope you’ll tune in to this episode, available here.

You can get more information on each episode including production notes and links to what was discussed by visiting the website here.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this series.

You may know the Krassenstein Brothers from “endlessly being retweeted by kind democrats” in your Twitter timeline. They are the brothers who have built sizeable Twitter followings off such brave “resistance” tweets as this gem:

They run a website called Hill Reporter, which I will not link to because I do not want them to receive any ad revenue.

They’re also famous for a book called “How the People Trumped Ronald Plump” notable for both the use of the left version of “Barfsack O’Crumbo” and for a weirdly buff Robert Mueller character who apparently buys his suits at the same place Chippendales does:

But what is often left out of the Krassenstein’s story is how they got here in the first place.

Well, the answer to that is that Hill Reporter isn’t their first business venture, and that business venture brought them very close to their FBI pals indeed.

You see, the Krassensteins’ homes were raided by the FBI in 2016 in conjunction with their participation in what have been called “Online Ponzi Schemes.”

As The Daily Beast Reported earlier this year,

According to the feds, the brothers also, until recently, ran websites that propped up fraudulent online financial scams. Law enforcement officials last year seized nearly half a million dollars from the brothers, money that prosecutors say was derived from wire fraud.

Long before they took up the #Resistance mantle, the Krassensteins began hawking dubious investment advice — way back in 2003 — on a pair of internet forums, selling ads to online money-making operations that included a number of apparent scams, including some run by people later convicted on charges ranging from fraud to capital murder

According to prosecutors, the services the Krassensteins promoted on their websites duped thousands of “investors” into funding Ponzi scheme-type scams and even resulted in some downloading a virus that emptied their accounts on an anonymous online-payment platform used by the Krassensteins themselves, before it was shut down as part of a major federal money-laundering investigation.

Man, those guys love the FBI so much, they participated in widespread fraud just to get them to come over!

Activists on the left who are actually organizing and doing on-the-ground work are also skeptical of the brothers’ motives and they are repeatedly referenced in every article about “online grifters” (usually alongside Eric Garland and Louise Mensch.)

They’re referenced that way because the overwhelming evidence points to them seeing the hashtag Resistance as nothing more than another grift opportunity.

And boy do they NOT LIKE IT when you mention that.

They’re extremely online guys who will follow ANYONE who mentions their name, so they can keep tabs on them.

Luckily for them, they have an army of breathless followers they can weaponize at a moment’s notice to help them feel better about themselves and silence dissent.

Reply to a tweet of theirs with anything but effusive praise, and you will be met with all manner of people instantly turning on you and calling you a “Trumpist” or something equally tragic or something downright hurtful or actionable. (Recently, one of them said I was a child conceived in incest. Great group!)

It is well known in media circles that, short of Elon Musk, the people who follow the Krassensteins are some of the most tenacious true believing assholes you’ll ever have the displeasure of tussling with online.

And that, dear friends, is where this story begins.

On election night, I tweeted this, after seeing numerous people retweeting the brothers:

This is a joke, but it caught the attention of Ed, who then followed me.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I seized my opportunity to tell Ed EXACTLY what I think of him (I mean, if someone you hated knocked on your door, wouldn’t you take extra pleasure in telling them to get the fuck off your property?) I fired up a DM:

Then, I blocked him and posted a tweet about it:

Ed was NOT BEST PLEASED that I DMed him. Not only was he cheesed the h*ck off, but he wanted to speak to the d*ng MANAGER about it. He tagged in every place I have bylines in from my bio with the classic “do they know you’re doing this” language.

So, I did not let this pass, because I am not that bitch.

He wouldn’t even admit to trying to tell on me.

After I made this comment about him being a lil bitch, he blocked me.

But his followers just kept on coming for me. I fielded dozens of people who are supposedly feminist, leftist people who told me to drop dead, they hope I get fired, etc.

One person made comments about my physical appearance vis-a-vis whether they would fuck me.

Again, just a spectacular group.

Every time someone insulted me, almost instantly, there would be 1 like.

That like?

from ED KRASSENSTEIN.

(This will become important in a bit.)

This type of troll is easily dispensed with and I generally don’t pay them much mind, but I quote tweeted a few to highlight that maybe Ed’s fans aren’t paragons of leftist virtue, and that made him all kinds of h*ckin st*amed.

He sent me an email to the form on my website.

I check the web form email 1x a day, because I’m not an ER doctor, and anyone who I care about has my actual email address.

Ed wasn’t being served quickly enough, I guess, so he unblocked me to demand I look at his email:

You’ll notice something about this tweet: it’s a reply to me once again mentioning the name “Krassenstein.” That search program they have is tight.

I told him “no” but curiosity was getting the better of me. So, I opened it.

Here it is:

You will notice that he does not start with an apology. He starts with a cover story that is so ridiculous as to be actively hostile to my intelligence.

The individuals in question were all the people whose tweets he was liking (including the aforementioned “incest” tweet.)

You’ll also notice that he takes a moment to chastise me once again for DMing him, but he’s willing to delete only ONE of the tweets, not all where he tries to get me fired.

Then, the coup de grace: He tries to pretend his grifting shitshow army is for his kids.

This is the kind of email a person sends when they don’t actually respect woman and are demanding some sort of satisfaction out of the deal.

So, Ed (I know you’re reading this, because it will come up in your Google search results that you breathlessly monitor):

I do not accept this half-assed attempt at rapprochement.

My comments to you still stand and are now enhanced with me adding:

You have a problem with women, particularly women who talk back to you.

In this regard, you are no better than the President you claim to loathe partially for his misogyny.

And Ed, I don’t think your children have much of a hope in hell with a grifting misogynist dad who can’t stand 10 minutes without people lobbing adulation at them.

Get fucked, Ed.

Ed Krassenstein is not a “force to be reckoned with” online. He is a grifter who needs to be exposed every chance we get, because people like him taint the actual good work of leftist activists who are putting blood, sweat and tears into the war against fascism in America.

Ed is just a toolbag with a Macbook Pro.

Unfollow the Krassensteins. Don’t buy their shitty book, and follow some real activists and maybe kick them some cash if you can:

Ida's Disciple

@JFREJNYC

Make the Road New York

Redneck Revolt

In the four years that we’ve allowed John Tory to carry out his mandate of “not being a Crack Mayor” he has accomplished exactly that one thing.

BUT!

• Smart Track has not materialized.
• John Tory voted against “the data” on several occasions when they stood to benefit him politically (like over the Gardiner East.)
• John Tory had to be dragged out of his literal mansion to open up the Armouries last year when homeless people were dying on the street from exposure in the dead of winter.

John Tory’s response to the Ford administration’s railroading of the Toronto election was to HOLD A PLEBISCITE. A PLEBISCITE, LIZ LEMON! Rather than take the principled position of telling a bully to lawyer up, because he was going to take their asses to court.

This seemed to some as a weird choice.

But it isn’t a weird choice. It’s a choice that you make when you’re not at all an enemy of Doug Ford.

John Tory IS Doug Ford.

John Tory from a policy perspective has always been a capital C conservative. Doug Ford is a capital C conservative.

The only difference is that once in a while, John Tory puts on a Tommy Bahama shirt and dances for 5 minutes with some gay dudes or some black folks down on the harbourfront.

That’s it.

John Tory does not give a solitary shit if Toronto ever gets a new subway stop.

John Tory does not give a shit if the Fentanyl crisis gets worse.

John Tory does not give a shit that Toronto is becoming extremely unaffordable.

Why?

Because John Tory is probably still going to win on October 22nd, and he hasn’t had to do or promise ANYTHING.

This is the exact way Doug Ford got elected.

They are the same person.

If you think Doug is bad as a Premier, wait until those two really get in league once Tory is emboldened by being re-elected.

If you care about the next 4 years of Toronto, and you did not like the way the last 4 years have gone (a reminder: John Tory is pro-police brutality, and also a racist) then you need to nut up and bone up on who can beat Tory at the polls.

A vote for John Tory means you’re either rich enough that his shitty leadership makes no difference to your life, OR it means that you haven’t been paying attention.

John Tory has never come to terms publicly with the fact that he supported Toronto Police Services in countless bad calls (some fatal) and those same Police officers hid a serial killer operating in Toronto’s Gay Village.

This is exactly what Doug Ford would have done.

John Tory has acted like an outraged 90s dad at the “Second Summer of the Gun” and supported police despite almost all scientific evidence pointing to the root causes of violence in cities being poverty, racism, and inadequate planning in affected areas due to the aforementioned poverty and racism.

This is exactly how Doug Ford feels about the issue.

John Tory will not raise funds to run the city from the top 1% of homeowners in Toronto because he doesn’t want to upset his rich friends who he hopes to extract professional courtesy or favours from in the future.

This is exactly Doug Ford’s position.

If the thought of ANY Ford winning the last election made you retch, you cannot vote for John Tory in this one.

Two Cheeks, Same Arse.

We can’t afford it, Toronto.