I Lost My Son to the Alt-Right Movement

Anonymous As Told To Alexa Tsoulis-Reay
The Cut
August 18, 2017

My son was in Charlottesville. He probably went with his friends, but I don’t know for sure because I haven’t talked to him in about three years.




Maybe some alt-righters were born into racist families and then they just follow along, but we weren’t like that. He grew up in a big, multicultural city. When he was a kid, he was very accepting — his friend group was ethnically diverse, we often hosted overseas exchange students. He was dating someone who wasn’t white. He was a responsible kid. I mean, he would occasionally drink and smoke pot and stuff like that, but he wasn’t getting into trouble or anything. He had a few close friends, but he was not that great with getting girlfriends.

He was a good student, smart, sweet, and we were close. He always told me he loved me. But over time he began to change. I was worried it was drugs or depression. He started treating me like shit. I remember one time I went to hug him and he nearly ripped me a new one just for touching him. He said, “We have nothing in common.” I was hurt. That was just the beginning.

When he was in his late teens, he started listening to this podcast FreeDomain Radio. After he told me about it, I googled it, and from that point forward, my life was never the same. It was founded by this guy Stefan Molyneux, who I later learned is a major figure on the alt-right. He spews horrible things. I heard him listening to the podcasts in his bedroom. My son started saying things like, If we could just get the Asians out of here it wouldn’t be so crowded. I realized he was getting into really dangerous stuff. He was beyond the point where we could have a rational discussion. Not long after, I told him I thought he should move out.

After he left, we stopped talking and he pretty much alienated his closest friends. The only way I could keep track of him was by watching his online presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube (I remembered his nicknames from when he lived at home). I saw that he was questioning the Holocaust, and tweeting about Trump, white supremacy, and all this horrible stuff about women. On his YouTube account, people were commenting that women don’t need to have education because their place is at home having babies. I panicked and approached a local religious group that’s very knowledgeable about cults and they said, Just wait it out and take care of yourself.

These days, I check up on him whenever I’m on the computer — it’s constant. I’ve got all his social-media pages pinned on Google Chrome. Sometimes he removes posts quickly and sometimes he makes things public and leaves them there. Maybe he wants me to see? I make sure I’m not logged in when I look at his accounts because I don’t want him to block me.

I recently saw him on a video, he looks healthy. Taking good care of yourself is all part of the white-supremacy thing, right? They have to be in good shape in case there’s violence, and they have to be fit so they can make good white babies. My thinking these days is God forbid he should have kids.

I knew from his tweets that he was going to Charlottesville and I was nervous because I know these things can turn violent. And throughout the day I was anxious, waiting for him to tweet so I knew he was okay. I’m horrified that he was there. From his tweets, it sounds like he was hanging around with neo-Nazis. It’s hard for me to believe. And then there’s a part of me that hopes he does something and gets caught because that’s one way to get him reformed.

I think the biggest thing with him is he needed a father figure. His dad really disappointed him. The alt-right is definitely a group that people are recruited into. I really do believe that. They take a “normal” level of fear of difference to the extreme. And I think that time of life — after school, when you are in your early 20s, is a real period of transition, of finding yourself. These kids think they have found the answer in these alt-right groups, you know? Like, I can be a part of something that’s bigger than me … and then they feel like they’re really going to make a difference, they even have a passion for making a difference.

All parents look back at how they raised their children and think they could have done something different, but I did the best I could. I raised him alone for a big part of his life. When he was younger, I had more control, but you can’t be with them 24/7. You don’t know what they’re listening to. They take their laptops to school. You can’t know everything that’s on the internet. Once they find it and feel like it speaks to them, they’re not going to listen to you.

These days the only way I can reach him is email. I sometimes send him videos of our dog. I have an extension on email that shows me if he reads it. The last thing I sent him was a video of our dog, but you could hear my voice … I secretly hope he felt something when he heard my voice, because deep inside I know he must miss me.

*Some names and details have been changed.

https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/charlottesville-white-supremacy-parenting-alt-right.html

How Cults Use YouTube for Recruitment

You can now unknowingly be recruited into a cult without leaving your home.

MACK LAMOUREUX
VICE
August 11, 2017

On July 15, Steven Mineo was found dead from a single gunshot.

According to his girlfriend, Barbara Rogers, Mineo was seated on the ground cross-legged in his Pennsylvania apartment when she pulled the trigger of the Glock. Rogers also told police that her boyfriend wanted to die.

For years, the two allegedly belonged to a cult started by Sherry Shriner, an online conspiracy theorist. Shriner works through the internet with a website, a podcast, and a YouTube channel. She preaches that a group called the New World Order—made up of reptilians and aliens—is plotting to take over the world.

Speaking with police, Rogers said that Mineo wanted to die because of a feud with the Shriner and her followers. She said the troubles started with Shriner seeing a picture of Rogers eating raw meat. Upon viewing this image Shriner dubbed Rogers a reptilian and excommunicated the two from the group. The two were then harassed by Shriner's followers for three months. It didn't end until Rogers shot Mineo in the head—Shriner for her part says that Mineo was killed by NATO.

On her website, Shriner writes long diatribes with titles like "The Coming Alien-Locust-Giant Invasions" and "How Aliens Target, Manipulate, And Control Mankind." While Shriner preaches from Ohio, her videos are used as a global entry point to recruit believers from all over the world. Her website has a YouTube subscriber count of over 6,000, and cumulatively her videos have been seen over a million times.

This isn't a phenomena unique to Shriner. Essentially, social media—especially YouTube—has become the secret weapon of cult recruitment.

"What I think most people don't realize is how a group can be just totally in the ether," said Rick Ross, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Cult Education Institute. "People interface with them using social media—using Skype—they don't meet face-to-face."

"This is a phenomena that we're seeing more and more of—we're seeing it every day."

Join a Cult Without Leaving the House

The definition of a cult has become a little bit of a moving target over the years. Perhaps the closest to the definitive explanation was proposed in a 1981 paper, wherein Dr. Robert Lifton, a psychologist known for his theory of thought reform, wrote that regardless of its ideology a "destructive cult" had three recurring themes: an authoritative or all-knowing leader; the existence of a thought control program that breaks down critical thinking to gain undue influence; and the exploitation of its members.

Steve Hassan, the founder of Freedom of Mind Resource Center and mental health counsellor who specializes in helping those in cults, says familiar exploitation tactics are increasingly being applied online. "The younger generation has grown up on the internet, this is the fertile recruitment zone," Hassan told VICE. "They're now more likely to be recruited in social media than in person."

Major cults such as Raëlism, The Church of the Brethren, The Moonies, The Family International all have prolific YouTube presences. Raëlism—a cult founded in the 70s that believes humans were created by aliens—has what they call Rael TV and the Rael Academy where they post videos that are aimed at people who don't know about the group but want to learn more—some of the videos have hundreds of thousands of views.

For every one of these larger, more established groups there exists several small ones like the Divine Truth, Trumpet Call of God, and Shriner.

Some videos recruit by twisting established religions, while others claim to offer a more secular "truth." Some encourage followers to self isolate and only communicate with other group members online, all while sending money to the leader. A few simply tell people to drop everything to join a compound. While each cult differs in tactics, there is a recurring theme—they can all recruit you from the comfort of your own home.

"It's creepy," said Ross. "You're a parent and your kid is in his bedroom and he's on his smartphone and he's in a cult and he's in your house. You're there watching Netflix and your kid is interfacing with cult members and a cult leader on his smartphone."

Some of the groups and leaders subsist solely off YouTube. One alleged cult called Fellowship of the Martyrs—who are focused on demonology among other things—is run by a man named Doug Perry who has about 15,000 YouTube subscribers and 1,300 videos posted so far. All the videos are just Perry talking into the camera talking about his religion like he is giving a sermon to a congregation.

Two experts consulted for this piece stated that on a purely technical level, ISIS is the most successful cult at harnessing the power of the internet. The radical Islamic terror cell operates an extremely sophisticated network of online propaganda. This propaganda is why it's possible for people to self-radicalize and commit terror attacks without ever physically meeting anyone in the group.

While YouTube is one of the bigger platforms utilized by cults, they will use any tool available to extend their reach, said Ross. This utilization of social media, paired with the platform's ability to allow people to entrench themselves into a bubble is something further exasperating the issue.

"People can cocoon themselves in a kind of alternative universe, you choose who you friend on Facebook, you choose who you follow on Twitter, you choose who you watch on YouTube and you can kinda create an alternative reality," said Ross.

"I've been doing this for a long time, and people can embed in such a way that they cut themselves off from reality. There is this self-reinforcing alternative universe they occupy. It's something people can create more and more effectively right now."
A Former Follower's Tale

Marisa O'Connor was in her early 20s when she was turned onto Freedomain Radio (FDR) and the teachings of Canadian pseudo-philosopher Stefan Molyneux.

It started when one of O'Connor's friends gave her the name of a bald, pleasantly accented man preaching about anarchism on the internet. This was a subject she was interested in, so she decided to give it a try. From the get-go O'Connor "was pretty much hooked" by Molyneux's long diatribes in which he stares directly into the camera for hours.

"It started off with him talking about anarchy and then he gets into criticizing religion and saying stuff like all the worlds problems are caused by 'bad parenting,'" O'Connor told VICE.

Listening to Molyneux for hours on end talking about this, O'Connor convinced herself that her parents didn't really love her and were instead abusive and manipulative. She also learned that Molyneux has a solution for people who end up falling into this line of thinking: deFOOing, completely dissociating yourself from your family.

"[Molyneux's] theory was that if enough people did this—made this sacrifice—then he would send a message to the world that parents need to treat your kids better," said O'Connor. "So that's what I believed I was doing, I was taking part of this mission to protect children."

You may have heard of Molyneux or seen his face. In recent days, he has garnered attention as a pro-Trump media figure—his work was just touched upon in a New York Times write up about YouTube being the new far-right talk radio. On YouTube, Molyneux regularly gets high profile interviews and boasts about 650,000 subscribers. His videos have been viewed over 185 million times—he also has a subscription service on his websites that can cost his listeners up to $500.

For almost a decade now, experts and former members have stated Molyneux's Freedomain Radio (FDR) functions as a de-facto cult because of deFOOing—as it results in self-isolation and devotion to Molyneux. The Cult Information Centre in Britain, which has been around for 30 years and offers help to cult victims and their families, has even gone so far as to deem Freedomain Radio a cult, while the group's overarching cultyness has been touched on by outlets like The Guardian and the Daily Beast. Steve Hassan is one of the experts critical of Molyneux. On Hassan's website Freedom of the Mind, it states that FDR utilizes behavioural and emotional control such as excommunicating people who criticize him or the group, and inspiring fear of the outside world to his followers.

Molyneux has previously disputed claims the FDR is a cult and did not respond to VICE's request for comment.

A FDR member was actually the first person that Hassan was hired to help who had been "recruited in his own apartment" after spending "hours and hours listening to podcasts and watching videos." Hassan said the political conversations and interviews are the entry point to deFOOing. That people watch Molyneux because he's charismatic, picks hot button issues to speak about, and puts on the image of a man who knows what he's talking about.

"People like this say three true things and slip in something unverifiable or untestable and the mind, in its shortcuts, goes yes, yes, yes, yes and even though that last one is not a yes, it's a question mark," said Hassan.

In 2008, believing her family was abusing her, O'Connor completely stopped talking to them while distancing herself from friends who questioned her actions—she was convinced by Molyneux that these people were cowards. After about a year, her work life became so strained because she was "so immersed in this other world" that she was fired.

From here on out she was completely isolated, only interacting with other FDR members either through forums or Skype. While money was tight she continued to subscribe to Molyneux's premium podcasts and services paying about $50 a month. Molyneux became the biggest part of her world—she was her hero, her teacher.

"When I was isolated, my whole world was FDR, I would come home and listen to the podcast with a fellow member and we would talk about the podcast and have phone conversations with other people in the group," said O'Connor.

This state of self-isolation lasted for years and was one where Molyneux "had the word, he had the truth, he would tell you what to think about." However, after getting into the inner circle and seeing how it worked, O'Connor started to pull away. While the reasons were numerous, she told VICE the biggest occurred when one of her friends left FDR. O'Connor expected this friends life to crumble after turning her back on FDR—something the group was led to believe would happen—but it didn't, she saw her friend flourish.

So in 2012, after four years in isolation, O'Connor reached out to her family and broke her self-isolation. On the forums she started being critical of Molyneux which quickly led to her expulsion from that segment of the group. O'Connor said that life is pretty good these days and that's she's open about her experience—she appeared on a Showtime doc regarding FDR—but it took about five years for her life become normalized again and that she's now extremely wary of what media she takes in.

"Something I've learned coming out of this, is just how much of this there is in the world," O'Connor said. "It worries me a lot... It's so scary because we think of the internet as an incredible resource of information and I guess we have to realize that a lot of it is bad—a lot of it is bad information."

O'Connor said that she's noticed Molyneux doesn't mention deFOOing as much these days but she still sees followers self-isolating to this day. Molyneux hasn't turned down the us-versus-them rhetoric. In a recent video, Molyneux asked his followers to send him money because the "big fight" against mainstream media he's been "gearing up for thirty years" is nearly here.
'Self-policing'

O'Connor's story is just one of many and FDR is just one of many varying groups preaching online. When asked what could be a possible solution for this problem, Ross told VICE that he believes the answer lies with the platforms themselves.

"I think the social media needs to self-police," he said. "I'm not saying that in violation to freedom of speech or the first amendment but when a group is overtly violent or engaged in outright fraud and financially bilking people and really being abusive, I think YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, whoever it is, needs to self-police to that extent."

While the vast majority of the content on YouTube is not, in any way, connected to cultic activity, some intensely easy-to-find videos are. Recently, YouTube stated they would be self-policing "controversial" videos—specifically referring to terror groups—more rigorously than ever before. This includes working with experts, applying tougher standards, and working with counter extremists. The new policies include a measure that drew the ire of many after they announced they would be placing some "controversial" videos that don't violate their terms in a sort of limbo where they won't be recommended, monetized, and will lack key features.

Hoyt Richards, a survivor from a cult in the 1980s who now works to help people transition away from cults, said that one of the biggest impasses for those fighting cult recruitment is a lack of understanding of what cults are and who can be affected. Recounting his own experience Richards told VICE he was "so convinced it can't be a cult from the mere fact I was in the group. Categorically the biggest problem is people don't understand what it is." This is a notion that O'Connor reiterated. "Honestly, the people that I knew were very smart and it seems like it's harder for intelligent people to come out of it," she said.

Since the onset of the internet, Ross has been hired numerous times to work with people who have joined cults through the web. One of the men Ross was hired to work with was university educated and considered highly intelligent. This man's job required him to work from home and spend hours upon hours on his computer. He was going through a hard time following his best friend's death, and stumbled across videos for a group called Israelites United in Christ.

"He basically marinated his mind in their YouTube until he was swimming in the Kool-Aid," said Ross. "Then he went to the first meeting, but by the time he went he had been convinced and completely captivated by these YouTube videos. He showed up there for the first time as a true believer."

Ross has been working as a cult deprogrammer since 1986 and says he has worked on over 500 cases. His time working with former cult members isn't without controversy. Ross was consulted in the disastrous handling of a cult in Waco—where a botched siege burned down the Branch Davidians compound outside the Texas city and 76 people died as a result—and his involvement was criticized by other experts. In 1995, Ross was sued by Jason Scott, a man deemed to be a follower of pentecostal cult who Ross attempted to deprogram. In a civil suit, Scott was awarded millions—Ross also faced criminal charges but was acquitted by jury. The case bankrupt the Cult Awareness Network which had been in operation since 1978.

While the internet and its platforms allow these groups to operate and to recruit, it also works as a tool for escape. Online there is a lot of information on what cults are—Rick Ross' Cult Education Institute runs a free database that offers information on cults and has contacts for family members who believe a loved one is in a cult.

Furthermore, the online world also offers a community for those reentering the world after freeing themselves from the grasp of a cult. There exists forums and support groups, some of which are even particular to certain cults. FDR Liberated is website critical of Molyneux that hosts which provides support and community to those who have stopped listening to the "philosopher."

"FDR Liberated was incredible for me—it was huge," O'Connor told VICE. "I honestly have no idea what I would have done without it... The forum itself I really appreciated when I was struggling more, to have this place to go and talk about these things."

Hassan said that cult leaders and manipulators will always utilize tools to further their thirst for money, power, or what be it.

"People who think they have the truth with a capital T explore every existing application or platform—maybe even make their own—in order to find their true believers or to find their core membership. It's going to just keep evolving over time, it's not static," Hassan said.

"Whatever it is on today, in three years, it's going to be on new apps and different ways of doing things."

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/wjj85y/youtube-has-become-a-breeding-ground-for-digital-cults

TV Alert: Stefan Molyneux

February 18th on Showtime’s Dark Net Docuseries - Trapped

 

The February 18th episode of Showtime’s Dark Net docuseries will discuss online cults.  It will feature a segment about Stefan Molyneux and the Freedomain Radio community.

http://www.sho.com/sho/dark-net/season/1/episode/5#/index

Meet the ‘Cult’ Leader Stumping for Donald Trump

Daily Beast
January 5, 2016

It starts with podcasts and YouTube videos starring Stefan Molyneux, the blogger currently debunking ‘untruths’ about Trump. Then there’s a note on the door—and Molyneux’s acolytes are never heard from again.

Two weeks ago on Reddit's largest community for Donald Trump supporters, a user named WolfOfAnarchy dropped by with a request that was becoming almost tediously common for regulars on the site.

“Sanders supporter here,” he began. “Can you convince me (just not with idiotic oneliners) that Trump is not who the media makes him out to be? Thanks.”

“If you have any time, you should watch this,” another user jumped in.

That comment, which had the highest score, linked to a website: UntruthAboutDonaldTrump.com.

Other Trump supporters piled on, saying they were sick of having to post this same video over and over again. “I really wish our mods would sticky this (or affix it to the top of the website permanently) so we don’t have to link this all the time,” one user wrote.

“That one video would clear up so much all the time,” said another.

Why? Because this video, for some reason, tends to work. And now, again, Trump's online supporters got to watch it in action: someone being told the real truth about Donald Trump for the very first time.

“I’m 5 minutes in, very very interesting so far,” WolfOfAnarchy reported back. “Trump is not stupid, that’s clear, damn.”

When you click through to UntruthAboutDonaldTrump.com, you simply see this: a balding man smiling through a salt-and-pepper goatee, clad in an ironed button-down shirt, and standing well-lit in front of a static white background. He greets you warmly in a trusting, even-toned Irish accent. His name is Stefan Molyneux.

“Hope you’re doing well,” he says. “We’re going to go through a list of untruths about Donald Trump, just so you can get a fair assessment of the man’s character and avoid the sensationalistic nonsense and get to the man’s actual positions and policies—which are well worth an examination, and certainly not above criticism.”

Basically, as subreddit users put it, Molyneux sets out to make a reasoned, calm, intellectual argument for the candidacy of Donald Trump.

And for the first few minutes, it’s hard to disagree with him. Molyneux, slowly reading along from a PowerPoint-like text of talking points, breaks down passages from Trump’s Art of the Deal. He contends that Trump can’t possibly be as dimwitted as the media makes him out to be and convincingly argues that it all must be part of Trump’s plan. Molyneux, 49, is charismatic, open, immediately transfixing—almost enough for you to forget the video’s 73-minute run time.

“15 minutes in,” WolfOfAnarchy wrote. “Jesus, the misinformation of the media is insane. I have never listened to a Trump speech, only the media. I now read his quotes and holy fuck have the media been turning my mind into a certain direction.”

Later on comes the questionable stuff from Molyneux—sentences like, “It’s crazy you have to go to the former KGB leader to get the truth about the American presidential race”—but by the time he gets there, Molyneux has you hooked.

It’s a pattern all too familiar for some families who’ve had a child watch Molyneux’s videos and listen to his podcasts. At first, it’s just their kid watching videos about something controversial but familiar—The Matrix, The Martian, or Donald Trump.

Then, a few months and a few more podcasts later, there’s a note on the door. After that moment, they never see their child again.

***

Barbara Weed said she never understood the appeal of Molyneux’s videos. She always found him “loathsome.”

But Weed said she knows the feeling this first-time Molyneux watcher is experiencing all too well.

She said it’s the feeling her son, Tom Bell, had a little over eight years ago, the last time she saw him. It’s the feeling he had before he ran away from home to join what she and experts like those at the British Cult Information Center call “Molyneux’s cult.”

“My son is still gone. He’s alive, in a foreign country. He cut off not just me, but all of the family and all of his friends. I haven’t had direct contact with him since 2008,” said Weed, a Labour councilor from South Leamington in the U.K. “It sounds a bit strange when I say that to people.”

One day eight years ago, Weed came home to see a note on her doormat from her son. It said he was moving in with a friend and it instructed her not to contact him.

About six months before that, she had heard him listening to podcasts in his room. It all started with a school assignment for his Critical Thinking & Philosophy class. That led him to a YouTube video called “Introduction to Philosophy.” It shows Molyneux pacing around a room in 2006, talking about perceptions of what is really “true.”

Tom initially tried to introduce his mother to it, but she said she simply wasn’t interested.

“My politics were just very different from [Molyneux’s],” she said.

Still, that Introduction to Philosophy podcast had Tom hooked. His mother thought he was listening to the same one over and over again in his bedroom, as Molyneux droned on about the same ideas: identity, an extreme version of libertarianism, and the inherent abuse embedded in the concept of family.

It turns out, however, they were all different episodes, and sometimes there were group Skype chats with Molyneux and his fellow diehards.

“He told me he was getting advice from people on the Internet,” she said. “I didn’t know what he was planning to do. I didn’t know how deeply he was involved.”

What she also didn’t know was that Molyneux’s uniform advice to his dedicated listenership was a simple, cruel plan: Move away from your parents, because it is almost impossible for any mother or father not to have abused you in some way over the course of your lifetime.

“I’ve interviewed former insiders, and I’ve learned a fair bit about [Molyneux] and about the cult,” said Steve Hassan, a licensed mental health counselor and leading American cult expert. “He thinks that anyone who has circumcised a child is a child abuser and convinces his followers to cut off all contact from family and friends—even if it was a sibling who has nothing to do with it.”

Last year, Hassan was hired by a family to help them reunite with a child who had run away under the influence of Molyneux’s ideology. Hassan said he believes this kind of “YouTube cult” can often be more dangerous than a sect with a built-in church or community, as it can convince vulnerable young men and women with nowhere to go to leave on a moment’s notice—and without any support system to help them get by.

All of it is part of a process Molyneux calls “deFOOing,” or extracting oneself from their “family of origin.”

Molyneux’s wife, Christina Papadopoulos, a licensed therapist in Canada, was sanctioned by the College of Psychologists of Ontario in Mississauga in 2012 for appearing on her husband’s podcast and advocating for precisely that. The panel found her guilty of professional misconduct for giving improper advice and telling people to leave their families.

Molyneux’s group, which organizes in forums online and sometimes in person, was called a “therapy cult” by family members in Canada’s Globe & Mail.

In response to allegations that his group is a cult in a 2008 Globe & Mail interview, Molyneux called it “the c-word” and said, “I’m sure a few marriages broke up because of feminism. It doesn’t make feminism a cult.”

On Molyneux-affiliated defoo.org, however, the group now self-identifies as a “highly profitable self-knowledge cult.”

Molyneux did not respond to repeated requests for comment from The Daily Beast.

“Partly what’s going on with the people on the Internet who are indoctrinated, they spend lots of hours on the computer. Videos can have them up all night for several nights in a row,” said Hassan. “Molyneux knows how to talk like he knows what he’s talking about—despite very, very little academic research. He cites this and cites that, and presents it as the whole truth. It dismantles people’s sense of self and replaces it with his sense of confidence about how to fix the world.”

Molyneux’s plan to fix the world may start with disassociation from family, but it also relies on devotees sending him cash—although recently he has insisted it’s not necessary—in a tiered donation system not unlike the one Scientology uses. Weed said her son had been giving money to Molyneux in order to reach the highest level of membership and, in turn, become part of Molyneux’s inner circle.

“That level is called Philosopher King,” said Weed. “Tom was giving all of his money to him to become one of his special little friends, despite being a starving student.”

“He’s making a living off of people donating money,” said Hassan.

Worse yet, Molyneux’s staff and followers publicly shame and post personal information about those who leave the group. Molyneux’s group calls the process of reuniting and making amends with family “reFOOing.”

Former inner-circle members often speak out in videos posted to YouTube and in the support group for spurned family members and ex-Molyneux acolytes, FDRLiberated.com. (FDR is short for FreeDomainRadio, Molyneux’s YouTube and podcast channel.)

Once members leave the group, bios are posted ondefoo.org that outrank any other mention of that member’s name on Google. Those bios include every previous address, phone number, family member, and traffic violation, plus texts with a clear aim to shame the individual in question. A typical example reads:

“[A former member] gave up on FDR because the community didn’t support the wearing of makeup. After breaking up with [redacted], she needed to attract a new male and was having trouble without her precious face paint. She has struggled with acne and feels insecure if people can see it. [That former member] now applies a thick layer of makeup to her face every day. It’s almost as thick as her False Self.”

That sort of shaming—and the thousands of dollars Tom Bell has poured into Molyneux’s coffers—is why Barbara Weed doesn’t think she’ll see her son again any time soon.

“I don’t know where Tom is. I don’t have the money to get a cult expert, either. I don’t think Tom would listen to anybody else, even if I did,” said Weed. “All I can do is wait and try and get the message out to people that Molyneux is doing horrible things, and that it’s a cult.”

Hassan said it’s standard brainwashing, but there is good news: Molyneux isn’t all that good at it.

“I guess, on the scale of things, I would say he’s not that successful. He doesn’t have that many people in his core,” he said. “You talk to former members and critics, and they talk about what’s really going on at the core, that he’s acting like a total megalomaniac, that he says his gift to his mother was that he didn’t kill her.”

Hassan said he worries more about what Molyneux represents: charismatic people with a platform taking advantage of disaffected people who are “upset with how the relationships in their lives are going anyway” and are in desperate search for meaning.

“My life’s work is explaining it to everybody—to not get taken over by black-and-white, us-vs.-them thinkers,” he said. “In terms of politics, right now, does that sound familiar?”

***

Hassan believes there’s a clear reason Donald Trump attracts people like Molyneux and his supporters, or fans of conspiracy websites like InfoWars, which sells end-of-the-world food rations and which Trump called “amazing” in December.

Basically, both cater to the same idea: Get rid of one major thing from your life, and everything will work out.

“It’s no surprise he’s so into Trump,” Hassan said. “When Trump first talked about banning the Internetand Muslims, it was like that: They wanted to impose a one-sided view of what reality really is.”

Both Trump and Molyneux, Hassan said, make an appeal for your respect by offering a “truth” that the media simply won’t tell you. Only Molyneux and Trump can show you that it’s all one big “untruth,” anyway.

“Trump is the quintessential, stereotypical cult leader in that the crux of his argument is that ‘they’ lie all the time,” said Hassan. “‘Don’t you wanna follow someone who is trustworthy? If they lie to the public, how do you know they’re not lying to you? Why would you consciously want to follow someone who’s a liar?’ It’s an appeal for respect for people who want a black-and-white answer.”

Weed said she has a hard time watching Trump’s speeches on TV because she sees the same in Molyneux as she does in the presidential candidate.

“If you try and write down what Molyneux has said, it’s incomplete sentences. It’s not a logical flow of thought. There’s nothing like a conclusion. He just rambles. He’ll just jump midsentence to somewhere else, just like Trump does,” she said. “He uses very extreme language, except Molyneux is a bit more extreme, with a direct plan.”

Still, Weed doesn’t think Molyneux is all that much of a Trump supporter, after all. She believes he’s using Trump’s name as a new way to drag people away from their families and into his group.

Molyneux has done the same with videos about anything slightly countercultural but accessible, above all. He’s made videos about The Matrix. He’s made podcasts attacking President Obama. He’s created episodes about police shootings that were initially anti-police, but eventually started making videos that defended police and criticized the families of victims like Michael Brown.

“He’s gotten better and better at getting attention by just being controversial,” said Weed. “It’s just clickbait. At the end of the day, it’s whatever will bring more people to his site.”

After all, Tom got there because he felt he was finally being told the truth about the world from a YouTube video with a search engine-friendly title: an Introduction to Philosophy.

Now, almost a decade later, Weed is still holding out hope that her son will catch wind of the dozens of ex-members who post their horror stories on YouTube, or that Molyneux’s group will fold as, she said, “these cults tend to do.” Or maybe he’ll just drift away, as she said lot of Tom’s friends already have.

“It’s possible Tom will leave some day. Or, one day, Molyneux might just drop dead,” she said. “That would be lovely. He might get hit by a truck. A meteorite might fall on his head. I could have my son back.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/05/meet-the-cult-leader-stumping-for-donald-trump.html

Teal Swan vs Stefan Molyneux

Published on Sep 28, 2015

"Teal and Stefan have both been accused of running cults and not just by outside observers but by people who have defected from their “inner circles”."

Controversial podcaster listened in on therapist wife and clients: lawsuit

Tu Thanh Ha
The Globe and Mail
December 19, 2014

Already controversial for counselling his followers to shun their parents, a Toronto-area podcaster is facing allegations he listened in on his therapist wife as she met with distraught patients.

Stefan Molyneux is a self-described libertarian philosopher. His wife, Christina Papadopoulos, is a psychological associate in Mississauga.

The College of Psychologists of Ontario found Ms. Papadopoulos guilty of professional misconduct in November, 2012, faulting her for adopting Mr. Molyneux’s views and using the Internet to counsel people to sever ties with their families.

A civil court complaint filed on Oct. 24 in California says Mr. Molyneux boasted in a 2006 podcast that he would listen while his wife talked with her patients, even interjecting and suggesting they sign up with his website.

The allegations are part of a lawsuit filed by a Texas woman who has accused Mr. Molyneux of abusively invoking U.S. copyright law to silence her criticism of his podcasts.

Mr. Molyneux has not filed a statement of defence and could not be reached for comment. Ms. Papadopoulos and her lawyer declined to comment.

Catherine Yarrow, executive director of the College of Psychologists, said she could not specifically comment on the latest allegations against Ms. Papadopoulos. However, she said both the college’s regulations and Ontario laws make it illegal to disclose personal information without a client’s consent.

While not a household name, Mr. Molyneux is a controversial figure whose views have earned him both supporters and detractors. Several parents have told The Globe and Mail that their children became estranged from their families after listening to him.

In the recent lawsuit, the Texas woman, identified as J. Raven, says in her complaint that she started a YouTube channel criticizing Mr. Molyneux after discovering his podcasts and his boast that his website, Freedomain Radio, is the “most popular philosophical conversation in the world.”

Her lawsuit said one of her video criticisms quoted from a Molyneux podcast in which he said “that he listens in on his wife’s confidential sessions with her patients in her home office and interferes with the therapy sessions to suggest the patients join and donate to Freedomain Radio.”

The comments are not in the version of podcast 291 now on Mr. Molyneux’s YouTube channel, but are in a longer version Ms. Raven provided after a request from The Globe and Mail.

In the version provided by Ms. Raven, Mr. Molyneux states that it is June 21, 2006. He then speaks about listening in as his wife meets with “messed up and sobbing” clients at her home office.

“I’m in the vent system, listening, and I’m – she calls it heckling, but I don’t really call it heckling, I just call it providing suggestions about how things should go and that the people should donate to Freedomain Radio,” he says in the podcast.

“I mean, it takes them a while to figure what on Earth that is, but I do, sort of, try to put my two cents in and Christina says that sometimes can be distracting and so on. But even with the combined weight of her, directly in front of them, and me, my ghostly voice floating in through the vents, they still have trouble making the kind of personal changes that really have a positive effect on their lives.”

Ms. Raven says in her lawsuit that her YouTube channel was shut down after complaints from an associate of Mr. Molyneux, Michael DeMarco, who invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a U.S. law regulating intellectual property.

Under the DMCA, an Internet provider facing allegations that its clients violated copyright can avoid liability by removing the contentious content, even without investigating the validity of the complaint. As a result, so-called DMCA takedowns have been criticized as an abusive form of censorship.

“Molyneux apparently believes that it is acceptable to use the copyright laws to silence his critics – without any claimed copyright basis – by publishing false accusations,” the lawsuit said, noting that Mr. Molyneux previously opposed intellectual property.

Ms. Papadopoulos appeared before a disciplinary panel of the college in 2012 after two formal complaints that she offered improper advice on podcasts she made with Mr. Molyneux.

The college said she advocated a practice called deFOOing, or dissociating from one’s family of origin. “Your statements in support of deFOOing are not supported by current professional literature or consistent with the standards,” the panel ruled.

It added: “Your objectivity, competence and effectiveness were compromised by financial interests since you and the Freedomain Radio website … actively solicited donations.”

She was found guilty and reprimanded.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/controversial-podcaster-listened-in-on-therapist-wife-and-clients-lawsuit-alleges/article22158708/?service=mobile