Zizian Murder Cult
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Overview
Zizian Murder Cult refers to a group of highly educated software developers allegedly linked to a series of deadly attacks between 2022 and 2025. The group was supposedly recruited by former Rationalist and ex-MIRI member "Ziz," also known as Jack LaSota. In 2025, Maximilian Snyder and Teresa Youngblut, both associated with the "Zizian" cult, were arrested on separate charges of murdering a Vallejo landlord and a Vermont Border Patrol agent. The incidents led to the Zizian group coming under further scrutiny, with some describing its hardline ideology as "vegan Sith," inspired by Star Wars. Ziz has also been accused of targeting and recruiting transgender and nonbinary people into the Zizian cult by other TPOT and LessWrong members, many of whom made posts warning the communities about the cult in the years leading up to the 2025 murders.
Background
Zizians
Ziz (formerly Jack LaSota) is a software developer formerly associated with LessWrong and Eliezer Yudkowsky's Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). The coder broke away from the rationalist/EA community around 2017 and created the blog Sinceriously.fyi.[1] This blog propagated an ideology that combined an extreme interpretation of utilitarian ethics with a stance that veganism was a moral imperative requiring immediate action. This hardline ideology has been described by some as "Vegan Sith."[5]
On November 15th, 2019, Ziz and four other masked protestors were taken into custody at a Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) reunion in Sonoma County, California. In a blog post by Apollo Mojave titled, "The Zizians," Mojave delves into the cult-like tactics supposedly used by Ziz to recruit nonbinary and transgender people. The post explores the group's ideologies, including timeless decision theory and hardline veganism,[4] and also discusses how Ziz would target vulnerable young transgender women to isolate and recruit into her cult.
On February 23rd, 2023, Medium[2] user @sefashapiro made a community post warning people in the Rationalist community about Ziz and their adherents. This was later reposted to LessWrong[3] by DanielFilan.
Vallejo Landlord and Vermont Border Police Attack
In January 2025, two Ziz associates were arrested on separate charges of attacking and killing elderly Vallejo California landlord Curtis Lind and Vermont Border Police agent David Maland. Maximilian Snyder, a 22-year-old data scientist, and Teresa Youngblut, a 21-year-old computer science student, had reportedly applied for a marriage license in 2024.[16]
In 2022, 82-year-old Vallejo landlord Curtis Lind was impaled with a sword and blinded in one eye during an attack by several young people who lived in box trucks on his Vallejo property. The group had stopped paying Lind during the COVID pandemic-era rent moratorium. Thirty-one-year-old Emma Borhanian was fatally shot by Lind as he defended himself against the three individuals, including two other members of the group, Alexander "Somni" Leatham and Suri Dao.[5]
On January 17th, 2025, Curtis Lind was stabbed and killed, months before he was set to testify as the sole witness against the attackers who blinded him. Maximilian Snyder was taken into custody and charged with murder by Vallejo police soon after Lind's death.[5]
Just days later, on January 20, 2025, Border Patrol Agent David Maland was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Coventry, Vermont. Teresa Youngblut was reportedly traveling with a German national named Felix Bauckholt when their car was stopped by Border Security. Youngblut reportedly drew and fired her handgun "without warning," with counter-fire from the agents resulting in Bauckholt's death.[6]
Online Reactions
Several initial reactions to the murders supposedly committed by the "Zizian" cultists remarked on how highly educated and accomplished the members were, as seen in a January 22nd, 2025, tweet by X[7] @deedydas that gathered over 3,000 likes in a week.
Other initial reactions to Ziz criticized the basis of the group's ideology, as seen in a January 23rd post by X user @arithmoquine[11] that read, "> warned ziz is a potentially lethal infohazard > look inside > utter tumblr-level slop. no offense but how do yall keep killing people over this shit," receiving over 185,000 views and 2,300 likes in a week.
On January 28th, X[9] user @kenthecowboy_ posted a "color-coded Zizian Facts google doc," recounting all publically available information about the group,[10] which garnered nearly 28,000 views and 270 likes in three days.
On January 29th, 2025, X[8] user @MuseZack tweeted, "It's kind of wild that there is apparently a cult of young Bay Area computer geniuses killing people on both coasts and it's not even a national news story," gathering over 62,000 likes in two days.
Several news outlets published articles about the Zizians and the murders they are supposedly linked to on January 30th, 2025, including SFist,[13] SF Gate[14] and the New York Post.[15]
On January 31st, TrueAnon[12] posted a podcast episode about the Zizians to YouTube.
Search Interest
External References
[1] Internet Archive – Sinceriously
[2] Medium – Community Warning about Ziz
[3] Less Wrong – Community Warning about Ziz
[4] The Zizians – Apollo Mojave
[5] Open Vallejo – Suspects in Killings Extreme Ideology
[6] NBC – Border Patrol Agent Killed
[9] Twitter / X – kenthecowboy_
[10] Google Docs – Zizians Document
[11] Twitter / X – arithmoquine
[13] SFist – Suspect and Possible Cult Member
[14] SF Gate – Bae Area Death Cult
[15] New York Post – Zizian Leftist Trans Cult
[16] AP News – Murder suspect appears to have sought marriage license with woman charged in Border Patrol shooting
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