Plenty of other reporters have published pieces about the Zizian ties to recent homicides — but many of their articles are misleading.
My recent article “How I May Have Solved a Murder” details how I began reporting on a shooting in Vermont, but ended up identifying a murder suspect in a California case. It was challenging to cover a “trans rat community” known as the “Zizians,” in part because understanding the complex story requires juggling hundreds of small details. I began my first draft about two weeks ago, and by now, plenty of other reporters have published pieces about the Zizian ties to recent homicides — but many of their articles are misleading.
As I explained in my article, the Zizians subscribe to the ideas set forth in the blog “Sinceriously” by Jack LaSota, who self-identified as a “trans woman” and went by “Ziz.” Most (though not all) of his accomplices can be described as vegan “trans women” anarchists with computer-science backgrounds and a strong interest in artificial intelligence. Ziz et al gained notoriety for a bizarre protest that spurred a heavy police response and prompted media coverage; the group later became associated with violence and murder, a reputation that has been reinforced recently with the Vermont shooting and California stabbing. Although those two deadly events occurred just weeks ago and the courts haven’t yet arrived at verdicts, the circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that there are ideological Zizian fingerprints all over the crime scenes.
A reader of other articles about the Zizians would probably get the impression that the relevant suspects are women — but largely, they aren’t. Writers have generally deferred to the suspects’ self-stated identities and preferred pronouns. “Her whereabouts are unknown,” the SF Chronicle says of the male Jack LaSota. “Baukholt, who was also a transgender woman, was fatally shot on January 20 after she and another . . . engaged in a shootout with Border Patrol agents,” states Newsweek’s reference to the now-deceased male suspect in the Vermont shooting.
If you’re a statistically minded person, you could probably guess accurately that most individuals in this chaotic series of events are male, since males commit a majority of violent crime. If you don’t care about numbers, you can search on Google for images of the suspects and immediately discern who is male (despite the long-ish hair). If you have the patience to find and dig through some of the social-media accounts or blogs that belonged to Zizians, you’ll find posts wherein they describe themselves as “trans women.”
Progressives are socially coerced into honoring the preferred pronouns of even criminal suspects. Why? Well, they don’t see “gender identity” as a card that can be taken away when the “trans” individual in question has some serious moral failings — including a criminal history. According to progressives, gender self-identification is a universal right that doesn’t have an exceptions for felons, so even males convicted of sex crimes can be recognized as “women” and therefore housed in women’s prisons. But I don’t believe “gender identity” is a card that can ever be played because I think the concept of “gender” itself is utterly nonsensical.
Even if I did think “gender identity” is supported intellectually, I have no obligation to refer to you in accordance with your self-perception. I think most reporters understand as much, yet they have carved out “gender” and “preferred pronouns” as exemptions to the rule. I’m pretty sure that most journalists didn’t refer to Trump as the “winner of the 2020 election,” even though that’s who he claimed to be. It seems to me that publications call the “pro-life movement” the “anti-abortion movement,” despite how those activists refer to themselves. It appears that journalists have largely adopted this standard: We don’t care what adjectival modifiers you like, but under no circumstances will we disrespect your favored pronouns.
Reporters are supposed to present the truth in a clear manner. A job requirement is not to flatter people, be it subjects or readers. The recent coverage of the Zizian ties to the Vermont and California murders provides yet another example of how the mainstream media maintains progressive views and distorts the facts.