I love a good cult, don’t you?
The totipotent male leader, whose inexplicable charisma ensnares a cabal of wife-slaves who then recruit fresh, young meat for his ongoing sport. In Australia we had the House of Cadifor under patriarchal overlord James “@the_infamous_big_dick_jimmy” Davis, and in the US there’s NXIVM under the messianic Keith Raniere.
It’s almost like these guys shared notes from the Sexual Predator 101 class they both sat. But there’s a significant difference in modus operandi: Whereas priapic Big Dick Jimmy created a sex-cult that became a lucrative business, limp dick Keith Raniere created a lucrative business that spawned an infamous sex-cult.
For about twenty years, NXIVM offered expensive ‘Executive Success Programs’ to wealthy Americans, ‘deprogramming’ participants of ‘limiting beliefs‘ et cetera, for an exorbitant fee. Keith Raniere’s reputation as a New Age prophet and success-guru seemed, for a while, totally legit.
But behind the facade of legitimacy was a lurid sex cult called ‘Dominus Obsequious Sororium‘ or DOS, which ensnared a bevvy of women, including Hollywood hopefuls Nicki Clyne (Battlestar Galactica), Allison Mack (Smallville) and India Oxenberg, daughter of Catherine Oxenberg.
It ensnared a lot of men and women. But it wasn’t Ranier who did the snaring.
Like any good pyramid marketing scheme, Ranier’s lieutenants were an all-female cadre who built the business while he frolicked. Raniere devotees appeared, night after night, dirty-dancing in the street outside the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Centre where he was held pre-sentencing.
The weakness of every sex-cult is that they remain subject to “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” or, as in this case, branded. DOS veteran Sarah Edmondson escaped when she discovered her brand was not some New Age enlightenment symbol, but Keith Raniere’s initials. Not just his initials, either. His lieutenant Alison Mack’s too.
Imagine that.
Then the NYT told Edmondson’s story and exposed NXIVM as a cult. Raniere fled to Mexico before his eventual extradition and trial. Raniere was sentenced in November 2020 to 120 years imprisonment, and several of his lieutenants followed suit, albeit with greatly reduced sentences because Mack and Co., unlike Raniere, accepted their wrongdoing.
Back in Australia, we await the trial of Cadifor’s James “@the_infamous_big_dick_jimmy” Davis with bated breath. I know Raniere has all the eyes of America on him, but objectively he isn’t even in Jimmy’s league. But knowing Oz, the jury will be like “Onya Jimmy!” and release him on a bond.