Actaeon: Nxivm Was Just a Bunch of Selfish, Thoughtless, Self-Centered People Doing What Profited Them

In General

By Actaeon

So Allison Mack was getting half of the $6,000 fee that each student paid for The Source classes.

Interesting.

That forms part of the Nxivm pyramid scheme that the government named in its indictment.

Mack had a strong incentive to hook people into this organization. I suspect this is one reason she thought Nxivm was such a good thing – it was certainly a good thing for her. This partly answers my question about why these seemingly intelligent people never realized the operation was a scam, how it was empowering women when, in fact, it was literally enslaving them or not helping to make anyone a better person. The answer is simple: money.

It wasn’t “grooming”, or any kind of diabolical mind control. It wasn’t even indoctrination. These people were profiting from the exploitation of others. Self-interest is a powerful persuader, and nobody is as easy to fool as oneself.

So that’s why Mark Hildreth told Nicole not to google “Nxivm,” told her it would “make her a better person”. What’s good for Mark is good for everybody else – right? He had no beef with the organization. Nor did Mack. She had her BMW and her condos. Why poke around, why ask inconvenient questions, why think about it? Everything’s going splendidly.

There’s no mystery here, no diabolical plot, not even anything particularly evil. It’s just a bunch of selfish, thoughtless, self-centered people doing what profited them. That is, after all, how pyramid schemes work. Even Raniere was no evil genius, it’s not like he invented pyramid schemes. His Consumers Buyline was the same grift, and it imploded too.

Nxivm just took somewhat longer to hit the rocks, and it only lasted as long as it did and became as big as it did because he was lucky enough to get the Bronfmans to bankroll him.

Hannah Arendt famously wrote of the ‘banality of evil’. It was in reference to the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who, as it turned out, did what he did not out of any fanatical hatred or perverted ideology, but simply out of self-interested careerism. Not that this made the slightest difference in terms of his guilt; Eichmann was hanged for his part in facilitating the Holocaust.

If Adolf Eichmann was banal, then far more so is Keith Raniere. His highest ambition, as it turns out, was for nothing more than pussy and pizza. And if the leader of this cult is a nonentity, his minions are even more insignificant.

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15 commentsOn Actaeon: Nxivm Was Just a Bunch of Selfish, Thoughtless, Self-Centered People Doing What Profited Them

  • Actaeon,

    You are certainly a lofty one…..

    ….. perhaps one day I will visit you amongst the clouds or do you reside at Delphi with the Oracle?

    Acteon you have been sucking your own dick for so long….
    ……… you believe your own Bullshit.

    • Real nice guy. Personal attack for what reason ? A differing opinion? Why not rebut the opinion? You complain of the uncivil attacks on certain users then attack others because they disagree with your favorite Frank Report friends or at the least come to a different conclusion. You’re the same guy that was appalled when learning of online trolls.

      I’m not saying I agree or disagree with this article but it is thought out. And attacks no one

      • Mitch,

        Your 1/2 right I will concede that but the article calls everyone “selfish”.

        Most of these people were looking for self improvement, helping the world, and looking to belong to something because they felt alone in a cold world.

        Are those such selfish pursuits?

        It is a cold world we live in.

    • What happened to you? Is that too intellectual for you?

      • Val,

        A few well meaning people made a mistake and trusted the wrong individuals. The men and women for the most part were trying to improve themselves and in some cases actually help others. All Nobel pursuits.

        Acteon is attacking all of them from some ridiculous perch he believes he resides on.

        I apologize for being crass. My response to Acteon is in kind to his attack of people who have already suffered and/or be punished.

        If Acteon wants to be a judge let him defend himself or at least explain why he has the right to judge others.

        Acteon seems to be an such an ethical man of virtue and knowledge.

        Acteon lives in an ivory tower. Does the rain fall on you Acteon?

  • “So Allison Mack was getting half of the $6,000 fee that each student paid for The Source classes.”

    A year ago the Frank Report published a story about Dr. Brandon Porter and Allison Mack trying to recruit a teen age girl into The Source and the sex slave cult.
    How Dr. Porter and Allison Mack worked to recruit a teenage girl to the sex slaver cult of NXIVM
    https://frankreport.com/2018/05/19/how-dr-porter-and-allison-mack-worked-to-recruit-a-teenage-girl-to-the-sex-slaver-cult-of-nxvm/

    At the time I did a quick look at other acting schools in New York City and nearby, particularly the Stella Adler School.
    Stella Adler was a famous teacher who trained Marlon Brando.
    What I found was that Stella Adler, a well established school, was about half the price of Allison Mack’s The Source.

    Here is what I wrote at the time.

    shadowstate1958
    May 20, 2018 at 8:03 pm
    It is $8000 until April 18.
    $8000 to $10,000 for acting lessons with the Sarah Bernhardt of our time,Allison Mack.
    “Superman, save me!”

    What does the Stella Adler School charge teens?
    From the Stella Adler website:
    Teen Summer Conservatory – Now Enrolling!
    5 Weeks, $3250
    Monday-Friday, 30 Hours a Week
    July 9 – August 10, 2018

    But I’ll bet Stella Adler doesn’t teach about female empowerment through sexual slavery.

  • It seems to me fairly clear that the money was just a part of it. I think we’ve seen in the details that have been exposed about how Raniere pressured and manipulated those under his undue influence, and his victims, that he used multiple different avenues of lure and coercion at the same time.

    Mack seemed hooked in a number of ways, including believing that she was serving some higher purpose.

    • Light at the end of the Tunnel

      Agree with you, AnonyMaker.How many NXIVMs barely had a pot to piss in? I think even Kathy Russell was barely making enough to support herself. I’m sure the top dogs (many, but not all, in the inner circle) did pretty well, but I think many could barely stay afloat and were likely in debt. And those in debt had to work that debt off by doing chores and errands for the likes of Nancy Salzman and others. There were certainly promises of grand payouts if participants became integrated and of course recruited others. But there were also never ending new modules that were required, thus you were constantly paying high course fees back into the NXIUM coffers….or getting more in debt. So NXIVM was more about bilking and taking advantage (in many ways) of most of the participants, as opposed to rolling in the dough. Allison Mack very likely made more as an actress than she did with NXIVM and The Source.

  • Like we didn’t know that.
    Geez.

  • Yes, pyramid stuff is never a good idea and only those at the top get much out of it.I was just reading a moment ago an article about marketing of English language courses to children in China – similar model (without the sex) and companies ultimately losing money as it gets harder and harder to sign people up for it.

    The person we read about yesterday who indeed was passed to a very good agent by A Mack (something it can be hard to find) and indeed the people in scientology who got career help (and perhaps even my grandfather in the Masons in the 1920s) as long as they are getting some career help out of it they tend to be pretty sold on the idea.

    Although most cults and fundamentalist religions are able to keep people snared in even when times are hard because of the hope of eternal life etc. and that money is irrelevant.

  • Allison Smack and Nickvi should have stuck to acting. The pay is better and you work shorter hours.

    • Actually in acting the work is sporadic and most actors are chronically unemployed.
      As actors age, unless they are household names, the work becomes even more sporadic.
      For actresses the situation is even worse than for actors.
      Many of these people end up working as waiters or bartenders.

      Examine the case of Lana Clarkson, the actress murdered by the nut job music producer Phil Spector in 2003.

      “Clarkson’s career began to stall as she approached her thirties. No longer able to earn a living as an actress, Clarkson sought alternate routes of income, including operating her own website on which she sold autographed DVDs of her films and communicated directly with her fans on her own message board. Although she made a living by playing busty, lusty women, Clarkson’s fondest desire was to be cast as a comic actress or perform as a comedian. Her publicist friend Edward Lozzi told Vanity Fair writer Dominic Dunne that Clarkson had been working on a stand-up comedy act that he had witnessed”
      “In 2001, while living in Venice, California, for the last several years, Clarkson developed, wrote, produced, and directed a showcase reel titled Lana Unleashed. She took a part-time side job in early January 2003 at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, California to make ends meet.”

      Both Allison and Nicki were on that path.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lana_Clarkson

  • Your hypocrisy is shining bright red.

    Just like Frank and Heidi, you’re a hypocrite and a sleaze bucket IMO.

    You SELECTIVELY choose which government cooperators to call evil and which to call heroes.

    So kindly accept my sincerest FUCK YOU, sir. 🙂

    You, Frank and the infamous Heidi always take the time to point out how evil Allison was, along with Nancy and Lauren too.

    Yet the 3 stooges (that would be you, Frank and Heidi) choose to ignore the evil deeds of former NXIVM turncoats such as Kristin Keeffe, Toni Natalie, Barb Bouchey and others.

    Is India Ox a hero? Or not? She wasn’t exactly ‘Snow White’ during her days of following Allison’s every order.

    Yet now she’s helping the government just like Allison, Nancy and Lauren.

    Guess what, asshole?

    Your logic is akin to the idiot liberals who proclaim that every woman needs to be believed, yet then ignore the 7 accusers of Bill Clinton who claim he sexually harassed them.

    So which is it?

    Do we believe all women or not? You fucken HYPOCRITE. 🙂

    Do we believe all NXIVM turncoats are evil? Or heroes?

    Or do we SELECTIVELY choose which ones to call evil and which to call heroes, based upon our own personal loyalties and hypocrisy?

    *You remind me of the idiots who claim that Israel’s settlements are inhumane and need to be given back to the Palestinians, but then ignore the fact that their own homes are built on land stolen from Native Americans and Mexicans.

    Why do we grant ourselves moral exemptions from the very same logic that we use to call Israel immoral?

    Could it be that Americans are mostly hypocrites who have their heads shoved up their own butts?

    Well, I can think of 3 Americans who fit that description. You, Frank and Heidi.

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