Look, I know that's a wild opening statement for a first blog post, and for a blog to make in any case, but let me explain.
Before you continue, the content you are about to read contains real-world mentions of psychological, physical, mental, and other severe forms of abuse and manipulation. If you might find this content disturbing, use your discretion and take care of your well-being.
I was once a member of a cult in the southwestern United States known as the FLDS Church. This group is best known for its extreme, repeated, and ongoing human rights violations, including (but not limited to) child labor, forced labor, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, sex and other forms of trafficking of minors and vulnerable adults, and animal abuse. As you might guess, this wasn't my choice of life to live as an infant, toddler, and eventually an adolescent. Rather, it was a matter of chance.
I was born into this group: raised by, and trained to be one of its most staunch believers in its facets and rules, and especially in its most powerful and riveting function: its control of access to information.
A young FLDS boy sits atop a livestock corral fence in rural northern Arizona and stares into the horizon, on the evening of September 14, 2019. Photo by myself.
To explain why I'm writing about this specifically, allow me to explain why I think this will affect us all in the near future - and to do that, let me briefly explain the kinds of information access controls the FLDS Church has implemented, along with some much-needed perspective.
Earlier in the lifecycle of the "religion", from roughly 1890-1990, information controls were in place, and there were most certainly guidelines on what members could read or listen to (books and music, primarily), but they had some latitude on what they personally found objectionable (think X-rated books and music).
Then, in 1986, there was, as we called it, a tragedy - something that has shaken the cult's various fractured, unstable, decaying sects to this day. On November 25, 1986, the leader, LeRoy S. Johnson, died, having never appointed his successor, because he believed there could only be "one man on earth at a time" with the presidential, also known as the "Priesthood", power.
There was an empty place at the top of the power pyramid. The position of "President and Prophet", the theological "highest power in the land", was up for grabs. One chipper young man, an accountant and CPA from Salt Lake City who had been converted and had grifted his way to the higher end of the food chain, had his eyes on the prize, as did Johnson's actual, rightful successor.The cult had guidelines on how to select a new leader, but these had been fighting words for some time ahead of Johnson's death. Before Leroy Johnson died, he had attempted to force those members who didn't believe the "One Man Doctrine" as he had, to abandon their homes and leave everything they had built, behind - and had partially succeeded.
Eventually, the group split, and the comparatively young and charismatic Jeffs charmed and cheated his way into power. This CPA's name was Rulon Jeffs, father of Warren Jeffs. With the Jeffs in power, the rise of the internet and telephone, and the community revolting against a whirlwind of "underage arranged marriages" (which I personally see as bureaucratically arranged SA), there was a storm brewing on the horizon - people, and thus their money, houses, and children, were leaving the group at a record rate. The people were no longer pawns.
Like any cult leader, they had to do something to pull the metaphorical wool over the eyes of their victims, and after Rulon Jeffs' death in September, 2002, the game was on. Warren, who had long been in the good graces of his father Rulon (nepotism moment, take a bow everyone!), kicked things into high gear.
He banned internet access, TV, music, and books, and banned any clothing outside of a very specific style often referred to as the "prarie dress" for women, and a bog-standard full-length button-down shirt and pants for boys/men (and as usual, there wasn't queer representation here, of course - there were, as always, queer people like me, but on the other side of that closet door was someone ready to whisk you away into the night. Warren Jeffs also reportedly forced a male relative of his into social gender transition according to his daughter Rachel's book, and kept it under wraps - but that's a rant for another post).
A close-up image of an FLDS "prairie dress" skirt's hem, this one with a distinct white stripe around the hem. Photo by myself.
With the ban on internet, TV, and most other forms of communications with the outside world, most of us were oblivious to the widely-known, shocking evidence against Jeffs as time went on (I didn't know what he was in jail for, until the fall of 2019!).
I was forced by my parent at the time, to work (for free, as a child) in conditions that would make even the most novice FDA or OSHA inspector projectile vomit at the severity of the safety violations at hand.
I didn't have a phone, so I couldn't call anyone. I didn't have a computer at home, and even if I had, there wasn't any internet access, at least that I had access to. I felt bad, I felt used, and I hated everything, but I was resigned to it because it was the norm - after all, I didn't know anything else existed. For 4 years, this was my life. Sporadically, but sometimes, I'd write in a journal - one such entry reads:
"FEBRUARY 12, 2016. I stayed home from class today (a kind of church, but held every morning and night). the only way I could get out of going to class to listen to someone who really hated me, stand there and say that he loved everyone there and that he was telling the truth, was to throw a fit and say that I was tired, and throw my jacket down the stairs and scream and swear like I was posessed."
I was violently assaulted a few days later when I showed up again, and met the wrath of our assigned leader, with no recourse for how I'd been treated, or any idea that it was wrong: all I knew was that I really hated it.
Years went by. I became more isolated if it were possible. We lost our home, and were forced to move into a home with no functioning AC or heat, holes in the floorboards, and mold everywhere. Then, we lost that home too, because the taxes were left unpaid by the cult's leadership. More time went by, and we moved again. In 2019, I finally got a job cleaning cars in a small city in central Utah.
An FLDS teenager slouches in a chair during a house tour, on the afternoon of September 6th, 2019 (faces blurred for privacy). Photo by myself.
With that job, came a little money. Most of it I had to give to my parent to help them pay bills and keep the lights on - but, I was able to keep a small sum to myself. Armed with the gall of a teenager and that small sum of cash, I lied to my parent about cell coverage at work as a valid reason why I desperately needed my own phone and cell plan, and as weeks bled into months, my parent finally allowed me to get a SIM and phone of my own - that they managed and watched with a hawk's eye.
Myself, in FLDS work attire, standing in a field in Beaver County, Utah, on the morning of August 3rd, 2019 (faces blurred for privacy). Photo by myself.
I feigned compliance for weeks, then, one weekend afternoon in the fall of 2019, I purposefully changed a setting on the phone to break its ability to make calls. With this small social engineering trick complete, I consulted my parent for the username and password for the cell plan portal - where I added a gift card as a debit card, upgraded my plan to a data-capable cell plan, and instantly, at the mere touch of a button: the shackles fell.
I spent more time per day using a screen that week than I thought was even humanly possible. I found YouTube, and Jeffs' confessions recorded from his jail cell in Utah tens of years ago. Then, I contacted my long-estranged family. As time went on, and my doubts about my "religion" grew stronger, I started to learn that what I had experienced was violence, abuse, and the long-term, unmitigated, repeated violation of my human rights.
Eventually, on January 19th, 2020, after weeks of talks with other family members whom I hadn't seen in 9 years, I left that home forever and returned to the home of my early childhood. Now, I live with one of those family members, whom I love dearly and who has been there from me from the first hacky, strange email that I sent anonymously from an iPhone 4s in the dead of winter in 2018, until now.
Now, for a little thought experiment. I don't know how to write a BINGO game in raw HTML and CSS, so let's just go with a bit of a checklist sort of thing. Here's the game: let's recap the behavior of the FLDS over time and see if there's anyone that comes to mind as a prominent global figure that miiiight be doing something similar.
Violates women's rights? Check.
Usurps power by forcing, lying to, and deceiving the population being governed? The FLDS Church definitely did that!
Restricts access to information that might undermine or raise questions about their agenda? Right in Jeffs' wheelhouse.
Presents themself as a divine leader, hero, and savior of religious values or appeals to morality? Warren really did lead with that one.
Aggressively opposes higher education, the scientific method, and the arts? That was the FLDS' bread and butter.
Has groups of armed militiamen stationed throughout the country pushing their rhetoric and threatening dissenters? Seems on par so far.
Is extremely power-hungry and thirsts for fame, control, and money? That was Jeffs to a T.
Make no mistake, this blog is not neutral. Given everything you've just read, if you've made it this far, I'm sure you're aware that I'm making a political point:
America has elected her own Warren Jeffs. Donald Trump has given himself immunity from his own rules - just as Warren has. He's abused women and minorities with impunity, and made fun of and grossly violated the human rights of tens or hundreds of millions of Americans, just as Warren has.
Given his strategies, I can't say they seem too different than what I experienced at the hand of Jeffs' dictatorship. The incoming administration has threatened to axe access to trans healthcare, LGBTO+ rights, education, literature, and media, social services, and more.
But this post is about how information accessiblity can help us keep our heads above water during the incoming storm. What can we actually do?
Here are some of my suggestions, in no particular order, but definitely drawing on a lot of my experiences in the FLDS cult:
1. Encrypt your stuff.
I can't say this loudly or frequently enough: it's quite hard to suppress information you can't read in the first place. For things like texting, Signal is your best friend. You can even add me there (@echo.1337). If your friends are scared of Signal, iMessage (blue bubbles, not green!) offers similar encryption but doesn't have as many privacy features.
For email or other less-trustworthy means of communicating, PGP is still pretty good, but requires a lot more technical knowledge to use - the best place to start for that is GnuPG aka GPG - but e-mail isn't a generally secure method of communication, so try not to rely on it.
2. Download whenever and whatever possible.
This is pretty much what it says on the tin: if you like an album, book, photo, whatever: purchase and/or download it if ethical and possible! (especially if it's likely to be sensitive to a dictator or his minions, e.g. a queer artist or a very politically active band or book).
3. Build community (like tilde, other online platforms, and in person!)
Having trustworthy people close to you, who stay in touch in multiple ways and know you well, sounds scary. It is, and it is also critically important to staying safe and connected, and avoiding disconnection and censorship. Physically and technologically separating people was a core strategy in Jeffs' toolbox to shatter connections, erode trust and hope, and isolate people to maintain control of resources and information.
As the clock ticks down for us Americans and the rest of the world watches in horror, just remember: some of us have been pretty close to here before: better the devil you are maybe slightly acquainted with, than the one you've never seen before, right...? :D
*Also, a quick funny footnote: Opposing higher education, vaccines, and science might've been the FLDS' bread and butter, but some time ago, there was a fair chance of getting E.Coli if you ate said bread and butter. Deja vu, anyone?
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