by Travis Mateer

Two articles, posted back to back at the Rolling Stone, caught my attention in a big way this week, but not for reasons anyone but a few will understand. I’m going to try and change that by explaining the relevance of this screenshot:

What do I see in this screenshot? I see two competing approaches to the fearful uncertainty of death. One is known as Transhumanism, and the other is the more conventional belief in the divine role of Jesus Christ. This might seem like a stretch, but hear me out.

First, before I explain how Transhumanism connects to Montana’s now-famous legislator, Zooey Zephyr, I’d like to make what I hope is a non-controversial claim, and that’s the claim that we, in Montana, deserve to know WHO our legislators are.

It’s in that spirit I’m linking to a guest column by Jeremy Carl, from the Fremont Claremont Institute, because up to this point virtually NOTHING has been known about Zooey, pre-2019, like the given name of this activist, and the beliefs this activist holds. Carl is being swarmed on Twitter over this piece, and Zooey Zephyr’s partner, Erin Reed, is threatening to sue. There’s also sourcing from Kiwifarms, which is supposedly a nasty place, so take all this with a grain of salt.

Thanks to Carl, we now have some context to consider regarding this trans-activist making national headlines. I should probably offer a warning that this article uses Zooey Zephyr’s given name, which is Zachary Raasch. From the link (emphasis mine):

Raasch is intelligent and extremely interested in transhumanism (the melding of man and machine through “technological enhancement” of the human body)—the subject of an abandoned master’s thesis at the University of Montana, a subject that seems relevant to his decision to radically modify his own body.

What is Transhumanism, you might be wondering? In my humble opinion, it’s a deranged hope that a technological ladder to immortality exists, a ladder reserved for elite sociopaths afraid of karmic retribution for the evils they’ve committed against humanity with their endless lust for more power and control over ALL earthly life on this planet.

If Montana conservatives in Helena were more sophisticated, and capable of policing their own Christian-claimed backyards for the sexual predators running rampant within their own congregations, the spectacle sought by trans-activists wouldn’t be exploding right now, totally obliterating any other issues as the waning days of this legislative session tick down.

Now that Montana conservatives have given the activists what they want, here’s what the resulting fundraising opportunity looks like on Twitter:

Congratulations, Montana conservatives, not only are you losing the culture war, you have ALSO hurt Montana taxpayers by protecting the hole in the bucket leaking public money known as Tax Increment Financing. Maybe that’s because Montana conservatives are made up of self-interested, petty assholes crafting legislation for themselves and their friends instead of looking for principles to stand on.

If conservatives were capable of seeing past their own empty righteousness, maybe they’d see one of the possible connections between Kevin Smith, a Hollywood movie maker trying to heal from past sexual abuse, and Montana’s new star legislator, who seemed to feel some level of regret for a gamer scandal. From the link (emphasis mine):

He was also a video gaming champion in a game called Super Smash Brothers– some pre-transition performances of his tournament videogaming can be seen online. In 2020, a huge scandal erupted in the Super Smash Brothers community involving mass sexual harassment and abuse of minors during in-person gaming meetups. Raasch publicly expressed regret that he may have put children at risk in taking them to these events. It may be just a coincidence that serious child sexual abuse broke out in a community with which Raasch was heavily involved, or it is possible that he been a perpetrator or a victim of such abuse, but we don’t know, as none of the puff piece legacy media has bothered to investigate Raasch’s background. What can be said is that childhood experiences of abuse, such as those that were going on around him, are often precursors to those involved developing non-standard sexual identities.

Raasch is also a noted fan of Manga and anime, a hobby enjoyed by many perfectly healthy people, but also a favorite of transgender individuals, such as Chris Tyson, an important member of Mr. Beast, the world’s most popular YouTube channel, who announced a love of anime involving sexualized children in the years before he came out as trans. Raasch has posted disturbing sexualized anime images such as the one below that as of this writing—still on his official Twitter account.

And the tweet mentioned in the article? Here it is:

Am I being a prude here? No, I’d argue I’m being a FATHER who is VERY worried about the culture my kids are being neurologically bathed in. Fuck with my ability to be a protective father to my children, and we’ll see who has blood on their hands.

I can say stuff like that now because violence is such a normalized facet of modern life, right? Or are there double standards at play? Maybe I should proceed with even MORE caution, as the movement to get at children gets aggressive in Montana.

Beyond Montana, other famous people are trying to deal with their own histories of sexual trauma, and that’s what Kevin Smith opened up about to Rolling Stone. I’d find an interesting quote, but I’m not a subscriber.

Maybe I should become one, since Rolling Stone is all over my personal synchronicity map. What do I mean by that? I mean the man who allowed Kevin Smith to film scenes of Dogma in his church, Dr. Kenneth Stevenson, had an article published in the Rolling Stone about a little project he was working on called the Shroud of Turin.

If exploring my personal synchronicity map sounds interesting, then my Southland Tales post is important context to consider. I would also recommend listening to my conversation with Jasun Horsely, and checking out this post about some insights I got regarding my family history.

The underlying synchronicity that makes Kevin Smith and Montana resonate for me is still, as of now, occluded from nearly everyone. When will that change? That is not my place to say, but when the synchronicities give me more clues, I’ll let you know.

If you appreciate my on-the-ground and sometimes off-the-beaten-path perspective from Zoom Town (Missoula), please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF), or you can make a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!