Micheal Vassar's strategy for saving the world is horrifyingly counterproductive. Olivia's is worse.

A note before we start: A lot of the sources cited are people who ended up looking kinda insane. This is not a coincidence, it's apparently an explicit strategy: Apply plausibly-deniable psychological pressure to anyone who might speak up until they crack and discredit themselves by sounding crazy or taking extreme and destructive actions. Here's Brent Dill explaining it:

(later in the conversation he tries to encourage the person he's talking to kill herself, and threatens her death if she posts the logs. Charming group! I hear Brent was living in Vassar's garden recently, well after he was removed from the wider community for sexual abuse.)

Examples

Some of the people here I knew before their interactions with Vassar's sphere to be not just mentally OK, but unusually resilient people. Prime among them is Kathy Forth.

Prior to her suicide, Kathy and I were friends. I witnessed her falls downwards from healthy and capable to anxiety to paranoia, as downstream of what I believe to be genuine sexual abuse she spiralled into a narrative and way of experiencing the world where almost everyone seemed [...]

The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
April 21st, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cY7J7KSSqrhB8t3hQ/evil-is-bad-actually-vassar-and-olivia-schaefer

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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Images from the article:

Text message conversation discussing strategy involving Peter Thiel's money and Eric Bruylant.

Discord announcement from kromem about user olivia's removal from server for violating mental well-being rules.

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“Evil is bad, actually (Vassar and Olivia Schaefer)” by plex

LessWrong (30+ Karma)