U.S. Transhumanist Party Official Statement Regarding Johannon Ben Zion
The United States Transhumanist Party (USTP) issues this statement to address the recent activities of an individual who has alternately gone by the pseudonyms Johannon Ben Zion, Jochannon Ben-Zion, Johannon BenZion, J. Ben Zion, and Ben Zion. This individual (hereafter, âBen Zionâ) has not been affiliated with the USTP in any manner since June 8, 2020.
Recently it has come to the USTPâs attention that on June 14, 2020, Ben Zion publicly announced his intention to pursue a project for generating lab-grown human meat from his own cells (the âBen Burgerâ or âBenZion Burgerâ). Furthermore, Ben Zion filmed himself carrying out this intention. Defying explicit warnings from USTP leadership against doing so, Ben Zion cultivated his own cells in a laboratory for three months and replicated them, eating the resultant mass of human meat on video. The screenshot below is an excerpt from a post recently made by Ben Zion to some of his social-media pages.
The USTP points to this bewildering scheme as a prime example of the many ill-advised and repugnant behaviors which led the USTP to expel Ben Zion from its ranks and to disavow him and his activities. Cannibalism of any sort and by any means, including auto-cannibalism, is not tolerated by the USTP and is contrary not only to the forward-thinking vision of transhumanism, but even to the elementary norms which every civilized society has arrived at through empirical observation since ancient times. Cannibalism is morally wrong even when it does not destroy sentient life, since it results in prion diseases and other maladies whose obvious incidence led even pre-scientific peoples to renounce it. USTP Officers had previously warned Ben Zion that he would be disavowed if he pursued this reckless project, and it appears that Ben Zion has lapsed into this severe breach of ethics now that the prudent guardrails previously established for his conduct by the USTP are no longer effective in restraining his worst tendencies.Â
The USTP is aware that Ben Zion has been making various public mischaracterizations of our organization and its activities and outlooks. Ben Zion has been posting inaccurate and inflammatory allegations on a Facebook group dominated by authoritarian and intolerant trolls, which impersonates the USTP and calls itself “Transhumanist Party (US)” but is in fact an assemblage of known detractors who do not know how to behave civilly or gracefully and who ban all dissent. They are also in violation of the Transhumanist Party trademark. One such detractor, Eray Ozkural, was condemned by the USTP on August 11, 2019, as he had “in both public posts on Facebook and in private messages, […] harassed and severely insulted members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party and respected transhumanists within our community.” We continue to take exception to this unacceptable behavior.
Therefore, the USTP considers it necessary to issue this definitive public statement in the interests of truth and transparency. Subsequent to the release of this statement, it will be the policy of the USTP not to officially involve itself with any activities of Ben Zion, nor to comment thereon, other than by reference to this statement.Â
Ben Zion has starkly violated the commitment that he agreed to when he registered as a candidate in the USTP Primary in 2019. He answered “Yes” to the following question, yet his behavior, both recently as documented below and unfolding over a course of many months, has been in sharp contrast to that commitment.
“Do you agree to work collaboratively with the USTP during the campaign season and not to disparage the USTP as well as not to work contrary to the interests and goals of the USTP during that time?”
Ben Zionâs behavior during the past year illustrated his extreme unwillingness to abide by this commitment.
- He has repeatedly insulted and belittled members of the USTP and called for purges of those who disagree with him â violating our long-standing policy of openness and tolerance to a variety of political perspectives. He has sought to rid the USTP of libertarian, conservative, moderate, center-left, and apolitical members, who in totality comprise the vast majority of the USTPâs membership. He has expressly attacked and sought to undermine the USTPâs historic inclusive âbig tentâ approach of collaborating with individuals of a multitude of political and philosophical views.
- He has actively sought to splinter the USTP and form a competing organization and also to seek the nomination of other parties to the detriment and de-emphasis of his USTP endorsement.
- He has repeatedly engaged in hate-filled tirades in social-media comment threads â often âcomment-stormingâ respected members of the USTP and allies, including some of our Transhumanist Party counterparts abroad, in a manner that alienated them.
- He has actively advocated for violent protests, contrary to the USTP Platformâs categorical opposition to violence. He has denounced and ridiculed, and attempted to malign and discredit with epithets and lies, those who express support for peaceful and civil action only.
- He has expressed glee at the prospect of a violent death for the President of the United States.
- He has continued to post inflammatory, tasteless, divisive, and esthetically atrocious content incessantly on social media despite being told for months that it is in poor taste and does not represent the values and character of the USTP.
- Finally, and most grievously, he has schemed clandestinely to spread malicious lies about the leadership of the USTP and essentially attempted to engineer a coup. In any organization, this kind of insubordination and attempted power grab cannot be tolerated. This matter requires some elaboration to illustrate the sequence of events.Â
On or about June 4-5, 2020, Ben Zion sent a series of private messages to numerous individuals, containing egregious and utterly false allegations regarding USTP leadership, filled with outright falsehoods and fabrications intended to exploit the George Floyd riots and eliminate any obstacles to a Ben Zion takeover of the USTP. Many recipients of those messages, however, promptly shared them with USTP leadership, and Ben Zionâs actions were clearly recognized to fit the definition of an opportunistic power play.Â
At that time a vote of the USTP Officers was called to expel Ben Zion from his Vice-Chairman position and from the USTP. Before the vote was finalized, however, USTP Officers tried various measures at containing the damage of these false allegations â for instance, requiring Ben Zion to issue apologies to everyone he contacted (although we are aware that he did not actually apologize to everyone). Ben Zionâs presence was even tolerated at a subsequent USTP Virtual Enlightenment Salon after this misconduct had occurred. USTP Officers then asked Ben Zion to voluntarily step down from the Vice-Chairman role, but the USTP remained willing to keep him as its endorsed candidate if he simply agreed not to spread false accusations or attempt a takeover again. He refused, and doubled down on his contrived and ludicrous allegations. At that point USTP Officers had no choice but to expel him from the Vice-Chairman role â whereupon Ben Zion made his choice to leave the USTP and to denounce it based on conspiratorial delusions.Â
To summarize, Ben Zion is disavowed by the USTP for a long history of misconduct, including making egregiously false allegations, attempting a coup, engaging in toxic behavior on social media, advocating for positions contrary to the USTP Platform, disparaging respected USTP members and Officers, seeking to institute a purge of members who disagreed with him, and refusing any of the multiple accommodations offered by the USTP for an amicable resolution to these issues. The USTP is no longer associated with him in any way and takes exception to his ongoing false representations. In retrospect, it is apparent to the USTP that Ben Zion is and was a firebrand, infiltrator, and provocateur, not a genuine advocate of transpartisan, forward-thinking transhumanist principles.Â
Recent revelations regarding the âBenZion Burgerâ project underscore the prudence of this disavowal by the USTP. The USTP is pleased that the same video in which Ben Zion announced his âBenZion Burgerâ project was the video which he prefaced with a statement of his departure from the USTP. Our organization and the transhumanist community generally are better off by not affiliating with an individual who is willing to obstinately pursue such misguided and repulsive publicity stunts.
It is tragically unfortunate that Ben Zion has alienated many erstwhile friends and supporters through his divisive and reprehensible behavior. However, the USTP as an organization must move forward and heal from these unfortunate events. We are highly encouraged by the Charlie Kam 2020 Presidential campaign and will be promoting it widely in the coming weeks. We are also highly encouraged by the boost in new membership applications that the Charlie Kam campaign has already motivated. Ours is a big-tent organization, characterized by inclusivity and tolerance of a wide variety of perspectives and of individuals from all backgrounds and all parts of the world. We hope to continue our growth and expand our influence on broader public opinion by means of respectful, constructive, and techno-positive communications and projects.
10 thoughts on “U.S. Transhumanist Party Official Statement Regarding Johannon Ben Zion”
congrats Gennady – you have done the right thing, and acted professionally. Indeed, you were extremely patient with him for many months. I am sure there are many people, like myself, who are very happy to see BZ gone
Good riddance. I could always tell he was going to be trouble by the way he sneered at differing viewpoints during the alternative debates.
Well, his actions during the primary were sleazy, but this raises to a whole new level of insanity.
While it does sound as though other actions on Zion’s part justify a ban and then some, I find it extremely disturbing that the USTP is categorizing cannibalismâor, more precisely, eating meat *grown in a lab from one’s own cells*âas “morally wrong” and “contrary to transhumanism” even under circumstances when, by the Party’s own admission, it does not involve any harm to third parties.
To the best of my knowledge, prion diseases are not contagious; given this, I find it hard to see the moral condemnation of cannibalism based on disease risk (rather than on, say, the psychological effects on surviving relatives of the deceased, which does not apply here) as anything other than a gross overstepping of the authority the Transhumanist Party has been granted by the trust of its members. I agree, of course, that cannibalism is *dangerous*, and that those who wish to avoid the risk of prion diseases likewise ought to avoid cannibalism; however, treating the choice to take on that risk as a *moral wrong* goes against my most deeply-held principles.
My affiliation with transhumanism is not based on the desire for a particular end goal for humanity, but rather on the belief that transcending what nature has given us is a worthy and desirable goal. A consequence of this belief is that I affirm the right of every individual to do with his or her own body what he or she sees fit, even if I find it strange or disturbing. I do not view it as moral to condemn the choice to put oneself at risk, even if I would avoid doing the same, nor do I believe that cannibalism “violates the sanctity of the human body” or other such anti-rational nonsense.
USTP leadership has severely disappointed me by taking this irrational anti-cannibalism stance, andâdepending on whether it turns out to reflect a broader trend within Party thoughtâI may well have to reconsider my affiliation.
How could you not filter person like that and let him run for president on behalf of the USTP? Some series of conversations with basic understanding of psychology and background check could have prevented that I think.
“USTP remained willing to keep him as its endorsed candidate” I don’t agree with that. Any one occurrence of type of behavior you mentioned should disqualify him. I don’t know why officers have such a low standards for someone who is representing the whole party.
Gennady’s writing above is articulate, measured, and reasonable. I don’t pretend to know or understand the fact-pattern in this issue, but I can say that Gennady’s and the USTP would seem to be better off without such a polarizing individual. We already have a polarizing egotist in power in the White House, let’s not have another in our nascent movement.
I see. I didn’t know this happened. I hope someone didn’t force Ben to do this…I noticed him acting strange , and was worried when we met and hung out , and I noticed abuse towards him from seemingly- hackers- when I tried to make sure he slept well. He we had a disagreement when we tried to confide in each other and I found it strange.
So sad to see a fellow gamer go! I did not know he would do such a terrible thing to this wonderful party. I look forward to giving my support to the new party candidate, see you all in November!
Love,
A Fellow Gamer
I tried to warn people about this guy early on, but he kept bringing in more and more sycophants from the outside, in order to drown out any dissent. https://imgur.com/a/YFMHSbT
*This comment is an edited version of the last one:
Ben Zion seemed especially friendly with Eray Ozkural while Ozkural was criminally hacking into my devices. Ben’s burger seems eerily similar to a somewhat facetious private musing of mine, which I think Ozkural may have found while hacking me. If so, I did not intend to have such an idea promoted before the public, or at least I would not have posted such a thing without thoroughly thinking of it from multiple angles. Ofcourse every thought does not deserve approval for publication.
Ozkural repeatedly removed bits of my verbiage from their complete context and subsequently entertained himself by having these reframed and published. He seems indifferent to the impact any of that could have, just as long as he stays entertained. Ultimately, I do not advocate cannibalism, and I am sorry if these two have ever been even mildly inspired by any sliver of private thought coming from me, as I want nothing to do with their online reveling in moral bankruptcy.