Senior Film Critic for the Epoch Times, Mark Jackson. He went to school with Raniere, but unlike him he never got to lead a cult.
Mark Jackson is the senior film critic for The Epoch Times. And that alone is sufficient to mark him as a man of distinction. He is writing for what may be the greatest news site in America.
But he has another distinction. Perhaps a lesser man might try to live it down: He went to school with Keith Alan Raniere.
Mark is a professional New York actor, has a BA in philosophy, and narrated the Epoch Times audiobook “How the Specter of Communism is Ruling Our World.”
Keith Raniere’s childhood house. Photo courtesy Mark Jackson
And readers may recall his beautiful recollections of the wee Vanguard from the story in the Epoch Times about young Raniere. Jackson sat next to Raniere during 5th grade and rode the bus with him. He visited the lad at his house and knew his mama.
Jackson recalled Raniere could never get the attractive girls in the class, though he tried to the point of making a fool of himself.
Jackson observed, “Everything that was sort of in germ form in grade school had started to blossom. It was magnified; the competitive nature, the needing to be worshiped and envied, was starting to become visibly pathological.”
The child with the halo is Keith Raniere. Photo courtesy Mark Jackson.
“All this stuff, like how he taught himself to be a world-class pianist at a young age—that’s nonsense,” Jackson said. “He was not a good musician. He takes everything that he did and said ‘I was the best at it.'”
Yesterday, Marc Elliot gave a speech “Who’s Next” and invited Jackson to it
Elliot wrote:
Dear Mark Jackson,
I’m reaching out as you’ve covered the NXIVM story in some capacity over the last few years. You may have heard that NXIVM had helped people beat Tourettes; however, that part of the story has been completely buried.
I want to personally invite you to a presentation I’m doing tomorrow, Wednesday June 29th at noon in Chelsea, NYC. The presentation is called “Who’s Next”: The Rise of Characterization and Loss of Human Decency.” This talk is not about Keith’s innocence or guilt or the legal case. Sharing my story of overcoming Tourettes’s with NXIVM, I tell how I saw character assassination destroy something that could help millions. The presentation illustrates the power of character assassination, how it manifests in cancel culture and trial by media, and then ultimately inspires a message of kindness and civility, no matter how great our differences are.
I know you may not live in NYC, but if you know of others who do that may be interested, feel free to invite them. This is the first time I will be sharing my story in this way.
To register for a free ticket, go to marcelliot.com
Jackson is far too courteous a gentlemen not to respond -though Elliot is a perfect stranger to him.
Jackson replied:
Hi Marc,
Thanks for the invitation.
I don’t think you’re clear on how I know Keith. Keith was my grade school classmate. He sat next to me all of fifth grade; we rode the school bus together for four years. He was sitting next to me on the bus when he hatched his little “collateral” scheme in 6th grade lol.
None of you NXIVM people know Keith like me and my classmates do—you NXIVM-ites swallowed the full-blown reinvention of Keef.
We know the actual little annoying dude who could. not. stop. boasting. about. himself.
When, at our class reunion, somebody said, “Oh, you didn’t hear? Keith’s become a cult leader.” – we all bust out laughing because it was so logically perfect.
Now, I’m not disagreeing with you that character assassination and cancel culture is a bad thing. It’s just that in the case of Keith – they eventually nailed it. That boy never came up with an original idea in his life. Except for “collateral,” when he noticed he could intimidate Donna M. by threatening to tell her parents that she’d caught her older sister fooling around with her boyfriend lol
It may be the case that, from his successful piecing together of lots of different material, he came up with something that cured Tourette’s – he may have gotten lucky. Or maybe he actually did figure something out. I don’t know. I don’t care either.
But the fact that you’re not just talking about curing Tourette’s, but using your talk to defend Keith, tells me this is about trying to wipe the stink off NXIVM’s now-destroyed reputation. You might be successful in selling this to others, but I know our boy Keef way too well.
“Misrepresented as a sex cult?” Really? I forgot who it was who said words to the effect of, “The only reason he got caught was for 1) BRANDING 2) his INITIALS 3) on women’s p*ss**s.” Not a sex cult, you say.
Best of luck! Tell him I said hi, no, tell I said, “You idiot, look where all that fake b.s. got you.”
Keith was never a world-class sprinter or the world’s smartest man; hahaha, omg, he still kills me 50 years later.
I do hope the young Keith Alan uses his prison time to get real with himself and stop the denial, come clean, and apologize to the masses of people he hurt.
Best,
Mark
Original Website: https://frankreport.com/2022/06/30/childhood-pal-roasts-raniere-in-response-to-elliots-invite-to-nxivm-speech-hey-keef-look-where-all-that-bullshit-got-you/
