It’s come to my attention that longtime ESPian/Nxian Damon Brink started a new blog* –publicly, using his own name.
Following a December 2020 profile in Seven Days alt-weekly in Vermont and up until today, I felt uncomfortable speaking about Mr. Brink’s activities. The Seven Days profile showed Brink’s attitude toward NXIVM to be conflicted; moreover, following publication he took his Twitter account and blog private. So since then I have believed it best not to name Brink in the hopes that he could sort himself out.
However, given Brink’s public acknowledgment of being the author of this new blog, as well as the blog’s editorial line, I don’t think there’s any way to avoid concluding that Brink broke bad –that he’s been deceptive, to some degree, about his disavowing NXIVM and Keith Raniere for over a year. And now good evidence exits as well that he has been engaging in harassment of NXIVM critics and journalists, and that he did so behind pseudonyms.
The bare facts on the blog
Brink outs himself as the new blog’s owner using a photograph and some text taking credit. Unless Mr. Brink states this is someone else committing fraud –he has his own Twitter account and another blog to do this– I have no reason to believe it isn’t him.
The new blog’s style is stereotypical NXIVM propaganda. It appears to use NXIVM’s defensive “shifter” method of dealing with criticism (discussed as early as 2009): by rote, it accuses any critic of Raniere as “hateful,” “unethical,” or “immature.” He simply will not acknowledge that Keith Raniere is guilty of anything, to the extent that it’s possible Raniere was immaculately conceived.
The blog engages in shameful defamation of Daniela and her family. The exact words are, “If you believe the ‘held captive’ narrative you are not a serious person.” That flies in the face of Lauren Salzman’s testimony to acting as Daniela’s jailer, which included instructing Daniela’s mother to shun her. This is to say nothing of documentary evidence introduced at trial showing Daniela pleaded to be let out. Finally, it ignores the fact –which could be corroborated by Kristin Keeffe– that on the verge of discovery, Daniela was driven to Mexico without her papers.