Newly discovered passages from 2014’s “The Student Resistance Handbook” by Satanic Temple co-owner Cevin “Malcolm Jarry” Soling show that using Satanic student groups to disrupt education isn’t a bug or a side effect of them; it’s the whole point

When Fox News discusses The Satanic Temple’s After School Satan clubs, they are using the issue as a way to promote their agenda of conspiratorial, often antisemitic fear-mongering.

However — and crucially — the right-wing media company is also being used by TST to promote the nontheistic satanic organization, to raise the profile of the Temple and its owners, and therefore gain more donations and merchandise sales to profit the owners.

We’ve talked about this dynamic before, and specifically with the Satan clubs.

The history of The Satanic Temple’s After School Satan clubs

However, what we didn’t explore in that in depth is how the Satanic Temple’s quieter co-owner Cevin Soling really hates public schools and regularly uses TST to further his purpose of sabotaging them.

It may even be why the Temple was founded and the original ultimate goal of the prank documentary project itself.

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While the motivations behind Soling — who also uses the pseudonym “Malcolm Jarry” for TST business — and his anti-(integrated) public school stance is something worse than problematic, it’s not that the stance itself is totally wrong.

“Public schools hurt children” is not terrible or indefensible position to take in a vacuum. It is, truly, a form of abolitionism, and many genuinely decent people have sought youth liberation and education available for everyone without being a model of factory training forced on everyone.

Thus, a lot in The Student Resistance Handbook actually might be useful to students. But most of it won’t be, and that’s because it’s not taking place in a vacuum and because the fundamental flaws and orientation of the author ruin it.

When the first two epigraphs included in the book are of the author quoting himself to start the chapter (Soling does this several more times), you know the sort of mediocre, self-published rich man you’re about to start reading.

But this book also confirms something long suspected about the prominent national campaign After School Satan (ASS) The Satanic Temple has been pursuing off and on for about seven years.

Before we get to that, some background.

“Unschooling” can mean lots of things — from white nationalists like Stefan Molyneux wanting to keep their children away from the pluralistic society they despise to leftists who want to avoid capitalist indoctrination to apolitical people who think they can do a better job at home and self-managed.

Soling a.k.a. “Malcolm Jarry”, did let the mask slip for himself when phrasing the problem this way:

What I think the transformation that took- happened, was that we went from a homogeneous population in these schools to a heterogeneous one. And so where you have a common culture in a school, where everyone sort of comes from the same background, it’s easier to suppress and keep people in line, but when people have different cultures, greater efforts have to be made to basically keep people in line and enforce the conformity that is demanded and required in public schools. They’re not good places to learn and they’re not good places to be.

Soling’s documentary “The War on Kids” — which he also promotes in the book without disclosing he made it — got him on “The Colbert Report” as well as chatting with Molyneux on the latter’s podcast, and the subject of hating public schools is how he and future co-owner of The Satanic Temple Doug Misicko a.k.a. “Lucien Greaves” met in 2012, by their own account as dutifully stenographed by Joe Laycock in his history of TST, “Speak of the Devil”.

Malcolm Jarry and Doug Mesner (Lucien Greaves) met in 2012 at a  function at the Harvard faculty club. Both men hold degrees from Harvard  and were living near Cambridge at the time. Mesner recalls being  invited to the function by a female friend to serve as her “wingman”  while that she chatted with Harvard-educated bachelors. Mesner and his  friend were sitting on a couch when Jarry wandered over. Jarry  had met a young woman and was locked in a debate with her about public  education. They decided to continue their conversation seated and pulled  up chairs in front of Mesner’s couch. Jarry felt public schools were  essentially like prisons; their function was not to educate but to  inculcate compliance with authority. The woman objected, explaining that  her public school experience had been entirely positive. Mesner, who  watched the debate unfold, recalled, “Of course I wanted to agree with  the beautiful lady, but Malcolm was clearly right.” Mesner  finally chimed in, siding with Malcolm and the woman, perhaps feeling  outnumbered, made her excuses and walked away. She left Jarry with  Mesner, having no comprehension of the chain of events she had just set  in motion. … Jarry grew up outside of New York City and has described his  religious upbringing as atheistic Judaism. He holds multiple graduate  degrees and has taken on numerous projects in whatever area interests  him, including Japanese martial arts, writing books and articles, and  producing musical albums and films. One of his enduring  interests has been education reform. In an essay written the year he met Mesner, Jarry wrote, “On prima facie grounds, it is incomprehensibly  absurd to place children in a totalitarian environment for 13 years of  their lives and to expect them, upon removal, to be able to fulfill the  obligations of citizenry in a democracy. The greatest obligation being  to oppose the very same manifestations of tyrannical power to which  students are acclimated.”3

That “3” footnote goes on to reveal that this is part of the “birth certificate” of The Satanic Temple that Soling wrote in December 2012 just prior to the first publicity stunt in Tallahassee, Fla., the following month.

TST has for years made the false claims that its religious exemptions are already effective, and while abortion is the most prominent of these, before that it was the “Protect Children Project” (PCP).

Starting in April 2014, TST claimed that children could use a religious exemption to escape beatings (“corporal punishment”) — but only in public schools. This explains why TST “The Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities” from that earliest period of PCP also fits this pattern. And so does 2014’s The Student Resistance Handbook. What makes this especially interesting is that it was published by Spectacle Films, Inc., making it potentially part of the same project TST was originally supposed to be.

What the hell is “The Satanic Temple”? — Ep. 2: Spectacle Films Inc

In regards to the After School Satan clubs announced occasionally to get attention for The Satanic Temple (and therefore merchandise sales and donations), we had long speculated that it might also be because Soling wanted to jam up the public schools and make it harder for them to operate. For that, they often didn’t even need to actually exist, just be announced as existing.

Well, thanks to this recent thrift-shop pickup, we can confirm Cevin Soling was about as explicit as it gets that this is exactly what ASS clubs are supposed to be for.

This is from pages 65-66 then page 70 of Soling’s The Student Resistance Handbook. Of these, “Form a club” is definitely a standout, but there’s a lot here.

Religious Accommodations

A religious belief must be sincerely held and “must occupy the same place in life of the [believer] as [would] orthodox belief in God.” In other words, so long as you sincerely believe something and that belief represents a significant part of your outlook, it can be deemed a religious belief under the law. This means you can create your own religion, or announce that you are part of a religious organization that supports individual autonomy and sovereignty such as Satanism. The benefits depend on what state you live in. Schools are designed not to treat people as individuals. The more students engage in asserting their individual religious beliefs and demand appropriate concessions, the harder it is for schools to operate.

Holidays

Some states that have enacted various forms of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) permit certain rights under the banner of religious freedom. For instance, in Texas students are excused from school to observe religious holy days. If you are a Satanist and live in Texas, you can insist on taking Halloween off. Obviously, you want to exploit this judiciously, but just doing this once will upset and disturb the administration because it invites others to do the same.

Hair Length and Dress Code

Religious exemptions can be requested to avoid having to adhere to school requirements for hair length and school uniforms. Be aware that this could involve being transferred to a campus that does not have these requirements.

Religious Symbols

Religious symbols are permitted and wearing a Satanic pentagram and other forms of Satanic jewelry is legally protected even though many school districts inappropriately ban such apparel.

Curriculum

In some states, you may be permitted to not attend classes or participate in activities that conflict with your religious beliefs by providing a written statement to your teacher that states a conflict exists. Remember, religious beliefs do not have to be rational or even self-consistent—just deeply held convictions. Please note that you cannot be exempt from an entire semester and you cannot be exempt from graduation requirements including those for advancing from one grade to another.

Pages 65-66 of “The Student Resistance Handbook” by Cevin Soling (2014)

Form a Club

In most schools, students have great leeway in forming clubs of their choosing. Form a club that will likely offend the faculty. Some suggestions:

• Club for the Practice of Witchcraft and Dark Arts
• Club for the Worshipers of Satan
• Banned Book Club
• Advanced Studies in Contemporary Pornography Club
• End Compulsory Schooling Club
• Students for a Lower Drinking Age Club
• Students for the Legalization of Heroin Club
• Students for a Sensible School Budget by Lowering Faculty Wages Club
• Death Metal and Gangsta Rap Appreciation Club

Page 70 of “The Student Resistance Handbook” by Cevin Soling (2014)

Because when it comes to The Satanic Temple…

When it comes to The Satanic Temple, there’s always more and it’s always worse