Ginni Thomas, a far-right extremist and conspiracy theorist, and who just so happens to be married to a justice on the Supreme Court, was recently revealed by an article in The New Yorker to have been part of a weird, fat-shaming cult back in the ’80s. That cult was called Lifespring, and like other similar organizations, it claimed to be a group that was simply helping its members become the best version of themselves.

When she joined the cult, Ginni Thomas was working as a congressional aide, and whether she learned it at Lifespring or not, she has become increasingly conservative throughout her political career and has even made recent comments that “transsexual fascists” are causing America’s demise.

The knowledge of her past is no recent thing, however, and she interviewed with The Washington Post back in 1987 about her time in Lifespring, saying that she and other trainees were forced to strip naked and “[make] fun of fat people’s bodies and [ridicule] one another with sexual questions.”

She didn’t leave the cult immediately, however, and was absorbed in the lifestyle for quite a while despite feeling skeptical of their practices. As an explanation, she said that “I had intellectually and emotionally gotten myself so wrapped up with this group that I was moving away from my family and friends and the people I work with.”

https://twitter.com/Hammbear/status/1484560330005131273

When she finally did try to leave the group, Thomas said that it was a grueling process that took months, and that she faced near-constant harassment from the other members. In 1984, she finally managed to leave for good. Anti-Cult awareness has been at the top of her list of priorities since, and she is a member of the Cult Awareness Network and has also spoken before congress about the issue several times.

Per Jane Mayer's Newyorker piece: Ginni Thomas "fell in with a cultish self-help group, Lifespring, whose members were encouraged to strip naked and mock one another’s body fat." So, a woman who loathed her body fat married a man who loathed his skin color… makes perfect sense.

— Oh, For Fuck's Sake 🏳️‍🌈🛵☮ (@msvespa) January 23, 2022

Look at this pure creepiness: