Danielle Johnson was worried about the eclipse.

The astrology influencer and “divine healer” who went by the name Danielle Ayoka online called the upcoming astronomical event “the epitome of spiritual warfare” and told people they needed to “pick a side,” in posts on X on April 4.

Less than three days later, in the early morning before the partial solar eclipse, Johnson left a trail of tragedy in her wake: her partner stabbed to death in the kitchen of the family apartment in Woodland Hills, her 8-month-old baby dead after being pushed from Johnson’s moving Porsche Cayenne on the 405, and Johnson herself dead after crashing her car on Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach.

  • Flying Squid
    link
    fedilink
    1413 months ago

    There are 2-5 solar eclipses every year and people still went nuts and committed murder this time.

    • @Kbobabob@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      84
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Total solar eclipses happen every one to three years…

      Also, people go nuts and kill people every damn day

    • zkfcfbzr
      link
      fedilink
      English
      20
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      And on top of that, they’re predictable hundreds of years in advance. We’ve known exactly when and where this eclipse was going to happen since before her grandparents were born. But somehow it’s a bad omen.

      • @SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        143 months ago

        We know the position of the planets know to the second. Still not a single astrologer predicted COVID except in the usual vague “There might be a challenge ahead” kind of predictions.

    • DarkThoughts
      link
      fedilink
      143 months ago

      Esotericism is absolute cancer. A lot of those people don’t even understand that eclipses are very localized events. They’re moronically stupid. Even more so if they’re people of color, because this whole subculture is full of Neonazis.

      • Queen HawlSera
        link
        fedilink
        English
        53 months ago

        Bro there are tons of reasons to hate New Age without pretending it’s a front for the Alt Right

        • DarkThoughts
          link
          fedilink
          33 months ago

          Alt Right = far right. No need to support this rebranding either. And sorry but it is literally riddled with it. Ever wondered why those aliens from the Pleiades are white with blue eyes and blonde hair? Or why their little communities / villages don’t accept people of color? Or why their conventions & books are full of Nazi symbolism? The “Greys” & lizard people are also often behind the whole Pizzagate / child eating Qanon bullshit. And don’t even get me started on the antisemitism… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esoteric_Nazism

          I unfortunately have way too much personal experiences with this whole topic to not call it by the name.

          • Queen HawlSera
            link
            fedilink
            English
            23 months ago

            Bro Hitler liked dogs, painted, and ate vegetables, are Dogs, Veggies, and The Arts white supremacist too?

            Ever wonder why The Scream was so afraid? This was his response to learning about the passage of civil rights! And 101 Dalmatians? It’s actually about how Cruella DeVille was trying to stand up to the Far Right! /s

            Jokes aside: Look I get that Nazi groups have latched onto New Age ideas, but pretending New Age is inherently fascist in and of itself is a tired talking point that I’m just tired of entertaining. New Age is bullshit, but we should attack it for its empty platitudes, rejection of evidence-based medicine in favor of what boils down to “Ignore the problem hard enough and it will go away”, and how it enables sufferers of mental illness to give into their delusions instead of seeking help…

            When we say it’s secretly a Nazi thing, we just sound completely insane and like we’re the ones peddling conspiracy nonsense.

            • DarkThoughts
              link
              fedilink
              13 months ago

              Look I get that Nazi groups have latched onto New Age ideas

              They didn’t just “latch onto it” my guy.

              but we should attack it for its empty platitudes, rejection of evidence-based medicine in favor of what boils down to “Ignore the problem hard enough and it will go away”, and how it enables sufferers of mental illness to give into their delusions instead of seeking help…

              And its Nazism. I don’t see why you struggle so hard to make an exception for this one thing. I mean I do see why, I just think it makes you part of the problem.

              When we say it’s secretly a Nazi thing, we just sound completely insane and like we’re the ones peddling conspiracy nonsense.

              It’s not really a secret. Here’s another one that’s spreading and there’s many such groups all over the world, founding private communes to indoctrinate kids and new members to spread their ideology. If you don’t understand how big of an issue this is then I really don’t know what else to tell you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringing_Cedars’_Anastasianism

      • Lemminary
        link
        fedilink
        4
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        Wait, do you mean that non-whites go crazy because they’re neonazis themselves? I’m a bit confused, as I know very little about this subculture but it sounds counterintuitive.

        • @TheDoozer@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          103 months ago

          They’re saying non-whites are especially crazy to be part of this sub-group because the sub-group is full of neo-nazis.

        • DarkThoughts
          link
          fedilink
          13 months ago

          What TheDoozer said. If you’re from the US, it’s like black people or LGBT folks supporting Trump.

    • @Rookwood@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      43 months ago

      There won’t be another total eclipse in the contiguous US until 2044. Still no reason to kill someone.

  • @catloaf@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    633 months ago

    Under the Ayoka moniker, Johnson issued a torrent of antisemitic screeds, conspiracy theories and alarmist warnings on April 4 and 5. These included a repost of a debunked apocryphal speech attributed to Ben Franklin about how Jewish people “depreciated” societies wherever they settled, a video about Jews promoting pedophilia in the entertainment industry, and unproven theories about the origin of COVID-19.

    Yeah I’m gonna say that mental illness played a part in this.

    Also apparently the kid that pushed out of the car survived. I hope they’re able to handle it.

      • @JoBo@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        123 months ago

        …the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. In the U.S., a prominent instance of the plot obsession is to be found in Pat Robertson’s The New World Order, but, as we have recently seen, there are many others.

        Ur-fascism

      • @MJKee9@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        23 months ago

        Jewish communities are often insular, which leads to an impression of otherness. Orthodox Jews may not frequent non-jewish run restaurants or other businesses due to religious restrictions/ pressure (i.e dietary restrictions). Often, those communities congregate in the same neighborhoods, within walking distance of synagogues and schools (prohibitions against driving on the Sabbath). There is pressure to frequent businesses and professional services of those neighbors. Also, the closer you live to someone, the more likely you are to have a relationship with those people (propinquity), which strengthens community integration. They are a minority religion, with obstacles to new participants joining. They may dress in identifiable ways. Wrap all of that together and you have a group of people that are often easily identified and perhaps perceived as “too good for” my restaurant, or my store or my school…etc… they become easy targets for hate.

        Ironically, almost everyone else does the same thing, it’s just less noticable especially in larger cities or towns. But go to any small town, and it’ll be easier to see the similarities. Again people’s relationships are strongly informed by religion and propinquity… But because they are a blue eyed 'merican, who never misses the baptist sermon on sunday, and wouldn’t be caught dead in Pam’s hair salon because word on the street is she might be gay, they are seen as “normal.”

    • FuglyDuck
      link
      fedilink
      English
      53 months ago

      that’s just hate. That’s what hate looks like.

      • @protist@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        193 months ago

        I’ve seen enough people experiencing severe mania yell racist obscenities who later stabilized and were mortified at their previous behavior to know that no, this is not “just hate.” This is either severe mania with psychotic features or straight up severe psychosis.

        • @spamfajitas@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          53 months ago

          You can also hear the same stuff if you spend some time at any US subway station when the local hoteps are out and about with their loudspeakers. It’s not just her.

        • FuglyDuck
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -103 months ago

          and I’ve seen more than enough people yell racist obscenities who never had any sort of manic episode or psychotic break or any other kind of mental illness to know that it’s not the cause of hatred.

          In fact, it’s far more likely the opposite is true.

          • @protist@mander.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            213 months ago

            We’re talking on completely different wavelengths here. I’m not in any way saying hate as a human behavior is caused or excused by mental illness. I’m saying this specific person, with a pronounced decline in functioning and worsening paranoia, delusional thinking, and hyperreligiosity, is experiencing severe mania, and that what people say when they’re experiencing mania with psychosis is not based in reality or a reflection of who they actually are or what they believe. There are lots of people who are full of hate and who aren’t mentally ill, this person is clearly not in that category.

            • FuglyDuck
              link
              fedilink
              English
              -193 months ago

              I’m so glad that an armchair psychologist is on hand to offer an internet diagnosis after reading a sensationalized headline.

              She may well be mentally ill. She may also not be. I doubt very much that you’re in a position to speak with such authority in the matter.

              • @Rookwood@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                133 months ago

                She was by definition mentally ill. Nothing about this makes sense and she committed suicide and murdered her husband… You don’t have to be a professional to understand this.

                • FuglyDuck
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  -133 months ago

                  Perfectly sane people commit murder and suicide, and yes, murder-suicide all the time.

                  Your “let’s blame mental illness” train is full of shit. You are right that it doesn’t make sense. It never does. That doesn’t mean she suffered from any mental illness that drove her to do this- and your blaming mental illness is perpetuating a stigma that is not helping anyone.

                  You “don’t have to be a professional” to understand that.

              • @protist@mander.xyz
                link
                fedilink
                English
                53 months ago

                I read her direct quotes in the article, the headline is nonsense.

                She may well be mentally ill. She may also not be. I doubt very much that you’re in a position to speak with such authority in the matter.

                You could say this to yourself, too.

                • @protist@mander.xyz
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  03 months ago

                  I doubt very much that you’re in a position to speak with such authority in the matter.

                • FuglyDuck
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  -10
                  edit-2
                  3 months ago

                  that I’m mentally ill? I have anxiety and depression issues.

                  that I’m not in a position of authority to say “I don’t know and you don’t either?”… Actually, if you had evaluated her… even tangentially… you wouldn’t be here pronouncing your diagnosis to global public. medical privacy laws are like that.

                  it takes multiple sessions to come to a full, accurate diagnosis of issues. usually multiple sessions across multiple weeks. any one telling you they can accurately diagnosis mental illness from a handful of statements… is full of shit.

                  Did it even occur to you that she might be faking it?

              • @protist@mander.xyz
                link
                fedilink
                English
                113 months ago

                That article talks about the pathologization of “life’s misfortunes,” which is absolutely a problem. It goes on to describe how this relates to the diagnoses of depression, bipolar II, PTSD, and personality disorders.

                I’m not talking about a diagnosis with “fuzzy boundaries” here, I’m talking about a woman displaying clear paranoid delusions:

                WAKE UP WAKE UP THE APOCALYPSE IS HERE. EVERYONE WHO HAS EARS LISTEN. YOUR TIME TO CHOOSE WHAT YOU BELIEVE IS NOW. IF YOU BELIEVE A NEW WORLD IS POSSIBLE FOR THE PEOPLE RT NOW.

                THERE IS POWER IN CHOICE. THERE IS POWER IN CHOICE!!! REPOST TO MAKE THE CHOICE FOR THE COLLECTIVE

                IF ANY SPIRITUAL ACCOUNT IS NOT REVEALING THE TRUTH RIGHT NOW THEY ARE FAKE. THEY ARE LIES. THEY HAVE SOLD OUT AND ARE ON THE WRONG SIDE. WAKE UP!

                And then murdering her husband, pushing her children out of a moving car, and crashing into a tree at 100 mph.

                Of course neither I nor anyone else could make an accurate diagnosis without directly evaluating her. My entire point was responding originally to someone who was trying to dismiss this is “just hate,” because it clearly isn’t. Among the differential diagnoses for this woman would be a severe manic episode, indicating bipolar I, or a psychotic episode, indicating a number of possible psychotic disorders, among other possibilities we could not know without evaluating her. We’re not talking about “where should psychiatry draw the line between depression and sadness?”

                • @steakmeoutt@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  -43 months ago

                  So now after all the sophistry and unwarranted attitude now you admit you cannot make a diagnosis from third hand sources. She could have shown the same behaviours from a minor stroke, a tumour or some other brain injury, she might have been traumatised or goaded into killing her family. We and especially you do not have any real evidence and here you are AGAIN making further diagnosis from her writing. Tell me, professional psych, do you also practice phrenology and analyse hand-writing?

            • @steakmeoutt@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              -8
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              Sure thing, please clarify how you can possibly diagnose someone from a news article and some responding posts on social media. Then clarify how you are being professional throwing out these diagnoses as factual opinion in an open forum.

              You see I actually had a mother who was a both a therapist and psychologist and she often remarked on the nature of diagnosis and in particular how non-professional armchair psych was indicated by people throwing out terms like fools name-dropping.

              I could say you’re full of shit but that would be redundant. Suffice to say a professional would not diagnose an individual by third hand reporting.

                • @steakmeoutt@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  -8
                  edit-2
                  3 months ago

                  No I’m making a statement about the nature of diagnosis and professionalism and my other response has linked articles by professionals who agree with my statement.

    • @ShepherdPie@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      43 months ago

      Also apparently the kid that pushed out of the car survived. I hope they’re able to handle it.

      Was there more than one kid? The article says this:

      her 8-month-old baby dead after being pushed from Johnson’s moving Porsche Cayenne on the 405

        • @ShepherdPie@midwest.social
          link
          fedilink
          3
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Ah I see now. Odd that they wouldn’t include her 9-year-old getting pushed out of the car in the paragraph about the “trail of tragedy” that she left.

  • @Sludgehammer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    553 months ago

    with more than 100,000 followers on X who liked her increasingly worrying messages.

    It’s all happening on X!

      • @Sludgehammer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        5
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        Yeah, I was mainly just mocking Linda Yaccarino’s attempt to force “It’s all happening on X” as a catchphrase while the site spirals down the drain. That being said, while the amount of crazy and hatred seems to be going up on every platform, X seems to be outperforming most other sites at becoming a toxic cesspit.

  • UnfortunateShort
    link
    fedilink
    523 months ago

    A great reminder that not every astrologist is after your money. Some are also just complete maniacs.

      • TurtleJoe
        link
        fedilink
        153 months ago

        She also offered a $6.99 per month home purifying cleanse that stripped people’s residences of “stagnant energy,” citing better sleep and an increased “vibration” as some of the benefits. Activating the service was simple: purchase the cleanse, get a piece of paper and title it “home purifying cleanse” and write your address on it. Then tuck it away in a safe place, she wrote.

        Definitely a grifter.

    • @lennybird@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      83 months ago

      Reminds me of that flat-earther Behind The Curve documentary. Such conspiracy theorist and woowoo believers basically fall into the grifted, and the grifters. Those outcast and outsiders who lack critical-thinking skills and who find community in like-minded eccentrics, and the ones just exploiting the gullible for money.

      Similar with maga cult, too.

  • kn0wmad1c
    link
    fedilink
    English
    503 months ago

    Why does anyone need an “astrology influencer”

    • @Weirdfish@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      43 months ago

      This is certiably a phrase / concept the world would be better off without.

      Takes two of my least favorite things, mysticism and internet points, and rolls them into a real shit sandwich

    • nifty
      link
      fedilink
      0
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Secular people, or people without religious membership, tend to look for substitutes.

      We need normalization of post-graduate secular community organizations that have a set schedule of yearly events, and regular, ideology based meeting times. The Freemasons kind of come to mind, but they have their own set of historical issues. Something like co-ed fraternities for non-college going adults, but without superstitious concepts associated with membership. The only criteria should be “no conning other people” or something similar.

      The Satanic temple has done a good job of framing a reasonable humanitarian charter, but I don’t like their religious movement framing. Supernatural concepts and superstition needs to be removed from such community membership.

  • Das_Bruno
    link
    fedilink
    English
    473 months ago

    Those poor babies. Who the fuck throws an 8 month old and 9 year old out of a moving vehicle on the freeway?! What a monster. I hope that 9 year old girl is able to heal from this… by some miracle. Such a senseless tragedy.

    • @KevonLooney@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      363 months ago

      They won’t. People don’t recover from things like this. Just hope they can find a loving relative to live with and come to terms with it later.

  • @dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    213 months ago

    Anyone who unironically begins a statement with “WAKE UP” all in caps like that can safely be assumed to, shall we say, have a tenuous grasp on reality.

  • @geekworking@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    183 months ago

    Social media doesn’t necessiarially cause mental health issues, but it definitely dumps a tanker truck of gasoline on any spark of mental illness.

    • Rhaedas
      link
      fedilink
      93 months ago

      Nightfall is a few levels above an eclipse on Earth. I finally got the idea that Asimov was going for when playing Elite Dangerous and visiting the core, seeing millions of stars vs. what we see in our solar system. It is a bit maddening.

  • TurtleJoe
    link
    fedilink
    163 months ago

    Under the Ayoka moniker, Johnson issued a torrent of antisemitic screeds, conspiracy theories and alarmist warnings on Thursday and Friday. These included a repost of a debunked apocryphal speech attributed to Ben Franklin about how Jewish people “depreciated” societies wherever they settled, a video about Jews promoting pedophilia in the entertainment industry, and unproven theories about the origin of COVID-19.

    This is qanon shit. Don’t know why OP didn’t include it in their excerpts of the article.

    • Stopthatgirl7OP
      link
      fedilink
      133 months ago

      I didn’t include it because it wasn’t in the first three paragraphs. My excerpt is literally the beginning of the article.