By K. R. Claviger
We’ve all heard the term “Born Loser” – and most of us have used it on occasion to describe a person that we held in low regard.
And, for the most part, we all have a common understanding of the type of person we’re talking about when we use that term.
Surprisingly, the standard Merriam Webster dictionary does not include a definition for the term
But the Definitions website defines the term as “A person who is habitually unsuccessful or unlucky or who is prejudged to be a failure in life especially one with a defeatist outlook”.
So, based on that definition, it would be inaccurate to describe Keith Raniere as a Born Loser.
He was not “unsuccessful”. In fact, if you define “success” as having achieved your goals, then Keith has, in fact, been quite successful in life.
He was not “unlucky”. Indeed, most would consider a guy who has a harem of gorgeous women – and access to virtually unlimited money – to be quite lucky.
He was not predetermined to be “a failure in life”. To the contrary, he was born into a fairly well-to-do family, doesn’t have any major deformities (except for the square feet – which are unnoticeable when he has shoes on), went to good schools, and got to do lots of activities when he was growing up (including, of course, judo lessons).
And he certainly never showed any evidence of “having a defeatist outlook”. At least not until he became an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY (We’ll have an update on that situation later in the week).
He hasn’t worked at a real job in almost 30 years. Yet, by most standards, he’s lived a pretty comfortable life during that time period.
He didn’t live in a McMansion – but he had access to many of them.
He never went hungry – as is evident by his pudgy little body.
He was able to have almost any toy he wanted: a $90,000 grand piano; a “Library” complete with a hot tub and another piano; an annual 10-day long celebration of his birthday; etc.
He was driven everywhere he wanted to go.
He had women who would procure other women for him.
He had hundreds of people who hung on his every word – and teared up when he shared his insights about life.
He had access to private jets whenever he wanted to fly anywhere.
He got to pretend he was an inventor with hundreds – maybe even thousands – of “patent pending” inventions.
He never had to pay a bill, file taxes, or bother with any other of life’s little unpleasant necessities.
***
But, despite all that he had – and all that he did – Keith is still a “Born Loser”.
Just a different type of one.
In Keith’s case, his undoing is his inability to accept success.
Which means that no matter how much he succeeded, he had to keep pushing until he failed.
When he went to the casino, he had to keep playing until he lost whatever money he brought to the table. Even if he won on a given night, he would have to lose it all the next day or the day after that.
When he started Consumers Buyline, he could have structured it as a legitimate business – and probably been quite successful (It was, in some respects, like a predecessor to Amazon). But that wasn’t enough for Keith – which is why he structured it as an illegal Ponzi scheme.
He could have operated NXIVM/ESP as a legitimate “training program”. But that wasn’t enough — he had to add in all the illegal activities that became part of the NXIVM/ESP crime syndicate.
When he got people to underwrite his interest in the commodities market, he may have been able to share in the profits of those investments. Except he wouldn’t listen to his broker’s advice – and, instead, claimed to have invented some trading formula that would allow him to beat the market. After $70 million of losses, he gave up on that idea — and moved on to real estate development.
When he got the Bronfman sisters to underwrite a $26-million dollar real estate venture in Los Angeles, he could have watched it grow into a very profitable venture. But Keith can’t stand success – which is why he had to blow that project up – fire Frank Parlato and put Jim DelNegro in charge of it.
He had numerous women that were willing to attend to his sexual wants and whims. But that wasn’t enough – which is why he decided to start branding them.
And on and on and on…
A life full of potential successes that Keith turned into abject failures.
The Master at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
A Born Loser…
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
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One Night is so wrong about people with money and how they use their money. There are many in the world who use their money to build value that is “good”. It appears One night cannot see that and brings only examples of scum.
If One Night is not a NXIVM troll here to stir the pot for his Master KAR, at least Nights wears dark shades glasses and is the spokesperson for those who are evil.
KAR was never dictator, king or ruler except in his own mind. KAR was good at fooling a handful of women who than fooled thousands to taking a human potential course, believing in humanity or buying a membership in a consumer group. Con man is KAR.
Loser? Well Amway is still in business as well as Scientology and Kieth will soon be 0-2 for forming pyramid schemes and cults.
So loser is applicable. 0-2 is a losing score.
Amway and Scientology have been around for years before and after Keith’s soirées have began and failed. Loser loser loser.
I don”t think the term “born loser” really describes what is wrong with Keith. What is probably wrong with him is that he lacks empathy, and he likely is a malignant narcissist.
All malignant narcissists will end up wreaking havoc on other people, and the ones who end up in power will cause the most damage to the most people.
You can look back at various examples of famous malignant narcissists throughout history, and see that many were born with good looks, good health, intelligence, (example Theodore Bundy) but that made no difference, they still were unable to be good people. This is because its impossible to be a decent human being if you lack empathy for other people.
Hitler disregarded advice because one of the traits of a malignant narcissist is that they have a huge ego, and therefore believe that they are the best at virtually everything – so why listen to advice if they are smarter than everyone else? As mentioned, that also work to the advantage of others, because this giant ego will always be a malignant narcissist’s eventual downfall.
Good analysis. I think right on point.
Someone’s been doing some reading. KAR presents as a psycho or sociopath as has been discussed. People who had dealings with KAR and the elder Salzman can let me know if I’m way off base but I think he saw her as an equal, of sorts and that is not possible for a narcissist. Narcissist is a word being thrown around a lot these days but there are a small number of people who would get that clinical diagnosis. Only one percent of the general population would meet the requirements for diagnosis.
All sociopaths are also narcissists , Festinger, but the reverse is not true.
No, I haven’t been doing much reading on this topic lately, but I did do some a few years ago, after I realized I was being deliberately harassed.
Just because you believe something doesn’t make it fact .
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-integrationist/201608/narcissist-or-sociopath-similarities-differences-and-signs?amp
Keith did not in any way see Nancy as an equal. He saw her as someone he could use. He saw her as someone who could be the main teacher and creator of “his” courses. He saw her as someone with credibility that could help sell others on his credibility. He saw her as someone with young daughters. He saw her as gullible and easily manipulated.
Nancy called Keith her guru, teacher, and mentor. Nancy didn’t look at Keith as an equal. She blindly followed him. Just as Keith wanted her to do.
Flowers – I know about narcissism but that’s the first time I’ve heard of malignant narcissism. Just looked it up and it is so accurate. Thanks for giving me something new to think about.
This is an interesting article by our resident-legal-turd, Mr. Claviger.
However, I wish to disagree with everything said in it.
It’s not about having a need to ‘lose’. Keith has no inherent need to lose. He’s not a born loser.
Keith is simply following human nature.
Most people here are naive enough to believe that if they were given all the money and power in the world, they’d be fully satisfied and even graciously humble.
But it’s all BULLSHIT.
I challenge you to name a single dictator, king or ruler who was satisfied with their power and who treated people kindly?
It started with the ancient Pharaohs of Egypt.
It continued with the Emperors of Rome.
It was alive in Napoleon’s day.
…and it’s still alive today with Stalin, Hitler, Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi and every other tyrant from Fidel Castro to North Korea to the African 3rd world nations.
Give a man limitless wealth & power and he’ll crave even more, while being even more sadistic towards everybody around him.
It’s just human nature.
Keith was simply given too much, too quickly and that was his downfall. Clare’s too.
If Claviger was given unlimited power and wealth, then he too would probably turn to the dark side and treat people like shit.
I mean, he’s a defense attorney who presumably defends the scum of the earth while pretending to be a choir boy here at Frank Report.
I’m betting that Claviger is no more ethical than Agnifilo.
Would Claviger turn down Clare Bear’s money if she offered it to him? I’m guessing not. Though I’m sure he’ll pretend he would.
To One Night – Not a good look for you when Flowers is spot on in her post, and your post calls Keith an example of typical human nature. I think you may be missing a tad bit of the story.
Good job, Flowers.
–Keith is simply following human nature.
No. That is the nature of the human animal soul. That is not the nature of the human rational soul. When the latter dominates the former, then what results is a dignified human being. When the former dominates the latter, then what results is little more than an “intelligent” – and I use this term loosely – beast.
Keith is an example of a man who followed the animal nature of man to the depths of its bestiality. It is in this sense that he became a “born loser”.
Bangkok
In regards to your statement:
“I challenge you to name a single dictator, king or ruler who was satisfied with their power and who treated people kindly?”
Consider what the word dictator means. If a person refers to himself as “a dictator and ruler of the world” what does that say about this person’s mindset?
I don’t think Keith referred to himself in those particular words, but he did claim to be THE BEST at pretty much everything…so therefore he did believe he was better than other people.
In doing a little research into some of the abusive people I’ve encountered over the last few years, what I do know for sure is that some of these guys did write profile bio’s where they referred to themselves using terms such as dictator. They also made written claims that they were “the best ______ in the world.” You can fill in the blank with anything, it doesn’t matter. It’s the fact that they NEEDED to have people believe they were SPECIAL – that is the important thing here.
You seem to think power corrupts people, Bangkok. I disagree. I think corrupted people are often drawn to positions of power because they need to feel special.
Cyrus the Great
He comes off as arrogant, manipulative, deceitful, and has an inaccurate assessment of his own sense of self.
“Pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Some corrections:
1. It’s not surprising that the term “born loser” is not in the MW dictionary, because it is 2 words, most entries are either 1 word, or in some cases, 2 words that are hyphenated. A good source for the meaning of slang terms is the urban dictionary: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=born%20loser;
2. Raniere’s harem was far from gorgeous, most were mousey looking. Of course, I have the luxury of Texas standards;
3. I wouldn’t call the school Raniere went to as good, it is very controversial (https://thewaldorfreview.blogspot.com/), as has been well documented on this website. In fact, that school was probably a major contributor to how Raniere developed into the monster that he is known for today;
4. Consumers’ Buyline was not an illegal Ponzi scheme, it was an illegal pyramid, very similar to the one he received his MLM scam fundamentals training from, Amway. Ponzi schemes and illegal pyramids have both similarities and differences, the differences being primarily whether the participants are active (Illegal pyramid) or passive (Ponzi scheme) and whether there are multiple levels (illegal pyramid) or not (Ponzi scheme);
From the perspective of screwing everything up, Raniere could be, using his own thinking, the real reincarnated Adolf Hilter. Hitler is well-known for not listening to his military leaders and this resulted in screwing everything up. WWII could have been much longer, bloodier, and not as much of a total victory had it not been for Hitler taking over military strategy and tactics, and the same is true with Raniere/NXIVM. Sometimes being a born loser has societal benefits.
Right on the nose.
KAR, if he’d been wired to be an up standing member of society with good morals and values of caring about other well being, he might have had riches beyond his wildest dreams. Not only money but the real riches in life.
Instead he made a decision to be a thug who did whatever it took to destroy as much value and people as he could. With his mindset, he scorched a great deal of value in his life.