Danny Shaw
I just left a cult, disguised as “The American Communist Party” (ACP). Your natural tendency may be to think I am bluffing. Look at me shaking. Listen to my anxiety. Then judge for yourself. My heart has not been beating the same since November 1st. Only I know what I just lived. It is not me who is mad but rather the narcissists and sycophants who brought me and others to this point of absolute disbelief and exhaustion.
I are beginning to see everything clearly again but full comprehension of what I endured the past five months and our collective healing will take time. While I was aware that cult leader Ali Hammoud, alias “Haz,” represented an infantile bastardization of our principles as revolutionaries and community organisers, I kept my head down. There was a snowball effect from there. Through the lens of the traumatizing narcissism that I was up against with a 200 or so others who were mostly unconscious of it, a clearer portrait of what I have endured is emerging. Not only am I a “Cult Survivor;” I came out on the other side as a Cult Infiltrator and Cult Destroyer. For this, I am truly grateful.
The Grooming Process
Cult survivor and therapeutic specialist, who ironically shares my name, Daniel Shaw, wrote Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation. Shaw’s book takes a deeper dive into the formation of a narcissist: “What is most characteristic of the traumatizing narcissist…is his compelling need to suppress subjectivity in the other, so that the narcissist’s subjectivity is always the exclusively important and only valid focus in any dyad or group.” This was Hammoud’s favorite concept, “subjectivity.” He always claimed to be objective and dispassionate. He berated the ideas of others as “emotional attachments” or “petty subjectivities” and branded any disagreements as “temper tantrums.” Only the chairman was allowed to scream over everybody that they were “f*gg*ts” or “bitches” and engage in emotional outbursts. If anyone else dared to fight back, he branded them “weak.”
Shaw coordinated the visits of Indian spiritual leader Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. After a decade plus, he continued to see patterns of “cruelty and selfishness he had never seen the likes of.” Members of the ashram were expected to do voluntary labor and were blamed after Chidvilasananda sexually abused them. For the wanna-be gurus, victim blaming is key. I saw this in Hammoud. He commanded: “I do not respect anyone who does not have guns.” Another evening, he insisted: “the masses are nothing. They have no power or interest in changing things.” He invented ideological gymnastics that never lined up but we were not allowed to question him. The entire experience in “leadership” was a grooming process. I am only seeing it now, fresh on the heels of what I lived. Everyday he did more outlandish things which we were never supposed to question. On November 1, Hammoud and Pettis tricked me into a meeting that culminated with the two of them discussing gun trafficking to Haiti with Journalist Dan Cohen and Kim Ives. Hamoud suppressed the promised zoom recording of that meeting. There is a separate article that will be released on this incident where I lay out all of the details. Needless to say , I felt deceived and trapped. The question that went through my head was: Are these federal agents or just ultra leftists who do the bidding of the federal government? On a Wednesday in November, at 6:58 PM he texted our Politburo Telegram Group: “Guys: I am taking a big shit. We will start in 20 minutes.” The next week, he texted: “There is a fat f*gg*t on the weight bench in front of me. We’ll start when I finish.” In the moment, it was surreal. Now that I am gaining distance from everything, it is all making sense. Hammoud was testing all of us. I felt alone in a sea of madness. Everyone around me appeared deaf, dumb and blind before the weirdo warlock.
When I confronted him on January 3rd about this, he merely screamed: “Show me the receipts.” It was all about control and subjugation. What Shaw described in Chidvilasananda was similar to what I saw in Hammoud, he had zero empathy. Ali Hammoud fashioned himself the ultimate arbiter of truth. And his sycophants — former friends of mine who I trusted like Eddie, Noah and Carlos — went right along with it because as we will see, they had their own greedy interests.
Inside the Mind of “The Undefeated Tankie Warlord” Gaslighter
Ali Hammoud sought to build up the online persona of “the Undefeated Tankie Warlord.” His delusion of omnipotence was necessary to cover up for deep self-doubt. Shaw worked with cult survivors and specialized in understanding the psychology of the narcissist. He looked at what the narcissist lost in childhood and what they needed to recover. Experts say that as a child the narcissists were most likely frightened children whose attachment system and danger system steadily became skewed. Highly insecure about talking to women and plagued by hygiene issues, the Overcompensator-in-Chief sought to make up for it with cruelty. Most likely his own childhood humiliation led to the dramatic metamorphosis. Hammoud had the need to always feel in power. This is by definition psychosis because no human being can play God.
Ali was a master gaslighter. Psychologist Jennifer Freyd explained the basic controlling tendencies employed by the traumatizing narcissist with the acronym DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender. These are common techniques used by abusive men so they don’t have to take responsibility for their violence. Codependency expert Melody Beattie explains how the narcissists manipulate and “offend from the victim position.” The ACP’s head gaslighter had mastered these tactics. I observed from within and from afar. There is no way this narcissist was even conscious of what he was doing. He was the one furthest down the rabbit’s hole of delusion. He sought to take us all with him.
Using Shaw’s framework of the traumatizing narcissist is instructional. Ali employed “weaponized suffering.” Recoiling from his own projection of “masculinity,” he exercised “control over us by making us guilty for his suffering.” When we first questioned him, he always responded that we were taking away from his time and important meetings. He always flew by the seat of his pants but blamed all of us. We were the burden. He complained about “30-hour flights back and forth to Moscow” and how “we did not appreciate him.” He said he “could not see his family because of our need to bitch.” He lectured Haitians, Palestinians and his RTSG discord posse on “not being pussies” but constantly complained. He has his go-to lines: “You don’t understand how much my life sucks” and “you don’t know what it’s like to have the enemies that I have.” He told his closest confidantes: “my life has a special burden.”
The self-anointed messiah indeed had a messianic view of himself.
Inside the Mind of the Sycophants
In a lengthy article in The Atlantic, writer Julie Beck explains some of the psychological dynamics of cult members. Truthfully, five months is not a long time and many of us were critical from day one of all the dynamics at play. Others, in search of approval and social status, were not so lucky. Beck describes ”motivated reasoning” as “how people convince themselves or remain convinced of what they want to believe — they seek out agreeable information and learn it more easily; and they avoid, ignore, devalue, forget, or argue against information that contradicts their beliefs.”
Hammoud always framed his victims as wrong and guilty. The dissociative state in the victim produced powerlessness. How could we question the “big boss,” never mind fight back against his muddle-headed positions, if we have been belittled to the point of not believing in ourselves and our own reasoning?
It feels like I am emerging from a horror movie. I saw many former friends and “comrades” drink the Infrared ACP kool-aid, principally the top leaders themselves. One day I will find forgiveness; the order of the day is my own self-acceptance.
Ali constantly lied to improve his image and the allure of the party. He intentionally exaggerated the party’s size. He acted like there was some well-developed weekly or monthly plan involved, when in reality it was constant improv behind the scenes with loyal lieutenants running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Hammoud thrived on creating stress then blaming others. The narcissist never took responsibility. When he announced his “anti-DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) campaign” on one of his nightly Kick rants, his followers did embarrassing things, squabbling with another group instead of organizing with workers. As Georgi Dimitrov taught: sectarianism is completely alien to working people who remain focused on bread-and-butter issues. Hammoud never held himself accountable for the confusion. I never heard him take responsibility for any of his insanity. Everything was our fault.
His educational secretary Carlos Garrido told me that this was their strategy. Even if they had to lie, the lies were justified because they built up their social media clout. On December 22nd, 2024, Hammoud claimed that Zelensky and NATO had nearly assassinated him in Donbas, in Eastern Ukraine, now Russia, on December 20th. Journalists working in Russia discounted the narrative but this somehow, Garrido explained, “would bring recruits into the party.” Lying for them then was “revolutionary.” When I challenged them, they said “Who cares? It works.”
Excavating the Cult Hierarchy
Members of Hammoud’s EB, his top body, were dedicated to getting their guru to love them. Pettis was his petty tyrant. Where there was no drama, the drama queen had to bring it. Otherwise, he felt ordinary and replaceable. He had to prove his “mettle” to his fellow catastrophizer. His car of overcompensation, his black Toyota Corolla, ran on the gasoline of humiliation. In Union Park in Chicago, after ACP members had been cleaning up and passing out clothes on a Sunday for hours, the sadistic Pettis abruptly yelled at the top of his lungs “WHY ARE YOU LAZY FUCKS STANDING AROUND??!!” This was how he treated the young chapter execs who he saw as employees. This was how he treated me. They were trying to get us to call them “boss.” This was how he treated everybody. Hammoud and Pettis were disgusted by people and had a deep-felt psychological need to control them.
The narcissistic 1 2 combo specialized in keeping us separated from our comrades. They controlled communication between their separate appointed bodies. When I was gaining more influence as a Politburo member in my home state of New York, “Executive Board” members Noah and Carlos demanded I suspend all communication with comrades in NY. They kept their “cadre” in the dark and inexplicably changed strategies. Hammoud was a bad organizer and an even worse delegator. Local chapter’s sent pictures of their community organizing from around the U.S. and Canada that were never posted because only “the chairman” could post from the central X account, and he was too busy surviving Zelensky and NATO assassination plots 5,000 miles away. He defanged his own cult by being so unpredictable and discombobulated. No matter how whacky or nasty things got, his minions felt: “I must stay because it is my fault if the work is not done.”
Pettis and Hammoud thrived on destabilizing and dysregulating those around them. Party demands were constant and isolated some from their family and friends. The ACP was “the great cause” they manipulated you to commit to. They set up discipline sessions in Chicago where they “castrated the Chapter Exec in front of everybody to teach them a lesson.” Pettis interrogated everyone involved. What joined Hammoud and Pettis at the hip was that they had mastered intimidation techniques. Garrido aspired to mimic more of their hatred. They elevated one leader one day as they devalued another, only to inexplicably switch up the dynamics later.
They had to control leaders who were close like the impressionable and socially anxious Olympic wrestler Eddie Liger Smith. Smith had to prove himself by doing the bidding of the warlord who demanded perfection and purity. Shaw calls this “the delusional contagion.” Everyone had to sustain the delusion of his omnipotence. But there was no pleasing “the tankie.” A narcissist by definition is unable to self-reflect, self-critique or express remorse. No amount of effort is ever enough to please them.
After a talented organizer Bree won the “Hero of the Party” award for her hard work in North Carolina, the epicenter of Hurricane Helene, she challenged their inability to communicate with local branches and establish internal Democratic Centralism. She was subsequently obliged to resign. For months, they obsessed over “the drama whore.” Hammoud wrote a dazzling, 10-page essay that was mandatory reading for all party members. He used Lacanian language to whisk away her critiques. She was bad; the Chairman was beyond reproach. Instead of ever telling the truth, he warped social reality to meet his imperatives. A solid writer and eclectic philosopher, Hammoud was no dialectician; He was a sorcerer. Even I, the elder statesman of the Politburo, was taken for a ride.
The Physical Stress Caused by Narcissism
The stress of working for a narcissist caused physical harm. The prefrontal cortex of the brain shuts down or is in trigger mode because of the stress caused by the narcissist. This impacts the nervous system, digestive system and sleep cycle. It manifested as an assortment of physical symptoms by those who only wanted to empower their communities. Fortunately, local organizers did not have to interact with the deranged wanna-be deity like John and me. No one was positioned to blow his sadistic cover but us. Those lower on the food chain were too distant. Those of us in top leadership were not so lucky. After growing accustomed to surviving by dissociating, cult survivors need to confront life on life’s terms again in order to recover confidence and self-respect.
I felt intense cognitive dissonance being a part of this unpredictable party that made abrupt decisions based on “the chairman’s” moods. By sapping and seizing others’ moods, Hammoud was able to obliterate others’ perspectives. I felt pain in my chest and nausea in my stomachs. I kept fighting because I loved our blue collar comrades but the cognitive dissonance plagued me. There is extreme discomfort caused by simultaneously holding two thoughts that are in conflict. After such a short period, I could not take it anymore. Those of us closest to the flame, those closest to the burgeoning center of power — Hammoud, Pettis and Garrido — were burnt the most. I realized everyday members were mistreated but had no idea of the depths of the depravity. Hammoud hid behind his fake confidence and faker streams.
Though it was only five months of madness, I am learning one day at a time to let go, let God and let good…
“This is the End, My Only Friend, The End”
On January 3rd, I alongside lawyer John Jackman spoke out against the ACP national leadership, laying out a series of internal comuniques about why Hammoud and Pettis were narcissists and sadists. I confronted “the warlord,” knowing he was all talk. I turned the nastiest misogynist vocabulary that he employed against us and everyone around on him, in front of his top captains. I knew he ruled by force and intimidation; I showed him I did not respect it. No one, except for his 30-year-old critical attorney, John, budged. Slava, Christian, Grayson, Brigid, Rev (another Noah), Jordan, Don, Brian “Jesus Motorcycle,” Abe the spy and Jordan (Arkansas Worker) barely complained about his mis-leadership. They had swallowed his venom. The most one of them could muster up was to text me on Telegram: “You got a lot of heart.” Others castigated me. And then it was back to business as usual, the business of narcissism and extreme disorganisation.
Some “leaders” like Slava and Brigid, his loyal secretaries and spies, behaved like unquestioning Jehovah’s Witnesses. It became clear to me that they had no interest in knowing the truth about this fake “Communist Party” which was little more than a wretchedly organized cult. I appealed over and over to others to speak up. I demanded Hammoud “shut up so others could speak.” They were silent. I was shocked at their obsequiousness. Shaw explains the truth itself falls far short of being enough of a motivation for many to leave the cult. The blank stares and cowardice haunted me more than the two narcissists themselves. Jackson Hinkle, an anti-American narcissist himself, did not even turn his zoom camera on or say one word. He was the chief enabler of his sadistic best friend. All 17 people in that meeting were exposed to the truth. Only two of us chose to leave a Politburo that had quickly taken on a cult-like form.
Looking back at the past five months, the truth emerges. The ACP had all the makings of a personality cult where members were stuck doing unthinkable mental gymnastics to justify Hammoud and Jackson’s Hinkle’s narcissistic posts. Hammoud’s fellow EB members were not men. These were boys cosplaying as revolutionaries. They were all bark, no bite. They were all profilicity with no engagement with the American people. They were using us to boost their own online influence. We were duped. We were had.
Many now say, “We told you so.” I have no regrets because we fought within, alongside and for great people. I have never stopped fighting for them and we will not. I am right where I am supposed to be, devoid of self-pity after this experience with sick people and stronger than ever.
I need time to heal from their unbridled egotism. Despite all the honest, hard-working people I met, I will remember this as a dark chapter in my life. I saw “friends“ and “comrades” like Eddie, Noah and Carlos metamorphosize into diabolical cocksure yesmen. I changed their names in my phone to “Executive Board Carlos, Eddie and Noah” to remember these were not “the comrades” I once knew. There was no way to reach them. These lads were far gone in the outer orbits of their own idealism, drooling over the power, clicks and money. Every resignation or critique demanded a rereading of Stalin, according to the Hammoud’s conscripts of denial. I contemplated further trying to wake them up but their own self-interest blinded them. These were the true victims of the cult of “Haz.” I saw all the warning signs early on but could only now forge a way out. The Executive Board has been too busy obsessing over Twitter drama to notice.
It is necessary to interrupt the American Cultist Party of “Haz” and his lackey crew. I have watched for five months as fine young men and women have continued to squander their emotional and financial resources, all destined for the same source, Hammoud’s, Pettis’ and his top brass’s narcissism. This reminded me of the infamous Black Hammer cult which was a scandal across the left in 2019.
Judge Not
Matthew 7:1 teaches: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Many will judge me and my participation in the ACP, as we live in a most judgemental, dopamine-fueled society. Late capitalism trains us to gawk at others’ failures as our own mount up underneath our noses, alongside our inertia. Social media larpers and leftists cut from similar cloth will say: How could you fall into the trap of a cult? Ie reply: Lies. Manipulation. Similar to a marriage that ultimately proves unsuccessful, I fell in love at first sight. I was inspired by the working class men and women I met and was in so deep, I partially lost track of reality. Larpers will larp; I went for it with everything we had. Determination characterizes the man who has been spat and shat upon but always rises up for another round of life. When I came up for air from entrenched community organizing, I was flabbergasted and disgusted at what I saw. With malice towards none and hope for all, I will be sharing my story. You can judge me or my comrades but to live is to struggle and we never shirked our duties!
I do not lead with shame or embarrassment about having been drawn into Ali Hammoud’s cult. The public knows the 28-year-old disturbed streamer by his social media stage name, “Haz Al-Din.” I went in for the right reasons, and then woke up and made an expedited exit for the same right reasons. Hammoud and his accomplices lied to me and manipulated me. Yes, I was a card-carrying member and Politburo member of “The ACP” cult for 5 months, but I never stopped serving our community, thinking dialectically and building. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I met great proletarians. Even in my easily mockable failure, I never stopped being a patriot and anti-imperialist. In fact, this was the silver lining in this entire ordeal. I learned that the American flag of Bezos, Trump and Musk is not the American flag of the people of Ohio, Texas and the rest of this land. I saw what I thought was a unique communist project to train and centralize the terminally-online, post-COVID era youth. What I discovered was a dark, sadistic ponzi scheme and narcissistic cult led by Hammoud, Jackson Hinkle, Carlos Garrido, Noah Khrachvik, Konstantinos Al-Katib, Eddie Liger Smith and Hammoud’s wanna-be enforcer, Kyle Pettis.
