Help Sam Continue Fighting The Good Fight

I'm Samantha Kutner, a seasoned expert on the Proud Boys with seven years of experience. My valuable work supplies crucial intelligence, shaping effective strategies to combat extremism.

From the beginning, I faced challenges from men who feel threatened by my insights, ideas, and approach to work. They often see me not as an equal partner, but someone who, when standing fully in their light, makes their shadows more pronounced.

I have put myself in many horrifying scenarios for my research, any one of which would likely have pushed a woman out of these spaces, but I'm my Grandfather's Granddaughter and I'm stubborn as hell and willing to fight for what's right.

My journey in this field traces back to 2017 when Gavin McInnes attempted to sabotage my work by exploiting my university's complaint system. Instead, it backfired on him. Since then, I've endured relentless harassment, put on kill lists, and subjected to unwarranted scrutiny of my character, integrity, ethics, intelligence, appearance, motivations, my Jewishness, and my creative outlets. Despite facing challenges from academics and extremists alike, I remain resolute in my pursuit of truth and integrity. The recent setbacks in my work have tested me like never before but I'm not backing down.

I can honestly say that recent events in my work and business have have hit me harder than anything I've experienced in my field.

After weeks of reflection, I’ve chosen to speak up.

I've seen how women are treated when they stand up for themselves in male-dominated spaces and I know how it tends to play out, but I'm doing it regardless. Not just for me, but for all the women who have reached out, who see me as a role model and may be wondering if there's actually room for them in this field.

I would like to continue the work in this space, and these are the moments that push women to leave. Any support you can offer will assist me significantly in addressing these issues and moving forward.

As a leader, it's my duty to show what self-advocacy looks protect what I’ve built from the ground up, one conversation at a time, and reclaim it from those who lack the analytical skills, empathy, and basic humility to do it correctly.

After weeks of reflection, I’ve chosen to speak up. I've seen how women are treated when they stand up for themselves in male-dominated spaces and I know how it tends to play out, but I'm doing it regardless. Not just for me, but for all the women who have reached out, who see me as a role model and may be wondering if there's actually room for them in this field.

I would like to continue the work in this space, and these are the moments that push women to leave. Any support you can offer will assist me significantly in addressing these issues and moving forward.

My Journey

Leaving a toxic environment is never easy, but staying true to your values is essential. In 2019, I made the tough decision to part ways with a group that didn't align with my principles. They were involved in questionable activities with former extremists, a fact I discovered through social media. Back then, conversations about the sincerity of ex-extremists were not as advanced as they are today.

Feeling lost, I knew that real change had to start from within. I began reflecting on how to create something positive. I envisioned a safe-haven for those who faced adversity, harassment, and discrimination while striving to better society for all. I aimed to establish a platform where individuals could share their encounters with predatory behavior in supposedly altruistic settings.

And thus, in 2019, the Glitterpill community was born. A space for researchers to collaborate, express creativity, access trauma-informed resources, and prioritize self-care.

In 2020, just before Donald Trump's controversial remarks, I launched my website. I continued my work with Proud Boys, aiding in their disengagement process when they decided to walk away.

The following year, I teamed up with Bjørn Ihler, a fellow community member, on a project focused on incident mapping. Leveraging my credibility and influence, we joined forces to make a greater impact.

After providing written expert testimony to the January 6th select committee, I formed a for-profit company, Glitterpill LLC with Bjørn Ihler. We went through many startup hurdles that were stressful for all of us, but we were on the path to becoming fully sustainable. We were a consulting company who faced payment delays due to budget cuts from some of our largest clients.

When I decided to focus on community resilience work on my birthday things took a turn for the worst.

Shocking and Abrupt

Suddenly, things I had done with my community for years started being put under a microscope. I was treated as a subordinate in front of my entire team instead of a key part of the leadership team.

As the community was growing and people were congratulating me on my approach to resilience work, my co-founder was restricting my every movement and meeting with our team privately. He demanded I put everything through an external communication channel and treated me as a distraction to operations rather than an integral part of it.

On Monday, February 26th, 2024 I woke up thinking I would join our weekly stand up meeting with our US team. I saw I no longer have an invitation, and when I reached out in slack to request to join, my co-founder said, "Check your email." I checked it to find a cease and desist letter he drafted demanding I remove our signatures from one of our largest contracts and I stop representing Glitterpill LLC in any public capacity.

When I told him in front of the team he could not unilaterally make decisions like this because of the way our business is structured, he used his access to the business tech infrastructure to remove me from all of our work spaces, my work emails, and my intellectual property.

This was more than unjust, this was more than a violation of our operating agreements as 50/50 partners. It was violent. I was scapegoated and then treated as expendable in a company I had co-founded, a company which was intended to model a human-centered approach to countering violent extremism and threat intelligence consulting. Bjørn then began attempting to erase me completely from the website as a co-founder, along with the articles I contributed.

Considering the financial state of our company at the time of these actions, I am confident that his erratic and violent actions against me were about power and ego, two things that are inherently destructive in any space that claims to want to make society better and safer for others.

I have done a fair amount of soul-searching over the past few weeks to figure out how things got to this point.

I've come to the conclusion that under no circumstances should a co-founder of a company doing work with societal impact be treated like this.

This was an adult tantrum of a man who has not done the inner work to be an effective leader or communicator. As someone who examines how gender influences extremism, I have to call this what it is…sexism in action.

Any support you can offer will assist me significantly in addressing these issues and moving forward in this work, which is critical during this year of elections. I aim to resume my work independently as soon as possible.

Here are my milestones for this endeavor

For a detailed breakdown of what each component would cost, please request access here.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UPkfWsam9MfhVazUqElm0H7fDJrB_mquAa9kJSLSk2A/edit#gid=1809794505

I want to show people that women can not only persist, but thrive in spaces where they have a proven track record for effecting the most change.

Rest assured that I will not waste, divert, or profit from your donations.

Any funds raised in excess of securing legal protection, my contributions to the field, and helping me start this new chapter of the work will help me pay it forward for other women in our field.

I hope to empower more male allies to do the same.