MickySue is right, there's jerks everywhere you look, doesn't mean anything about the group itself, unless of course the group calls itself Jerks or something. Also, are we talking about the people or the diet? The diet is just fine as long as you follow a few simple rules. The rules aren't for the people, they're for the diet. For example, you gotta eat some fresh meat some of the time, can't be overcooked all the time. Cooking destroys some elements, see? These aren't rules of behavior, they're rules of physiology. It's like vegans, they have to supplement with a bunch of things, and it's got nothing to do with their belief, but with their physiology, see? Well, one could take it to the extreme and make it a way of life, an ideology. It's not a way of life, it's just the stuff you eat.

With that said, ZC is strict so it's hard to stick with, so it tends to attract people who can stick with a strict diet, and those people tend to not compromise, in other words to not be reasonable. The quality of being reasonable extends father than just the stuff you eat. For our purpose, it extends to how we behave toward other people. So, the very nature of ZC tends to attract jerks. It's just a tendency, you can fight it, but it's so very hard to fight tendencies, especially your own.

On a personal note, I used to be a jerk, I also did a ZC stint a while back. Maybe there's a connection, I don't really care. I much prefer to not be a jerk, there's more perks to being nice. I prefer to be around people who are nice, and there's tons of nice people on this forum, so I stick around, follow the few simple rules of conduct, i.e. don't be a jerk. Well, maybe it's just the forum you visited, its rules allow one to be a jerk maybe? I visited a few forums like that, I didn't really like it either.

I just checked the new ZOIH site, it's got a chicken meatball recipe with onions in it. Well, that's a no-no. ZC is strict, so the fact that ZOIH posts a recipe with onions in it tells me Charles decided to get reasonable. As I remember, he wasn't always like that, and he probably knew it. Doesn't mean anything about ZC itself, it's still just as strict as it ever was, and I'm sure Charles would agree. So, in a debate or discussion for example, one who eats that recipe can't say "I ate a ZC meal", cuz one would be lying.