Sure, things are weird right now. But it wasn’t all that long ago that they were—arguably, I suppose—even weirder. I’m speaking of the 1970s in general, and Synanon in particular. Hillel Aron has the details on the “drug rehab-turned-violent cult.” (Fun fact: I’m precisely three degrees of separation from one of the dudes who put the rattlesnake in Morantz’s mailbox. Buy me a beer and I’ll tell you all about it.)