When we created Swatchity, we wanted to bring people joy through Colors. We wanted to make the world a better place. Now that Swatchity is a global sensation with tens of millions of daily active users, our little group has attracted a lot of attention, and not all of it has been positive. You have, no doubt, read a lot about Swatchity in the news recently. The endless stream of coverage about us has been, at best, misguided and, at worst, complete lies. Even the bits that are verifiably, factually true are, in many ways that are difficult to explain in the presence of lawyers, completely untrue.

Though it pains me to have to restate such an obvious fact, it seems necessary to do it again here and now: Swatchity is not a cult. We may have unnervingly strong opinions about Color. We may talk about Color ceaselessly and even capitalize the word out of respect and hushed reverence. We may hold the occasional secret ceremony on the outskirts of town involving robes and chants. And yes, our leader Mitch may have mistakenly entered "cult leader" as his occupation on last year's tax return, but none of that means that Swatchity is a Cult because it is not.

This baseless "cult" narrative has begun to spoil relations with our neighbors here in Berwin. Believe it or not, there are people picketing outside our flagship Color Center right now. "Where is my child?" they ask. The truth is, I don't know. Yes, many of the people who come to join our group are on the young side, and yes, they tend to take Color-based names and destroy all identification after swearing allegiance to the Colorful Ones. And yes, I know that sounds bad, but as I was saying to #652A84 just this morning, we can only do so much.

Yes, the leaflets we stuck under all the windshield wipers in the Wal-Mart parking lot mentioned Color Theory, a core belief that there exists a secret hidden Color between the other spots on the traditional Color wheel, a sentient Color that will one day emerge from the spectrum of visible light to lead the worthy into a glorious future. All of that may be true (both the bit about the windshield wipers and the bit about the sentient Color) but that doesn't make us a cult.

Every day, we're trying help save the world from itself while keeping this not-a-cult from imploding. Meanwhile, the voices of the doubters are all around us. They say that we are "scaring people" and that we are "doing ourselves no favors" by continuing to behave in the way that we do. They even say that I personally have a "bad habit" of using "quotes" in a way that seems "dismissive" or even "mean-spirited."

I don't know what to say to the doubters. They only bring negative energy. They cannot build. They can only destroy, which is why we keep doubters in the Rainbow Box until they come around to a more Colorful frame of mind.

While I recognize the previous sentence may have, to some, sounded slightly cult-ish, the fact that you think that is just proof of your bias. The Rainbow Box is not a device for torture or reeducation. It's just a makeshift jail cell where we keep people who speak out of turn, make eye contact with Mitch or try to leave the compound. Again, not a cult.

May the wisdom of the Colors guide and protect you.