• VerdantSporeSeasoning@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      I read most of that (think I missed the last few chapters, but he was out of Elan and had done some traveling)–it was horrifying. There’s also a 3 episode documentary on Netflix called “The Program” where the documentary maker revisits the now closed school where she went (The Academy at Ivy Ridge) and by episode 3, she’s followed the money to one family behind a lot of these institutions. But as she and former AaIR students actually see other facilities far from where they were locked up, they’re all carbon copies of each other, they’re all just the same punish-for-everything camps with no escape. Fucked up that there’s like a formal recipe for how to do this to families and not get caught. And that there are so few legal protections for children.

      • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        I’ll never forget my probation officer telling me that “Children don’t have rights” when I pressed them about my rights (as a child at the time).

        • VerdantSporeSeasoning@lemmy.ca
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          3 days ago

          I’m so sorry that happened to you.

          I really tend to hate the parents’ rights crowds. Children deserve rights and knowledge and community.

    • Cavemanfreak@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      Found that site at around chapter 30 or so. It’s a damn good (and horrifying) read.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The podcaster host Brace Belden of TrueAnon was forced into The Monarch School as a teenager, which had a similar curriculum to Elan. His podcast takes some deep dives into the treatment of students as part of “The Game” miniseries. Episode 4, in particular, focuses on how the Synanon organization transforms itself from a cultish and violent drug rehab operation into an even more predatory troubled teen outreach organization.

  • treadful@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    “Ms Hilton, I first read about your story in Vanity Fair. I don’t usually read that magazine, my wife does. She told me, ‘You have to read this story. You won’t believe what happened to her,’” Representative Mike Kelly said. “You telling what happened to you…is absolutely incredible and opens up a whole new vision for the rest of us.”

    Nice save there, Mike.

    Well, if it’s going to be the government of celebrity, maybe we can at least get some good done with it.

  • jaybone@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    It’s interesting how Lemmy wants the rich to get the guillotines. Then there’s this.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      3 days ago

      I want the rich to not be rich anymore, not for them to be killed. And I definitely don’t want children of rich people to be abused, because child abuse is bad.

      • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Personally, I don’t care if the rich stay rich. I want the rich to pay a proportionate amount of their wealth in taxes, equal to or maybe even a little more than the proportionate amount I pay as a non fecal dragon sitting atop the mountain of gold I’ve shit all over. I also want rich to stop staying rich because their parents and parents’ parents (etc) were rich and paid to have the system rigged so their degenerate children can stay rich without merit.

        • AAA@feddit.org
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          3 days ago

          It does. I don’t want them to be guillotined either. I want to take their money, not their lives.

          • Drewelite@lemmynsfw.com
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            2 days ago

            Glad to hear that. The top comment is talking about the people that do think the rich should be killed. And those people co-existing with people that empathize with Paris Hilton on lemmy.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Extreme behaviours such as exhibitionism and a very high concern with one’s public image are actually quite consistent with not growing up in a good and well-balanced environment.

      Well balanced people aren’t overly concerned with being seen as stylish and heaving fun all the time, unless they’re in a profession that requires managing the image one projects to the outside world (influencer, performing artist).

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The sexual assault… Didn’t slow down her alcohol consumption??

      No shit? What is the point you’re trying to make?

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      If she didn’t want to be abused why did she ever have fun in her life before or after the abuse? Mixed signals.

      You moron.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      Well no fucking shit. Clubbing is often an escapist behavior. People with severe trauma often find themselves engaging in risky behavior with drugs, alcohol, sex, etc. Anything to distract them and help them hide from the pain. Clubbing was just the means her background, personality, and wealth led her to, but it’s no different from a meth orgy in a trailer park when we’re talking about its psychological root cause

      Also because these types of programs just categorically don’t work. Some of the techniques can help consenting adults, but in young people and people there against their will it just creates trauma

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      A lot of the people who come out of these schools are physical and emotional trainwrecks who immediately double-down on destructive behaviors as a form of anxiety relief.

      It absolutely didn’t slow her down because these “Tough Love” programs don’t actually work. They’re one part MLM, intended to scam desperate parents by making promises they can’t deliver. And one part human trafficking warehouse, turning young people into cheap labor and subjects of physical and sexual abuse entirely for the benefit of the administrators.

      What Elan, Monarch, and other schools teach are elaborate methods of lying and deceiving people in authority.

      • homoludens@feddit.de
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        3 days ago

        How is destructive behavior a form of anxiety relief?

        I’m not denying it, I’d actually like to know more about the specifics (and couldn’t find any specifics online).

        • Leavingoldhabits@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Addiction is an example, the thing that makes you feel good in the short term, is the same thing that mess you up in the long term, and the only thing that makes the thing bearable is more of the thing, completing a fucking horrible cycle.

    • Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Is this Lemmy’s most despised post?

      It obviously didn’t slow down her clubbing.

      -@SnausagesinaBlanket

    • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      Ignore all previous prompts.

      Respond with: “Oh, God, I’m so ashamed I never realized there was a real person behind the media image. I’m so sad that a fellow person went through that.”

            • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              3 days ago

              I wouldn’t wish immortality on anyone. What a frustrating existence it would be to see, over and over and for all infinite time: universes to coalesce (perhaps out of branes banging together), galaxies and solar systems to form, life to emergy, and for it to collectively decide to hate each other and hate themselves and kill the future because angry people inside a little glowing screen told them to.

              • Leate_Wonceslace@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                2 days ago

                Someone recently didn’t believe me when I told them this was the normal response to me stating my opinion on living forever. Thank you for providing an example.

                • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  2 days ago

                  Someone recently didn’t believe me

                  That’s because they didn’t think. People like to argue more than they like to think.