• treadful@lemmy.zip
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    4 months 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.

    • VerdantSporeSeasoning@lemmy.ca
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      4 months 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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        4 months 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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          4 months 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.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months 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.

    • Cavemanfreak@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

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

  • jaybone@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

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

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      4 months 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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        4 months 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.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

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

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

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      4 months 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).

    • jorp@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      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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      4 months ago

      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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      4 months ago

      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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        4 months 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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          4 months 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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      4 months ago

      Is this Lemmy’s most despised post?

      It obviously didn’t slow down her clubbing.

      -@SnausagesinaBlanket