Pretty sure they blocked me after I commented, so no screenshot.
The US essentially has no restrictions on what parents can do to their children, or pay to have done to them. These companies will show up at night, and take a child out of their bed at night. They explicitly tell parents not to warn the kid what will happen.
Imagine being woken up in the middle of the night, maybe forced to quickly pack, and then be loaded in a van. You have no idea where you are going or why or who or what is going on. You get taken to a facility which is basically a cult. You might be dumped out in rural Utah, with people that have zero training in wilderness safety, who might punish you by denying you food and water.
Children die in these places all the fucking time. There generally is no state or federal oversight of these facilities - so there aren’t really investigations. These places are havens for child predators.
When I was sexually abused at a similar facility and tried to report it - I was placed on heavy doses of antipsychotics in retaliation. They drugged me unconscious, and then punished me for sleeping during “class.” As an adult, I have involuntary shakes and movements associated with the medical malpractice enacted on me.
These places don’t get investigated, they don’t get shut down. I think Utah is one of the only states with any form of agency that watches over these places. Child protective services won’t go in, health care agencies won’t go in.
Children have no rights in the US. They are the property of their parents, to be disposed of as they wish. And fuckers like this agency are delighted to kidnap children that their parents can’t be assed to parent.
Wow. They promise to be honest about their methodology but don’t mention any of it - just “transport”.
Troubled teen facilities have parents sign agreements which give them permission to physically restrain their child, and release them from liability if the child gets hurt. These “holds” can often kill.
I was only put in a hold once. I was on the van, I was being kicked by two other children, the staff refused to intervene, so I opened the van door and attempted to escape. I was groped in this hold.
I do not know how to convey how traumatizing physical restraint is. It happened to me again, in December, when I went voluntarily inpatient and was physically forced into the woman’s ward. I am a trans man, have had surgery and I’m legally recognized as male for more than a decade - I had asked if I could just sleep in the common area as a concession/to not be outed - nope! I got shoved around by four grown men and called “fucking retarded.” I’ll never reach out for help again.
I’m sorry you had to go through this. I hope one day we can have a better society.
That’s the problem when social services are cut to the bone and they have to hire whatever thugs they can get for the shit money they can pay, and they lose whatever trust they might have from the population they’re supposed to serve.
I’m just going to leave this here: https://elan.school/ That’s how I learned about this.
I read the whole thing, and it’s haunting, there’s no way this shit could be made up, the gravity is too insane, and there’s also you know, evidence.
Thanks for sharing this. I’ve still got quite a few chapters to go, but I wanted to comment this thought before I forget it: it’s so incredibly striking how powerful the small acts of kindness are. I’ve cried more at the little gestures of kindness than at all the cruelty.
I don’t like comics usually but I swallowed that. Such a good read and so traumatizing! I think everybody should read that, it feels so real and I cried and was shocked so many times. Hardly anything before made me feel all the pain with them and I wish the best to everyone who has had to go through that.
That comic made me sob both the first time I read it, and when I came back to the finished product.
And yeah elan school has been sufficiently investigated to leave little chance that Joe wasn’t being as truthful as someone can be about an incredibly traumatizing teenage experience.
One of my kid’s friends got sent to one of these camps. Luckily the parents chose not to have him kidnapped.
The problem with these services is they get you in the door with these too-good-to-be-true deals, but then you’re locked into a bullshit subscription service every month. So you think you’re saving a bundle on the kidnapping, but you end up paying out the ass every month for them to KEEP the kid. Enshittification at work once again.
Beautiful justice.
Fucking Netflix, right? Ughh
Well, if you are a minority no country is much better.
Facilities like this need to be burned down and the staff put to the headsmans axe, in fact did you know a shit tonne of them exist in Utah because of course they do.
Fun fact CPS wanted to send me to one as a child, luckily I was both a stubborn and clever little shit and my threat to burn things was taken seriously. My only condition to not burn things was to not go to it.
As satisfying as fantasizing about arson is, I imagine these facilities are usually insured. It’s also easy to spin into a sob story - these places often take advantage of the fact that they work with underprivileged/foster youth to get community donations. “Oh no, we can’t help children anymore! Gib us money!”
I got my facility taken off DonorsChoose - absolutely enraging that they were able to use that site as a for profit institution.
It’s a problem that needs to be attacked at the root ultimately. Children should have their rights protected. Remember how the US refused to sign the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? We also need more parenting classes - I’ve never been given the opportunity to be a parent, but I’ve talked with lots of parents about things like Love and Logic. Or just even accepting the fact that kids can just be weird or different sometimes - I should not have been punished for being uncomfortable with eye contact.
In the short term, educating people about these individual facilities. Making sure that the children who die in these places have their names remembered. I make signs with the name of the child my abusers killed, and just blanket surrounding neighborhoods with it.
Insurance just spreads out risk over time, it doesn’t eliminate the cost. So the insurers will raise rates for these places, and other similar places.
While I agree with your points I still think my retributionary methods would still have a good bit of effect. A lot of these facilities are ran by the weakest and most evil mother fuckers. While burning them down by itself would get a sob story, going in with a militia and putting the bastards into the ground would sure as shit send a statement. Also if you set it up right you could get the kids medical and general aid attention while your at it, put a rifle between them and anyone who tries to fuck with them again.
Also yes I know this ain’t practical, just boils my blood and makes me embrace the most violent elements of my heritage. I will hold that the fucks running these places need to find a short fuse grenade duck taped to the inside of their homes door.
zuckerborg does need access to young minds.
I don’t understand why these weren’t outright banned after the first time a kid got murdered at one, let alone the umpteenth time.
Sounds like you need to report Facebook to the FBI. Oh wait, Zuckerberg paid them off. We’ll I guess we’re fucked. Still.
Even before Zuckerberg, these groups often have a religious coating. US law enforcement lets religious groups do whatever they want until the problem becomes undeniable. Even then, they drag their feet, and Republican politicians look sad while talking about how religious liberty is being destroyed.
Ever since Waco the feds will let you do anything if you say its for Jesus
There’s the hitch - almost anything is fine as long as it’s one of the officially preferred religions. Currently 99% of Christianity and probably 75% to 95% Judaism (as long as it doesn’t get in the way of Christianity). They get REALLY pissy and sullen when they’re legally compelled to treat anyone else equally, on a sliding scale from Mormons to the Satanic Temple.
The fact that these places exist and aren’t shut down has always really bothered me, horrible stuff
the things they can justify with religion should give anyone pause.
How is the USA a real country
Well considering that North Korea and Russia exist it’s not soooo far fetched. The real surprise is how it has been considered until recently as THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. We were so blind…
THE BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
Lol, lmao even
Tbf, only Americans considered America the best country in the world. The rest of us have seen it as a third world country in denial when it comes to social issues for decades. The only non-americans who think America is the greatest are people who live in scrap metal shacks in countries run by dictators and egotistical assholes who hate welfare and Healthcare.
I wonder how recently « the rest of us » built that opinion because from my 43 years as a European I certainly saw a lot of adulation of USA for as long as I remember. Even the healthcare pov is rather recent… For a long ass time they were certainly seen as our betters.
Personally, I have not been a fan of America since Bush, mostly because that was when I got old enough to be somewhat politically aware. My parents weren’t fans either. Especially not my dad. It was due to their wars and their pathetic to non-existing welfare system which we saw as a human right in my country. The fact that they were more interested in having a big military and running war campaigns in other countries than they were securing their population had access to free healthcare and education was repulsive to us.
We saw them as the lesser evil of all the superpowers, but that didn’t mean we adored them. Trump’s presidency is just the end result of decades of American arrogance. I will say that I had a lot of hope for America during Obama’s presidency as he seemed to attempt to establish a welfare system that would be beneficial and more fair for the public, but we have all seen how this has since been rejected by voters so whatever.
Post-WW2 industrial boom + Hollywood + Internet\media presence in US&EU anglosphere due to 300kk+ population.
I think for the persons under 50 this image started to fall apart with 9\11 + Lemon Brothers + the first Trump presidency.
Get of facebook, instagram, TikTok. All of that. Want to stay in touch with your friends? Call them, text them.
I don’t use it so much to stay in touch with my friends as a platform to argue with fascists, Nazis, and child abusers.
The kinds of parents who are going to be looking at these programs are probably on Facebook, and that’s the best place to reach them.
You’re hurting your OWN mental health by doing this. You are not going to do anything to change those people.
You absolutely should stop doing that.
Not everyone is as weak willed as you
You’re in denial if you think that crap isn’t bad for your psyche.
You should seek help if reading things online is affecting your mental health
I’ve successfully deradicalized at least a few. Not on FB but a couple of other social media sites.
My mental health will never be good. I’m a gender minority in a state that wouldn’t even allow gay teachers until the Supreme Court forced them in the late 90s. I’m desperately broke because somehow a divorce can result in one person being a millionaire and one person being bankrupt. Most of the time seeking out mental health care makes my problem worse - past two nights have been nightmares about being physically assaulted at an inpatient facility in December.
Arguing gives me my sense of power back. I read insanely fast, I can dunk chuds in the five minutes I have between clients sometimes. I learned enough about biology by arguing with creationists in middle school that I tested out of high school bio and clepped college bio. Arguments give me the opportunity to learn more and research. I know that chuds are stupid and will not change their mind or admit defeat, but the audience might.
Just try to keep care of yourself. Speaking as someone who thinks this place is better off with you in it and as someone who’s seen too many people burn themselves out with activism.
Meanwhile you’re funding the engagement machine and directly padding their bottom line - arguing with dipshits on websites who profit from visit duration is exactly the psychological trap they encourage.
Zero surprise. IG regularly recommends/sponsors content that genocidal, pseudo-scientific, grifting, fascist, etc. I switched to Pixelfed for regular use.
I had IG ahowing me ads for Arab “housekeeping” services where you could pick your “housekeeper”. Just straight human trafficking and sex slavery brought to you by the fine folks out in Silicon Valley
There was a post recently, IIRC one of the kids ran away, the “camp” didn’t report it, and the police killed the kid.
There was someone in the comments that defended it, they “worked in the industry”. I didn’t have the guts to call them out on working in the terrorism industry against children, even though my instance is getting deleted this month.
Fuck this and everyone involved
I just found out that my facility claimed another life, within the months I’ve been trying to get the state to investigate it. Not reported anywhere, just personally have been loud enough to have former employees reach out to me.
Fuck anyone involved who doesn’t become a whistleblower.
Facebook has been advertising scams and bogus health products to me for a while now.
