this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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A Boring Dystopia

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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.

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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Wow. They promise to be honest about their methodology but don't mention any of it - just "transport".

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 3 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Cocopanda@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

I'm sorry you had to go through this. I hope one day we can have a better society.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

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.

[–] Aeri@lemmy.world 23 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] krawutzikaputzi@lemm.ee 1 points 57 minutes ago

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.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

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.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 18 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (2 children)

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.

Fucking Netflix, right? Ughh

[–] dbtng@eviltoast.org 2 points 7 hours ago

Beautiful justice.

[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 9 hours ago

One of my kid's friends got sent to one of these camps. Luckily the parents chose not to have him kidnapped.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 20 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 9 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 hours ago

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.

[–] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 hours ago

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.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 16 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Sounds like you need to report Facebook to the FBI. Oh wait, Zuckerberg paid them off. We'll I guess we're fucked. Still.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Ever since Waco the feds will let you do anything if you say its for Jesus

It would be possible to hire them abd turn the tables.

[–] shaquilleoatmeal@lemm.ee 14 points 21 hours ago

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.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The fact that these places exist and aren't shut down has always really bothered me, horrible stuff

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago

the things they can justify with religion should give anyone pause.

[–] theblips@lemm.ee 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How is the USA a real country

[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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…

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 11 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Nangijala@feddit.dk 4 points 16 hours ago

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.

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 20 hours ago

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.

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[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 133 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (24 children)

Guess it’s time to share this again.

GET YOUR FEELINGS OUT

[–] hzl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

The energy tied up in all of that is so familiar. Just the entire vibe of senseless unmitigated cruelty and mindless nonsensical screaming hits so hard and reminds me so much of some of the shittiest people I've encountered in my life. What Joe describes feels like a horrible distillation of something that's a lot more pervasive than any one 'school' or cult or particular group of organized assholes systematically ruining people's lives. It hit hard. Tanks for sharing it.

[–] ZC3rr0r@lemmy.ca 10 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you for sharing this. Probably one of the hardest reads of my life, it's incredibly powerful and well written so it conveys the horrors of the experience in an almost visceral way.

It also really helped me understand at a much more personal level how these addiction/reeducation camps and cults break people mentally and emotionally.

Sure, you read about these kinds of things happening in the news, but it never hit home for me what that experience is like until reading this.

Thank you.

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 4 points 20 hours ago

Someone online showed it to me, so I’m glad to share it with other people now. Fucking insane shit. You can bet I’m always looking out for red flags on my friends as their kids get older, in case they fall into one of these traps.

[–] nothingcorporate@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago

I just spent a couple hours reading the first 70 chapters. That is hard to read and impossible to stop reading.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 60 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I’ve only been able to make it to page 10. People often mock the idea of being “triggered” but fuck, it makes me need my trazadone. I want to print this in full color and leave it everywhere I can.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Don't judge yourself for a ptsd reaction. People mocked triggers, but it was people who don't understand that acute reminders of traumatic experiences are not merely unpleasant

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Yeah - I wish more folks understood what the experience is like. It’s like my brain lights on fire. I get angry, extremely angry and can be verbally really aggressive. If I’m alone, I can usually self regulate, but when I’m around others it’s much harder.

It’s been a struggle as I work to get this facility shut down. When I’m calling state agencies to get my torturer’s facility investigated, the second that I can pick up that they don’t believe, or if they minimize my experience - it ratchets me into a world of pure anger and panic.

I knocked over a container earlier and it made a loud sound as it landed on the ground - it made me angry. Embarrassingly ridiculously angry. It’s stupid, but I had the urge to throw the thing at the wall! I wanted to cuss it out! It’s an inanimate object, it didn’t break, I just needed to pick it up and put the pencils back in. It wasn’t a big deal. But in that split second where I went to that lizard brain, I was furious!

[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 49 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Apologies for contributing to that feeling, definitely wasn’t my intention to upset you!

For those who haven’t read it and are unfamiliar with the horrific teen abuse industry this comic depicts, it’s quite a fucking journey.

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[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I made it to chapter 60 over the last 90 minutes.

I can’t even describe how angry I feel about that. Expletives don’t fit. I’m not big on death penalty, but I think these people deserve it - more than some who are sentenced to death.

I also am feeling incredibly grateful that my parents didn’t get caught up in the scam.

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[–] GluWu@lemm.ee 54 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago

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.

[–] pixelkitty@lemmy.world 85 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Even after countless exposés done on these places there are STILL no serious investigations being done. I’m so sorry that happened to you :(

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 85 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

Allegand Jones was killed after refusing to undress for a staff member. Youth Villages at Bartlett is still operating.

It’s these southern states. “Parental rights” is always a code for “children are property to be disposed as we wish.”

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[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 17 hours ago

zuckerborg does need access to young minds.

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