In The Age of Coercive Control Part 2

Portland OR

Description

Involving Children: The controlling person may use children or family pets as another means of controlling their partner. They may do this by threatening the children or pets, or by trying to take sole custody of them if their partner leaves. Parents who are involved in family court have reported that since COVID their visitation with their children was stripped for an entire year—and counting— and other parents had their children removed for not wearing a mask while posting selfies on social media. Those of us not in divorce or custody battles have had our children used as pawns and their educations trashed by the abusers in power with no recourse against them because, after all, “it’s a pandemic, Karen.” Listen below as Judge Dale Cohen abuses a mother from the bench because she didn’t wear a mask in a selfie. He took visitations with her son away from her over this. Gaslighting: Gaslighting is a form of manipulation where the abuser makes the victim believe things that aren’t true, making the victim doubt their own sanity. There is no better example of this than the constantly changing mask guidance: “Don’t wear masks; if you want to wear masks go ahead; MASKS ARE REQUIRED BY LAW OR WE WILL JAIL YOU; if you’re vaccinated you still have to wear masks; WEAR TWO MASKS; wear a mask outside; take off your masks but still social distance…” the list goes on. No one understands any of it and if you say to someone that “Dr. Fauci said masks are ineffective at stopping viruses,” because that’s what he said, you’re sure to run into someone who will quote him directly contradicting himself, because he did, multiple times! And yet, we’re the ones who are crazy. This is gaslighting. Medical experts recommend getting away from a coercive controlling abuser, if possible. Have a safety plan. “When deciding to leave, victims should have a plan regarding where to go and who to stay with,” Patrick adds, “recognizing that the initial period of separation might be the most dangerous in terms of an abuser attempting to reconcile — through both legal and illegal conduct.” But how do we leave and where do we go? The coercive control being exercised on us is mostly “legal” as our lawmakers just write their abuses into law, and the rules that are illegal aren’t being challenged fast enough to help anyone. There’s no one to tell, no one to call, and nowhere to go. You’re a victim of abuse. The question now is, what are you going to do about it? I believe some of us warned you at the beginning of this that giving up our rights in the face of an “emergency” would lead us to a place where the only option was to shoot our way out. If anyone is seeing an exit that doesn’t involve violence, please let me know because if one exists, I’m not seeing it.