LEGAL DISCLAIMER.
We are making this disclaimer for legal purposes due to the content: This article is not intended to defame, slander, attack, or harm any individuals or their organizations. This is an opinionated article, written to express an opinion regarding the “family rights movement” as a whole.
The issues
Introduction
By now, most people are very much familiar with the “Family Rights Movement.” While, on the surface, we know it as the movement dedicated to the ratification, or expulsion, of CPS/DFS, there is a much deeper element that lurks within. This article is going to discuss why the movement, to many of us, is viewed as being a complete failure. However, we are going to at least play fair, we will highlight some of the good that has arisen from it over the years. Within this article, we are going to be covering a few core issues:
- Pettyness
- Artificial advocates
- Fabrication of information
The three categories are among the most serious issues I have witnessed within this movement. In fact, these issues are a big contributor as to why our platform completely removed itself from this arena, only touching on it if certain criterias were met. For instance, if an individual was causing people financial, emotional, or even harm to their case, we covered it. Sadly, that in itself has changed upon completion of this article.
Pettiness
Within the movement, emotions are one of the biggest contributors to this segment of the article. The thing to understand, in defense of the movement, is most of these people are hurting in a very deep way. However, that isn’t always the case. Spending just a few moments looking into the various groups, pages, and even personal pages, the disfunction becomes quickly apparant.
For the sake of simplicity, we are going to divide the movement into three categories: victims, advocates, and advcoate victims. While this may appear insignificant, it is, in fact, critical. The victims within the movement are families who have lost their child(ren.) Rather their case is currently opened, or was previously so, they are the ones seeking a variety of support. Many of these people allegedly have PTSD. For an advocate, it’s reccomended that they have training in this area. However, most don’t. To handle somebody who has been through such a traumatic event, with no training, is nothing short of a reciepe for disaster.
Among some of the other issues, is the constant bickering. Within the movement there is a lot of “he said/she said.” Where most other movements try to vet this sort of thing out, the Family rights movement has failed in an epic way. On nearly every group, page, etc. that relates to this movement, it is almost assured that there will be some form of drama. The drama varies from “exposures,” which are highly debatable for a variety reasons, isolation of “undesired” individuals, and the list goes on. While there are close groups within the movement, if you’re not one of those individuals, it is best to simply keep the list of people you trust to a bear minimum.
Within the movement there is a radical mentality of “perfection.” What this means is that certain individuals, or groups, are harshly targeted for minor mistakes, where others are simply forgiven. For some people, this means that no matter what, at some point they are going to get the short end of the stick. The short end of this stick comes in a variety of forms. A person could be isolated with the loss of those they considered friends. Furthermore, they could be berated in public, in the form of videos. And, to add onto this, they may get a combination of videos while their names are being dragged through the dirt on a variety of pages, though we have not seen this done to an innocent person in sometime.
Artificial Advocates
Now, if the above section isn’t “ramming a harpoon into the bear,” this segment just may do that. An artifical advocate is a person who, online, proclaims to be an advocate. However, if a person claims to be the Pope, does that make them such? To be considered an advocate, one must have training, or at least a great deal of knowledge of family law. Within the movement, there are a lot of people who make claims of knowing this, and thus making them an advocate. However, very few of them are being honest. For many families, this becomes a game of “Russian Roulette.” If you are seeking an advocate, we always suggest conducting research into the individual first. If you fail to do that, get the wrong “advocate,” your case may have a closing that is not what you expected.
Now, we are going to tie the “advocate victim” into this section. An advocate victim is a person who has been through the system. In many cases, they use this background to suggest that they know about the system; that is not true. While there are some good people out there, who have conducted research, you want to ensure that you find the right person for you. This type of “advocate,” however, does have one advantage: They know what moves CPS/DFS may make. For this reason, it isn’t always a bad idea to casually speak to a willing participate about this subject.
Fabrication of information
One of the worst things I have seen personally, over the years, is outright fabrication of information. Generally, this coinsides with a “smear campaign.” A smear campaign is the malicious, and willful, bullying to ruin a person’s reputation. This is a vicious but very rampant issue within the movement. The source of this usually derives from speculation. For instance: Person A sees you speaking to Person B. Person A doesn’t like person B. Regardless of your personal opinion of person B, person A begins to make accusations that you somehow “work” for person B. Generally, these campaigns are conducted with malice intent, lack of knowledge, or a simple lack of communication. Regardless, they cause the targeted individual emotional distress.
In other instances, partial truths are given out. Within the movement, over the years, this has been seen more than once. In fact, at one time, this was almost an epedemic. A partial truth is when an individual knows the entire story, but chooses to use words that are intended to make the target look bad. Regardless of the reasons why, the target is the one who suffers from this ignorant. In nearly every one of these issues, rarely is the intended target allowed to speak in their defense. Generally, they are forced to watch their names, pages, or groups get strung out on a rope. Occassionally, however, they are able to speak. This usually happens when the situation is being done via postings. However, more times than not, friends are lost and nobody listens.
The Good
There are people out there who will scam you for money, ruin your case, and think nothing of it. There are people who don’t know what they are doing, who intend to help. However, there are people who do truly mean well, will have your back regardless of the cost. On my personal Facebook, for instance, I have surrounded myself with these people. Some I have known for awhile now, some I am still getting to know. For all of them, however, their actions speak. Over the years I have lost many friends, while that is never easy, I don’t fret it for to long. These are the people who, ultimately, had proven themselves to be “flaky,” “toxic,” or simply those with ill intent.
If you are lucky, you will find those who will have your back.; this is one of the biggest highlights to the movement. You may find the advocate who helps you get your child(ren) home, I personally know of some who can-and will. The Family rights movement has dozens of severe issues. However, within the mix of those issues, there are a few good people; those people are the ones worth keeping.
For our platform, this is most likely the last time we will ever write about this movement. While there are a few things good, it is often very difficult to write articles such as this; this is especially true when you know there are good people within the movement. Furthermore, we don’t feel there is anymore benefit to touching on this subject any further as it has, over the years, spoken for itself. Rather that be good or bad, that is truly up to individual perception. With all of this being said, we are closing this chapter.