TAC, this is in fact *why* such an aggressive response is required.
It is one thing to hurt someone who you hate. This is the natural order of things.
It is another thing entirely to do it from something one considers "love". Yes, they will do it, exactly as you said. And at some point said abuser may say something along the lines of "well I'm sorry if you felt hurt but I did what was necessary, can you respect that?"
The answer to that is not in the affirmative. It is not even "No". The most correct answer is to stab that person in the face over and over again until a closed casket funeral is guaranteed, and then light up a fat blunt while jerking off on the corpse. Only complete and total negation (the attacks on Miller Newton twenty years later are excellent at this) with associated removal of the problem (takedowns, bankruptcies, closures) can solve this permanently.
Otherwise we get this shit with "maybe it helped" and "they were only trying to do the right thing", which only prolongs it.
Agreed that staff who are at this shit today need to be called to the curb. But I personally only have interest in the people who are running the joints. Newton, Sembler, Lichfield, Rookey, Stambusky/McKenna, the Kays, etc etc.
The drones don't interest me as much, unless they become queens and form their own hive.
My argument regarding the crying thing was to point out that if that's there, that doesn't mean that the place isn't a problem, nor is it an indication that well-meaning staff would even be able to spot abuse in and around them. As you know, these places suck your ass in, so when a staff says "we cry when our kids leave" I say "Its good to know that, but that is ONLY an indication that you cry and miss the kids when they leave. It says nothing about the facility as a whole. Good or bad."
Not a huge fan of the face stabbing idea, either. The last thing I want are for these people to be considered victims or martyrs, although I certainly empathize with the venom.
Complete and total exposure is the order of the day. Nobody has achieved that yet, unfortunately. It's difficult to show these snakes for what they are. Mainly because a lot of the people trying to expose them (us) are looked upon as nutjobs who are butthurt about their own experience. The Semblers have a much better publicity machine than any of us do.
It's going to take a real, honest to god investigative journalist, IMO... and more than one, because the programmies will come out of the woodwork, throw around a bunch of red herrings and shout bias, when in reality, bias isnt even the issue, since everything has it.
Are there still any real journalists around??
Unfortunately, I don't think so. Maia is, but she's only one person. That expose on AARC was pretty damn sweet, too.
We need more of that.
