Spin spin spin... :beat:
Why is it so difficult to understand, Whooter? You just don't want to acknowledge that this kind of thing is part and parcel of the fall-out from having been subjected to a thought reform program! There's a cognitive dissonance that comes from trying to assimilate that — or even just trying to come to some understanding of it — vis a vis the "real world." Kids sometimes snap from that, sometimes violently.
These programs clearly do not prepare everyone, perhaps anyone, for a normal mode of existence or a healthy outlook on life.
Incidentally, in case it wasn't obvious, or in case you felt disinclined to google it 'cuz that would have surely obviated ~90% of your condescending diatribe, Taylor Hurst was a former student at HLA.
Come-on, Ursus. I read the article and there is no indication that HLA had anything to do with it. If you took a room full of alcoholics and put them through AA and then years later one of the group kills 3 people in a alcohol fueled rage or drunk driving accident then we could not Conclude that AA caused this. We may conclude that AA was not effective but even this would be a stretch because we do not know if this person was sober a few years after he left AA.
Maybe the kid is a borderline sociopath and would have killed people in his class in highschool but HLA helped him to handle his rage better and after the program he slowly resorted back to his old ways. Maybe this kid started taking drugs or alcohol. Maybe he stopped taking medication which would have kept his rage under control. There are so many different possibilities which are equally viable.
Why try to draw a dotted line back to one event (HLA) and say this is the cause without knowing what events were effecting this person at the time of the killings? I have seen people try to do the same thing when a child commits suicide years after graduating from a program. To me it is just an obvious attempt to try to place blame on the programs for something they have no control over. Maybe some of these programs are not the best but it makes people look foolish to try to blame them for events outside their boundaries.
More spin! :beat: :beat: Mix in a lil truth with a whole lot of naysaying crapola, and maybe the readers won't have a friggin' clue.
Sure, maybe Taylor Hurst was a borderline sociopath, maybe not. We really don't know. If so, it certainly speaks volumes for the kind of "student" Hidden Lake Academy was admitting back then. More likely, Mr. Hurst had/has some anger issues which HLA neglected to fully address, not to mention neglected to assist him in learning some relevant coping skills, not to mention probably
adding to the reservoir of things to be angry about!
And yes, I do believe some drug use was involved in Mr. Hurst's case, which is
yet another arena of inadequacy on the part of HLA's ability to teach kids healthy coping and living skills. Indoctrination and peer-based group confrontational methods are
never a substitute for genuine and mutually respectful therapy.
Did I draw a dotted line and say
HLA is the cause? NO. More spin and obfuscation by extrapolating to extremes on your part, Whooter. I
will say, however, that it looks like HLA
did not help, and may have
contributed to the likelihood of something like this happening. There have been too many cases like this for there not to be a connection.
As to your attempt to draw the issue of
suicide into your whitewash? Please. You can kiss my hairy bear-suited butt. I know of at least one suicide attempt that was
directly and
causally related to program experiences and there are several others that fit a pattern too closely to be strictly "coincidental." And, once again, we're talking about approximately 1-6 years post-program in a typical case, not years and years later, although I certainly wouldn't rule that out in certain cases.
