Abuse isn’t dead. It’s just hiding. What’s super helpful about Stefan Molyneux’s FreeDomain Radio “community” is its consistent ability to uncover abuse no matter how deeply it hides—even if the “victim” has completely forgotten it happened!
FDR used to be a lot more open about it until December 2008, when Barbara Weed went public with the story of her son’s disappearance. Back then, the media was pretty interested about the possible influence Stefan Molyneux had on Tom’s defooing. (Possible influence #1: Stefan Molyneux coined the word “defooing.”)
I wish I had captured more screenshots and whatnot from the era immediately before that first story broke, because FreeDomain Radio is a profoundly different place today than it was then. I believe that most of the changes were a direct result of the subsequent media storm.
Molyneux was actually thrilled to be interviewed for that first article—I think he actually believed that the media was interested in the story of a revolutionary internet philosopher.
Darn it—it turns out the media was even more interested in a 40+ year-old man who has “personal convos” with young adults until they leave their families and refuse to speak to them again.
Who knew?
But finally the media moved on. And Molyneux began choosing his words more carefully (but not changing the underlying ideas), began scrubbing FDR to remove evidence of his psychologist wife’s involvement, and generally sprucing up his Web site to make it appear more mainstream.
Nothing has changed for Barbara Weed’s family or the dozens and dozens of other families damaged by FDR, of course. It’s just that the story doesn’t glitter as brightly for the media as it once did.
And each day, more young adults are guided via FDR down the path of childhood memory revision and ultimate parental rejection. Here is a recent comment by an FDR member:
I honestly don’t recall a lot of my childhood. The things I remember are largely insignificant little portions that I really can’t place in any given time. I’m not sure if that’s normal or not. I’ve talked to my therapist about being bullied as a kid too. I’m sure I was bullied badly, but I can’t really remember any of it.
If you’ve read books like “Courage to Heal” or works by John Bradshaw, this is exactly how the pattern works. First you decide you have the feelings of being bullied or abused as a child, then just keep concentrating. After a while, the “memory” may begin to appear.
Nothing too chilling about that, right?
In this way, Molyneux and FDR continue their valiant search to uncover hidden abuse even when no memory of it exists.
But the media has lost interest and it’s easy to see why. There’s nothing here to see, folks.
Not on the surface.
