#coercive-control

#coercive-control

He'd make things up that didn't happen. Then he'd get angry when questioned, as if remembering was an attack on him. Every time she brought up something he did wrong, suddenly the conversation became about her mental health, her past trauma, her inability to let things go. She started writing everything down because she couldn't trust her own memory anymore. When he found her journal, he said it proved she was paranoid.

Steve messed up all the time, his wife said, because he's "sloppy," and, truth be told, "stupid." A few years into their marriage, words like "always" and "never" entered the mix. He "always fucked up." He could "never be trusted" - even to fill out a simple form, and certainly not to spend money without her approval. Steve was told he misjudged people and that he needed his wife to tell him what to say so that everyone wouldn't hate him.

Now in his forties, Nico stays connected to his parents through calls and support... But he hasn't visited in years. "If I talk about the pain, it might bleed too much," he said.

Walking away from family is never easy; it's rarely The End. If this relationship were between partners we would categorise it, quite correctly, as coercive and abusive.

At the Munich Security Conference, J.D. Vance highlighted Europe's concerning trend towards censorship, exemplified by the UK convicting an army veteran for silent prayer outside an abortion clinic.