Loading ...Stefan Molyneux and his therapist wife Christina Papadopoulos run freedomainradio (a.k.a FDR). Ms. Papadopoulos has been found guilty of professional misconduct related to FDR. Their site is supposed to be about freedom philosophy and psychology, but it is much more about a cult/scam that destroys families. Their outlook:
All parents are bad. So are siblings and spouses. All family relationships are bad and can’t be repaired. If you think you love them, you’re sick. They all have to go.
So how does FDR work in practice?
When a new visitor enters a chat room or forum, there are the obliging FDR members who engage the new visitors then stick with them over the course of time. When the new member begins to join into the anti-family culture that is FDR, the other members encourage the conversation. And then they start promoting the abandonment of their family. Molyneux posts on the forums but he does his most damaging work during public ‘call in’ radio shows (and in personal conversations with potential donators who are on the brink and need the final push).
The Sunday ‘call in’ shows’ and the ‘ask the therapist’ call in show’ where Christina participates are simultaneously mesmerizing and deeply sad. This is where Molyneux is fully engaged in the argument for ‘freedom.’ This is where Molyneux does his best to persuade kids to leave their families or to cement their decision. It is here where he actively and effectively persuades them and the call in show listeners that their parents were evil. These are unlicensed therapy sessions where he engages in an orgy of projection of his own issues and breathtaking manipulation. It is during these truly infuriating sessions when he picks out some routine complaint and in a manner that would make Barbra Walters proud, he gets the poor caller to a state of sadness and vulnerability. Everyone has some sort of issue that can be exploited. Even if he can’t find an issue, he confabulates one. His favorites fall into these areas:
· Your father dominated you and destroyed your self esteem
· Your mother ignored you and withheld affection
· Your parents were abusive to you by insisting you behave in public
· Your parents never respected it when you had your own thoughts or beliefs
· You were never allowed to feel true happiness
· Your parents took you to church. i.e. it is abusive in the extreme to suggest to a young child that there is a mystical non-existent god that is all knowing and all seeing.
· Your mother only had you so you could be delivered to your father for abuse
Moly uses this last one and the ‘religion as abuse’ to connect the mother to the abusive parent narrative. Father’s are often the disciplinarian in the family. It is relitively easy to come up with stuff on dad and why he was a corrupt bully. Mom isn’t a pushover, but she is mostly quite loving and saintly in how the kids are treated. This creates a real challenge for Moly to rationalize why a young adult should engage in such cruelity towards their mother.