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The Elan School was, for over 40 years, a brain-washing boarding school for teens. Rather than say, curing the gay away, or imposing military structure, the Elan school followed a blueprint provided by the more generally purposed rehab/cult program Synanon. Synanon, in turn, was based off of literal North Korean brainwashing techniques. There is an ongoing webcomic/patreon by a previous student/victim of the Elan school, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's basically finished, ending off with him no longer at the school. elan.school I highly recommend reading this comic if you're interested by stuff like the Stanford Prison Experiment, the whole thing is insane and there's a lot I won't cover here. Below things might be considered spoilers if you plan on reading the web comic, but it's a real historical thing so I'm not going to spoiler tag. What are the tenets of this boarding school? Let's see. You are either Strength or Non-Strength. Strength is assigned to any "job" above a certain level. Here are some "Strength" job titles: Shingle Expeditor. Coordinator of Service Crew. Worker of Service Crew. Depatment Head of Kitchen Crew. Expeditor I read all 42 chapters of the webcomic and I don't honestly understand what any of them do or why they are titled that way. Strength can talk to Strength or Non-Strength Non-Strength my not talk to other Non-Strength All talking must be about how the program will improve you, fix you, etc. Don't be guilty. A Redditor's AMA described "guilt" as follows: quote:You are acquiring "Guilt" if you are caught : looking at a member of the opposite sex, smiling at a member of the opposite sex, making prolonged eye contact, being sexually attracted to another Elan resident, And here's a more comprehensive list of examples from the webcomic:  Okay, weird rank system, strict no-sex policy, bizarre rules. Let's get in to the true insanity - General Meetings. All students at the Elan School would hear a scream of "General Meeting Kitchen" and go gather in the kitchen. A high ranking person (an actual paid adult) would then read off an offense that someone had caused, i.e. looking at a girl twice, or being reported for some other minor thing. At this point, a broomstick would be laid down in front of the perpetrator. Every single student had to take turns screaming their hatred at the offender. You were allowed to scream as long as you were standing in front of the Broomstick, and you were expected to scream for at least 5 minutes at every general meeting. This meant that for nearly 45 minutes, a random teenager would be screamed at by every other student, 3 or 4 at a time (however many could fit behind the broomstick). These general meetings happened as many as 8 times a day. On top of this, you would be asked to knock on the crew office door regularly. A council of four Strengths would then review your guilt from their collection of notebooks, and of course, scream at you. Screaming was apparently a constant at the Elan school. Students were allowed no true contact with their parents, of course - all letters home would have to go through dozens of revisions. Any mention of the true nature of Elan School was strictly forbidden. During phone calls, a Strength would always be monitoring, and would cancel the call the second it sounded like a student was about to spill the beans. They would then re-call the parents and say there was a connection issue, and that their child is now in a learning experience. Disobedience to the level of say, trying to get your parents to get you out, would cause you to be placed in "the corner", which was a chair in the corner of an office. Students would be forced to sit in the corner for as little as a week, and as much as months, only allowed to leave the chair to go to the bathroom. And now let's get in to the literal physical abuse portion! The Ring: A particularly egregious offense would result in The Ring. The offending student would be placed in a ring of other students, given a mouth guard and boxing gloves, and then face a series of other students one after another/simultaneously until they were sufficiently injured. Elan school was finally shut down in 2011 after a series of Reddit AMA's resulted in a grassroots movement to harass the school. AARD VARKMAN fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Feb 10, 2020 22:28
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The comic seems interesting but unfortunately it appears to have been drawn by the wikihow people
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Feb 10, 2020 22:43
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Devils Affricate posted:The comic seems interesting but unfortunately it appears to have been drawn by the wikihow people I meant to mention that in the OP, the comic's art is not great but the whole story is so ridiculous I eventually got over it. I kind of wish he'd just made it a written account w/ pictures, since he has actual pics in some of his "chapter notes".
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Feb 10, 2020 22:45
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Ultimately paying money to “volunteer” for something is worse than slavery.
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Feb 10, 2020 22:49
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My friend got sent to this school because his parents caught him smoking weed. Before this school he was a really nice chill person who I never heard raise their voice in anger once since kindergarten. By the time his parents finally figured out wtf he came back a straight up psychopath who would scream at everyone and use violence constantly and was expelled almost immediately.
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Feb 10, 2020 22:57
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I remember seeing a thing on dateline or 20/20 or something way back in the 90s about "teen transport companies" and I remember thinking "How the hell is any of this legal?" and I forgot capitalism and America.
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Feb 10, 2020 23:10
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Why anyone ever thought having your "problem child" kidnapped in the middle of the night could lead to positive results it just beyond me. How little do you have to care about your kids to sign up for this?
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Feb 11, 2020 00:21
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HugeGrossBurrito posted:My friend got sent to this school because his parents caught him smoking weed. Before this school he was a really nice chill person who I never heard raise their voice in anger once since kindergarten. By the time his parents finally figured out wtf he came back a straight up psychopath who would scream at everyone and use violence constantly and was expelled almost immediately. Reminds me of my friend who went to a Catholic camp one summer
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Feb 11, 2020 00:26
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Julius CSAR posted:I remember seeing a thing on dateline or 20/20 or something way back in the 90s about "teen transport companies" and I remember thinking "How the hell is any of this legal?" and I forgot capitalism and America. The guy who started the Elan school became a millionaire at 30 as a result lol.
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Feb 11, 2020 00:45
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“Shingle Expeditor” seems like a yet-undiscovered donation rank (eg, Grimey Drawer)
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Feb 11, 2020 01:00
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Alien Sex Manual posted:“Shingle Expeditor” seems like a yet-undiscovered donation rank (eg, Grimey Drawer) down on your knees and lick my Shingles you non-strength piece of poo poo!!
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Feb 11, 2020 01:28
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Wow, I didn't know you could get paid to mentally abuse other people
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Feb 11, 2020 01:46
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god, rules loving suck smoke weed every day (if you want)
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Feb 11, 2020 02:00
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friendly 2 da void posted:god, rules loving suck
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Feb 11, 2020 02:08
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Grinding in my favourite rpg to get add-on perks like Shingle Expeditor and Guilt for my Non-Strength class character
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Feb 11, 2020 02:14
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Started reading the comic mentioned in the OP, and... holy poo poo. I have a morbid fascination with dystopian fiction and totalitarian societies. I think I've read 7 books written by escapees from North Korea. And it seems the Elan School was right up there with the most dehumanizing societies that could be imagined. It may not be quite as awful as a North Korean gulag, but they were breaking kids' spirits while - I suppose - trying to skirt the law. How much of this was illegal, I don't know, although it was clearly abusive. I'm reminded of 1984. I'm only on chapter 13 but so far this it's terrifying. Children could be trapped in a nightmare like this not only with their parents' consent but because their parents actually wanted them to be there. And who knows how many facilities like this still exist? Not to mention religious cults and such to which the law seems to turn a blind eye. It's horrifying. So if psychological horror is your thing, this fits the bill.
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Feb 11, 2020 02:25
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I spent the morning reading the whole thing and it was a crazy rear end story. I'm bummed that it hasn't finished yet, I wanna hear the rest. I thought for sure the fight club was made up until I saw the linked video of the founder calmly explaining that it was real and a good thing.
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Feb 11, 2020 02:27
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Caesar Saladin posted:I spent the morning reading the whole thing and it was a crazy rear end story. I'm bummed that it hasn't finished yet, I wanna hear the rest. I thought for sure the fight club was made up until I saw the linked video of the founder calmly explaining that it was real and a good thing. I just got to that part and I guess my question about whether any of this broke the law has been answered. No way in hell that was legal.
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Feb 11, 2020 02:34
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I remember when all those like camps where you send your kids who were “bad” and it was basically compounds in the woods where they tortured the kids calling it rehabilitation and reprogramming were a big thing
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Feb 11, 2020 02:40
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Nevermind holy gently caress the webcomic. What the poo poo. The ring was allowed until 2001? What the gently caress. Documented. Reported on. Allowed to continue. Also this does remind me of N. Korea escapee books which I read 2 and do not recommend, you will feel bad. 1st_Panzer_Div. fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Feb 11, 2020 03:27
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This type of poo poo was my worst fear when I was doing intervention work. It's a slippery loving slope between setting up kids to get in a situation where they'll have to use their conflict resolution skills and just letting them gently caress each other up to teach one a lesson.
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Feb 11, 2020 04:04
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drat it, is this the dystopian hell we're making? Never blind always watching... ffffffhuoifghuwsiotghuioht4wuihi why? I don't want.
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Feb 11, 2020 04:05
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OP, I tried to read that comic and realized it was starting to give me a panic attack by chapter 14 or 15. I think I am done with that. 
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Feb 11, 2020 04:10
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What the sweet actual gently caress.
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Feb 11, 2020 04:11
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Joe Pass spent time in a synanon program. He even named an album after it. I had no idea it was like that.
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Feb 11, 2020 04:15
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1st_Panzer_Div. posted:Nevermind holy gently caress the webcomic. What the poo poo. Are the books in Korean? Names please
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Feb 11, 2020 04:22
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Both in English, both of them super religious, I read them with a church group when I was religious, one of the last books I read with them. I threw them away apologies but it was like tears of a soulless animal. Do not recall the other, I read the other one first and it was... it's over the top jesus progaganda which seemed like a compromise reality from her north korea experience. The Elan school definitely strikes a similar cord. 1st_Panzer_Div. fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Feb 11, 2020 04:36
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my dog died im sad posted:synanon goddamn this is some Beyond The Black Rainbow poo poo
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Feb 11, 2020 04:38
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The web comic author's story would make an awesome psychological horror movie imo. My only concern is that it would end up the world's loudest and most annoying movie if they were true to life.
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Feb 11, 2020 04:49
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PyPy posted:Are the books in Korean? Names please I read Masaji Ishikawa’s “A River in Darkness” and it was very well told, but gut wrenching.
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Feb 11, 2020 05:02
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Well this was a good thing to read before bed, loving hell. Found some posts the author made about this in an old reddit thread, sounds like his parents haven't really apologized or acknowledged any wrongdoing on their part, or that the school was that hosed up. https://www.reddit.com/r/MrJoeNobody/comments/9w4m2q/i_am_joe_nobody_an_elan_school_survivor_ask_me/ The comic currently stops with him escaping to NYC, but from reading his posts I get the impression he ends up back at Elan after that somehow, ugh.
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Feb 11, 2020 05:15
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did any kids actually off themselves at this place? what a horrible situation, it sounds from the youtube comments like it might have had a severe 'look the other way' policy from the maine govt. maine is weird. fuckin stephen king people, ayup
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Feb 11, 2020 05:32
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that webcomic is like roald dahl x chuck palahniuk
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Feb 11, 2020 05:39
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SO DEMANDING posted:
gently caress, you're right. He's not even 1/3rd through in the comic right now I think.
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Feb 11, 2020 05:42
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This comic has actually left me quite unsettled all day since I read it this morning
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Feb 11, 2020 05:44
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he gives a lot of thought to his 'speech' to his parents to convince them in a very short time that something is very wrong. I think what I would do is not try a big speech. just say "mom something is wrong here. this place is abusing kids. we can't talk they're watching" and then go on to be just like SUPER weird and On The Program from then on. maybe one last 'help me' eyes at the very end depending on how you feel it went edit: although reading further if they didn't clue into THAT insanity.. The Walrus fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Feb 11, 2020 |
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Feb 11, 2020 05:48
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paying to have your child forcibly kidnapped  that part wasn't exaggerated, right?
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Feb 11, 2020 07:10
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Nope
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Feb 11, 2020 07:11
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The problem here is if your parents are ok with the kidnapping part they're lowkey ok with the rest and no speech is going to convince them.
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Feb 11, 2020 07:45
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That comic was a captivating read, holy poo poo. Yeah the art wasn't great but I didn't care at all.
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Feb 11, 2020 11:10
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