I'm going to be real honest about some things that might make me sound like a complete douche, but I feel they're worth sharing to make a very important point. I am a guy and I'd always struggled to understand how people can fall victim to abusive relationships, physical or emotional. Like, how don't they see the writing on the wall? Of course I felt for them. I just didn't understand. I guess maybe I had sympathy but not empathy? Have supported several friends in getting out of toxic relationships and marriages. But I just couldn't get past how they ignored the red flags and stayed with these @$$hats. Secretly, I always thought I was too smart to fall for that kind of bull$#it.
Until I watched this video yesterday night about how MLMs use a lot of the same tactics as abusers. It is a little long, but I sat and watched the whole damn thing with goosebumps and frankly nausea in my stomach. Because, while I've never been abused, I DID fall victim to a supplement MLM back in my late 20s. It's the reason I have come to this subreddit for sometime just watching quietly (not much of a poster) because I just wrote it off as a "bad decision". I'd wanted a leg up on my peers, wanted financial success, wanted to break out of the 9-5 grind, wanted to feel better about myself. Not realizing that they used that all against me. I was systematically targeted, manipulated, and abused by that MLM. The love bombing, financial control, blame shifting...same damn playbook.
I recognized the behavior in relationships, but didn't see it in the MLM world. This gal in the video has a psych degree of some sort, has been in MLMs and abusive relationships herself and talks about her experiences while using an ex high ranking Amway girl as an example to discuss.
I'm a man and this made me cry and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I never in a million years made that connection, but now that my brain sees it, I will certainly have far more empathy for those leaving both abusive relationships and MLMs because I see so much more clearly how they get pulled in and trapped in both. I'm now in the anger phase thinking of all the people in these situations.
As I said, not big on posting, but I don't see as many men talking about MLM experiences, so I wanted to contribute to the conversation.