Most people still believe the fairy tale that courts exist to “apply the law.” Pro se litigants learn the truth the hard way: Courts apply power first, justify it second, and hide the whole thing behind complexity. Most judges are simply narcissists shielded by robes. This is not a malfunction. This is the architecture. And unless ordinary citizens fight — filing by filing, objection by objection — the justice system stops being a justice system at all. It becomes a polished

The Devil’s Charity is “help” that tightens control and profits from your silence, your praise, or your collapse—where people in power dress abuse up as care, weaponize your weakest truths, dodge accountability, and become more righteous in their own eyes every time you try to correct them.

There’s a strange pattern that shows up everywhere power is abused: In narcissistic families In churches that protect predators In corporations that exploit workers In guru culture and high-ticket coaching The people or systems doing the most harm are often the same ones talking the loudest about how much they “give back.” That’s not an accident. That’s a strategy. I call it the Philanthropy Shield: the use of visible charity or “giving” to deflect criticism, mask exploitatio

In every era, people have searched for guidance, healing, and transformation. And in every era, there have been those who discover that helping people is far less profitable than appearing to help people. This is the engine of the modern guru economy. We live in a world where sincerity is optional, but optics are everything. A world where charisma outranks competence, and where the most successful “helpers” are often the ones who deliver the least actual change. They don’t se

In the last posts, I zoomed in on gurus and funnels. This time, I want to zoom out and say the quiet part out loud: We didn’t just build a predatory industry. We built a predatory civilization that markets itself as benevolence. We live in a world where: exploitation calls itself opportunity, control calls itself safety, apathy calls itself neutral, and almost every system sells you careful optics instead of actual care. That’s the Optics Economy at scale. And once you see it

There’s an economy we almost never name, even though it runs underneath everything from politics to self-help to “make $10k/month” funnels. It’s not the free market. It’s not capitalism vs socialism. It’s the Optics Economy. Not the economy of value— the economy of how things look. Who looks generous. Who looks successful. Who looks “called.” Who looks like a hero. And in that economy, you can run a naturally predatory business model so long as you keep the optics shiny enoug

If you’ve spent any time in the online business world, you’ve heard the line: “You’re just one funnel away…” One funnel away from quitting your job. One funnel away from saving your marriage. One funnel away from finally not feeling like a failure. The man most associated with that promise is Russell Brunson, co-founder of ClickFunnels and author of the “Secrets” trilogy: DotCom Secrets, Expert Secrets, and Traffic Secrets. This post is not a takedown of him as a human being.

The gavel drops. Your stomach drops with it. Whether you won, lost, or were steamrolled, the aftermath of a court ruling is where most pro se litigants make the biggest mistakes — not because they’re stupid, but because they were traumatized by a system that treats them like an inconvenience instead of a human being. But the truth is this: **The fight isn’t over when the judge rules. It’s over when you decide what to do with the ruling.** You have three tools after the verdic

If you measure your success by final rulings, you will walk away from the justice system believing you failed. That’s exactly how the system wants you to feel. It wants you to think: the judge decides truth the order defines reality your loss means you were “wrong” your defeat means you were “less than” your pain means you “overreacted” their calm means they were “credible” the outcome reflects morality None of this is real. The system wants you to equate legal outcome with t

One of the most abusive hypocrisies of the justice system is this: **Courts demand you fight like a lawyer but refuse to give you the tools of a lawyer.** They expect: legal formatting clean citations structured motions proper objections procedural compliance case law familiarity well-organized evidence polished courtroom presentation …but they give you: no training no tools no guidance no counsel obscure rules hostile clerks inconsistent judges a system designed to confuse y

If you’ve ever walked out of a hearing feeling like the truth didn’t matter at all, you’re not imagining it. You just ran head-first into the Optics Machine — a system that values appearance over reality, presentation over facts, and composure over honesty. Family court doesn’t function like a search for truth. It functions like a performance review. And narcissists know how to perform. 1. The Courtroom Is a Stage, and Judges Are Conditioned to Reward Actors Judges deal with

If you’ve ever walked out of a courtroom wondering: “How did the judge believe THAT?” “Why did my abuser look like the reasonable one?” “Why did my truth come across as instability?” “Did we enter a parallel universe?” …it’s because you were not dealing with a typical opponent. You were dealing with someone following a playbook — a predictable, scripted, manipulative strategy that narcissists instinctively use in family court. They don’t improvise. They don’t guess. They foll

Most people walk into family court thinking they have one opponent — the abusive ex, the narcissist, the liar, the manipulator. But family law has a darker structure: **You are fighting two enemies at once: the narcissist who wronged you, and a court system that does not understand narcissism and often enables it.** This is why the process feels insane. This is why you never feel believed. This is why you leave hearings wondering if the judge even heard what you said. This is

There is a reason courts, clerks, and even some attorneys subtly discourage people from filing In Forma Pauperis (IFP). It’s not because they’re trying to “help you.” It’s because filing IFP forces them to confront a truth they are terrified to admit: **Justice in America is pay-to-play. And when you file IFP, you make them say it out loud.** This post explains why filing IFP is not just a financial necessity — it is a strategic act of reform, a shield, and a forced confessio

If you’ve ever tried to hold a toxic helper accountable— a parent, pastor, partner, boss, or institution— you’ve likely experienced the same dizzying pattern: The moment you speak the truth, you become the issue. Your pain becomes the threat. Your story becomes the scandal. Your boundaries become the attack. Your clarity becomes the danger. This is not an accident. It is the central survival mechanism of The Devil’s Charity. In this post, we break down wh

Here’s the unsettling truth: Most people who run The Devil’s Charity aren’t trying to be cruel. They sincerely believe they are doing good. They feel morally justified. Spiritually validated. Emotionally righteous. Socially affirmed. Even heroic. This is what makes The Devil’s Charity so dangerous: It is abuse committed with a clean conscience. In this post, we explore why people who hurt you in the name of “help” feel so sure they’re the good ones. 1. They confuse control wi

A Field Guide for Boundaries, Red Flags, and Self-Defense** By now, you’ve seen the pattern. You’ve seen how families, churches, workplaces, communities, and society itself can run The Devil’s Charity— offering “help” that slowly erodes your autonomy, truth, and reality. So the question becomes: How do you protect yourself from a system designed to control you? This post gives you a field guide: the practical strategies that keep you grounded, safe, and sane

After spending so much time naming how “help” becomes harmful, the natural question becomes: What does clean help look like? What does support look like when it doesn’t turn into control, coercion, optics, martyrdom, or silence? This post outlines the opposite of The Devil’s Charity — the model of clean help, the help that restores autonomy instead of stripping it. Clean help is possible. But it requires a different posture, a different mindset, and a differen

If families teach the pattern, and churches sanctify it, and workplaces professionalize it, and individuals internalize it… society at large enforces it. The Devil’s Charity isn’t merely personal or institutional. It’s cultural. Structural. Collective. We live in a world where: appearance is valued over reality comfort is valued over truth loyalty is valued over accountability image is valued over impact silence is valued over integrity and truth-tellers are framed as threats

How You Start Talking to Yourself the Way They Talked to You** When you leave an abusive family, church, workplace, or relationship, you expect the harm to end. What no one tells you is this: The Devil’s Charity doesn’t stop when you walk away. It keeps running inside you through the voice it installed in your mind. The tone of doubt, correction, guilt, suspicion, and shifting goalposts— the same voice that once belonged to someone in power— slowly becomes your