History Main / ManufacturingVictims

As a trope, this comes to play in the form of therapists who encourage patients to get stuck in their problems, or even get worse, rather than to move on and improve their lives. The goal is to keep the patient coming for regular $200 an hour sessions.

As a trope, this comes to play in the form of therapists who encourage patients to get stuck in their problems, or even get worse, rather than to move on and improve their lives.

* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'': Before she got her powers, Moonstone (usually of the ''ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}}'') was an ''extremely'' [[PsychoPsychologist unethical psychiatrist]]. One of her female patients was afraid her husband was cheating on her. When the patient started making progress with her issues, Moonstone telephoned the patient, disguised her voice to sound like a bimbo, and asked to speak to the patient's husband.

* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in ''Film/FightClub''. The main character and his love interest join [[TropaholicsAnonymous group therapy]] for conditions they don't have, such as cancer, in order to feel a sense of connection and community. The question of whether the therapy helps people who actually need it is not addressed.

** The cast does it too, though. There are numerous incidents where a "victim" doesn't think they were victimized, and they're portrayed as being in denial -- [[AngstWhatAngst which is possible]], although in some cases it seems more like they legitimately weren't traumatized by whatever "should" have traumatized them (which does happen, or they have delayed reactions -- people react to trauma differently, with some more resilient).
* ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' have an episode on 12-steppers, where they argue that the method is nothing more than brainwashing and religious indoctrination. It doesn't help at all against alcoholism, and at worst it gets people more hooked on the alcohol itself as well as getting hooked on the AA movement. Plus, atheists such as the duo or other nonreligious people resent having to recognize a "higher power" as part of their therapy (more recently secular alternatives have emerged, though in many places AA remains a monopoly).

** She wasn't an official therapist, but the unsub in the episode "Today I Do" wanted to be. She liked the importance of helping women through their problems, but when they became capable of managing without her, she lashed out. It started with trying to show how desperately they needed her. When that didn't work, she resorted to kidnapping and eventually murder.
** One episode featured a therapy program where participants write out their violent desires. The man who founded the program cut ties with it when he realized that this was happening; most people running groups stopped at step one, allowing their patients to dwell on their issues and cement their violent fantasies, rather than proceeding with the program as he started it, getting to the root of their issues and developing individualized treatment from there. Nothing is said as to whether the program as originally designed was particularly helpful, and it comes up in the episode because a serial killer founded one of the groups specifically to get inspiration for his crimes, so it wasn't exactly well-meaning therapy that backfired either.

* [[PsychoPsychologist Dr. Fontaine]] in ''VideoGame/LANoire'' [[spoiler:turns artists and shell-shocked Marine veterans into addicts and serial killers]].

** Dr. Steinman uses ADAM, a [[PsychoSerum highly addictive genetic modifier]], to perform his MagicPlasticSurgery. Combined with his MadArtist tendencies (he's a [[MadDoctor plastic surgeon]] [[BodyHorror who worships Picasso]]), his patients tend to need ''more'' plastic surgery to undo the first round. And he's the only one in Rapture.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': Since Isiah Friedlander's clients are wealthy career criminals with a buttload of issues and willing to spend millions to get a shrink who won't rat on their past crimes, he intentionally keeps his clients at a medium-stress state to prevent them from solving their own issues so they'll keep coming back. [[IdiotBall Unfortunately for him, he accidentally blabs about his new public TV show to a former bank robber/mass-murderer]]. It's up to you to decide if you want to murder him for the blab.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has an episode where Randy drinks too much and is forced into the AA movement. He quickly gets hooked on it, thus making his life miserable ''and'' making his alcohol problem worse since the program repeatedly emphasizes that he is sick and powerless to control his drinking and thus is able to avoid taking responsibility for it. It's implied that the other members of the support-group have equally dysfunctional relationships to the whole thing.
* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' (Season 3, episode 13) has Foxy going into therapy. The psychiatrist (another housemate, [[DysfunctionJunction red flag number one]]) implants a false memory of childhood sexual abuse, and this false memory takes over, ruining her life, making her end up in jail, and making her murder a lot of innocent people -- in that order.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': In the episode "Friends of Peter G.", both Peter and Brian are sentenced to 30 days of AA as a result of extreme public intoxication. When they complain to Lois about how pointless the meetings are she says that AA has helped a lot of people over the years. Brian retorts that all that has happened is that their members have simply traded their addiction to alcohol for being addicted to the idea of being AA members.

For ''some'' individuals and at ''some'' times, intensive therapy and drug treatment might help immensely, but for others, the time spent in therapy, the side effects of maintenance medication aren't worth their limited or nonexistent benefits, and at least in three cases it can actually worsen disorders.[[note]]In [[TheSociopath antisocial personality disorder]], talk therapy only makes someone learn how to be more manipulative and controlling and drug therapy only becomes a way to acquire drugs. In PTSD or other trigger-based illnesses, some forms of therapy -- especially group therapy involving people in worse shape -- can themselves trigger and increase severity of trigger responses. In anxiety, any therapy that induces self-reflection and introspection can lead to far worse anxiety and some maintenance meds such as SSRI drugs have anxiety as a side effect.[[/note]] In these cases, Manufacturing Victims happens when therapists or mental health/rehab businesses promise unrealistic success rates and persuade the parents of autistic children or anxious people willing to please their therapists to continue maintenance medication when as needed or none would do, to continue therapies or counseling that really aren't needed (and that can be itself a trigger in the case of trauma like PTSD or grief, or even ''traumatize'' the patient such as with autism), or to consider inpatient rehab/therapy at a facility they are being paid for referrals to when outpatient is adequate.

-->''But when you stop and really think about it, conventional life advice -- all the positive and happy self-help stuff we hear all the time -- is actually fixating on what you lack. It lasers in on what you perceive your personal shortcomings and failures to already be, and then emphasizes them for you. You learn about the best ways to make money because you feel you don't have enough money already. You stand in front of the mirror and repeat affirmations saying that you're beautiful because you feel as though you're not beautiful already. You follow dating and relationship advice because you feel that you're unlovable already. You try goofy visualization exercises about being more successful because you feel as though you aren't successful enough already. Ironically, this fixation on the positive -- on what's better, what's superior -- only serves to remind us over and over again of what we are not, of what we lack, of what we should have been but failed to be. After all, no truly happy person feels the need to stand in front of a mirror and recite that she's happy. She just is. ''

Please note that those who make a living Manufacturing Victims are not necessarily malicious: they keep telling themselves that their method is popular because it works, when the grim reality is that it's popular because it gets people hooked on it. Regardless, a large majority of training for therapeutic work attempts to instill the idea that this trope is bad, as making the person dependent on therapy just replaces the old problem with a new one. Unfortunately, there's generally no good way for an outsider to tell the difference between the actual use of this trope and the existence of a hopeless case that keeps coming back despite lack of improvement. Also note that many psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and clinical depression are chronic conditions that would legitimately require ''years'' of drug therapy, counseling, and passive monitoring. That doesn't even get into the many and varied controversies over addiction treatment and therapy, including whether 12 Steps, non 12-step abstinence programs, or managed substitution/use are the gold standard or are enabling addiction itself. Mental health issues and dealing with them are ''highly'' individualized and personal matters.

Finally, there is the elephant in the room that for some disorders/conditions (especially in regard to PTSD, complicated grief, autism, and some forms of anxiety disorder and some personality disorders) that existing drug therapy, counseling, and passive monitoring and other therapeutic intervention are of limited use ''at best'' and useless at worst, and that accommodations (from sensory accommodations for autistic individuals to learning and avoiding triggers for PTSD or grief or anxiety) and time are the things that help the most in recovery.

For ''some'' individuals and at ''some'' times, intensive therapy and drug treatment might help immensely, but for others, the time spent in therapy, the side effects of maintenance medication aren't worth their limited or nonexistent benefits, and at least in three cases it can actually worsen disorders. [[note]] In antisocial personality disorder, talk therapy only makes someone learn how to be more manipulative and controlling and drug therapy only becomes a way to acquire drugs. In PTSD or other trigger-based illnesses, some forms of therapy -- especially group therapy involving people in worse shape -- can themselves trigger and increase severity of trigger responses. In anxiety, any therapy that induces self-reflection and introspection can lead to far worse anxiety and some maintenance meds such as SSRI drugs have anxiety as a side effect.[[/note]] In these cases, Manufacturing Victims happens when therapists or mental health/rehab businesses promise unrealistic success rates and persuade the parents of autistic children or anxious people willing to please their therapists to continue maintenance medication when as needed or none would do, to continue therapies or counseling that really aren't needed (and that can be itself a trigger in the case of trauma like PTSD or grief, or even ''traumatize'' the patient such as with autism), or to consider inpatient rehab/therapy at a facility they are being paid for referrals to when outpatient is adequate.

This trope is about getting people hooked on therapy, including similar activities such as self-help support-groups. Compare and contrast WithholdingTheCure (where the villain suppresses medication that cures a problem so they can sell medication that merely treats its symptoms, or because they want people to die from it) and PoisonAndCureGambit (where the villain creates the problem in the first place).

* Before she got her powers, [[Creator/MarvelComics Moonstone]] (usually of the ''{{ComicBook/Thunderbolts}}'') was an ''extremely'' unethical psychiatrist. One of her female patients was afraid her husband was cheating on her. When the patient started making progress with her issues, Moonstone telephoned the patient, disguised her voice to sound like a bimbo, and asked to speak to the patient's husband.

* Averted in ''ComicStrip/DykesToWatchOutFor'': As Mo turns into a therapy junkie as a way of avoiding dealing with her life, her therapist actually throws her out.

* In the Creator/DavidCronenberg flim ''Film/TheBrood,'' Raglan manages to get at least one patient addicted to his treatments.
* ZigZagged in ''Film/FightClub''. The main character and his love interest join group therapy for conditions they don't have, such as cancer, in order to feel a sense of connection and community. The question of whether the therapy helps people who actually need it is not addressed.

* The books by Kevin Trudeau [[ConspiracyTheorist paint the entire pharmaceutical industry this way]]. Do bear in mind though that Trudeau is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Trudeau currently doing time in federal prison]] for criminal contempt stemming from failure to pay fines regarding his own [[AllNaturalSnakeOil dubious medical claims.]]
* In Creator/PhilipKDick's ''Literature/AScannerDarkly'', [[spoiler:New-Path is manufacturing Substance D in order to get people hooked on it, which then gives them a convenient source of patients and slave labour.]]
* ''The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck'' touches on this, calling out a number of self-help tactics as fleeting easy highs that make you briefly feel good rather than actual long-term fixes for your problems, and even equating some of them to drugs and alcohol, and goes on to highlight how many of them focus on what you lack and emphasize it.
--> But when you stop and really think about it, conventional life advice -- all the positive and happy self-help stuff we hear all the time -- is actually fixating on what you lack. It lasers in on what you perceive your personal shortcomings and failures to already be, and then emphasizes them for you. You learn about the best ways to make money because you feel you don’t have enough money already. You stand in front of the mirror and repeat affirmations saying that you’re beautiful because you feel as though you’re not beautiful already. You follow dating and relationship advice because you feel that you’re unlovable already. You try goofy visualization exercises about being more successful because you feel as though you aren’t successful enough already. Ironically, this fixation on the positive—on what’s better, what’s superior—only serves to remind us over and over again of what we are not, of what we lack, of what we should have been but failed to be. After all, no truly happy person feels the need to stand in front of a mirror and recite that she’s happy. She just is.

** There's a few episodes that deal with "repressed memory" therapists and the problems they cause, since "repressed memories" are usually false.
** The cast does it too, though. There are numerous incidents where a "victim" doesn't think they were victimized, and they're portrayed as being in denial. [[AngstWhatAngst Which is possible]], although in some cases it seems more like they legitimately weren't traumatized by whatever "should" have traumatized them (which does happen, or they have delayed reactions-people react to trauma differently, with some more resilient).

** Another episode turns it UpToEleven with an actual psychiatrist killing his patients by exploiting their phobias.

* Dr. Fontaine in ''VideoGame/LANoire'', who [[spoiler:turns artists and shell-shocked Marine veterans into addicts and serial killers]].

** Dr. Steinman uses ADAM, a highly-addictive genetic modifier, to perform his plastic surgery. Combined with his MadArtist tendencies ([[OhCrap he's a plastic surgeon who worships Picasso]]), his patients tend to need ''more'' plastic surgery to undo the first round. And he's the only one in Rapture.
** In fact, the Splicers you fight in general fall under this trope; "splicer syndrome" is a result of overusing ADAM, which is especially easy to do if one installs the various "SuperPowers formulas". The initial splicers were people who went mad from their ADAM use, terrorizing the populace as a whole by becoming deformed and deranged bandits. So, more people began splicing up to gain the powers to protect themselves from the initial splicers... only to turn into more splicers. And on it went, with the Plasmid companies still insisting on selling Plasmids & Tonics as "the only protection against splicers!" until ''the whole city'' was either dead or spliced up into insanity.
* Sophia Lamb, the BigBad of ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'', is a classic "evil therapist" depiction of this trope, taking in the already unstable and miserable splicers and preying on their weaknesses to brainwash them into her [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill psychotic Collectivism cult]].
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': Isiah Friedlander, full stop. Since his clients are wealthy career criminals with a buttload of issues and willing to spend millions to get a shrink who won't rat on their past crimes, he intentionally keeps his clients at a medium-stress state to prevent them from solving their own issues so they'll keep coming back. [[IdiotBall Unfortunately for him, he accidentally blabs about his new public TV show to a former bank robber/mass-murderer.]] It's up to you to decide if you want to murder him for the blab.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebVideo/ZinniaJones'': The episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScW-djjpzGY I am not a symptom]].
* ''WebVideo/TheThinning'': The fact that the '''United Nations''' (which is supposed to prevent war, pollution, and ''genocide'') willfully declared that every nation suffering from overpopulation needs to cull their population in a manner of their own choosing (which is basically globally-institutionalized genocide) is the worst offender. The plot itself involves the schools screwing their children over as said "Thinning" is supposed to murder all the stupid children, but just selectively chooses the ones that threaten the elite - potential resistance members, intelligent-but-poor visionaries, autistics, etc. This means that the surviving students are either the decadent "aristocracy" (who realize their children are guaranteed to survive this process) or a bunch of gullible memory-hogs who know everything except that their government is a dictatorship, so they keep sending their kids over to be screened for purity and patriotism. [[spoiler:Turns out, [[PragmaticVillainy the corporation puppeteering the schools doesn't kill kids,]] [[{{Irony}} but now they have mass-enslaved the "stupid" students to build their technology,]] Oh, and said technology is used by the schools to continue testing kids, who are then psychologically profiled and "thinned" thanks to the input from the enslaved workers, and so on.]]
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has an episode where Randy drinks too much and is forced into the AA movement. He quickly gets hooked on it, thus making his life miserable AND making his alcohol problem worse since the program repeatedly emphasizes that he is sick and powerless to control his drinking and thus is able to avoid taking responsibility for it. It's implied that the other members of the support-group have equally dysfunctional relationships to the whole thing.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' in the episode "Friends of Peter G.", both Peter and Brian are sentenced to 30 days of AA as a result of extreme public intoxication. When they complain to Lois about how pointless the meetings are she says that AA has helped a lot of people over the years. Brian retorts that all that has happened is that their members have simply traded their addiction to alcohol for being addicted to the idea of being AA members.

Finally, there is the elephant in the room that for some disorders (especially in regard to PTSD, complicated grief, the autism spectrum, and some forms of anxiety disorder and some personality disorders) that existing drug therapy, counseling, and passive monitoring and other therapeutic intervention are of limited use ''at best'' and useless at worst, and that accommodations (from sensory accommodations for autistic individuals to learning and avoiding triggers for PTSD or grief or anxiety) and time are the things that help the most in recovery.

For ''some'' individuals and at ''some'' times, intensive therapy and drug treatment might help immensely, but for others, the time spent in therapy, the side effects of maintenance medication aren't worth their limited or nonexistent benefits, and at least in three cases it can actually worsen disorders. [[note]] In antisocial personality disorder, talk therapy only makes someone learn how to be more manipulative and controlling and drug therapy only becomes a way to acquire drugs. In PTSD or other trigger-based illnesses, some forms of therapy -- especially group therapy involving people in worse shape -- can themselves trigger and increase severity of trigger responses. In anxiety, any therapy that induces self-reflection and introspection can lead to far worse anxiety and some maintenance meds such as SSRI drugs have anxiety as a side effect.[[/note]] In these cases, Manufacturing Victims happens when therapists or mental health/rehab businesses promise unrealistic success rates and persuade the parents of autism spectrum children or anxious people willing to please their therapists to continue maintenance medication when as needed or none would do, to continue therapies or counseling that really aren't needed (and that in the case of trauma like PTSD or grief, can be itself a trigger), or to consider inpatient rehab/therapy at a facility they are being paid for referrals to when outpatient is adequate.

** The cast does it too, though. There are numerous incidents where a "victim" doesn't think she was victimized, and she is portrayed as being in denial. Which is possible, although in some cases it seems more like they legitimately weren't traumatized by whatever "should" have traumatized them (which does happen, or they have delayed reactions-people react to trauma differently, with some more resilient).

* ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' have an episode on 12-steppers, where they argue that the method is nothing more than brainwashing and religious indoctrination. It doesn't help at all against alcoholism, and at worst it gets people more hooked on the alcohol itself as well as getting hooked on the AA movement. Plus, atheists such as the duo or other nonreligious people resent having to recognize a "higher power" as part of the therapy (more recently secular alternative have emerged, though in many places AA remains a monopoly).

** The cast does it too, though. There are numerous incidents where a "victim" doesn't think she was victimized, and she is portrayed as being in denial. Which is possible, although in some cases it seems more like they legitimately weren't traumatized by whatever "should" have traumatized them.
* ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' have an episode on 12-steppers, where they argue that the method is nothing more than brainwashing and religious indoctrination. It doesn't help at all against alcoholism, and at worst it gets people more hooked on the alcohol itself as well as getting hooked on the AA movement.

* Before she got her powers, [[Creator/MarvelComics Moonstone]] (usually of the ''{{Comics/Thunderbolts}}'') was an ''extremely'' unethical psychiatrist. One of her female patients was afraid her husband was cheating on her. When the patient started making progress with her issues, Moonstone telephoned the patient, disguised her voice to sound like a bimbo, and asked to speak to the patient's husband.

* She wasn't an official therapist, but the unsub in the ''Series/CriminalMinds'' episode "Today I Do" wanted to be. She liked the importance of helping women through their problems, but when they became capable of managing without her, she lashed out. It started with trying to show how desperately they needed her. When that didn't work, she resorted to kidnapping and eventually murder.
** Another episode turned it UpToEleven with an actual psychiatrist killing his patients by exploiting their phobias.

* Dr. Fontaine in ''VideoGame/LANoire'', who [[spoiler:turns artists and shell-shocked Marine veterans into addicts and serial killers.]]
* Dr. Steinman in ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' uses ADAM, a highly-addictive genetic modifier, to perform his plastic surgery. Combined with his MadArtist tendencies ([[OhCrap he's a plastic surgeon who worships Picasso]]), his patients tend to need ''more'' plastic surgery to undo the first round. And he's the only one in Rapture.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': Isiah Friedlander, full stop. Since his clients are wealthy career criminals with a buttload of issues and willing to spend millions to get a shrink who won't rat on their past crimes, he intentionally keeps his clients at a medium-stress state to prevent them from solving their own issues so they'll keep coming back. [[IdiotBall Unfortunately for him, he accidentally blabs about his new public TV show to a former bank robber / mass-murderer]]. It's up to you to decide if you want to murder him for the blab.

* ''WebVideo/TheThinning'': The fact that the '''United Nations''' (which is supposed to prevent war, pollution, and ''genocide'') willfully declared that every nation suffering from overpopulation needs to cull their population in a manner of their own choosing (which is basically globally-institutionalized genocide) is the worst offender. The plot itself involves the schools screwing their children over as said 'Thinning' is supposed to murder all the stupid children, but just selectively chooses the ones that threaten the elite - potential resistance members, intelligent-but-poor visionaries, autistics, etc. This means that the surviving students are either the decadent 'aristocracy' (who realize their children are guaranteed to survive this process) or a bunch of gullible memory-hogs who know everything except that their government is a dictatorship, so they keep sending their kids over to be screened for purity and patriotism. [[spoiler:Turns out, [[PragmaticVillainy the corporation puppeteering the schools doesn't kill kids]], [[{{Irony}} but now they have mass-enslaved the 'stupid' students to build their technology]]. Oh, and said technology is used by the schools to continue testing kids, who are then psychologically profiled and 'thinned' thanks to the input from the enslaved workers, and so on]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' had an episode where Stan's Dad drank too much and was forced into the AA movement. He quickly got hooked on it, thus making his life miserable AND making his alcohol problem worse since the program repeatedly emphasizes that he is sick and powerless to control his drinking and thus is able to avoid taking responsibility for it. It's implied that the other members of the support-group had equally dysfunctional relationships to the whole thing.
* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' (season 3, episode 13) has Foxy going into therapy. The psychiatrist (another housemate, [[DysfunctionJunction red flag number one]]) implants a false memory of childhood sexual abuse, and this false memory takes over, ruining her life, making her end up in jail, and making her murder a lot of innocent people -- in that order.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' in the episode Friends of Peter G. has both Peter and Brian sentenced to 30 days of AA as a result of extreme public intoxication. When they complain to Lois about how pointless the meetings are she says that AA has helped a lot of people over the years. Brian retorts that all that has happened is that their members have simply traded their addiction to alcohol for being addicted to the idea of being AA members.

* ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' (season 3, episode 13) has Foxy going into therapy. The psychiatrist (another housemate, [[DysfunctionJunction red flag number one]]) implants a false memory of childhood sexual abuse, and this false memory takes over her life. Ruining her life, making her end up in jail, and make her murder a lot of innocent people -- in that order.

According to the book ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Victims-Psychology-Industry-People/dp/1552070328/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1287874489&sr=8-1 Manufacturing Victims]]'', the therapy industry operates under the same market economy as any other business: If the customer doesn't come back, it means you have failed. Thus, the ideal therapy is one that makes the patient dependent on the therapist rather than ready to move on with their life.

Please note that those who make a living Manufacturing Victims are not necessarily malicious: They keep telling themselves that their method is popular because it works, when the grim reality is that it's popular because it gets people hooked on it. Regardless, a large majority of training for therapeutic work attempts to instill the idea that this trope is bad, as making the person dependent on therapy just replaces the old problem with a new one. Unfortunately, there's generally no good way for an outsider to tell the difference between the actual use of this trope and the existence of a hopeless case that keeps coming back despite lack of improvement. Also note that many psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and clinical depression are chronic conditions that would legitimately require ''years'' of drug therapy, counseling, and passive monitoring. That doesn't even get into the many and varied controversies over addiction treatment and therapy, including whether 12 Steps, non 12-step abstinence programs, or managed substitution/use are the gold standard or are enabling addiction itself. Mental health issues and dealing with them are ''highly'' individualized and personal matters.

* Elanor Lamb, the BigBad of ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}'', is a classic "evil therapist" depiction of this trope, taking in the already unstable and miserable splicers and preying on their weaknesses to brainwash them into her [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill psychotic Collectivism cult]].

* She wasn't an official therapist, but the unsub in the ''CriminalMinds'' episode "Today I Do" wanted to be. She liked the importance of helping women through their problems, but when they became capable of managing without her, she lashed out. It started with trying to show how desperately they needed her. When that didn't work, she resorted to kidnapping and eventually murder.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' had an episode where Stan's Dad drank too much and was forced into the AA movement. He quickly got hooked on it, thus making his life miserable AND making his alcohol problem worse. It's implied that the other members of the support-group had equally dysfunctional relationships to the whole thing.

* ''WebVideo/TheThinning'': The fact that the '''United Nations''' (which is supposed to prevent war, pollution, and ''genocide'') willfully declared that every nation suffering from overpopulation needs to cull their population in a manner of their own choosing (which is basically globally-institutionalized genocide) is the worst offender. The plot itself involves the schools screwing their children over as said 'Thinning' is supposed to murder all the stupid children, but just selectively chooses the ones that threaten the elite - potential resistance members, intelligent-but-poor visionaries, autistics, etc. This means that the surviving students are either the decadent 'aristocracy' (who realize their children are guaranteed to survive this process) or a bunch of gullible memory-hogs who know everything except that their government is a dictatorship, so they keep sending their kids over to be screened for purity and patriotism. [[spoiler:Turns out, [[PragmaticVillainy the corporation puppeteering the schools doesn't kill kids]], [[{{Irony}} but now they have mass-enslaved the 'stupid' students to build their technology]]]].

* ''WebVideo/TheThinning'': The fact that the '''United Nations''' (which is supposed to prevent war, pollution, and ''genocide'') willfully declared that every nation suffering from overpopulation needs to cull their population in a manner of their own choosing (which is basically globally-institutionalized genocide) is the worst offender. The plot itself involves the schools screwing their children over as said 'Thinning' is supposed to murder all the stupid children, but just selectively chooses the ones that threaten the elite - potential resistance members, intelligent-but-poor visionaries, autistics, etc. [[spoiler:Turns out, [[PragmaticVillainy the corporation puppeteering the schools doesn't kill kids]], [[{{Irony}} but now they have mass-enslaved the 'stupid' students to build their technology]]]].

* ''WebVideo/TheThinning'': The fact that the [b]United Nations[/b] (which is supposed to prevent war) willfully declared that every nation suffering from overpopulation needs to cull their population in a manner of their own choosing (which is basically globally-institutionalized genocide) is the worst offender. The plot itself involves the schools screwing their children over as said 'Thinning' is supposed to murder all the stupid children, but just selectively chooses the ones that threaten the elite - potential resistance members, intelligent-but-poor visionaries, autistics, etc. [[spoiler:Turns out, [[PragmaticVillainy the corporation puppeteering the schools doesn't kill kids]], [[{{Irony}} but now they have mass-enslaved the 'stupid' students to build their technology]]]].