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Andrea Pitzer lost her mother to Amway. “In many ways, Amway adherents embraced a fusion of conspiratorial thinking and populism that would remain a central thread of America’s political story.”

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Jason KottkeMOD

Our family did Amway when I was a kid. Luckily didn't get too far into it but I'm sure we lost money on it.

And does anyone remember Promise Keepers? The religious aspect of Amway reminded me of it. That was part of our household for awhile too. 🙃

Promise Keepers is an Evangelical Christian parachurch organization for men. It opposes same-sex marriage, and champions chastity and marital fidelity and the man as being head of the household.

Ben Carelock Edited

Oh man…I was just talking to a buddy about that. We were both raised in that environment, but have long since parted ways with that line of thinking. It’s pretty wild looking back on it from the other side of the fence.

I highly recommend the first season of “The Dream” podcast for a pretty good look at MLM culture.

Jason KottkeMOD

Fun fact: the "birds and the bees talk" in my household was a Dr. James Dobson book left on my bed without comment. But it (surprisingly) said masturbation was a natural thing and boy oh boy did teen Jason take that to heart.

Claus Stoiber

It's important for a teenager to find something they can excel at. :-)

Ben Carelock

I remember an incredibly uncomfortable road trip that involved listening to the audio book version of that with my dad. There’s nothing like awkwardness to make the tedium of driving through West Texas feel like it could stretch out into infinity.

It was kind of an odd move for him…he was typically super fun on a road trip and still is.

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Kelsey P.

I think there could be so much more empathy and compassion in the world if folks better understood this:

“Going crazy isn’t like being hit by a car,” she said in the middle of our conversation. “People make a small but conscious decision to give up. At some point, it’s easier than living in reality.”

As a psychotherapist who works with couples, I often see how one half of the unit has lost their way and the other half feels betrayed — or even duped into having chosen the wrong person to begin with. It can be so difficult to understand how these unravelings take time and aren’t because someone withheld some basic truth from the other. Often, the signs were there for both to see; and seeing these signs isn’t necessarily simple or easily addressed.

Hashtag this is a metaphor for something.

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