excellent question. I had an incident about 12 years ago that was profoundly life-altering: CPS came after me and my children. It was about 9 months of hell, fighting for my children, and in the process I got to see the belly of the beast and that my previously held beliefs (trust and faith in these institutions) were incorrect. Everything I thought I knew was based on a lie. It was only as I was trying to make sense of this bewildering experience (because I am a really good mom) that I realized the great number of other very good families (and there are countless wonderful people who are victimized in this way!) who also had undergone a similar experience with CPS. While ultimately I did not lose my children, absolutely I lost my faith and went from being a lukewarm, institution-trusting, moderate-liberal-leaning person to being very independent and an ardent researcher who no longer affiliates with anything, and only wants the truth. My entire family thinks that I was "ruined" by the CPS experience which "traumatized and damaged me," because I no longer see things as they do, as I used to. Once you see, you can't unsee.

Side topics (deep dives into health, vaccines, natural immunity, and so on) I delved into at the time also delivered me from this current evil, because of what I learned along the way. I could not possibly believe the narrative, because I already had a foundation and knew they were absolutely lying -- as astounding as that would have seemed to my former self.

I have no idea if something else might have happened to change me, had this CPS attack not upended my life when it did. (can you imagine that now I am actually very grateful I went through that?)