If we are all raised to believe our own family is good and everybody thinks this, then how do you know if things like child abuse, sexual abuse, and financial abuse are bad?

Even if you lived in a completely isolated environment where everyone around you reflected an idea of family that’s supposed to be the one, true representation of goodness, if you disagreed with that version your conscience would let you know.

It’s how I knew I wasn’t a Christian and had the first inklings of my developing atheism when I was child being forced to attend church under the threat of whippings with electrical cord.

It’s how I knew my father’s coerced hugs felt gross and wrong even before I knew terms like emotional incest.

It’s how I knew my stepfather was abusing me even though he never physically laid a hand on me.

It’s how I knew my boundaries were being violated when someone was touching me against my will but my body was reacting involuntarily to the touch.

Despite how any of us are raised, we all have a conscience and a sense of self that reacts negatively if our boundaries are violated.

We always know when our boundaries are violated. We always know. Someone, or even an entire community, may try to convince us that abuse isn’t really abuse, but we unquestionably know anyway.

Go watch The Truman Show. How did Truman Burbank “know”?

(Spoilers below.)

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Because he could never fucking leave when he wanted to, that’s how.