Work Hard not Smart

This is mind-boggling to me.

An abuser will intimidate, threaten, use rage, fear, and act like a complete psychopath to the victim.  They work overtime to terrorize the victim. The abuser makes a compelling and convincing monstrous portrayal of themselves to the victim.

Then the abuser is on their best behavior with everyone else.  The abuser spends all their time convincing the rest of the world how amazing they are.

So the Victim, thoroughly convinced the Abuser is a danger to themselves and their children, fights for custody to the death, with the intent to protect their child from the rager.

The Abuser's behavior is  "Working Hard Not Smart".  Of course, it's not logic driven, it's purely emotion ego driven.   The behavior is driving by their need to dominate, not serve.

If the Abuser had half a brain, they'd realize that by raging out at the other parent, they are in fact putting them in a situation where the victim is morally bound to fight back to protect the children.

Then the Abuser complains to everyone and pays expensive attorneys to fight the very person they persuaded to fight them.

If you work hard to convince someone you are a monster, then don't complain when they fight to protect the children from you.

Maybe you should try convincing the other parent how amazing you are.  I know it's a novel ideal.  Try it.

When the Abuser is done raging, if they ever come to reason and intelligence in their lifetime, they should go to the person they abused and say, "Thank you for protecting the children from me.  I was an idiot."