If we don't like a situation, why don't we just leave?

We don’t need, I think – I hope – to detail too extensively here the exact answer to that question. Bullet points: an immediate fear of being shouted down, insulted, or blackmailed preceded by months or years of exploitation of the weakest points in your psyche by masters of the art; an erosion of your liberty, agency and financial independence (if you had any to begin with), coupled with a sense of shame and stigma and a lack of practical options; no money, no voice, nowhere to run. To top it all, a sinking feeling that says you've already accepted and internalized your lowly place in the scheme of things, your defeat, your ignominy.

Much as your difficulties seem important to you, ultimately you are that grasshopper near the washbasin that begets a shudder of revulsion as opposed to genuine empathy. Or, at best --one hopes-- pitiless indifference.