Leaving CC and Quitting Smoking

Some of the posters on the PP blog have taken to wondering on what basis someone who has left CC has a right to still complain about CC. Of course we know that there's a cone of silence for those inside the movement which prevents them from blabbing to the outside world about the downfalls but what about those who have left? In leaving CC did they give up their right to speak about CC's failures?

To me it is analogous to quitting smoking. It's said that the worst anti-smokers are those who are former smokers themselves because they are always preaching to their friends who are still smoking. But hey, I ask, who is more appropriate than a former smoker to do that sort of preaching?

Who is the one bothered by the reformed smoker than the one who is still smoking? To the non-smoker it is just preaching to the choir.

What offends CCites the most about former CCites is that those who left demonstrate it is possible to leave CC and find another place of true Christian fellowship.