Originally Posted by
Zalmoxis
As other people suggested, call the authorities and let them handle your situation. There should be enough medical proof of abuse, and you can ask your mother for support here. This is the best way out of your situation.
It had the opposite effect in my case. If it's done in self-defense, why is it idiotic? It's better to "ruin your life to an even further extent than being beaten up by your parents" than to live in fear.
Right now, Dipper's dad doesn't really have any official acumen in beating his son - other than "having too much fun", which isn't an appropriate reason for getting beat the way Dipper says he gets beat.
If Dipper happens to throw a punch towards his father in an act of "self-defense", things can go horribly wrong as a 200-pound man (approx.) beats you down, in an act of "counter-self-defense", and the blatant feeling of "how dare you?".
Plus, this would add another [good] reason for Dipper's dad to make his life a violent hell.
And for all those previous posts concluding that a viable option to stop this 'abuse' would be to operate a security-camera and get beat on purpose for it to be caught on tape - it won't work. In fact, it can make things worse if Dipper's father finds out that his son is attempting to have him arrested. In addition to that, it takes more than a flimsy video-tape to get someone arrested for 6+ years. There's law & order involved, as always, and an entry of a single video showing a middle-aged man beating his son isn't enough evidence to claim violent abuse.