“called out”? How? I know some of you utterly despise the “new immigrants” who choose to believe Ivies are the best colleges, but have you ever said to your kid “You should’ve put in a few more hours into the practice. You could’ve made the volleyball varsity you always wanted”? Parents are humans and can be misguided and can be hurtful, but should the same type of behavior be judged so much more harshly just because the perpetrators happen to hold a set of values you strongly disagree?
Back to address OP’s issue, should adults here encourage them to constructively improve their relationship with parents or “stand up to” them? Neither would be necessarily wrong, but I think a key question to ask here is whether kids and parents share the same goals. If they do, then it’s only to OP’s benefit to try harder to communicate and work with parents instead of furthering the confrontation. It would do no one any good.