Did you see the Duggars’ interview? I only caught the last 15 minutes (will watch it all eventually, obvs) but that was bad enough – jaw-droppingly disgusting. Michelle bleating away in that self-consciously meek little voice about people who have “an agenda” and how terrible they are.
Kevin Fallon at the Daily Beast has some highlights.
Megyn Kelly may not have wagged a finger at them or damned them to hell, the way so many of us wished she would have. But she did ask them tough, responsible, and necessary questions.
She asked why they protected a son who was harming their daughters. She asked for details that would refute the accusations that they covered his misdeeds up. She asked them if they were hypocrites. She asked specifically about Michelle’s comparing transgender women to child molesters. And Michelle stood by it. “It’s common sense,” she said, proving that she has no blessed idea what “common sense” is.
More, she thinks people accusing them of hypocrisy have an unholy ax to grind.
“Everyone of us has done something wrong. That’s why Jesus came,” she said. “This is more about—there’s an agenda. There are people who are purposing to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander.”
Oozing big crocodile tears she said that, while JimBob patted her back consolingly. They were both just a steaming mass of self-pity.
Is it possible to pick just one jaw-dropping, blood-boiling, unfathomable quote from this interview? Oh, there are dozens of them (and counting).
Certainly a frontrunner for the top prize would be when Michelle maintained that her daughters are being more abused by the press in the wake of the uncovering of Josh’s scandal than they were by Josh as children. “They’ve been victimized more by what happened in these last couple weeks than they were 12 years ago,” she said.
Yup, that was a doozy.
At the end Fox played a teaser for the interview with two of the girls that will be aired tomorrow, and they are taking the same line. It’s the press coverage that is the wrong done to them. They’ve been coached well – their whole lives they’ve been coached well.
These poor women. Over at Love Joy Feminism someone noted that one of the sisters who was a victim and who will be interviewed tomorrow, has a baby on the way and a husband who works for Jim Bob… that says it all. Awful.
Right. If you do something bad, you’re a vicious servant of Satan. If I do something bad, that just proves how much I was saved by Jesus.
It’s basically just a veiled tu quoque fallacy. They’re trying to distract you from noticing that they’ve done something wrong, by bringing up a completely separate issue.
I’m not sure it’s even veiled. I don’t think too many people will fail to notice the tu quoque.
It seems that Michelle and Jim Bob have no sense of personal responsibility. They complain about the media causing problems for the victims, but they are the ones that put the whole family on TV. And if they had gotten everyone counseling the first time Josh molested a girl, they wouldn’t be in this mess now. But now we know they waited at least a year to do anything. And how dare we criticize them for neglecting their roles as parents
Wouldn’t it be better if SOMEONE had an agenda? Like, say, trying to prevent child molestation and providing assistance to the victims?
Well, yeah, of course there’s an agenda: protect children from sexual assault. And…?
I think maybe “agenda” has some radically different meaning in Conservaspeak than it does in any of the standard received dialects of English.
A religious group accusing others of having an agenda. HA!
It is not a wonder that every single Mexican I have met in my years of residence and visits thinks that Americans are insane brutes who don’t love their children.
I dont have the will to watch this so Im going to rely on your reports 🙂
On an unrelated note
and they are taking the same line…..They’ve been coached well – their whole lives they’ve been coached well.
Well what if they signed a legal document with Josh? to the tune of It would be wrong to believe we were molested in any way?
I think maybe “agenda” has some radically different meaning in Conservaspeak than it does in any of the standard received dialects of English.
In Conservaspeak ‘agenda’ means ‘nefarious plot’.
is social services dong anything to check on the children who are still living in that household???
Not only did they attempt to distract by claiming an, ‘agenda’, they also cited the ‘fact’ that sibling molestation is clearly a common issue, you know, what with the fact they spoke to a bunch of other families who had also said they had experienced something ‘similar’ albeit Michelle threw a bunch of them under the bus by alluding to ‘far worse’ things having happened in these ‘other’ families.
I don’t doubt this issue was raised with other families as being a problem for them, too, only we know that these other families would also have been part of the same toxic patriarchy sexual shaming/guilt/sin environment. So to suggest the problem exists in many other families that they know personally is to admit it is a real indicator that the religious sociofamilial environment is instilling this dysfunction in their children.
BTW, anyone else spot Jim referencing how maybe he should have ‘trained’ Josh some more? Yeah, that’ll be that awful “To train up a child” violence they recommend for babies and up.
@#11 Josef- DHS tried- Josh Duggar sued them:
http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/duggar-molestation-case-another-bombshell-revealed-josh-sued-the-arkansas-department-of-human-services-59201
So, yes the state did try to find out if the family was doing enough to protect their daughters, and Josh sued them over it. The resolution was sealed, but I can’t find any info about further action by the DHS.
Meanwhile, their pursuit of the “quiverfull” agenda to subjugate women to men and men to priests and to roll back the enlightenment continues.
Why is an agenda only bad when someone else has it?
[Sarcasm, not my actual views!] I’m sick and tired of this extremist agenda promoting reflexive bigotry against child molesters! It’s clearly the narrow, ideological obsession of a few fanatics! Just like all that stupid anti-drunk driving stuff and the dogma that asbestos is dangerous. Why can’t we respectfully listen to both sides?