Mark Joseph Stern at Slate points out the undeniable, that Josh Duggar’s horrible ignorant benighted fanatical parents made him what he is. Yes, indeed they did.

A boy grows up in a controlling, cultlike family that rejects Enlightenment values and closes off much of the outside world. He is deprived of any conception of morality separate from a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible. His intellectual and ethical development is stunted by reactionary, dogmatic views about gender and sexuality. He is told that women were made to be subservient to men, to be obedient to their masters. How should we react when it comes to light that this boy repeatedly molested young girls?

With rage at his parents and the Quiverful movement, and at popular culture in general and TLC in particular for treating it like a darling quaint back to nature movement. [Read more…]

Unbelievable.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas police have destroyed a record outlining a nearly decade-old investigation into reality TV star Josh Duggar, a spokesman said Friday, a day after the 27-year-old resigned his role with a prominent conservative Christian group amid reports about sexual misconduct allegations from when he was a juvenile.

“Sexual misconduct” is putting it a great deal too politely. The allegations are that he groped his younger sisters.
The reports are also that his parents did nothing about it, and that his sisters were expected to “forgive” him and leave it at that.

And that the Duggars have been telling the world how fabulous they are because Jesus via a popular reality tv show for the past seven years. Amid those reports, the records have been destroyed. What a squalid tank of shit all this is. [Read more…]

The response of The “Learning” Channel (yes it’s really called that – the channel that runs “19 Kids and Counting” along with other voyeuristic dreck uses the word “learning” in its title) to the allegations about First Patriarchal Son Josh Duggar was to run a marathon of the show yesterday. Very learning, much educational.

On Thursday, 19 Kids and Counting’s Josh Duggar responded to reports that he molested five underage girls when he was a teen.

“Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends,” Josh, now 27, wrote on the Duggars’ Facebook page. “I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation. We spoke with the authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing, and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling. I understood that if I continued down this wrong road that I would end up ruining my life.”

Did he understand that it was about the lives of the little girls he was molesting before it was about his?

TLC, which has aired 19 Kids and Counting since 2008, did not comment on the subject. But the network did run a marathon of the popular series on Thursday night, upsetting many Twitter users.

[Read more…]