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Titus2's Steve Maxwell: Seriously Anti-Fun


SPHASH

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I've seen these remarks by Steve before.

One of the reasons they say they went to textbooks is to teach kids that learning is not fun*. He said they don't want to raise kids who think everything they do should be fun, and then wouldn't want to do things that all grownups must do (income taxes, balancing checkbooks,etc).

I do think a certain amount of education requires butt-to-seat work. Writing, math, things like that.

But, most of us have grown up managing to do the boring stuff, while still managing to have some fun. Why does Steve believe everything has to be all or nothing?

*I believe the real reason they went to textbooks is because it was a 1000% easier for Teri. They've basically said as much. In fact he mentions it briefly in this Seriously Dad post.

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I've read a fair few adverts for schools in my time (you know, the kind you get in a magazine with a photo of a grinning child in neat school uniform etc- or is that more a British thing?) and also articles about various schools. Lots of them mention how the school makes learning fun for the child. Learning in a fun way would stimulate the child and (hopefully) ignite a passion for a subject and would (hopefully) inspire them to see learning as a lifelong process that doesn't just end at 18 and that there's more than one way to do things. I remember we barely used textbooks in primary school. I think we had one for maths, although I'm not sure, and we occasionally had one for literacy (what you'd call language arts) which were mostly to do with grammar, reading comprehension etc. Of course once I was in secondary school pretty much every subject had a textbook apart from English.

Even Erika Shupe, the great Maxwell leghumper, found textbooks at school "dry, dry and boooooring." She then went on to discover the usage of Christian textbooks for her homeschool.... secular ones are boring y'all, not to mention liars.

TL, DR: Piss off Steve. You're an asshat of the highest order.

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He's written a number of Corners, as well as passages in various books as to why fun is evil. Everything, EVERYTHING must have a purpose and that purpose is to edify Jesus. Of course, it's up to Steve to decide how that works and he thinks he got a direct line to the Big Guy. It's a wonder to me why god created children, rather than having them spring full grown from the womb, if he didn't mean for them to actually BE children and have…you know, fun. The god and Jesus that Steve worships are not deities I'd want anything to do with.

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It really doesn't seem like they value education overall. If learning was fun then the kids might want to learn more and start asking questions and reading unapproved books. It really is shocking how these people try to squash every last ounce of curiosity and creativity out of their children.

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I plead with you dads for the sake of your children’s future not to buy into this “learning must be fun†mistruth. If learning has to be fun, what does that mean about learning Scripture? Do we only read Scripture because it is fun and not read it because it isn’t fun? Since Scripture isn’t fun to read, could that mean children raised this way will have no desire to read the Bible as they get older?

Interesting that he says, in so many words, that reading the Bible is a drag.

That's our Stevie - sucking any potential joy out of every moment. More fun than a root canal and a colonoscopy combined!

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That's quite a black and white world view...

Normally people are quite capable of doing some things because they're fun, doing some other things because they are necessary or unavoidable, some other stuff because it's the right thing to do, and some further things because you never know, it might end up being useful some day down the road.

Not like, if this is fun now, you will never do anything not-fun ever again.

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Interesting that he says, in so many words, that reading the Bible is a drag.

That's our Stevie - sucking any potential joy out of every moment. More fun than a root canal and a colonoscopy combined!

Nothing can be fun, ever. :penguin-no:

Now I do find it interesting that Steveovah says reading the Bible is a drag. Personally I have found reading it to be a drag except in one context and that was in college while taking my religion / theology classes. The classes themselves were interesting (Philosopy of Religion was one) and reading scripture as an accompaniment to other textbooks or lectures wasn't so bad. However the fundie manager at the place I worked at the same time would only read the Bible and I remember thinking how limited and boring that had to be.

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Without doing any sort of a deep dive into the hell that is Maxwell psychology, I have to think there is an interesting combination of mental illnesses at play here.

Teri suffers from depression and anxiety. Steve's need for absolute control and order, and his inability to see alternative points of view on *anything* suggest possible OCD or even some type of Autistic spectrum disorder. So, in the worst of times, when Teri was in the throes of postpartum depression, the poor Maxwell kids had a mom who barely had the energy to get dressed in the morning, coupled with a dad who insisted on a strict daily routine with no deviations or margin for illness, spontaneity or f*n. Oh, and the vicious beatings proper Christian training.

It's amazing none of the kids have become serial killers.

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Without doing any sort of a deep dive into the hell that is Maxwell psychology, I have to think there is an interesting combination of mental illnesses at play here.

Teri suffers from depression and anxiety. Steve's need for absolute control and order, and his inability to see alternative points of view on *anything* suggest possible OCD or even some type of Autistic spectrum disorder. So, in the worst of times, when Teri was in the throes of postpartum depression, the poor Maxwell kids had a mom who barely had the energy to get dressed in the morning, coupled with a dad who insisted on a strict daily routine with no deviations or margin for illness, spontaneity or f*n. Oh, and the vicious beatings proper Christian training.

It's amazing none of the kids have become serial killers.

Along the lines of the bolded, Steve strikes me as the type who could easily become a family annihilator. The black-and-white, good-vs-evil thinking. The mindset that he and only he knows what's right. The paranoia. The need for total control, even over his grown children. All under the guise of "protection." Something's just no right there and if he feels even more threatened, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility the he could come to believe that he's saving his family by committing the very worst thing imaginable. Horrible to imagine but the more I learn about this man, the more convinced I am that he's extremely dangerous, despite the friendly, sincere and well-meaning face he shows to the public.

What's the first thing people usually say when someone goes off the rails? "I never would have thought it. He was such a quiet man…"

Edited for one public too many

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Along the lines of the bolded, Steve strikes me as the type who could easily become a family annihilator. The black-and-white, good-vs-evil thinking. The mindset that he and only he knows what's right. The paranoia. The need for total control, even over his grown children. All under the guise of "protection." Something's just no right there and if he feels even more threatened, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility the he could come to believe that he's saving his family by committing the very worst thing imaginable. Horrible to imagine but the more I learn about this man, the more convinced I am that he's extremely dangerous, despite the friendly, sincere and well-meaning public face he shows to the public.

What's the first thing people usually say when someone goes off the rails? "I never would have thought it. He was such a quiet man…"

(Bolding is mine.) I just shuddered. What you say is too plausible to be denied, Sparkles.

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So I'm assuming the kids' toys are for the sole purpose of keeping kids out of the parents' way when they need a break from blanket training and crushing their kids'/grandkids' souls.

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Along the lines of the bolded, Steve strikes me as the type who could easily become a family annihilator. The black-and-white, good-vs-evil thinking. The mindset that he and only he knows what's right. The paranoia. The need for total control, even over his grown children. All under the guise of "protection." Something's just no right there and if he feels even more threatened, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility the he could come to believe that he's saving his family by committing the very worst thing imaginable. Horrible to imagine but the more I learn about this man, the more convinced I am that he's extremely dangerous, despite the friendly, sincere and well-meaning public face he shows to the public.

What's the first thing people usually say when someone goes off the rails? "I never would have thought it. He was such a quiet man…"

I hate to say it but yeah, this is entirely possible. My Dad (love him but.....) shares a number of qualities (being right, fear, control even over grown children, can be a fun killer) with Steveovah though not quite to the extremes (but it's a problem nonetheless). He went off the rails during my mother's illness to the point that even my own sisters voiced concern he would do something to her. The stress of the situation combined with loss of control caused a psychotic break and I can see a similar scenario with Steve. And yeah, my Dad comes off as someone whom people would never do such a thing.

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What caught my thoughts is the lack of distinction between "can" be fun and "must" be fun (or we wouldn't be able to force ourselves to do it). In other words, he is saying that if you allow something that CAN be fun to be fun, then you will always expect/require it to be fun, to the point that you won't do it otherwise?

I mean, some parts of learning won't always be fun, and sure, you want your kids to stick with it anyway. But why would that mean that the parts that CAN be made fun, shouldn't be?

The concept of having enough self-discipline to stick with something even when it isn't fun is a good one to master in life (not that I have it mastered, ack) -- but it doesn't mean that you need EV.ERY.THING you do to be a test of that self-discipline!

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It's not even biblical, to have no fun, ever

Ecclesiastes 2:24

24 There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his labor. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 3

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

...

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance

...

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It's not even biblical, to have no fun, ever

Ecclesiastes 2:24

24 There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in his labor. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God.

Ecclesiastes 3

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

...

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance

...

Steve probably uses White-out on those scriptures.

Maybe that's why they're so excited to get new Bibles, maybe they'll get to read all the verses they missed before Steve remembers to cover them up.

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So, that time Jesus turned water into wine (excuse me, grape juice :roll: ) for the wedding...had they all drunken to excess because they had to? It kind of seems to be that he was being a pretty cool guy, aiding their entertainment.

But I'm an evil Catholic, so what do I know?

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Interesting that he says, in so many words, that reading the Bible is a drag.

That's our Stevie - sucking any potential joy out of every moment. More fun than a root canal and a colonoscopy combined!

It's to get them ready for sex only for procreation. If you enjoy the moment you're doomed. You must keep yourself miserable to joy is only in heaven. Or something like that. Hell they measure the burrito filling so they don't overeat, right? Probably have a 2 square limit on toilet paper. Or make them all wear underwear that rides up so they can learn to suffer in silence. No tampons for married women--might not enjoy sex. That's his kind of thinking.

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He is such an ass!! I just don't get his logic.

I do - he's a miserable sod so he can't stand the thought of anyone else being happy. ;)

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Along the lines of the bolded, Steve strikes me as the type who could easily become a family annihilator. The black-and-white, good-vs-evil thinking. The mindset that he and only he knows what's right. The paranoia. The need for total control, even over his grown children. All under the guise of "protection." Something's just no right there and if he feels even more threatened, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility the he could come to believe that he's saving his family by committing the very worst thing imaginable. Horrible to imagine but the more I learn about this man, the more convinced I am that he's extremely dangerous, despite the friendly, sincere and well-meaning face he shows to the public.

What's the first thing people usually say when someone goes off the rails? "I never would have thought it. He was such a quiet man…"

Sparkles, your scenario reminds me of John List: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_List. The similarities between him and Steve Maxwell are eerie.

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I just don't understand Steve. Is he just a well-meaning dad doing his best (in his mind anyway) to protect his family from perceived evils in the world? Or a crazy, abusive control-freak trying to insulate his family from learning there are actually still good things out there beyond Max-hell? Sadly, I fear it's the latter.

The fact that he not only feels that no learning should ever be fun, but is actively trying to convince other dads of the same thing makes me both sad and angry.

I've recently become friends with someone who has a seemingly close (though long-distance) friendship with the Maxwells, particularly Sarah. I've tried not to be too nosy yet, but I really want to pick her brain about the family.

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I know I'm pointing out the bleeding obvious here, as I am apt to do, but living in Maxhell must really be like living in Oceania from George Orwell's 1984. You're constantly monitored even if you have your own house, like with the telescreens. Their outfits are a little more colourful than the blue overalls the Outer Party members wear, but when the girls wore matching frumpers they were definitely uniform-like. Their food is restricted. As IReallyAmHopewell said, they're not allowed to have recreational sex- in Oceania you were supposed to have sex only to "produce children for the Party"; Winston's long-gone wife described it as "doing her duty". Steve is just like Big Brother- an almost God-like figure that the Maxwells nigh on worship and obey all his commands. The Oceanian Ministries of Love/Peace are actually concerned with war and punishment; the Maxwells probably claim they "love" their children but crushed their souls and whacked them for dear life. And, of course, Steve's constant war against gays, transsexuals, atheists, anyone who isn't just like him. The tract-giving is very passive/aggressive: "here, have a soda/balloon animal... and while you're about it, where will you go when you die? Do you know the Ten Commandments?" It's not dropping bombs on the enemy (that sounds more like a Pissing Preacher thing) nor does the enemy change every couple of months, but you get the gist. The Ministry of Truth is all about lies and making up stuff and providing a biased education to children (an example is given in 1984 about how school textbooks taught that aeroplanes were invented by the Party)... and whaddaya know, the Maxwells provide a biased, Christian education that's full of rubbish and that won't prepare kids for anything except working for the Almighty Stevehovah.

Orwellian? Maxwellian? The line's becoming increasingly blurry.

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