"there should be more people like this in society"

[Deleted07]

Just some things that have played on my mind today, that I think you guys would have great input to:

In relation to some people (leg-humpers) that say on the 19KAC facebook page and other various sites around the net, when talking about fundie-celebs, saying "there should be more people or families like this in this society!" and go on to say "if there were more people like this, our society wouldn't be so flawed!"

What do you guys think when someone says this crap?

For me, I can't help but think that they really mean "I want everyone to be like me and believe what I do!".

Also when people make these comments, I really have to question what they see in the world. While I agree our society has its flaws, and we all get upset at things in the news or that happen in our communities. The majority of the time when I look around at my town, my country, and the world I see great people doing lots of different things, loving families of all orientations, races and religions, rambunctious kids, learning teens, professional young adults etc. All people just doing their best in life to get by and make a good life for themselves and their family and friends.

I just don't understand why these people can't see the beauty and love of the DIFFERENCES that is all around and why they constantly want to change it so everyone is the SAME. How boring would that be!?! And how do they think that this would actually be ideal for everyone!?

Do these people actually think that if everyone acted like The Duggars there would suddenly be Utopia?

What are your thoughts on this? I'd be really interested to hear!

[Glass Cowcatcher]

What do you guys think when someone says this crap?

I just sit there wondering how more people like the Duggars is going to help ongoing wars in the Middle East and Asia, or bring medical care to the underpriviliaged, or balance the inequalities in the world's food supply, or get a hold on pollution.

They may look pretty on TV but they've done fuck all that's really useful.They have some level of wealth from the TV show but they piss it away on candidates like Santorum. They're no Bill Gates or Brad and Angelina, or Bono, who do have fame and money and use that to make the world better.

[valsa]

I think it has to do with people wanting to be comfortable. Mainstream, middle-class society is most comfortable with a slightly-upper middle class white Christian man and a white Christian woman getting married and producing a lot of white Christian children. Non-whites, non-Christians, non-heterosexual, divorced/step families, etc- all these things make them uncomfortable because it doesn't fit their mental picture of the perfect American nuclear family.

[Gil]

I always think it sounds like a great dystopian novel.

[sparkles]

Well, I guess the reasoning (such that it is) is that if everyone thinks, acts and believes alike a la the Duggars, it will all be rainbows and unicorns, right? No wars, no poverty, no hunger, and of course, no gays, no abortion, no gays, no abortion, no gays, no abortion, no gays, no abortion, ...

We'd all be like the Borg or the Cybermen, marching to the same drummer with one purpose and one purpose only.

Kill me now.

[ilovetchotchkes]

I think it has to do with people wanting to be comfortable. Mainstream, middle-class society is most comfortable with a slightly-upper middle class white Christian man and a white Christian woman getting married and producing a lot of white Christian children. Non-whites, non-Christians, non-heterosexual, divorced/step families, etc- all these things make them uncomfortable because it doesn't fit their mental picture of the perfect American nuclear family.

This 110%!!!!!

[smores]

Everyone I've ever heard who loves the Duggars as the "perfect" american family - well, it's always been women - had really screwed up priorities in their own family choices - either they weren't good mothers or made bad parenting decisions or they weren't in love with their husband, things of that nature. They see in the Duggars the kinds of things they wanted for their family without thinking through the terrible repercussions of the Duggars' choices.

[Jinger Jar]

Everyone I've ever heard who loves the Duggars as the "perfect" american family - well, it's always been women - had really screwed up priorities in their own family choices - either they weren't good mothers or made bad parenting decisions or they weren't in love with their husband, things of that nature. They see in the Duggars the kinds of things they wanted for their family without thinking through the terrible repercussions of the Duggars' choices.

This.

[ElphabaGalinda]

This 110%!!!!!

:clap: The biggest problem is, not everyone CAN be like the Duggars. Their life forces people in a variety of rigid roles that not everyone can fit into. This is also the biggest reason I don't think most of their children will be quite as fundie as they are. They have a very narrow view of how a person should be, and most people can't fit that no matter how hard they try.

[GeoBQn]

:clap: The biggest problem is, not everyone CAN be like the Duggars. Their life forces people in a variety of rigid roles that not everyone can fit into. This is also the biggest reason I don't think most of their children will be quite as fundie as they are. They have a very narrow view of how a person should be, and most people can't fit that no matter how hard they try.

The Duggars want everybody to be like them and believe that those who aren't like them are going to Hell, but their lifestyle depends on people who aren't like them. If it weren't for female doctors and nurses, Michelle and Josie wouldn't be alive. If it weren't for people working for corporations and large business instead of founding their own family businesses, they wouldn't have clothes, packaged food, cellphones, or cars.

[emmiedahl]

The Duggars want everybody to be like them and believe that those who aren't like them are going to Hell, but their lifestyle depends on people who aren't like them. If it weren't for female doctors and nurses, Michelle and Josie wouldn't be alive. If it weren't for people working for corporations and large business instead of founding their own family businesses, they wouldn't have clothes, packaged food, cellphones, or cars.

This!

Seriously, if everyone were like them, women would not have the vote, stoning would be a legitimate and legal way of dealing with teen pregnancy, and everyone would still believe that the sun revolves around the Earth. Michelle would have died in her second pregnancy for lack of skilled medical care. Josh would have no job because auto would never have been invented. Jim Bob would be toiling in the fields because there are no cell phones or minimarts. And of course the show would not exist.

The fundie relationship with modernity is interesting to me. They want to take all the benefits without ever giving anything back. They are damn leeches, and NO we cannot support a society where everyone is like them.

[slickcat79]

I always think it sounds like a great dystopian novel.

The Handmaid's Tale meets Idiocracy :?

[BravaAmica]

The Handmaid's Tale meets Idiocracy :?

Oh, honey, we're in the midst of Idiocracy and the Handmaid's Tale is coming soon.

[lizziesmom]

I postulate that there are people who see the world exclusively in black and white with no shades of grey. Those are the folks that have one view of the world only and cannot see anyone else's.

[LostSamurai]

Why would you think The Duggars were the 'Perfect Family', especially when half of the time, Dairy Queen is about as coherent as a dementia patient.

If most of the these people who want to be like fundies read the bible as they said they do, they would know that no one is perfect.

[FlorenceHamilton]

The whole thing is unsustainable on a grand scale. The thing is that they see the technology which they enjoy as god-given. The simple fact that the modern comforts we all enjoy come from the labor of men, women and (unfortunately) chidren of all sorts of cultures and colors and creeds never enters their mind.

I worked with a doctor a few years ago whose family was clearly quiverfull. He was somewhat secretive about his life. We did know that the first kiss was at the wedding, the children are all homeschooled, the girls wear dresses only and that there has been a baby about every 15 months since the marriage 11 years ago. He was at work showing off his iphone. He marveled at the little computer and said, "You cannot look at that and tell me there is no god!" I stood there in silence. The man had to take science courses to get an MD. Just wow.

He went to an accredited University for both undergraduate and Medical School. (The Citadel and University of South Carolina). I wonder what his children's educarion will look like?

[ILoveJellybeans]

No no no no no no no thats a bad idea.

[ADoyle90815]

This!

Seriously, if everyone were like them, women would not have the vote, stoning would be a legitimate and legal way of dealing with teen pregnancy, and everyone would still believe that the sun revolves around the Earth. Michelle would have died in her second pregnancy for lack of skilled medical care. Josh would have no job because auto would never have been invented. Jim Bob would be toiling in the fields because there are no cell phones or minimarts. And of course the show would not exist.

The fundie relationship with modernity is interesting to me. They want to take all the benefits without ever giving anything back. They are damn leeches, and NO we cannot support a society where everyone is like them.

This. We would screw up the planet even more than we have if everyone was like the Duggars and other fundies. Not only would Josh not have his job if there were no cars invented, he would be a lot skinnier if there were no fast food, chain restaurants, or processed food available.

[caito]

It makes me want to SCREAM when people talk like that. I tell people they have no idea what the Duggars' lifestyle truly entails, they only see the pretty picture painted by TLC. They get offended when I tell them they're being lied to. They're like OMG PROVE IT and I direct them here. And if nobody has said they've come from Cafemom, then nobody has listened to me.

But I do recommend FJ for anyone who wants to see the light. :D

[Cherokee2000]

Every month the Duggars use approximately

- 2000 paper plates and/or bowls

- 5000 plastic utensils

- 1500 disposable cups.

Since Josh was born, they have tossed around 150,000 disposable diapers into the trash.

No, I don't think our planet needs more families like this. :(

[Jana814]

No our country does NOT need more people like the Duggar Family. I can't but think that people from other countries think this is how all of America is like.

[bellicosebroad]

No our country does NOT need more people like the Duggar Family. I can't but think that people from other countries think this is how all of America is like.

The Duggars and other Quiverfull or similar people get all of the attention because their families are so huge, but I really think most mainstream folks just kind of see them as oddities who are way out of touch with reality. Their "utopia" will simply never exist because it can't.

The people that really worry me are the evangelical nutcases who don't breed like rabbits but are trying to spread their hate, homophobia, anti-women's rights messages, etc., much more subtly. Those people don't "breed" their followers. They recruit them (a much more efficient and realistic way of building "god's army"). People are scared (and they should be) at the crumbling global economy and erosion of the middle class, and those who are vulnerable and grasping for "security" are soooo willing to bite. "Tell me what to do to save my own ass, and I'll do it. Pray to a nonexistent, emotionally abusive deity who promises I'll be 'saved,' and jump through your hoops? No problem." Critical thinking just goes out the window. I've seen it happen to a former "best" friend, and a lot of younger relatives who were previously very tolerant and reasonable. It's heartbreaking, but reality.

[Peas n carrots]

I think it's also the apparent simplicity people who say this are attracted to. The teevee Duggars, have only been married to each other, never seem to fight, never seem to worry about money, and have kids who seem to never talk back and generally behave themselves. They go on vacations, go out to eat, and go to church. Most people's real lives are considerably more complex if not messy. Over 50% of people have been divorced at least once, unemployment is high, and kids are...well, they are kids. I think people tend to forget that Reality TeeVee isn't really reality, and they are only shown a very small, precisely scripted window into their lives. They aren't aware of the very narrow universe they inhabit, and how isolated they are from the world. They look past the fact their daughters are really the mothers, and that their wealth is in part to the television show.

[roddma]

No arguing about chores, young adults not trying to be independent, and no fights should raise a red flag with anyone. There is no way 21 people all think alike. Heck I was one of two and don't think like my parents. But try telling leg humpers that.

What gets me is how they claim Michelle and Jim Bob are better parents to 19 than parents of 1-3 or wishing their kids were more like the Duggar kids. I point out most parents of 1-3 do not have reality shows or built-in nannies. It is comparing apples and oranges even if the Duggars were not religious. Anyone who wishes their kids were like the Duggar kids gets an ear-full from me.

[caito]

Every month the Duggars use approximately

- 2000 paper plates and/or bowls

- 5000 plastic utensils

- 1500 disposable cups.

Since Josh was born, they have tossed around 150,000 disposable diapers into the trash.

No, I don't think our planet needs more families like this. :(

*screams*

*flies off into sun*