Commenting on fundie blogs

[2xx1xy1JD]

I've done it occasionally. My personal guidelines are:

1. Be honest. I may soft-pedal my views, but I won't misrepresent them.

2. Be polite.

3. Be careful (because some people are crazy and I don't want a stalker)

4. Be constructive

If it's clear that I'm not welcome, I go. I once tried to engage with someone on whether a word in Isaiah meant virgin or just young woman, and the response I got was "Fuck off bitch, go back to your kitchen". No point to that discussion, esp. since he was half my age, playing video games in his parents' basement.

If someone has a "teachable heart", I'll try to reach them. I don't usually attack basic beliefs. What's the point? I will, however, challenge specific harmful practices like child beating or wifely submission. In the case of Lori's blog, I sometimes didn't respond directly to the post itself, but posted ideas - tips on disciplining without spanking, improving communication in marriage or respecting your spouse. When I avoided direct challenges, my posts often got through and her readers (some of whom may be real) sometimes appreciated the advice. I can only hope that a young mom looking for advice on the internet might have found that my advice at least balanced out Lori's "hit harder".

I do have mixed feelings, though, about posting anyplace that demands that posters not only be polite, but also refrain from contradicting certain views. At those times, I struggle with remaining honest, because my honest criticisms would be harsher.

Then, there's the whole idea of a cyber relationship. I don't think that posting a comment makes me someone's friend. My most satisfying moments online, however, have been when I did establish some sort of connection with another person, learned something about their lives, found that we had things in common despite our differences, and occasionally changed someone's mind. If someone is just vile, though, then I don't want to have that connection. I'm no longer welcome to comment on Lori's blog, but even if I was, I wouldn't because I can't just see her as someone who needs a bit of good advice. The comments on Josh Duggar shook me to the point that I would want nothing to do with her.

[Geechee Girl]

I have yet to be convicted to post on fundie blogs.

[DGayle]

I've commented on Zsu's blog before but it was in a very polite manner and that was a long time ago. Even if you disagree with Zsu, if you are civil, she will usually publish it. I've left reasonable and polite comments on Lori's blog and they were promptly deleted because they seemed to challenge her authority.

There's a lot to hate about Zsu, but I'll give her props for being willing to publish things she doesn't agree with as long as it's civil.

Lorken delete anything that isn't kissing their asses.

[DGayle]

I have only ever commented on the LAF Facebook page in the aftermath of the SCOTUS ruling.

LAF?

[DomWackTroll]

LAF?

Ladies Against Feminism.

[iheartchacos]

I've only posted on Lori's and that was one time. It was the post about going back to the good old days. I simply and politely pointed out that those days were actually not good for everyone and probably just as awful as these days. We just have more media outlets.

She didn't publish.

[princessmahina]

I almost feel like I need to edit my post, because I really wasn't considering Facebook. I have "liked" a few pages so it's easier to keep up with their posts. Occasionally I "like" a photo of a child, or a post that I find agreeable. I have yet to comment, and I don't think I ever will.

[VodouDoll]

I don't comment anymore, but I have in the past, very occasionally to Titus2. I explained to them how the Grand Canyon was formed when they said it obviously happened within the past 6,000 years, and I cautioned them away from Chick Tracts when they were looking to change things up from Ray Comfort's thingies at the state fair and considering Chick because people like comic strips, right? Neither reply was posted, but that was fine, the messages were really for Steve and he got them.

I agree that in general, thoughtful and constructive is the way to go, but I think a little bit of trolling is okay within reason. For instance, I see JohnHugh's posts to the Maxwells as more teasing Steve than anything else. The posts are never insulting or mean-spirited, but there's always a clever double endendre or pop culture reference for Steve to find.

[Black Aliss]

Poking them with a stick only feeds their persecution complex. If I have something nice to say I might comment, but if I can't say something nice, I don't say anything say it on FJ.

[FundieFarmer]

If I've commented, it's been for an elaboration on a point, or something to that extent. Once I get an answer, I don't come back. I follow a lot of the reformed blogs because I distantly know many of the authors, but I usually don't have much to say. I don't like poking the bear, but I do enjoy following some of the blogs (Lori!) for pure entertainment value.

[NachosFlandersStyle]

I have done this exactly once. A young blogger was talking about future goals and she expressed interest in my field of work, so I gave her a practical tip and encouraged her to pursue it. But just to correct someone or try to change their mind? I think about the last argument I got into on Facebook, or the last time a stranger tried to hand me a tract, and how much effect that had on ME... and suddenly the idea of convincing some person over the internet sounds absolutely ridiculous.

[TeaELSee]

I don't even read them. There is no way anything I have to say will even make them think or blink. I am the enemy or devil.

It is just not realistic to think it matters.

[Ofglen]

I have never felt the urge to comment on a fundie post... until today. I went down the rabbit hole from one of the Bates' instagrams (can't remember whether this user commented on a post or another fundie who knows this fundie commented, bUT)

She keeps posting about how this baby is #lilmozart with the tag #trainupachild and i'm so tempted to comment like

Do you know that mozart wrote a CANON caLLED LICK ME IN THE ARSE (leck mich im Arsch) :kiss-ass:

:angry-banghead:

i stg for some reason fundies think that classical music is so fundie and pure but really mozart and most other classical musicians are huge fucking trolls :lol:

but, alas, i don't have an instagram... Would have been a fun comment to make though.

[Gimme a Free RV]

Oh, my... Don't get me started on fundies thinking that classical music is somehow more godly than other forms of music.

Sure, classical instrumental music may not have lyrics you have to shield your children from, but a study of the musician's lives will leave any homeschool fundie mom :pink-shock: Wanna talk about drunkeness? Debauchery? STDs? Inspiration from mythology and the occult?

Even some of the hymn writers' lives were less than stellar. The composer and author of "It Is Well With My Soul" ended up delusional at the end of his life.

[teachergirl]

I have on RARE occasion agreed with Kelly Crawford and added a comment...I just commented now on LAF when I could not resist with their post about how much women have saved in birth control costs with the ACA. The thread was basically how those poor godly women have to pay for OTHERS lifestyle choices.

This was according to Colin Gunn, "filmmaker" of Wait Til It's Free and other such nonsense....I chimed that you cannot have it both ways, being pro-life and anti birth control. I also stated that the level of control they want over womens' personal health was scary. I do enjoy the great irony that is the Reins sisters being the editors of a site that promotes endless childbearing and marriage and neither one of them is married well into their late 30's.

[blessalessi]

LAF?

Yeah, read that blog and you will LAF your socks off! :D :D

I comment very occasionally but mostly I am too busy heading back here to see what other FJers are thinking.

I enjoy johnhugh's comments on titus2. Steve Maxwell blatantly and frequently edits names and changes comments to alter their meaning, no matter how politely they are written, so I think it is fair game for johnhugh and others to get the odd funny comment past him. I also think the odd howler that gets through is a kind of coded message that tells the more savvy readers that there are others around giving Steve the side-eye. :whistle:

[Curious]

We don't have an "official" policy on this because it would be impossible to enforce. We are all grown ups here and responsible for our own actions. For me, personally, I don't comment on blogs or facebooks. I don't even have time to go read them, most of the time. I'm happy to stay in our own sandbox, so to speak.

Since we are viewable by the public, it would be impossible to enforce a "no commenting on blogs/FB" rule because anyone can say they are from FJ. We have former members that post on blogs to purposely make fundies think members are posting nasty things on their blogs. Anytime a fundie gets a nasty comment they think it's from FJ whether it is or not, anyway.

It's easier to blame us rather than think there might be more than just us that disagree with them.

[Jezebel]

I've commented on fundie blogs only rarely, only on neutral topics, and I've always been polite. Once was to thank the blogger for posting a dessert recipe that was as easy and delicious as promised. The second time was to suggest a home remedy of some sort. I know I commented on Sarah Jane's Romantic History about something sewing-related, and left a friendly comment on Rebecca Eleventy's!!!1!! blog when she was having some sort of rough patch (maybe her mom was really sick?). But it's been years since I last did so.

I would never comment at Tightass2, or on the Lori/Erika/Zsu/Kelly Crawford blogs--it's a lost cause, trying to reason with any of them, and I refuse to feed their ridiculous persecution complexes. Also, I'd be annoyed if they came onto my blog and started commenting about how I need Jesus, and how I'm such a sinner, and asking me where I'm going to go when I die--so I don't feel it is appropriate for me to post my dissenting non-believer viewpoint on theirs.

Plus, I just don't have that kind of time on my hands! I only keep up with a handful of threads here at a time, and honestly, that's about all the attention I can spare.

[Marian the Librarian]

I commented on the Munck's Quiver blog after Elizabeth backed out of her engagement to Maxhell - told her I thought she'd absolutely done the right thing, and that she'd be fine with a little time. I also left a birthday post for Sarah on Tits 2, wishing her a happy 30th birthday - Stevie deleted the "30th."

I've left comments on Zsu's and Kelly Crawford's blogs, when they've pissed me off so much I couldn't help myself; ditto on "Ladies Against Feminism" and Stacy McDonald's "Your Sacred Calling," both of which routinely make me want to chew a bowl of carpet tacks.

Lisa Pennington had a "If you could travel to any country where would you go?" thread on her Pennington Point FB page a month or two ago. I responded, asking how her kids could ever hope to see the world without their birth certificates, passports, and the other standard documents required for travel. Surprise surprise - she deleted the entire thread.

I guess this means I'm not above making the occasional attempt to :stir-pot: .

:lol:

[DowntownAbbey]

I also left a birthday post for Sarah on Tits 2, wishing her a happy 30th birthday - Stevie deleted the "30th."

Wow, Steve. Way to be petty. :roll:

[Marian the Librarian]

Wow, Steve. Way to be petty. :roll:

Oops - Have just gone back through the Tits 2 archives, and I have misremembered! In 2012, when Sarah turned 30, I commented "Happy 30th birthday, Sarah! We wish you a year of freedom and happiness," and it was posted verbatim! In 2013, I said "All best wishes for a year of freedom and happiness," and Stevie deleted the "freedom and."

So, my bad. As big a jerk as Stevie is, I want to be accurate here.

(Point of interest: the last year the Maxwell blog included Sarah's age in her annual bday post was 2010, the year she turned 28.)

[lilith]

I occasionally post about practical matters that interest me - asking Zsuzsanna about a baby carrier, things like that. I don't post about religious/social issues cause I see no point in going to someone else's space and arguing with them - I express my opinion on those things here on FJ.

I did comment recommending Priscilla check out "Gentle Christian Mothers" just after Paul was born - that may have been crossing a line a little, but I do think Priscilla would have benefited from joining that community.

[DowntownAbbey]

Oops - Have just gone back through the Tits 2 archives, and I have misremembered! In 2012, when Sarah turned 30, I commented "Happy 30th birthday, Sarah! We wish you a year of freedom and happiness," and it was posted verbatim! In 2013, I said "All best wishes for a year of freedom and happiness," and Stevie deleted the "freedom and."

So, my bad. As big a jerk as Stevie is, I want to be accurate here.

(Point of interest: the last year the Maxwell blog included Sarah's age in her annual bday post was 2010, the year she turned 28.)

So he's just petty in a different way. :roll:

So basically, we need to wait and see if in 4 years the Duggars stop reporting Jana's age with her bday posts?

[Naga Viper]

I mostly refrain from commenting for the same reasons other people have given, but I do make a regular exception for Titus2 just because Steve's such a tightassed, humorless Borg that it's fun to see what I can get past the goalie. Sometimes I get edited, sometimes I don't, but I don't think he's outright barred one of my comments yet. Typical Steve—obsessed with the hypervigilance, but in reality, not very good at it.

Hats off to johnhugh, though, the master of Tits2 stealth comments.

[VodouDoll]

I mostly refrain from commenting for the same reasons other people have given, but I do make a regular exception for Titus2 just because Steve's such a tightassed, humorless Borg that it's fun to see what I can get past the goalie. Sometimes I get edited, sometimes I don't, but I don't think he's outright barred one of my comments yet. Typical Steve—obsessed with the hypervigilance, but in reality, not very good at it.

Hats off to johnhugh, though, the master of Tits2 stealth comments.

HA! Literal lol.