What if Josh writes the tell all?

[FleeJanaFree]

57 minutes ago, Marissap said:

His "fans" would eat that up. 

This is why I believe at he end of the day, Josh ISNT unemployable. Yes, most people think he's a smug, lazy d-bag with no education, but there are thousands of fans and cult members willing to look the other way. They will 'forgive' him, I.E. Attach themselves to his name for fame or a business pull. (And if for some reason they don't, JimBob will 'hire' him to mow his lawn or something to keep him out of the public eye and under his thumb. Hell, that could be happening right now)

 

He should have have trouble finding a job, but he won't. 

[JenniferJuniper]

2 hours ago, sj3339sta said:

People read books by shitty people all the time.  He could also use a pseudonym to spill the beans about IBLP and FRG.

Josh was a low level celebrity who molested children and has been a pompous asshole, smugly criticizing the lifestyles of anyone who didn't follow his version of "family values" all while he was lying to and cheating on his wife.  Not to mention the fact that he may have willfully exposed his wife and babies to STDs.

He has no credibility so why should anyone believe any beans he might spill?  

I can see TLC trying to bring him back in some capacity for ratings, but as far as anything else goes he's not just pining for the fjords. He's done.

[mebeforee]

Quote "Since Josh tended to prey on people when they were sleeping before he progressed to victims who were awake but very young, I think it's possible he could have done other things without the victims necessarily knowing about it. They claim they didn't know about the sleep touching so his admissions might have been self-censored. It's impossible to know and speculation seems kind of futile."

I don't know about other ppl, but if anyone touches me while I was asleep I'm immediately UP. Those girls would have to have been sleeping like rocks & I totally do not believe that story. I think Jill woke up & went screaming to her parents who prob. showed him "the rod" & told him never to do it again but we all know now that he did. Of all those girls sleeping in the same room ONE of them had to see him.

That's how I am too, but my dad sleeps like a rock and sometimes it takes three or four tries to wake him up. Children are also especially heavy sleepers often to the point that you can pick them up and move them around without them waking up. Josh's sisters were pretty young at the time and if I remember correctly, the children were all sleeping in just two normal-sized bedrooms then. I'm guessing children raised in such a huge family, sleeping in common spaces and sharing beds, would grow up to be heavy sleepers out of necessity. If you woke up every time your bedmate bumped into you while asleep or were snoring or talking in their sleep, you'd probably be sleep deprived at all times. It wouldn't be at all unbelievable to me if the Duggar kids could sleep through being touched.

[JenniferJuniper]

2 minutes ago, mebeforee said:

 I'm guessing children raised in such a huge family, sleeping in common spaces and sharing beds, would grow up to be heavy sleepers out of necessity. If you woke up every time your bedmate bumped into you while asleep or were snoring or talking in their sleep, you'd probably be sleep deprived at all times. It wouldn't be at all unbelievable to me if the Duggar kids could sleep through being touched.

What's not plausible to me is Josh running and confessing when supposedly no one was aware of the "mild inappropriate touching".

That's not his character.  I think its more likely that he confessed only after he got caught by someone doing something.  The Duggars are not telling us the full story.

[mebeforee]

I agree, I think someone saw something and told the parents, or that Jim Bob or Michelle came into the room while he was doing something. But I also don't think it's unlikely that the victims themselves really were asleep during the attacks, he seems calculating enough that he'd be sure of it. And one of the daughters (after being told about it) apparently said something along the lines of how it made sense to them because once she woke up and Josh was taking their blanket. But she didn't seem to have then been assaulted, so I'm guessing if it seemed that they were waking up, Josh would have gotten the hell out of there.

I just think it is plausible to me that the victims themselves might not know the full details of what happened while they were sleeping, especially since Josh himself has never once actually admitted what he did to the police, or to the media. We have no details about it from him directly, he's a coward who lets other people speak for him. He gives vague comments about past actions but that's it. I expect he let his parents tell the sisters what happened in whatever way they chose, and then he just apologized for it. It doesn't seem that his parents have ever expected him to actually confront his actions and explain himself.

[CyborgKin]

23 hours ago, AlwaysExcited said:

 It would be like Moody family and 50 Shades of Gray crossover.

 

19 hours ago, Kittikatz said:

My mind just went  imagining that cross over! Thanks for the smile!

Sarah Maxwell's new series?  Imagine her blog posts about the necessary research.

[Kittikatz]

26 minutes ago, CyborgKin said:

 

Sarah Maxwell's new series?  Imagine her blog posts about the necessary research.

Imagine Stevehovia's reaction to seeing her internet history!?! I'd pay to be a fly on the wall for that. On the other hand, it would almost certainly be more interesting than the Moodys.

[MoonFace]

If there is a way to put a spin on things a Duggar will find the way. 

Raise your hands if you think that Josh would throw the rest of the family under the bus in a heartbeat.  

Can't you picture him saying, "Poor me! I was just a naturally curious little boy and when I raised any questions I was told that I'd have to wait until my wedding night after my daddy showed me how legos fit together.  THen I would get sent to the prayer closet.  In my defense I didn't ever understand why plugs were called the male part and outlets called the female part and I just wanted to know what the difference was!   Since I wasn't allowed to touch anyone, even myself, I just wanted to see if those girls felt differently than I felt."  

[mebeforee]

I can picture him trying that absolutely, but I don't think any confessional he might write would have anything approaching critical recognition if he tried to excuse that stuff away. So I can see him writing a failed tell-all (like Dustin Diamond from Saved By The Bell did), and becoming even more of a mockery.

If he wrote an honest tell-all that didn't seem hugely biased or blamed others for his own actions or shortcomings, I would read it. That would be the absolute only hope for him to scrape up a tiny film of respect from all this. People can spot bullshit, it's not hard.

And it's not that I don't think he could include behavioral influences, but if he really tried to say 'I molested my sisters because my dad did x, my mom did y' it would be totally ridiculous to most readers. You can't call something a tell-all if it's just a masturbatory way to free you of all blame, it has to actually make sense and seem plausible. I could see him going either direction if he ever decided to publish something, but the approach would make the biggest difference to whether he could salvage his life or not.

[Cleopatra7]

4 minutes ago, mebeforee said:

I can picture him trying that absolutely, but I don't think any confessional he might write would have anything approaching critical recognition if he tried to excuse that stuff away. So I can see him writing a failed tell-all (like Dustin Diamond from Saved By The Bell did), and becoming even more of a mockery.

If he wrote an honest tell-all that didn't seem hugely biased or blamed others for his own actions or shortcomings, I would read it. That would be the absolute only hope for him to scrape up a tiny film of respect from all this. People can spot bullshit, it's not hard.

And it's not that I don't think he could include behavioral influences, but if he really tried to say 'I molested my sisters because my dad did x, my mom did y' it would be totally ridiculous to most readers. You can't call something a tell-all if it's just a masturbatory way to free you of all blame, it has to actually make sense and seem plausible. I could see him going either direction if he ever decided to publish something, but the approach would make the biggest difference to whether he could salvage his life or not.

The comparison to Dustin Diamond is interesting, because it seems like Diamond has spent most of his post-SBTB life vacillating between trying to cash in on being Screech and trying to distance himself from that, and he can't seem to get his story straight. For a while, Diamond was trying to reinvent himself as a douche bag macho man, perhaps to get rid of the asexual geek image that was Screech, but that didn't resonate well with viewers. In response, Diamond backtracked and said that he was simply playing "a part," the sex tape was faked (how do you fake a low-budget sex tape?), and the tell-all was the fault of a ghostwriter who twisted his words. At no point has Diamond taken ownership of the bad decisions he made. I mean, if he really hated being Screech that much, he could have declined reprising the role in the College Years and The New Class. If he continued the Screech role for the money, that's fine and understandable, but he needs to own up to the fact that that's the choice he made, and it shouldn't surprise him that he can't shake the association with Screech.

The same is true with Josh. If he still wants to play the part of fundie husband and son, whether because this is what he actually believes or because it's what's convenient for him, he needs to understand that it will come with a number of constraints. It will probably also entail having more kids than he's comfortable with, and being yoked to a wife that he may be bored with. If Josh decides this isn't the life he wants, he can either disappear into the wide yonder or try to be frank with JB, Michelle, and Anna that what he wants out of life doesn't coincide with what they want for him, and they can all try to meet in the middle. However, Josh's name is too tainted by scandal, meaning that any hopes he had for a political career are gone. The fact that his family keeps speaking for him only makes him look guiltier, as does blaming Satan for his poor decisions. While Diamond is about to serve jail time for his own bad behavior, Josh seems to be stuck in a family-based cult and possibly a prison of his own beliefs.

 

[bashfulpixie]

8 hours ago, socalrules said:

I agree with the other posters that Josh will never "write" a tell-all because it is impossible to spin child molestation. The only child molester I know who can still get fame and fortune is Roman Polanski and that is only because Hollywood will put up with anything if you can make Oscar winning movies. Josh doesn't have that. Plus, how would he do a book tour without having to face a real interviewer that will ask hard questions? What publish will take the risk?  Who is going to going to stand in line to get a book signed by Josh? How do you spin the molestation of five children, four of them your sisters? Rapist Polanski at least had the my wife and child were tragically murdered "excuse". 

As it is, the Duggars are really at the low end of relevance and I can't see the book selling that well. I think we sometimes mistake their level of popularity because we at FJ are so facinated by them. The most attention they have had is because of the child molestation and even that has waned. I doubt that any of the younger children will write a tell-all as by the time they are adults the Duggars will be a distant memory. 

Writing a tell-all completely burns every bridge you have with your family, which is a bad idea when you will likely need their help because you are uneducated and unemployable like Josh. I don't think the younger kids will do it because I truly believe they love their family and don't want to be banned from them. Plus, I will again say I find tell-alls tacky and is nothing more than selling your soul for money. Plus, why do it when a Duggar isn't going to make millions off of it? 

You'd be surprised.  I worked at Barnes and Noble for a really long time, and when the girls' book came out we had a hell of a time keeping it in stock at first. Granted, we had a large religious community where I used to live, but still.

[Jingerbread]

On 12/20/2015 at 5:38 PM, mebeforee said:

 

I don't think Josh would be able to explain the molestations at all. That's not something that anyone in his family has been able to explain in a non-horrifying way, and I doubt he even has the perspective or clarity of thought to explain his own behavior for either the molestations or the affair/s. I doubt his brain goes much farther than 'because I wanted to' and even if he wanted to understand himself in that way he doesn't have the tools to do so.

I would be interested in what he had to say about the rest of his family and his parents' child rearing techniques especially, but none of that would absolve him of the responsibility for his own actions. There are contributing factors I'm sure, but he's still the guilty party who chose to victimize others.

I don't think there's any way to explain them away, but what he could do is explain what went though his head, why he thought it was okay, or if he thought it was wrong, why he did it anyway.  Just explain why.  That won't explain the away.  Don't even try to excuse it.  Explain what went through his head, acknowledge how wrong he was to MOLEST (not "made a mistake") children, and thoroughly denounce the family lifestyle that contributed to this happening and being accepted.  He could be an advocate for victims if he wanted to, and because he's been in the molester role, which I don't think you ever really leave, I think being an advocate for people that people like himself hurt and have hurt could be powerful.

But I don't think he will.  I don't think he'll say a peep against the way he was raised.

[mebeforee]

11 minutes ago, Jingerbread said:

I don't think there's any way to explain them away, but what he could do is explain what went though his head, why he thought it was okay, or if he thought it was wrong, why he did it anyway.  Just explain why.  That won't explain the away.  Don't even try to excuse it.  Explain what went through his head, acknowledge how wrong he was to MOLEST (not "made a mistake") children, and thoroughly denounce the family lifestyle that contributed to this happening and being accepted.  He could be an advocate for victims if he wanted to, and because he's been in the molester role, which I don't think you ever really leave, I think being an advocate for people that people like himself hurt and have hurt could be powerful.

But I don't think he will.  I don't think he'll say a peep against the way he was raised.

What I meant there isn't that Josh's explanations wouldn't excuse his actions (though they wouldn't), but really I don't think Josh COULD explain it. I don't think he really knew what was going through his head, why he was doing what he was doing. I feel like "subconscious" is just the word for all the emotional goings-on that people aren't able to articulate, and for a Duggar kid, that category is so much huger than for most people who are given greater respect for their emotional autonomy and are encouraged to express themselves more. These children have been so emotionally stereoptyped to exist only within "happy", "sad" and "angry", they don't know how to articulate any emotion more subtle than that. Their parents don't believe that children have complex emotional lives. They think they can control everything by physical discipline BECAUSE of that sheer ignorance of the complex motivations that inform every person's every action. I think in families where the emotional awareness is that stunted, it's very difficult for the children to really know what's going on within themselves. I think Josh doesn't explain his motivations because he can't, he hasn't been given the introspective tools to identify his emotions, or the communication tools to articulate them. His upbringing alone didn't cause his sexual abuses, but I do think his upbringing has made it extremely difficult for him to actually know why it happened, even from an internal perspective.

[MatthewDuggar]

At this point, I hope that Josh and the rest of them just go away, especially if he truly wants to rebuild his relationship and family.  I see no benefit other than money to entertain the thought of writing a book or doing any kind of "show".  Of course these people know nothing other than self-exploitation to make a living.  If Anna has a brain in her head, she'll insist that they try and live as much of a "normal" life as possible.

[Bad Wolf]

Now that Anna is standing by him, there's no way he would write a tell all book. He'll either have to come back a reformed little Duggar, or else disappear for ever

[mebeforee]

Anna is standing by him for the time being, but she does seem to still doubt if their marriage can be repaired. She gets tearful every time she mentions it.

I don't know if Josh will somehow be given the tools he needs to resist his cheating in the future, but if he does cheat, emotionally I don't know if Anna would be able to forgive it again. But I also don't necessarily think the family would forgive him, and as her main support system, that might make a difference for her.

I don't know, I just hope her decisions aren't setting her up for more heartbreak in the future.

[mebeforee]

4 minutes ago, mebeforee said: I can picture him trying that absolutely, but I don't think any confessional he might write would have anything approaching critical recognition if he tried to excuse that stuff away. So I can see him writing a failed tell-all (like Dustin Diamond from Saved By The Bell did), and becoming even more of a mockery.

If he wrote an honest tell-all that didn't seem hugely biased or blamed others for his own actions or shortcomings, I would read it. That would be the absolute only hope for him to scrape up a tiny film of respect from all this. People can spot bullshit, it's not hard.

And it's not that I don't think he could include behavioral influences, but if he really tried to say 'I molested my sisters because my dad did x, my mom did y' it would be totally ridiculous to most readers. You can't call something a tell-all if it's just a masturbatory way to free you of all blame, it has to actually make sense and seem plausible. I could see him going either direction if he ever decided to publish something, but the approach would make the biggest difference to whether he could salvage his life or not.

The comparison to Dustin Diamond is interesting, because it seems like Diamond has spent most of his post-SBTB life vacillating between trying to cash in on being Screech and trying to distance himself from that, and he can't seem to get his story straight. For a while, Diamond was trying to reinvent himself as a douche bag macho man, perhaps to get rid of the asexual geek image that was Screech, but that didn't resonate well with viewers. In response, Diamond backtracked and said that he was simply playing "a part," the sex tape was faked (how do you fake a low-budget sex tape?), and the tell-all was the fault of a ghostwriter who twisted his words. At no point has Diamond taken ownership of the bad decisions he made. I mean, if he really hated being Screech that much, he could have declined reprising the role in the College Years and The New Class. If he continued the Screech role for the money, that's fine and understandable, but he needs to own up to the fact that that's the choice he made, and it shouldn't surprise him that he can't shake the association with Screech.

The same is true with Josh. If he still wants to play the part of fundie husband and son, whether because this is what he actually believes or because it's what's convenient for him, he needs to understand that it will come with a number of constraints. It will probably also entail having more kids than he's comfortable with, and being yoked to a wife that he may be bored with. If Josh decides this isn't the life he wants, he can either disappear into the wide yonder or try to be frank with JB, Michelle, and Anna that what he wants out of life doesn't coincide with what they want for him, and they can all try to meet in the middle. However, Josh's name is too tainted by scandal, meaning that any hopes he had for a political career are gone. The fact that his family keeps speaking for him only makes him look guiltier, as does blaming Satan for his poor decisions. While Diamond is about to serve jail time for his own bad behavior, Josh seems to be stuck in a family-based cult and possibly a prison of his own beliefs.

---

(I don't know how to fix this quote, since it appeared as part of my post! Maybe an admin with an understanding of code or whatever can fix this? D: )

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I see Josh and Diamond as being very similar personalities. Who knows what influences in their young lives shaped them into what they are, there are so many factors. And there's a little understanding to that, but guess what? A normal person doesn't get the luxury of unloading all their baggage on the world, and an adult celebrity doing so won't really change the opinion that has already formed. You seem like an asshole to a stranger? You're probably an asshole. Your motivations behind becoming one don't make a bit of difference once you're a grown ass adult interacting with the world.

My interest in what Josh might have to say is mostly in the hopes that it can protect the young members of his family somehow, keep them from being shaped in the same way he was. No one wiping up their misdeeds and blaming it on someone else, but hopefully someone looking out for their emotional well-being.

Ps the book sale aspect may depend on where you live. I also work at Barnes and Noble and last year I had the delight of packing up about a dozen of the girls' books as a return.

[Mary C Doates]

Quote

 

It would be filed under Fiction, because he'll say anything to make himself look humble and repentant, neither of which are character traits he possesses.

I'd make the library get it and read it that way.

 

[Othello]

3 hours ago, MoonFace said:

If there is a way to put a spin on things a Duggar will find the way. 

Raise your hands if you think that Josh would throw the rest of the family under the bus in a heartbeat.  

Can't you picture him saying, "Poor me! I was just a naturally curious little boy and when I raised any questions I was told that I'd have to wait until my wedding night after my daddy showed me how legos fit together.  THen I would get sent to the prayer closet.  In my defense I didn't ever understand why plugs were called the male part and outlets called the female part and I just wanted to know what the difference was!   Since I wasn't allowed to touch anyone, even myself, I just wanted to see if those girls felt differently than I felt."  

I'm going to bet that you weren't raised fundie. I know you wrote this intending for it to sound ridiculous, but it's more accurate than I'd like to admit. Of course kids will be curious, but they're raised in absolute ignorance—and I mean absolute. When I was 12 when I was with an older family friend (probably 22) on a job (he worked repairing furnaces) and made a comment that I wondered why the various ends of an extension cord were called the male and female end—he looked at me funny and I didn't piece it together for some time. I got my definition of sex from the dictionary (still vague), and never got "the talk"; and I could say more.

It's easy to rag on Josh, and he's absolutely acted like a scumbag, and repeatedly, but it's important to remember the context that this is all in. He needs to own his behavior and repudiate it rather than simply rationalizing, but I think that the crux is that Josh, while an antagonist in this saga, plays the secondary villain to these extreme forms of fundamentalism that damage kids, set them up to be dysfunctional adults and foster Jekyll and Hyde survival mechanisms in those who are raised in it.

[GodsKnickers]

10 hours ago, ksgranola1 said:

I don't know about other ppl, but if anyone touches me while I was asleep I'm immediately UP. Those girls would have to have been sleeping like rocks & I totally do not believe that story. I think Jill woke up & went screaming to her parents who prob. showed him "the rod" & told him never to do it again but we all know now that he did. Of all those girls sleeping in the same room ONE of them had to see him.

I think he did more than touch and I don't think it was Moo & Boob that were showing 'the rod.'

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

13 hours ago, ksgranola1 said:

I don't know about other ppl, but if anyone touches me while I was asleep I'm immediately UP. Those girls would have to have been sleeping like rocks & I totally do not believe that story. I think Jill woke up & went screaming to her parents who prob. showed him "the rod" & told him never to do it again but we all know now that he did. Of all those girls sleeping in the same room ONE of them had to see him.

I sleep through EVERYTHING unless I'm expecting something to wake me up. I've slept through hours of alarms before. 

[OodOnTheLoo]

Josh will be locked down when he gets home.  and, as all cults, if he leaves he has to leave behind everyone and everything he has ever known.  His little foray I to the big evil world didn't go over well.    He's not going anywhere.  He is going home and if we hear from him again it will only be with JimBob's (and their PR persons) blessing.

[bashfulpixie]

9 hours ago, mebeforee said:

 

 

Ps the book sale aspect may depend on where you live. I also work at Barnes and Noble and last year I had the delight of packing up about a dozen of the girls' books as a return.

Oh I'm sure.  I worked at one where most of the people were uneducated and super religious.  So I wasn't at all surprised we had a hard time keeping it in stock.  This is a place where people buy bibles and I Kissed Dating Goodbye for Christmas presents.  So glad I don't live there anymore.

[RosyDaisy]

10 hours ago, ksgranola1 said: I don't know about other ppl, but if anyone touches me while I was asleep I'm immediately UP. Those girls would have to have been sleeping like rocks & I totally do not believe that story. I think Jill woke up & went screaming to her parents who prob. showed him "the rod" & told him never to do it again but we all know now that he did. Of all those girls sleeping in the same room ONE of them had to see him.

I think he did more than touch and I don't think it was Moo & Boob that were showing 'the rod.' [emoji33]

I agree with all of this. The worst part of all of this are people trying to blame Josh's actions on his upbringing. Sorry, but Josh KNEW what he was doing was wrong. I'll leave it up to mental health professionals to analyze his fucked up upbringing and/or any mental issues.

[LadyCrow1313]

17 hours ago, JenniferJuniper said:

What's not plausible to me is Josh running and confessing when supposedly no one was aware of the "mild inappropriate touching".

That's not his character.  I think its more likely that he confessed only after he got caught by someone doing something.  The Duggars are not telling us the full story.

On one of the new house specials, didn't Michelle say that back in the old house, she was up @ all hours doing laundry? Maybe he got caught that way. Regardless, though, it's all a wee bit fishy.