Counting On - Part 5: Ben Raps, We Cringe

[Cleopatra7]

5 hours ago, Ungodly Grandma said:

If Flame is going to hang with the Duggars, he better get used to negative comments.

I wonder if some of the negative comments were from leghumpers who disapprove of music with a beat in general and rap in particular, even if it's Christian.

[bingbangboom]

9 hours ago, sophie10130 said:

 

Webster University is in a Missouri suburb of St. Louis called Webster Groves. It is EXTREMELY affluent. Very much old suburbia. It's super nice and super pretty.

Michael Brown, as someone mentioned upthread, was shot in Ferguson which is very close to another suburb called Florissant, which is not very well off either. I recently heard a new suburb is cropping up outside the city and someone explained it to my mom (in a whisper) "It's like Florissant, but without the, you know, *black people*" 

St. Louis usually makes its way on the top 10 worst cities because of the violent crime per capita rate. We always considered it WAY less dangerous than Chicago or Detroit. I didn't know until later that the statistics didn't always match that. But I never really heard much about gang related violence.

Now, East St. Louis is on the Illinois side as another poster mentioned as well. East St. Louis is extremely poor. It also had (or has?) the largest population of wild dogs in America. East St. Louis is usually not considered big enough to make those 10 worst cities in America, but it has a much much MUCH higher violent crime per capita rate. I guess a new statistic came out in 2016 saying it has the highest murder rate in the country, or so says Wikipedia. I knew of a preacher who decided to do missionary work for his church and his church sent him to East St. Louis. No joke.

St. Louis has a very good system of private catholic all boys and all girls schools. If you have any money at all you send your kids there. So the public school system is mostly made up of extremely impoverished students, ELL students, and students of color. The public school system is mostly to be avoided and makes it very hard to get ahead in life. The city is very complicated and has been hemorrhaging population to the suburbs since the 50's. 

All that means to say is that Ben and Jessa would probably decide to live somewhere like Webster Groves or somewhere nice on the Illinois side but say they live in St. Louis/East St. Louis and talk about how daaaangeroussss it is just like Jill and Derrick, and make no difference whatsoever because they don't understand the very complex history of the city and what it, like may other cities, have done to their black and impoverished citizens. 

Also, St. Louis is predominantly Catholic. As in, extremely Catholic. My mom is from a large family and knew Catholic families with up to 13 (or maybe 15?) kids. They'd be laughed out of there in a heartbeat.

My great grandfather was one of the original Pollocks in east StLouis . Back in the early 90s he wouldn't stop at any stoplights or stop signs on his way home from mass for fear of being robbed, or killed.

 

 

GGpa was a rough and often "mean" old man from what I remember and all other accounts. He knew what was up. I wouldn't stop either...(unless for traffic safety)

[IReallyAmHopewell]

14 hours ago, Chickenbutt said:

I predict Ben will get his ass beat in the inner city.

That would make him a martyr. No chance

13 hours ago, Jana814 said:

Maybe they think its ok because it's Christian music. 

No, I think Gothard, Joshie, years on tv, years of traveling have just made them say "Oh who cares" on some of that crap. After all, they've now been thru umpteen 14 year olds --a worse age does not exist for things like music, hair, and boundary pushing.  Plus earbuds keep it contained so it won't pollute the younger set. They are also trying to not seem cultish. Kids "jammin" [Jim-Bob with Quote Fingers] to the Hallelujah chorus would just be wrong.

[LucyManettesForehead]

Both Jill/Derrick's mission work and Ben's newfound desire to minister in the inner city (whatever that means) are so misguided and rooted in paternalistic racism. It makes me so furious that to them, brown people need to be taught about God when (especially in CA but also in low income urban areas) religion is already a tentpole of society. Excuse me, I have to go scream angrily at clouds after watching that episode. 

 

[nastyhobbitses]

2 minutes ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

That would make him a martyr. No chance

He's already obsessed with Jim Elliot (Spurgeon's middle namesake), who got killed while trying to play Awesome White Savior with mostly-uncontacted tribes in the Amazon. I could see Benye (which sounds way too much like beignet) viewing his new mission in The Dangerous Inner City as similar to that and trying to be all "oh I might get killed by the sav--I mean gangsters".

[lascuba]

Ben tweeting to Flame:

"it aight tho." Ben, when poc make fun of white people, you're the one we make fun of. So desperate and pathetic.

[MarcyMM]

5 minutes ago, lascuba said:

Ben tweeting to Flame:

"it aight tho." Ben, when poc make fun of white people, you're the one we make fun of. So desperate and pathetic.

Wow, Bin...just.shut.up!!!

[Hera]

Oh, my gawd, I'm cringing so hard at all of this.  It doesn't surprise me in the least that Ben and Jessa, who grew up surrounded by white protestant people just like them AND without even any exposure or real access to other cultures or attitudes that wasn't delivered through the lens of white clueless fundies have no idea about anyone even slightly different than themselves.  Ben was honestly probably shocked at seeing the area that Flame grew up in.  That shit doesn't exist in his rural white world.  It doesn't surprise me that Jessa cannot interact with people that are not just like her because she's so uncomfortable and out of her element. When would she have ever had the opportunity to be in that situation and learn to be comfortable?  Look at how her parents act when they're around people different than themselves.  From what I can tell, at least Jessa realizes she doesn't fit in and just tries to be invisible instead of screaming "Hola" at every brown person she meets.  It doesn't even surprise me that Ben has no idea that he's coming off like a bumbling white savior idiot way out of his element.  Of course he is.  But, good lord almighty, it's hard to witness.  The TLC editors must have had a field day editing this.  

[Buzzard]

6 minutes ago, lascuba said:

Ben tweeting to Flame:

"it aight tho." Ben, when poc make fun of white people, you're the one we make fun of. So desperate and pathetic.

His word choice is so disrespectful.  Flame uses "too" properly, ben responds by typing phonetically.  Good work, Bin.

[iweartanktops]

12 minutes ago, lascuba said:

Ben tweeting to Flame:

"it aight tho." Ben, when poc make fun of white people, you're the one we make fun of. So desperate and pathetic.

Ben is such a fucking idiot. 

[Mothership]

1 hour ago, ThunderRolls said:

as well as Jessa's repeated comments about "input and output"

I couldn't tell whether TLC is so cheap that they keep reshowing that same clip or whether it's the only joke Jessa can make.  We got it the first time and it wasn't that clever then.   Time to move on.

[Ungodly Grandma]

10 minutes ago, MarcyMM said:

Wow, Bin...just.shut.up!!!

Next Jessa will get corn rows.

[Dandruff]

14 hours ago, lascuba said:

My mind boggles at this possibility. I'm still trying to understand how Ben didn't trip off Jessa's creepy meter when they met. 

Jim Bob and Josh.  I doubt her creepy meter works like yours or mine...

[Lillymuffin]

Not sure how I got on their mailing list, but I just got this in my email. (Took a screen shot. Tried to break link, but am not that tech savvy. If someone else knows how, please let me know.)

 

[lascuba]

8 minutes ago, Buzzard said:

His word choice is so disrespectful.  Flame uses "too" properly, ben responds by typing phonetically.  Good work, Bin.

In another tweet Flame writes alright. But that douchebag had to try to be cool by popping out the AAVE. Dude, that is not your dialect. You have no fucking business attempting to use it.

4 minutes ago, Ungodly Grandma said:

Next Jessa will get corn rows.

I believe you mean "boxer braids," that totally new style totally invented by Kim Kardashian.

[Hera]

4 minutes ago, Dandruff said:

Jim Bob and Josh.  I doubt her creepy meter works like yours or mine...

No kidding!  Not to mention probably many of the men she encounters at those fundie events.  Being constantly told to ignore your "creepy meter" in favor of keeping sweet and being told that the men who should set it off are godly does a real number on your ability to trust your own instincts on these things.  

[Mothership]

TLC I think it's time that you introduced the Duggars and the leghumpers to the meaning of cultural appropriation.

38 minutes ago, LucyManettesForehead said:

Both Jill/Derrick's mission work and Ben's newfound desire to minister in the inner city (whatever that means) are so misguided and rooted in paternalistic racism. It makes me so furious that to them, brown people need to be taught about God when (especially in CA but also in low income urban areas) religion is already a tentpole of society. Excuse me, I have to go scream angrily at clouds after watching that episode. 

 

Yes!  Wish I could up vote x 100!

[lascuba]

1 minute ago, Hera said:

No kidding!  Not to mention probably many of the men she encounters at those fundie events.  Being constantly told to ignore your "creepy meter" in favor of keeping sweet and being told that the men who should set it off are godly does a real number on your ability to trust your own instincts on these things.  

Years ago, when Jim Bob mentioned how many guys would contact him in hopes of meeting his daughters, Jessa said, "yeah, the weird ones," with this look of utter disgust. How bad were those guys that *Ben* looked like a good prospect?

[Hera]

3 minutes ago, lascuba said:

Years ago, when Jim Bob mentioned how many guys would contact him in hopes of meeting his daughters, Jessa said, "yeah, the weird ones," with this look of utter disgust. How bad were those guys that *Ben* looked like a good prospect?

God only knows!  At least Ben was young and, likely in her eyes, hot.  No wonder she jumped on it.  

[purplepeony]

There are a lot of negative comments on the Lilly and Ellie blog from outranged leghumpers who think that rap is 'evil'. Hopefully this episode will decrease viewer numbers further!

[SportsgalAnnie]

9 hours ago, EyeQueue said:

Quiverfull Of Worldly Distractions.

thanks! 

 

[barbecutie]

Can we PLEASE PLEASE stop beating around the bush and just call him Wu-Tang Ben from now on. He's like so cool and edgy and urban now, you guys.

Wu-Tang Ben ministering to inner cities is never going to happen. Wu-Tang Ben is going to minister to low-income suburbs. Why? Because Wu-Tang Ben will get stabbed within five minutes because he is so goddamn white.

He has officially entered fuck-boy status.

 

[Carol]

Just ruptured my eardrums.  Don't give up your day job, Ben...

...oh wait

[Jinder Roles]

5 minutes ago, barbecutie said:

Can we PLEASE PLEASE stop beating around the bush and just call him Wu-Tang Ben from now on. He's like so cool and edgy and urban now, you guys.

Wu-Tang Ben ministering to inner cities is never going to happen. Wu-Tang Ben is going to minister to low-income suburbs. Why? Because Wu-Tang Ben will get stabbed within five minutes because he is so goddamn white.

He has officially entered fuck-boy status.

 

I don't know, I feel like Childish Grift-bino is more apt.

[Kelsey]

1 hour ago, lascuba said:

Ben tweeting to Flame:

"it aight tho." Ben, when poc make fun of white people, you're the one we make fun of. So desperate and pathetic.

I about died when Benye talked about "puttin up a front."