Counting On - Part 5: Ben Raps, We Cringe

[NakedKnees]

23 hours ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

And Cayenne Pepper....hello local market?

I live in South America and have never once seen Cayenne here... but there are so many peppers in the world, it's totally replaceable. That's the fun of travel.

[iweartanktops]

1 hour ago, lascuba said:

If I can figure out how to post pictures here from my phone, I'll post the one I took at at the Museum of Natural History a few weeks ago. The whole front entrance is a tribute to Teddy Roosevelt, with a statue in front and panels along the wall with words describing him. On one of those panels, someone wrote "fuckboy."

 

Yes. IIRC, JB looked really pissed off about it. The whole topic of music and dancing is one of the few that make Jim Bob and Michelle drop their masks and show just how rabid they are about their beliefs. Michelle actually got blatantly snotty and said once, "I think I can find better things to do with my time than dance." They feel hatefully passionate about the subject which is why Jessa trying to convince us that she's totally cool with Ben's interest in rap is especially ridiculous.

They do. And I recall an old episode where a younger kid was dancing, as happy and carefree children often do, and I think a camera person or producer mentioned it. One of the older ones responded, I think Jana, and she became defensive about it. I don't remember exactly what she said, but her facial expressions, tone, etc, disturbed me. It was clear that they believe dancing is truly of Satan. 

4 hours ago, JenniferJuniper said:

If my memory is working, I think it was Jackson and he was only 3 or 4.  He played a musical baby's toy in a thrift store and immediately (and naturally)  began shaking a tail feather.  Jana is the one that scolded him about it, although I think JB may have had a talking head about the evils of dancing.  Jana tried to cover for Jackson by saying he wasn't actually dancing, just "jumping for joy". It was one of the sadder moments of the series. 

Is it me, or did Jessa look exceptionally uncomfortable in the studio?  Like scared, horrified and mystified all at once?

 

Oops, I didn't see this before! This is what I was talking about. 

[Cleopatra7]

13 hours ago, socalrules said:

I feel dumber and angrier for having watched this episode. I am going to probably get slammed by this but I am really tired of the black people need to be saved by the suburban white kid who is looking for a project, especially to bring them Jesus. Oh, and inner city and urban is just a more politically correct way of saying black neighborhood.

I am a black woman who grew up in South Central LA, granted it was the nicer, safer and middle-class edge of South Central but still South Central. Our area was quiet and boring but I grew up knowing that there were certain streets and areas not to go into after a certain time or wearing a certain color. I grew up when drive-by shootings were really taking off and people were afraid to wear read or blue. I take offense at all things Ben and his wanting to “help out” (aka bring Jesus to) inner city areas. Contrary to Ben’s assumption, most inner city areas, especially those with high concentrations of African Americans, have churches on nearly every corner that are filled every Sunday. African Americans tend to be highly religious and church going. My mother and I are the only Catholics in our family and nearly everyone else in our family went to some type of Christian church every Sunday. Same for my friends and neighbors. It was ingrained in us. Even the inner city people (my guess poor black teenagers) Ben thinks he will minister to likely grew up in the church and don’t need him to explain the Word to them. Even the most wayward of teens are likely to still be afraid of crossing God, their mom and their minister and not necessarily in that order.

People may be poor economically but it is straight bullshit to think that they are poor in faith or spirit. If anything, sometimes the less you have, the greater the faith because you are thankful for what you have and need to know there is someone out there watching over you in the toughest times. Does Ben know that most people in inner city areas have likely been going to church since they were born and know the Bible back and forth? Has he ever been to a black church? I went to my grandmother’s church many times and sat through many three hour services and guess what Ben, all they did was talk about Jesus and God. Well and sing, which was my favorite part. Any one of these church goers would have no problem schooling Ben in the Bible. I would also pay to see that.

Oh and Ben, many people in inner city areas are hardworking, make more money than you do, have more education, aren't owned by their father-in-laws and actually live in properties they own. People in inner cities need a lot of things, more jobs/economic opportunity, schools that actually have books/AP courses so kids don’t have to get a transfer to go to school two hours from home, hell even more options for groceries so that people don’t have to leave the neighborhood to buy cheaper food (yes, your grocery store in the inner city will charge more than the same store in a nicer area because they don’t have any other competition). If he truly wants to help, he can tutor kids or start a program so kids have a safe place to go after school. What people in the inner city don’t need is Ben trying to bring a religion to them that they already believe in. What people truly need is others from their own community trying to change things from within. There are people doing that everyday in their communities but they will never get the attention that the savior from the suburbs will get. It just doesn't sell as well.

I've noticed that white religious conservatives tend to think that black and brown people are "doing Christianity wrong." When I was Catholic, for example, the white conservatives would complain about black Catholic churches that used gospel music or had pictures of MLK in their parish halls, because they thought that Catholic churches should be 100% Catholic or something like that. Honestly, if you have to ask yourself why any black church has a picture of MLK, you're an idiot (these criticisms doesn't extend to the more mainstream white Catholics, who didn't spend all day thinking about "liturgical abuses" and had a generally more healthy outlook on life). Even among Protestant fundies think that being Christian equals being a white Republican, and if you're not that, you're doing Christianity wrong. Gothardism is probably the best example of this, since it equates "godliness" to being completely separate from any kind of non-white, non-hyper conservative influences. White fundies, whether Protestant or Catholic, seem to think that church music should be Apollianian in nature and I think they see gospel music as too Dionysian. It's not as bad as it used to be, especially since the spread of Pentecostalism has arguably globalized certain aspects of the American black church experience, but the continued belief that any music with a strong beat is automatically Satanic show that these opinions haven't gone away totally.

[Hera]

I do wonder what Ben and Jill and all the other people "ministering" to Christian folks who are doing religion "wrong" think is going to appeal them about Gothardism?  Is it the lack of music?  The lack of dancing? The lack of alcohol? The lack of being alone with a member of the opposite sex? The premise of headship and keeping sweet?  The lack of free access to TV, movies, books, internet? Trying to feed eleventy kids with only one breadwinner?  Like, what on earth is it that these people think is so fantastic about their version of Jesus that makes it better than anyone else's version? Who would want to live like these people? 

[HereticHick]

2 hours ago, NakedKnees said:

I live in South America and have never once seen Cayenne here... but there are so many peppers in the world, it's totally replaceable. That's the fun of travel.

Perhaps it is in DangerousCintralAmerican stores, but called something else?

From Wikipedia:

"The cayenne pepper, also known as the Guinea spice, cow-horn pepper, red hot chili pepper, aleva, bird pepper, or, especially in its powdered form, red pepper..."

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, Hera said:

I do wonder what Ben and Jill and all the other people "ministering" to Christian folks who are doing religion "wrong" think is going to appeal them about Gothardism?  Is it the lack of music?  The lack of dancing? The lack of alcohol? The lack of being alone with a member of the opposite sex? The premise of headship and keeping sweet?  The lack of free access to TV, movies, books, internet? Trying to feed eleventy kids with only one breadwinner?  Like, what on earth is it that these people think is so fantastic about their version of Jesus that makes it better than anyone else's version? Who would want to live like these people? 

The lack of education and critical thinking skills?

[freethemall]

6 hours ago, JenniferJuniper said:

Is it me, or did Jessa look exceptionally uncomfortable in the studio?  Like scared, horrified and mystified all at once?

She looked even more uncomfortable in the TH when Ben was describing the process. Considering we're used to her normal shit-eating grin in the TH (elevated times eleventy when it's her adoring husband gaze), her uncomfortable look is painfully awkward.

I noticed she looked most uncomfortable in the studio when they were listening to the demo of the girl singing (vrose?) and the one producer was hamming up how much he was loving it, beating his heart and pretending to cry and grab tissues. Jessa just sat there looking at him like he had a disease...

[lascuba]

Well, to be fair, I'd look at someone funny if they were crying and carrying on like that over a few lines of a song. Although fundies cry over all kinds of "deep" spiritual stuff so Jessa should be used to emotional hyperbole.

I'd be a lot more patient with Jessa if she would just admit that she's struggling with the hip hop thing. I think she/TLC worry that anything but public acceptance would get backlash--and it probably would to some degree-but it's so much worse to claim to be accepting and then look dismayed/disgusted when face-to-face with it.

Has this been discussed yet? Flame is suing Katie Perry over Dark Horse: http://www.urbanfaith.com/2014/07/four-reasons-the-flame-co-v-katy-perry-lawsuit-is-a-bad-idea.html/
 

Quote

 

the suit includes the following complaint: “Joyful Noise” has been “irreparably tarnished by its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in ‘Dark Horse.’”

 

[Hera]

4 minutes ago, lascuba said:

Well, to be fair, I'd look at someone funny if they were crying and carrying on like that over a few lines of a song. Although fundies cry over all kinds of "deep" spiritual stuff so Jessa should be used to emotional hyperbole.

I'd be a lot more patient with Jessa if she would just admit that she's struggling with the hip hop thing. I think she/TLC worry that anything but public acceptance would get backlash--and it probably would to some degree-but it's so much worse to claim to be accepting and then look dismayed/disgusted when face-to-face with it.

Has this been discussed yet? Flame is suing Katie Perry over Dark Horse: http://www.urbanfaith.com/2014/07/four-reasons-the-flame-co-v-katy-perry-lawsuit-is-a-bad-idea.html/
 

Oh, for fuck's sake.  

[snarkykitty]

5 hours ago, Antimony said:

Due to the size of the project and Jessa's insistence that it have light and heat and insulation, I've started to suspect that the children have not been dreaming of a tree or play house all this time but have been dreaming about and building just actually another house in which to escape. 

I think they want to put insulation, A/C and electricity in it so Josh could live there.

 

[Hera]

How does one quantify the damage to a song caused by “its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in ‘Dark Horse” anyway?  Is there an expert for that?  Do people come in and testify about their trauma due to the association?  

[anotherone]

On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 8:50 PM, snarkysuki1724 said:

OMG OMG Even my husband is laughing at Bin "rapping" 

Maybe he'll improve.  I read somewhere that when Paul McCartney first had his wife singing, she was horrible and the sound people would secretly filter out just her voice and laugh at her.  But after a few years she improved greatly. 

I hope he gets better because, from the viewpoint that he is just a kid, I hope he gets somewhere in life.

[ClaraOswin]

7 hours ago, JenniferJuniper said:

If my memory is working, I think it was Jackson and he was only 3 or 4.  He played a musical baby's toy in a thrift store and immediately (and naturally)  began shaking a tail feather.  Jana is the one that scolded him about it, although I think JB may have had a talking head about the evils of dancing.  Jana tried to cover for Jackson by saying he wasn't actually dancing, just "jumping for joy". It was one of the sadder moments of the series. 

Is it me, or did Jessa look exceptionally uncomfortable in the studio?  Like scared, horrified and mystified all at once?

 

Everyone always talks about this but I would love to see it. Anyone know if the clip is online or what episode it would be?

[Mothership]

I wasn't clear whether they were actually doing the insulation, AC unit and electricity.  It seemed to me that JB and Jessa weren't talking about the same thing.  Jessa started talking about windows and window units (meaning window AC units) and JB was talking about framed windows.  He clearly didn't want to insulate and put in electricity.

I'd think that electricity would definitely require a building permit.   Has anyone confirmed whether the structure with or without all the extras still requires a permit?

[NakedKnees]

25 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Perhaps it is in DangerousCintralAmerican stores, but called something else?

From Wikipedia:

"The cayenne pepper, also known as the Guinea spice, cow-horn pepper, red hot chili pepper, aleva, bird pepper, or, especially in its powdered form, red pepper..."

That's interesting. Are bird peppers the same as birds-eye peppers... and are they tiny and HOT? And is that what Cayenne is? Hahaha, so many questions!

Anyway, if that's the case, then they DO exist in Chile and are called puta madre peppers (very colloquially. Probably not polite in many settings).

I must confess, a friend from the States gifted me some cayenne so I keep that on hand too. 

[sophie10130]

I think the term Bin, I mean, Unlucky Artist is trying to get at is "Good Ol Boy" That's what we call southern boys who aren't necessarily country boys but hold the country ideals. Close to family, calls people ma'am and sir, is good with his hands, enjoys a simple life, wears cowboy boots but has never seen a cow up close, etc. Like I'm not sure if Lawson Bates is considered country, but people from back home would consider him a Good Ol Boy. But I guess I also wouldn't consider Unlucky Artist a Good Ol Boy.

Also fuckbois do the thing where they will message a girl and tell her how wonderful and beautiful and sexy she is and how much they wanna hook up and won't take no for an answer and when she finally says "I mean it, I'm not interested" he calls her a bitch and a c**t and a whore and says she's too fat and ugly for him to have sex with anyway and he would never degrade himself that way and he thinks she wears too much make up. They also send dick pics for no reason and when the girl hasn't asked for one. 

[Bad Wolf]

20 minutes ago, snarkykitty said:

I think they want to put insulation, A/C and electricity in it so Josh could live there.

 

Yes, he goes in and they take away the ramp. They send a bucket up each day with a rope full of food, and he sends one down with waste. Hopefully different buckets. They did that in one of the old prisons, but it was pitch black. We'll let Joshy have a window, and he can go outside on the porch for vitamin D. 

[tankgirl]

31 minutes ago, Hera said:

How does one quantify the damage to a song caused by “its association with the witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by the same music in ‘Dark Horse” anyway?  Is there an expert for that?  Do people come in and testify about their trauma due to the association?  

If they existed, you would have thought they would have been drug out to make a buck on Stevie Nicks ages ago.

[Jinder Roles]

16 minutes ago, sophie10130 said:

I think the term Bin, I mean, Unlucky Artist is trying to get at is "Good Ol Boy" That's what we call southern boys who aren't necessarily country boys but hold the country ideals. Close to family, calls people ma'am and sir, is good with his hands, enjoys a simple life, wears cowboy boots but has never seen a cow up close, etc. Like I'm not sure if Lawson Bates is considered country, but people from back home would consider him a Good Ol Boy. But I guess I also wouldn't consider Unlucky Artist a Good Ol Boy.

Also fuckbois do the thing where they will message a girl and tell her how wonderful and beautiful and sexy she is and how much they wanna hook up and won't take no for an answer and when she finally says "I mean it, I'm not interested" he calls her a bitch and a c**t and a whore and says she's too fat and ugly for him to have sex with anyway and he would never degrade himself that way and he thinks she wears too much make up. They also send dick pics for no reason and when the girl hasn't asked for one. 

Yes!! There's a beautiful tumblr page called 'straighwhiteboystexting' that highlights the treachery of fuckboys. (straightwhiteboystexting.tumblr.com)

Oh, and never play 20 questions with a fuckboy. It's a TRAP!!

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

5 minutes ago, Jinder Roles said:

Yes!! There's a beautiful tumblr page called 'straighwhiteboystexting' that highlights the treachery of fuckboys. (straightwhiteboystexting.tumblr.com)

Oh, and never play 20 questions with a fuckboy. It's a TRAP!!

Well, I just went down that rabbit hole. "I wanna paint you green and spank you like a disobedient avocado."

[PennySycamore]

@Mothership,  wiring the structure would take a building permit.  My husband has a heavy duty electrical cord running up to the shed so that he can have electricity, but that isn't the best idea in the world.  Electrical systems need to be done correctly by a licensed electrician or they're dangerous

I hate to tell my husband, but our house needs to be re-wired including running the proper electrical stuff up to the shed.

[nst]

looks like spud can now sit up  if left unattended he can roll of the couch now ?

[Jinder Roles]

12 minutes ago, CreationMuseumSeasonPass said:

Well, I just went down that rabbit hole. "I wanna paint you green and spank you like a disobedient avocado."

"Devin? More like dive-in-to-that-pussy" I can't believe these people exist.

[CreationMuseumSeasonPass]

"Wanna play Barbie? I'll play Ken and you can be the box I come in." It's a sick, sad world out there, folks.

[EmmieJ]

8 hours ago, Imagine20 said:

The white savior thing really gets to me. How dare they assume everyone in this world needs to hear their judgmental preaching and uneducated interpretation of the Bible. They're not going anywhere to actually help better people's lives or to understand other cultures and beliefs. Nope. They jump right in without even knowing or caring how ignorant and offensive they are.

Some time ago, a poster gave a link to a video of two Mormon missionaries talking to a black man who appeared to be in his 30's or so -- and this man knew his bible and was quoting from it, questioning the two young missionaries.  They were completely taken aback and pretty much ended up just tucking their tail between their legs and slinking off.  It might actually do Ben (and those like him) a bit of good to be exposed to someone who can run circles around Ben, and expose his simple-minded ass backwardness.