Dillards 37: Tweeting like a Jackass

[ShepherdontheRock]

 

54 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

You'd certainly hope not, but over 11,000 people cared enough to like his ribs picture. 

There are also hella hate comments. But maybe that's what he wanted. Maybe any publicity is good publicity. 

[SilverBeach]

Not all Christians are bible literalists or believe in bible infallibility. I'm not and I don't. I understand that many books of the  bible are considered to be forgeries. Merely being Christian does not mean blindly believing 100 percent of what is actually a library. Not all Christians are simpletons.

I may be a minority Christian (in more ways than one, I'm black, LOL), and I do speak out against fundementalist/evangelical beliefs. Nothing in common with Dewreck and his fellow culture warriors. 

 

[Zenyatta]

22 hours ago, Georgiana said:

Jill chose to marry Derick.  She chose to have kids with him.  This guy.  And if she has an issue with his behavior, she needs to take that up with him.  And if she chooses not to...that's her choice.  But then she's complicit.   And if she didn't know who he was before she married him, well, that was part of her choice to rush down the aisle.

I personally don't pity Jill at all.  This is what she signed up for.  And while I might not BLAME her for how things went down and how things have turned out, I don't feel sorry for her either.  Because she chose this and she continues to choose this for herself...and for her children.  

But Jill is not an adult despite her age and ability to have kids.  She was raised in a fog of nonsense, protected by her father and then handed over to someone who seems to have gone off the deep end.    When was she taught to be an adult?  When was she taught to think for herself?      Even for her children, I don't think JillyMuffin would do anything to upset to her parents. 

[Rachel333]

37 minutes ago, NakedKnees said:

Yes, I get it that not all Christians and not all treatments of Christianity are like that, but in practice, it still seems like a pervasive issue in the religion and I sometimes wish liberal Christians would tackle it more head-on instead of acting like it's a non-issue.

It's like the "not all men" comments (except "not all Christians"). We get it! But it's really not that helpful when talking about issues within Christianity as a whole to keep bringing up the ones who aren't bigoted.

I get so tired of seeing progressive Christians praised for not being jerks. Over and over I've seen discussions of bigotry within some forms of Christianity -- often just someone discussing their own experience without generalizing -- and someone pops in to say "But I'm Christian and I don't hate gay people" and they get lots of comments telling them how great they are for being minimally decent people. On reddit, for instance (which outside of certain subreddits isn't really anti-religion anymore), I've seen a lot of those comments get gold and thousands of upvotes.

I know decent Christians exist! I'm usually pretty careful to mention that, and I have definitely never said that all Christians are bigoted. Sometimes I want to discuss the problems that are pervasive throughout American Christianity, though, and I'm so tired of the progressive Christians who want validation for not hating people.

[Million Children For Jesus]

I'm not familiar with Fundy tweets to know what is normal, but to me, Derick's tweets sound like, not only is he a major ass hat, but he's losing his mind. Maybe a stress induced psychotic break? 

Tweet 1: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5. We shouldn't trust our own heart & mind.

My take: This was immediately after he called transgender a myth. I think this is directed at the trans community. Derick's basically saying they shouldn't trust what they feel in their hearts and mind about their gender, but trust the sex assignment they were given at birth because in Derick's words, it was "ordained by God." This tweet could be directed at the entire LGBTQ community.   I think this a "pray away the gay" message. Maybe Derick prayed away his gay and now he thinks everyone else should too?

My child is transgendered, so I'm going to interpret this scripture as nobody needs to understand anything really, including being trans. That's not your religious or spiritual job. We only need to trust the Lord knows what he's doing. 

I believe we can empathize with people, even if we don't understand everything their life entails. That's just part of not being an asshole, let alone a Christian.

Tweet 2: People are not my enemy; I fight against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

My take: Arrogant much? Delusional? Yes. Fantasies about power? Yes again. In touch with reality? No. Maybe he dropped acid while watching The Golden Child or Kungfu Panda. He's convinced trans people are caused by spiritual forces of evil and Derick is the chosen one to fight the darkness. Only they're not, and he's not, and this self-perception and grandiosity probably makes him a contender for a host of different personality disorders. 

Tweet 3: Everyday, I seek to be less like the natural spiritual state I was born with and more like my lord whom I confess, Jesus Christ.

I can't even imagine how he thinks this is true. I haven't read the bible since I was in 9th grade, but I don't remember any parts about Jesus attacking teenage girls,  completely unprovoked. More grandiosity. Possible persecutory delusions. He brought this on himself with his unprovoked statements, and what normal people would call "consequences," he's calling "evil and darkness." - No, Derick, evil and darkness is what causes people to invalidate other humans, like what you did when you called transgender a myth. It's not evil when you get backlash for being a dick. It's expected. 

Tweet 4: "I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law." Psalm 119:163

My take: Derick calling trans people false. Yawn.  -  Derick, buddy, if you abhor falsehood than Jazz shouldn't live life as a boy because that would be false. Get it? 

[JenniferJuniper]

18 minutes ago, ShepherdontheRock said:

 

There are also hella hate comments. But maybe that's what he wanted. Maybe any publicity is good publicity. 

And maybe it's possible Jazz feels the same way?  (don't shoot! Hear me out).

Derick and Jazz are both TLC "stars".  I've only seen a little of Jazz's show, but ironically enough it was (I believe a recent) episode about bullying.  Jazz, as she referenced in her response to Derick, gets a lot of cyber hate sent her way. Personally, I would not want my 15 or 16 year old to be subjected to this by allowing her on a reality show, but I totally get that showing what a normal teen girl she is this is fostering greater understanding of transgender people, especially young people.

And if we accept that, doesn't it also make sense that the greater the viewership, the greater the fostering of that understanding?  So if I'm Jazz and I want more exposure, maybe I'm fine with a little social media dust-up with a "Duggar".   

I can see TLC green-lighting Derick with a wink and a nod from Jazz.  Because, as is bolded above, any publicity is good publicity for both Jazz's show and Counting On.  Good for Derick, good for Jazz, and definitely good for TLC.

I'm not saying Derick isn't a transphobic asshole; I'm sure he is.  I just question what's really going on here.

[Rachel333]

38 minutes ago, ShepherdontheRock said:

 

There are also hella hate comments. 

Yep, the very first comment I saw was "GOOOOO FUCKKKKK YOURSELF YOU PIECE OF SHIT" 

[SilverBeach]

10 minutes ago, Zenyatta said:

But Jill is not an adult despite her age and ability to have kids.  She was raised in a fog of nonsense, protected by her father and then handed over to someone who seems to have gone off the deep end.    When was she taught to be an adult?  When was she taught to think for herself?      Even for her children, I don't think JillyMuffin would do anything to upset to her parents. 

AARGH... there's that infantilization again. As though no one raised in a cult has ever broken free. Ugh.

[MadeItOut]

Just dipping by. Followed the news on this a little today, but finding it oddly very triggering, so I think I'm gonna give the Dillards a wide berth for a while.

Hope everyone here's doing okay. If anyone wants a listening ear though, I'm only an inbox away.

Stay safe/healthy folks.

[Eatingintheprayercloset]

I think Jill (and all the other married Duggar daughters) had the opportunity to turn men down and I think they did. Jill did choose the piece of shit referred to as Derick as the man to spend the rest of her life. Did she know he would have a case of Twitter fingers? Probably not, but they shared similar views or else they wouldn't be married. As gross as it is, I think this blow up turned Jill on and made her proud HE is her husband. In her eyes, Dipshit is a strong christian man who isn't afraid to voice God's word to those poor, unfortunate souls known as Liberal America. I do feel for her because I don't think she expected him to be as selfish as he appears to be. He wants to trek around Central America and live a wanderlust life instead of supporting his family. This is why couples should spend alone time and get to actually know your future spouse. 

[Zenyatta]

2 minutes ago, SilverBeach said:

AARGH... there's that infantilization again. As though no one raised in a cult has ever broken free. Ugh.

I did not say that no one in a cult has ever broken free.  I'm sure many have, and I applaud them.  To do that must take smarts and courage, which Jill does not seem to have.  Maybe if he drags her back to the land of danger, her level of maturity will increase.  

[SilverBeach]

2 minutes ago, MadeItOut said:

Just dipping by. Followed the news on this a little today, but finding it oddly very triggering, so I think I'm gonna give the Dillards a wide berth for a while.

Hope everyone here's doing okay. If anyone wants a listening ear though, I'm only an inbox away.

Stay safe/healthy folks.

Take care of yourself, first and foremost. I have to step away from the Duggar threads every now and then myself, although they are my gateway fundies.

[NakedKnees]

11 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

It's like the "not all men" comments (except "not all Christians"). We get it! But it's really not that helpful when talking about issues within Christianity as a whole to keep bringing up the ones who aren't bigoted.

Yep, I was totally thinking along those lines. I do feel a tad conflicted about this in a way that I think is well-illustrated with comparing Islam with ISIS. ISIS is evil, and it's massively hurtful to group regular, good muslims (which are the overwhelming majority) with them even though, in the broadest of ways, they have religion in common.

On the flip side, I will always love W. Kamau Bell's "Come Get Your Boy" Facebook status that launched a good couple of think pieces in the lead-up to Trump's election (quoting for length):

Quote

“Donald Trump isn’t a Republican issue or a rich people issue or a human issue. Donald Trump is a white people issue. Whenever Ben Carson says batshit crazy nonsense, Black people rise up, and let him know that he needs to STFU. Whenever Raven-Symone pops off, we put her cap back on. We even handled Rachel Dolezal for you. Yes, we also make jokes and come up with clever memes and hashtags, but at the core of all that is that we are letting these people know that they are embarrassing us as Black people. It is time, white people, for you to finally step up and recognize that you also (even more so) have a responsibility to your race. It is up to you to silence Donald Trump. Don’t just insult him and make fun of him. You have to connect it to your race. Recognize that he is embarrassing you as a white person. Simple snark won’t win here. You have to feel it. You have to use words like “as a white person” and “he is an embarrassment to my race.” Stop acting like Trump isn’t the pinnacle and the result of America’s history and tradition of white supremacy. And again, P.S.: Simply put, white people, come get your boy.”

Just replace "Donald Trump" with "transphobia," "white people" with "Christians," and "race" with "religion." I know this could potentially start a political digression and sorry in advance if it does, but please realize this is coming from my heart as a half-white person and former dabbler in Christianity.

Basically, while I'm conflicted about the universality of this type of logic, I find it massively useful when analyzing social issues in this day and age.

[Eatingintheprayercloset]

2 hours ago, foreign fundie said:

 

transphobic? No, he did not imply fear of trans people in this tweet.

 

His tweet was transphobic though. You don't have to literally say you fear them but when you refer to a group of people as a myth? Yeah, I would label that transphobic. He also misgendered Jazz by using "HE" in a reply tweet. 

[DarkAnts]

His bible verse tweets make it sound like there is some pressure to retract his statement about Jazz. 

[SilverBeach]

2 minutes ago, Zenyatta said:

I did not say that no one in a cult has ever broken free.  I'm sure many have, and I applaud them.  To do that must take smarts and courage, which Jill does not seem to have.  Maybe if he drags her back to the land of danger, her level of maturity will increase.  

I didn't say you said no one in a cult has ever broken free. I doubt those that do are all so smart and courageous, everything I've seen shows them to be scared to death when they leave, some of them with lots more children than two. At some point, they simply know the shit they were brought up in was wrong, and they were terribly hurt by it. I've said it before, nobody leaves until the critical mass of hurt outweighs the benefits of staying in. Maybe one day it will happen, but no Duggars have shown that type if strength of character so far.

And Dewreck is not dragging Jilly anywhere. She could stay with the kids at the TTH as long as she wanted to.

I can't go easy on the adults because they vote and have been vocal about their support of that abomination in the WH. Which means they don't give two shits about my minority (black) ass. So, fuck em.

[speller24]

On 8/2/2017 at 11:43 PM, Rachel333 said:

Someone on the last thread said that Derick isn't a true Christian, and I absolutely disagree. Saying that people aren't "true Christians" is a huge pet peeve of mine. Derick et al might not be good examples of Christians but "Christian" doesn't mean "good person" and there's plenty in the Bible to justify his judgemental attitude, just like others can find bits of the Bible to support a kinder approach. 

No one interpretation of the Bible is the absolute correct one. The hatedulness exhibited by the Duggars and their ilk is real Christianity too.

YES! Oh this made my day. 

37 minutes ago, Million Children For Jesus said:

Tweet 3: Everyday, I seek to be less like the natural spiritual state I was born with and more like my lord whom I confess, Jesus Christ.

Maybe it's in reference to when he had long hair!? I jest, he's a turd. But in these weird times it's nice to make fun of his awful hair. 

[SilverBeach]

Yeah, we know about the no true scotsman logical fallacy. But FJ is made up of all types, atheists, pagans, witches, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and others, including Christians. Somehow, we manage to peacefully co exist, likely because we live and let live.

There is no usefulness in harping on Christianity as a whole when the problems lie within a specific subset. FJ is down on fundies because of the harm done to others, not because they are Christian.

That said, everyone is of course free to express their opinions about anything. I understand the issues some have with Christianity, hell, I have issues myself. But there is danger in conflating Christianity as a whole with the worst possible expressions of it. Christianity covers a lot of territory and just like with everything else, the bad stuff is more publicized than the good stuff.

[Rachel333]

And Christianity is a huge part of why fundies cause harm. If anyone says all Christians are bigots then that should certainly be called out, but you can't have any meaningful analysis of the harm fundies cause without discussing their belief systems. The same applies to any other religion, but most fundies in the US, which is the area we primarily discuss, are Christian.

Most of the time people here do specify that they're talking about a certain form of Christianity anyway. I definitely try to be careful about that to prevent the "not all Christians" comments as much as possible. Often though conversations end up going something like

"Bigotry is common in this form of Christianity."

"Well there are other Christians who aren't bigots!"

Yes, of course there are, and I'm pretty sure everyone here knows that, but those aren't typically the Christians we're talking about!

[SilverBeach]

And there is no such thing as a "true" Christian, for heavens sake, although some do adhere to the teachings of Christ about love more closely than others. All of Christianity should no more be demonized by the likes of the folks snarked on here than all of Islam should be demonized because of ISIS. That's all I'm saying. People trying to paint all of Islam with a broad brush on FJ have caught quite a beat down in the past, and rightfully so. Fair is fair. 

 

[Rachel333]

12 minutes ago, SilverBeach said:

And there is no such thing as a "true" Christian, for heavens sake,

I totally agree with you!

And I absolutely agree too that you shouldn't paint all of Christianity, or any other religion, with a broad brush. I just don't really see that happening. I, for one, have been careful in every post on this topic to mention that non-bigoted Christians exist, and so did @NakedKnees on the previous page, so I just get tired of so many conversations about fundies being derailed into talking about other Christians who have attained minimum decency by not hating people.

[Imagine20]

I'm so upset that he went after Jazz. I don't normally like to admit that I watch reality shows, but I do watch "I Am Jazz." Gender issues are fascinating to me, and I've always been a fan of Jazz and her mom. I've really had it that the transgender community is just the newest target in this country. We all need to stand up for these marginalized groups. 

Jazz can hold her own. I would actually love to see her do a panel discussion or a Q&A with Derick. 

As for the blind gossip, they're for entertainment purposes only. 

[SilverBeach]

30 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

And Christianity is a huge part of why fundies cause harm. If anyone says all Christians are bigots then that should certainly be called out, but you can't have any meaningful analysis of the harm fundies cause without discussing their belief systems. The same applies to any other religion, but most fundies in the US, which is the area we primarily discuss, are Christian.

Most of the time people here do specify that they're talking about a certain form of Christianity anyway. I definitely try to be careful about that to prevent the "not all Christians" comments as much as possible. Often though conversations end up going something like

"Bigotry is common in this form of Christianity."

"Well there are other Christians who aren't bigots!"

Yes, of course there are, and I'm pretty sure everyone here knows that, but those aren't typically the Christians we're talking about!

I hard disagree that Christianity is a huge part of why fundies cause harm. Their fucked up interpretation of Christianity, along with plain old narrow mindedness, misogyny, and racism, is what causes harm. 

If you are careful to specify that it specific beliefs that cause harm, no problem. But I am an example of a Chirstian who believes NONE of what these fundies do. Maybe I'm not the "true" Christian then. In any case I've got to shut tat shit down when all of Christianity is smeared because of these assholes, the same way I would if someone condemned all of Islam because of terrorism. It is not necessary to believe the crap that the Duggars and the rest of them do to be Christian, that's what you are missing.

Besides, what they believe doesn't mean shit, they can believe what they want. Its what they do that I'm against, actively working against people not like them, and supporting vile politicians like Pence and Trump.

We are just going to have to agree to disagree. You have issues with Christianity, but you don't know the whole of it, nor do you know me.

[Rachel333]

12 minutes ago, SilverBeach said:

We are just going to have to agree to disagree. You have issues with Christianity, but you don't know the whole of it, nor do you know me.

Whoa, saying I "don't know the whole of it" is a little offensive. I agree that we don't know each other (and I really haven't said anything about you personally except that I appreciate that you are one of the good Christians, so I'm not really sure where that came from), but neither of us are complete experts on all facets of Christianity. I do however have a lot of experience in Christianity (and in multiple forms--I really didn't want to leave the religion so I tried out a lot of liberal churches too) and my experience isn't less valid than yours.

Quote

I hard disagree that Christianity is a huge part of why fundies cause harm. Their fucked up interpretation of Christianity, along with plain old narrow mindedness, misogyny, and racism, is what causes harm. 

So... their Christianity is what causes harm. Even if they have a "fucked up interpretation" of it, that is still what's driving their beliefs and actions. There is a lot of fucked up stuff in the Bible, as I'm sure you're well aware, and the Bible is the main basis of Christianity, even if there are increasing numbers of Christians who don't take it to be inerrant (which is a trend I'm glad to see).

I've said over and over that there are lots of good Christians! All I'm trying to say is that those good Christians don't own Christianity, just like the bigots don't own Christianity, and that there are pervasive problems in the religion and its scriptures that lead to people like fundies interpreting it the way they do.

[xlurker]

I am no bible scholar, but I do consider myself a Christian. And while there may be arguments for being judgemental and misogynistic, there are also arguments against.  Jesus defended an adulterer, socialized with lepers and prostitutes and let's not forget about Matthew, who it is said to have been the tax collector Levi.  Not only that, but as the story goes the first people he chose to show himself to after the resurrection were women.  I tend to believe there is enough evidence in the bible to support the golden rule, that to love others as you love yourself and to leave the judgement to those awaiting at the Pearly Gates.  Judgement isn't my job, because, face it, my house is prob made of glass.....