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The Duggars and Their World: Fashion, Food, Finance, Schoolin’ and Child Rearin'

galax-arena

By galax-arena
in Counting On

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cmr2014
cmr2014

I really think that if this was anything other than a white, Christian family, that all of these humpers would be screaming bloody murder and speed-dialing DCS to have the children removed from the ho

doodlebug
doodlebug

Better yet, let's go back to waiting for the kid to be born and taking a peek below the equator before putting the first diaper on.

lulu69
lulu69

Truth be told, I really don't see much difference between their 'ugly' clothes and their every day clothes. 

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Churchhoney

Churchhoney

(edited)
43 minutes ago, JoanArc said:

WTF

Well, the Bates are into the KKK...

Well, Loving v. Virginia (best name of a court case ever) didn't strike down the state laws until, what, '67 or thereabouts? And since we know that superfundies are at least 40 to 50 years behind any state they happen to live in when it comes to social and cultural advancement.... Not so surprising, unfortunately ....

Edited by Churchhoney
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cmr2014

cmr2014

5 hours ago, Churchhoney said:

Sidenote to the discussion of the TTH as a "sick system" going on over in the Other Duggar thread, there's a lengthy Homeschoolers Anonymous post (draft of lengthy footnoted paper, about ATI-type homeschooling as a kind of totalitarian system -- well, "totalist," in Robert Jay Lifton's term. Anyway, some interesting descriptions of such a system, vis a vis the goings on in The Academy of Duggardom.    https://homeschoolersanonymous.org/2016/06/21/homeschooling-as-a-totalistic-tool/

The characteristics are these: Milieu Control, (2) Mystical Manipulation, (3) Demand for Purity, (4) Cult of Confession, (5) Sacred Science, (6), Loaded Language, (7) Doctrine Over Person, and (8) Dispensing of Existence.

And as you can tell by the mere names, how redolent they are of Duggar Daily Life. Here are two notable ones, but the discussions of all eight are worth a look, while meditating on the sad fate of Duggar children. (Descriptions of the eight characteristics are up fairly high in the paper, and bullet-pointed, so you don't have to wade through the whole thing to get to them.):

'(3) Demand for Purity

'The demand for purity is a demand to divide the world into what is “pure” and “impure” and avoid and reject everything considered the latter. Lifton describes totalist purity as “those ideas, feelings, and actions which are consistent with the totalist ideology and policy; anything else is apt to be relegated to the bad and the impure.” Dividing the world in this way creates both guilt and shame in individuals when they fail to perfectly avoid and reject what is considered “impure.” That guilt and shame then become tools of control that the totalist administration uses to manipulate people to do what the administration desires.[xviii]

'(4) Cult of Confession

'The cult of confession is connected to the demand for purity. The inevitable result of the demand for purity is that people will fail, hence the resulting feelings of guilt and shame. And when people do fail, they must confess those failings. A totalist administration will take advantage of this and manipulate people into all sorts of confessions both to enhance the feelings of guilt and shame as well as to gather information about individuals that can be used against them or to exploit them in the future. Lifton describes the cult of confession as confession that is “carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal, and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself. There is the demand that one confess to crimes one has not committed, to sinfulness that is artificially induced, in the name of a cure that is arbitrarily imposed.” In a totalist environment, “confession becomes a means of exploiting, rather than offering solace for, these vulnerabilities.” It also becomes “a means of maintaining an ethos of total exposure – a policy of making public (or at least known to the Organization) everything possible about the life experiences, thoughts, and passions of each individual, and especially those elements which might be regarded as derogatory.” This total exposure adds a dire sense of gravity to “the environment’s claim to total ownership of each individual self within it. Private ownership of the mind and its products – of imagination or of memory – becomes highly immoral.”[xix]'

Nice description of how these eight characteristics could work together to trap somebody in a cult homeschool environment:

'To help us better understanding how homeschooling can be a totalist tool, let us explore an example connection between homeschooling and certain instances of human trafficking. If a child grows up in a new religious movement that has effectively mastered thought reform techniques like milieu control via homeschooling, that child will have no understanding of how the outside world differs from his or her experience of the totalist world. If that child also grows up memorizing nothing but the loaded language of that new religious movement, then he or she will not even know how to develop a different language by which to question the movement — and if the child ever did learn to question, he or she would feel immense guilt and shame from thinking “impure” thoughts. And if the pressure from the child’s parent(s) to stop thinking such thoughts was not enough, the child’s very own peers would step up to the task, thinking that they were saving their friend from being not “truly human.”

'A nearly perfect system of control, then, would be in place. All it would take is for the leader of the movement to declare a new vision from the movement’s deity came to him or her — say, a vision of young girls being married at the age of 12 to much older men. This leader’s vision would likely be couched in religious justifications — that we are living in apocalyptic times and must fill the earth with as many followers of the movement’s deity as possible. And if young girls are not married early, they might be led astray by the world’s wickedness.'

Thanks for posting this link. I think that this is a spot-on description of what is going on at "Duggar Academy."

For what it's worth, I don't think that JB and J'chelled understand any of this. This is all Gothard's work, and they are his followers. Gothard promised them and army of obedient children if they followed his teachings, and he has delivered. I don't think it has ever occurred to either of them to question whether all of the obedience was actually good or healthy for their children.

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Churchhoney

Churchhoney

4 minutes ago, cmr2014 said:

 Gothard promised them and army of obedient children if they followed his teachings, and he has delivered. I

Yep.

The guy's horrible but his prescriptions often work -- quite well, too, in many cases, more's the pity.

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BitterApple

BitterApple

1 hour ago, NewDigs said:

Holy Crap!

Is that "excerpt" for real?

Wow.

Well at least we now know where to send all of our tattooed and pierced brethren so they can be "fixed" by Jana at JTTH! Too bad they don't find child molestation as offensive as skin ink.

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Jynnan tonnix

Jynnan tonnix

1 hour ago, Albanyguy said:

"Since Mama and Daddy are away, Grandma and us older girls are taking care of the younger kids." Uh, how is this different from when Mama and Daddy are home?

Maybe because Grandma actually wipes down the counter after someone walks on it in their shoes?

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queenanne

queenanne

(edited)

The "proper" guitar playing segment is hilarious, and kind of adorable.

I wonder why and in what universe it was determined that having "obedient" kids running around inside on scooters was permissible?  I don't really think that fits in one iota with the general "children should be seen and not heard" Puritan rubric. 

Edited by queenanne
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CofCinci

CofCinci

13 hours ago, louannems said:

I just realized that grandma and JD speak alike!

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that JD spent a lot of time with grandma when the family struggled with young, perv Josh. The most likely had adult eyes on JD to make sure he wasn't doing the same. 

36 minutes ago, GeeGolly said:

Did Jason have 2 different shoes on?

Yes. Buy one used shoe, save the difference. 

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NewDigs

NewDigs

(edited)

Buy!?!?!

It's usually the single shoes you find in the street!

Poor kids will probably end up with, foot, leg and back problems.

But they'll have nice smiles teeth.

Edited by NewDigs
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Arwen Evenstar

Arwen Evenstar

6 hours ago, queenanne said:

The "proper" guitar playing segment is hilarious, and kind of adorable.

I wonder why and in what universe it was determined that having "obedient" kids running around inside on scooters was permissible?  I don't really think that fits in one iota with the general "children should be seen and not heard" Puritan rubric. 

@queenanne, that's exactly what I don't understand about all the obedience they've supposedly been taught. You'd think they'd be scared to take one step out of line, The older ones were never allowed to get away with it.

We weren't brought up anywhere near as strictly as the Duggars, but my mum would have had an apoplexy if me or my 3 other sibs stood on the counter or rode scooters in the house.  Josie and the other feral daughter with the guitar were really cute though once they were taught how to treat it.

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DangerousMinds

DangerousMinds

9 hours ago, Albanyguy said:

"Since Mama and Daddy are away, Grandma and us older girls are taking care of the younger kids." Uh, how is this different from when Mama and Daddy are home?

"And us older girls?" Did the book not have an editor?

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Muffyn

Muffyn

The Duggars are strange because they have been taught absolute obedience to thought.  They were raised with Gothard materials; they must adhere to the beliefs of the church of Jim Boob.  However, they were also largely neglected.  Neither Boob nor Mechelle spent much time raising their children.  Mechelle seems stoned most of the time so things like riding scooters indoors or walking on counters don't phase her.  Heck, Josie licking the counters is probably encouraged as a cleaning technique.  Once they are courting, however, then the parents hover, enforcing their strict restrictions.  Those are some effed up kids.

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Churchhoney

Churchhoney

(edited)
1 hour ago, DangerousMinds said:

"And us older girls?" Did the book not have an editor?

Not only did it have a big-publisher editor, it was ghost written. 100 percent. The main ghost writer for writing (as opposed to the ghost writer for Gothard-friendly content)  -- who has many many credentials -- may have included such errors to make it sound as if it came conversationally from the girls.

Edited by Churchhoney
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NewDigs

NewDigs

(edited)

From the excerpt. Which seems not much longer than the book.

"Accepting the Unchangeables
 
What power I was giving my friend by allowing her to make me feel that way about the girl in the mirror! The same girl who all my life had smiled back at me each day and been an accepted and essential part of me now became someone I looked at with a constantly critical eye.
Thankfully, about that time, I heard a Bible teacher share an inspiring message about how God has perfectly designed each one of us with ten aspects of life that, without extraordinary action, we cannot change and that He wants us to accept:
 
1. Who our parents are
2. Who our siblings are
3. The order in which we are born into our family (oldest or
youngest, etc.)
4. Our nationality
5. Whether we’re a girl or boy
6. Our mental capacity
7. The time we were born in history
8. Our physical features
9. The natural aging process
10. The date we will die"

I have a problem with a couple of others but #10 stands oit.

Edited by NewDigs
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BitterApple

BitterApple

29 minutes ago, NewDigs said:

From the excerpt. Which seems not much longer than the book.

"Accepting the Unchangeables
 
What power I was giving my friend by allowing her to make me feel that way about the girl in the mirror! The same girl who all my life had smiled back at me each day and been an accepted and essential part of me now became someone I looked at with a constantly critical eye.
 

Gee, Jessa, project much? IIRC, she was pissed because the friend complimented another girl's outfit while ignoring Jessa's at a birthday party. Miss Princess didn't get the validation she wanted so she labeled the friend as a Mean Girl. The narcissism sure started early with this one, didn't it?

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Lillybee

Lillybee

On ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 9:35 AM, JoanArc said:

Her, um, homeschooled son posted rants online about how he is a completely psychopathic and amoral killer in the military. She should know when to shut up.

 

She also converted to Judaism, but then wasn't as into it once it started conflicting with her Saturday plans..

She unconverted a few years later.

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Barb23

Barb23

We've always wondered what type of health insurance the Duggars have, if any.  I think I found it.  Just saw a commercial for a company that advertises "affordable, biblical healthcare."  One of the participants said "you are not only getting taken care of by medical doctors but getting taken care of spiritually by the power of prayer."  Oh my, I'll have to check out their website. Maybe JB or MEchelle could be a spokesperson.  "We wished we would have had this insurance when our little Miracle Josie was born........"   (This company is on the edgy side- they do show an interracial family.)

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kokapetl

kokapetl

6 minutes ago, Barb23 said:

We've always wondered what type of health insurance the Duggars have, if any.  I think I found it.  Just saw a commercial for a company that advertises "affordable, biblical healthcare."  One of the participants said "you are not only getting taken care of by medical doctors but getting taken care of spiritually by the power of prayer."  Oh my, I'll have to check out their website. Maybe JB or MEchelle could be a spokesperson.  "We wished we would have had this insurance when our little Miracle Josie was born........"   (This company is on the edgy side- they do show an interracial family.)

Prayer insurance too! 

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lulu69

lulu69

(edited)

A whole lot of defrauding knees & thighs going on in that photo.

In contrast, MEchelle looks like 'old mother hubbert' right down to her shoes lol

Edited by lulu69
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Arwen Evenstar

Arwen Evenstar

(edited)

Photo in a Walmart parking lot...really classy, y'all!

What is that monstrosity of a shirt Mullet is wearing?  You need to be a Goth to get away with black hose and shoes in summer, and no self respecting Goth would ever wear an ensemble like that.  I'll give her a pass for black hose if she feels self conscious about her leg veins, but pair them up with a skirt with a pattern with black in it and go for a solid on the top.

The skirt style and length is flattering on her, but the combo is all wrong.  I won't snark on the cross purse, since I wear crosses and I have a couple of pieces of clothing with them on. (No, it's not "God wear"). I've seen lots of Goths, rocker chicks  and biker chicks wearing cross purses or jewelry or emblems.

And who are all these brazen hussies wearing shorts? Is this an Internet FU to show how tolerant they are?

Edited by Arwen Evenstar
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Churchhoney

Churchhoney

1 hour ago, lulu69 said:

A whole lot or defrauding knees & thighs going on in that photo.

In contrast, MEchelle looks like 'old mother hubbert' right down to her shoes lol

And looking just at the feet, she appears to be the Wicked Witch of the West/East. ... Not far off the mark either, in my view....

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CofCinci

CofCinci

21 hours ago, Barb23 said:

We've always wondered what type of health insurance the Duggars have, if any.  I think I found it.  Just saw a commercial for a company that advertises "affordable, biblical healthcare."  One of the participants said "you are not only getting taken care of by medical doctors but getting taken care of spiritually by the power of prayer."  Oh my, I'll have to check out their website. Maybe JB or MEchelle could be a spokesperson.  "We wished we would have had this insurance when our little Miracle Josie was born........"   (This company is on the edgy side- they do show an interracial family.)

I'm not sure how it rolls in Arkansas, but in my state if you've served a term in state legislature, you can continue with the insurance (at a slightly higher premium) when your term is over (not re-elected). Perhaps JB received something similar through the Arkansas House of Representatives?

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Sew Sumi

Sew Sumi

(edited)
1 hour ago, Arwen Evenstar said:

Photo in a Walmart parking lot...really classy, y'all!

What is that monstrosity of a shirt Mullet is wearing?  You need to be a Goth to get away with black hose and shoes in summer, and no self respecting Goth would ever wear an ensemble like that.  I'll give her a pass for black hose if she feels self conscious about her leg veins, but pair them up with a skirt with a pattern with black in it and go for a solid on the top.

The skirt style and length is flattering on her, but the combo is all wrong.  I won't snark on the cross purse, since I wear crosses and I have a couple of pieces of clothing with them on. (No, it's not "God wear"). I've seen lots of Goths, rocker chicks  and biker chicks wearing cross purses or jewelry or emblems.

And who are all these brazen hussies wearing shorts? Is this an Internet FU to show how tolerant they are?

Looks like a volleyball team headed to Cold Stone Creamery. 

That's a Jackson Hewitt behind them. No way the Duggars use them to prepare their taxes. But yeah, stripmall central. 

Edited by Sew Sumi
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Absolom

Absolom

Quote

I'm not sure how it rolls in Arkansas, but in my state if you've served a term in state legislature, you can continue with the insurance (at a slightly higher premium) when your term is over (not re-elected). Perhaps JB received something similar through the Arkansas House of Representatives?

People have looked that up a few times and it doesn't appear that Arkansas has such a plan. 

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Portia

Portia

(edited)

Mechelle needs to get herself some footless tights or light cotton leggings for summer. I think she'd look super-cute in a tunic-dress over leggings. Modest, too. She's  blessed with such a youthful face...why can't  she master the art of age-appropriate ModestWear?

Edited by Portia
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louannems

louannems

I simply do not understand why Michelle feels she needs hose, or leggings, under skirts, in summer.  We've been told over and over just how modest the girls dress;  Jana is not wearing hose and isn't she covered and modest?  I can't imagine the heat under all those layers!

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Joe Jitsu913

Joe Jitsu913

2 hours ago, louannems said:

I simply do not understand why Michelle feels she needs hose, or leggings, under skirts, in summer.  We've been told over and over just how modest the girls dress;  Jana is not wearing hose and isn't she covered and modest?  I can't imagine the heat under all those layers!

This is Michelle Duggar we're talking about. She believes she is this massively irresistible sex kitten who defrauds married men into divorcing their wives. She even has to censor her knee caps,  lest the menfolk get desires that cannot righteously be fulfilled. 

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MunichNark

MunichNark

WHAT is she wearing??? Those hideous witches shoes!! They are truly horrendous. I don't understand why people want to dress ugly, really I don't. Those shirts never fit properly, those shoes are beyong description, her hair, well.

Jana looks nice though.

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Marigold

Marigold

(edited)

Michelle loves those shoes. She wears them a lot.

I'm surprised the kidult girls don't encourage her heart to wear clothes from this century. 

Probably Michelle's worst recent outfit, aside from her tin man dess. 

Edited by Marigold
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