Morning Awful: 20th Duggar Child

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Matt Osborne

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The Duggars are culture warriors of the first order. Jim Bob Duggar is a perennial Republican candidate, and their lifestyle is about patriarchal, authoritarian narcissism. Like right-wing settler families in the West Bank boasting prodigious birthrates, they are trying to outnumber the godless no matter what the cost:

The flip side of the Quiverfull ideal of “trusting the Lord with our family planning” which Jim Bob & Michelle embrace and promote through their TV Reality show, website, and numerous books, is that Michelle also accepts the possibility of her own or her baby’s deaths, should such tragedy occur, as God’s will. (Emphasis mine)

I’m not opposed to consenting adults having all the kids they want. But there’s something disturbing about Michelle Duggar getting pregnant for the 20th time when her last pregnancy nearly ended in disaster and she’s already a grandmother. If she was doing this on her own, like Octomom, we’d condemn her as irresponsible and excessive. “God’s will” is just their own motivated reasoning.

About Matt Osborne

Veteran blogging the culture wars from Alabama. Video journalist, mash-up artist, aspiring novelist, and metalhead. Expect bunnies, geekery, dark humor, and snarky empirical analysis to annoy idealists of all stripes. You can follow me on Twitter, but be ready 'cause it might get loud.
This entry was posted in hostile birth movement, Morning Awful, Quiverfull Movement. Bookmark the permalink.
  • http://www.politicalruminations.com nicole473

    Anyone who has more than 2 children in these times (over-population, the coming scarcities, et al) is just irresponsible and narcissistic.

    And “two” is one more than they should have.

  • http://www.osborneink.com OsborneInk

    OTOH, families like theirs reinforce my position that young progressives MUST procreate, lest America follow the path set out in the first five minutes of “Idiocracy.”

  • http://www.politicalruminations.com nicole473

    Lol. :)

  • Jerry Rolex

    America!!- The Land of Plenty!!  OK…they ain’t Muslims – give’em a break, OK??

  • Anonymous

    I knew someone on a forum a few years back who was libertarian one month, socialist the next, who wanted to establish a “rule of eugenics” that would determine (to his standards, naturally) who was allowed to breed, or vote. Loved Idiocracy, he did.

    I never fully bought that movie’s central premise. I suppose it’s possible, but the trends over the last century are towards higher I.Q.s across multiple industrialized nations. Movies from my youth (the 80′s) are as fuck-dumb as movies today are. And my bullshit meter’s needle buried in the red the first time the dumb future people started “talking urban.”

    If we do have an idiocracy it will be because of the collapse of the educational system because of overall social decay, and that’s not a problem we can out-fuck. If we’re worried about overpopulation AND the next generation being raised wrong, people can do what my sibling has done and adopt a few. (Up to eight nieces and nephews, half of them with birthdays in November and December. My new favorite Christmas carol is “Santa Didn’t Even Give My Wallet a Reach-Around.”)

  • http://www.osborneink.com OsborneInk

    “If we do have an idiocracy it will be because of the collapse of the educational system because of overall social decay, and that’s not a problem we can out-fuck.”

    Oh, surely not. Speaking of idiocracy: have you noticed how much of the culture war is aimed at education? Teaching a child is possibly the most progressive act one can commit.

  • http://www.osborneink.com OsborneInk

    Patriarchy is patriarchy.

  • Anonymous

    You could make the argument that all a culture war is, is an education war: my facts versus yours, or as it too often the case, my feelings about the facts versus yours. So yeah, culture wars are inevitably going to bring in the education system. Why take the effort to unteach all that stuff your kid learnt at school when you can have them learn what you want them to learn? Beats being confronted with facts that might cause you to feel icky inside adjust your worldview.

    In my darker moments, I think that the reason why an educational overhaul on the scale that the U.S. needs is not going to happen since the results are longer than any elected official’s time in office. “Your kids will thank me in twelve years, now vote for me today!” isn’t a winning re-election slogan. On the occasions when I think that the U.S. elites really do have total control, I wonder if public education staying broke and shitty isn’t on purpose. Can’t fight what you’re not educated about, no?