Family Hatred
September 6th, 2009 • Comments »
Browsing the MSN home page the other day, I read an article about a family with 19 children. “Wow,” I thought, “that’s a lot of kids.” Interesting, but nothing really worth tripping out on and making a big deal over. After all, large families are nothing new. Perhaps a bit unusual for a stereotypical American family to have so many kids, but even then, it’s like, whatever — more power to them. I hope they all live long and blessed lives.
End of story, or so I thought. Just as I was ready to close the browser and get back to work, I decided to pop in and browse through the Newsvine comments for the article. I wasn’t expecting much, maybe a few tasteless jokes and mindless rants about having too many kids, but perhaps something interesting as well. To my surprise, there were over 1,200 responses, with more rolling in every minute. Even more surprising was the overwhelming hatred displayed in a vast majority of comments. Usually, those Newsvine threads are fairly mild, with a reasonable balance of different views and ideas, but for some reason the vast majority of responses on this thread were in vehement opposition.
After scanning through the first few hundred comments, I had to stop. I just couldn’t stomach any more. As a conspiracy nut and social-media enthusiast, I have read a lot of comment threads on just about every topic you can imagine, but I have never witnessed such a relentless display of hatred, malice, and ill-will toward anything or anyone, let alone a family. If people were raging against the government, the New World Order, or some murderous tyrant or something, then yeah, I could understand the anger. But a family? Come on, surely there is a better target for your outrage than some oversized family.
Am I exaggerating the situation? Here is a small sampling of the comments on that post. Judge for yourself:
Downright disgusting. Michelle is not a woman, she is a breeder. They don’t take care of their children themselves. They use their children to take care of them by subjecting their daily lives to the cameras and public and complete lack of privacy. They should be ashamed of themselves for abusing their children for financial gain. And Michelle, cross your legs and wrap a rope around them. God did not just give you the power to breed, He gave you the power to think and use good judgment. Turn off the cameras and use your time parenting instead of breeding. — CalifGrl
What comes to mind every time (and really from the first time) I hear of this wacky family, is of totally irresponsible, delusional adults, trying to use their warped beliefs in God and religion to justifya truly sick mentality. Instead of glorifying this mad couple, why aren’t the networks and tabloids attacking their POOR parenting decisions, lack of direct supervision for each and every one of the children, say past the 5th or 6th, and the children’s emotional health in future years? Of course, if they’re raised in this cultish mentality, probably all the children will feel the need to procreate incessently; and then what will the numbers be?….19+ children (we can ONLY expect more from this crazy woman (and her nutty husband) who might have 10 or more children each? the numbers are staggering! Sickening. Just sickening. (Mother of 2, btw, and my older daughter complains how I don’t give HER enought attention!) — MyView-1306213
having more than 2 children is vile, selfish, short-sighted, and wrong. Humans are killing this planet. Sure, the Duggars look like a happy family, but they are poisoning those kids with their religious nonesense. It’s ignorant and evil. The women are oppressed and stifled, the men are phony and shallow…it’s pathetic and frightening. — Chris L.-339676
These people make me absolutely sick. It’s not natural for a human body to produce babies like some kind of animal. Eventually, her insides are going to just fall out of her body. Stop already. Why can’t you just love the children you already have? Having 10 children is obscene — having 19 is repulsive. They should be ashamed. — Katey B
They need to have tied her tubes about15 kids ago and cut off his nuts at the same time. There is no “glory” in a large family, any pig can do that. It’s sad that a tv network chose to glorify them and there over active sex life. Didn’t their parents teach them about birth control? People like this and the tv network involved make me want to puke. Sooeee pig pig pig. — Colonialgirl
Way to go, you moronic cow, now sew yourself shut. Someone should tell these dolts that pushing out pups isn’t a skill and that numbers don’t equal prestige. — MrShin
One word sums it up in a nutshell — pigs! Of course the older children are raising the younger ones because their ridiculous parents are too busy breeding like rabbits. That is not a “reality” show, it’s about stupidity and ignorance. The parents are disgusting and why the networks pay them for their ignorance is baffling to me. It’s mind boggling to watch the parents … all I can do is shake my head in disgust! — Nokky
Let’s see. Where do I begin. If ever two people needed to be spayed and neutered it’s these two idiots. Wanting to have a few children is one thing but they have taken this to far. It’s not fair to the other children to keep popping out babies. They cannot possibly give them all the attention they need and deserve. I would not wish this many children on my worst enemy. It’s totally insane. Can you imagine being forced to live in their little commune having to share everything down to the intimate details of ones life? These kids deserve better and should not have to suffer because of the sick notions of two out of control breeders. Put them up for adoption and place them in homes with a 2-3 child limit. — Pippy Longstocking
Again, the cause for this bloody outrage is not some political scandal, some act of murderous terrorism, or some ruthless genocidal campaign — it’s a ..wait for it.. family. Ooh, how upsetting, how terrible, how outrageous. If there ever was an example of people targeting the wrong enemy, this is it.
So what is going here? Why is this happening? Why have over 1,000 commentators expressed such disgust and contempt for their fellow human beings? Why aren’t we seeing the same kind of outrage over, say, political corruption? Unfair taxes? Biased and dishonest media? Just about any form of modern injustice seems more worthy of anger and outrage than some large family living in the middle of nowhere. Think about it.
Here are the common points raised in the thread:
- There are already too many people, and stopping breeding is a solution.
- No family has a right to have that many kids, they should have been stopped.
- It is impossible to properly raise a family of any more than one or two kids.
- The woman is too old to have kids, she is putting them and herself at risk.
- There are not enough resources on the planet to support so many people.
- Christians and Christianity are responsible for such large families.
- It’s a conspiracy, they are having children to take over the world.
- There is something wrong with people who want large families.
- The media should not be covering stories of large families.
- And on and on and on…
Where are these ideas coming from? Why do people feel so strongly about them? Is it because Satan hates God, Christians, marriage, children, families, and everything else that God has ordained? Is it because of the media? Who controls the media? Is it because people are just so smart and wise that they can’t help but to share their knowledge of the issue? If so, why not explain your ideas with a little compassion and concern for your fellow citizen? Why the need to bark out your ideas like some wild animal? Why the rage? What are you so angry about?
The enemy is not the family. The enemy is anyone who hates the family.
As I said in the comment thread,
I think the entire story is a beautiful thing. Praise God for blessing this family with many children. I wish them much joy and happiness in their lives.
If there is anything on this planet that is good, it is the human family. And the bigger the better. Those who attack, disparage, or insult families of any size are ignorant, evil, or both.
#1 • Rick Beckman • September 6, 2009 at 9:20 pm
We live in a world where people are accustomed to broken homes. If there is a large family, it’s because there are step- and half-siblings involved from a multitude of parents.
People hate those who manage to grow a large family because they are innately jealous that they were able to do what they have failed to do.
Those who think that “people are a problem” are prima facie hypocrites — would they suggest terminating the lives of them and their families and friends for the “greater good”? It’s only “others” who are the problem, and the larger the group, the easier it is to point the finger.