Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets - Amazon Prime

[milestogo]

This covers the rise and fall of the Duggar family (19 children) into a television success, their affiliation with Bill Gothard/IBLP, and their ultimate downfall when their oldest son is revealed to be a sexual predator.

There are 4 segments, and I can't believe I made it through all of them without projectile vomiting at my television.

Things I did not know- there is an affiliation between a very authoritarian and patriarchal vision of Christianity and the Duggar family... the exploitation of the Duggar children and others as unpaid labor... the planting of a so-called Joshua Generation whose sole point is to have Conservative white woman procreate ad nauseum so that they have enough people in their camp to take over American government... and Madison Cawthorn is one of them.

I prefer to ignore this kind of thing, but we do so at our own peril. There are a lot of survivor stories in this documentary, and they are horrifying.

I did know some people who idolized Bill Gothard when I was in college. Most of them were pretty vulnerable in the first place. Give them a religion which is ABSOLUTE in every way and you exacerbate those tendencies.

I can understand why this might appeal to men. Its harder to understand why girls and women don't leave, but they are stripped of all power, confidence, and other resources by their families.

A must watch.