1. josh duggar's mom (michelle) was famously making robo calls in support of anti-trans bills, specifically, trans women not being allowed to use women's bathrooms. she made those calls in the name of 'protecting children.'

2. josh's dad (jim bob) ran for office (as did his son) and won as a conservative republican brining 'family values' to govt.

3. because of his dad's high profile as fundamentalist conservative and their 'family values' show, josh got a job as executive director of FRC Action, a political lobbying arm of the family research council.

4. while serving as rep in Arkansas govt, jim bob (the dad) was vice chair of the House Corrections and Criminal Law Subcommittee.

5. one of their daughter's, jill, has butted head's with jim bob over stuff that neither family has been particularly clear about, but it's speculated it has something to do with neither her or her husband getting paid to be on their reality tv show. jim bob was paid instead.

5a. as a result of this infighting, jill, the daughter, was banned from the family's house by her father and she is only allowed to be in the house if he gives his approval and somebody else is in house with her.

5b. josh has never been banned from the family house, and in fact, has lived either in the house or on the land the house sits on for i believe, all of his life minus the time he was in DC.

6. josh came to his parents multiple times confessing multiple times that he had inappropriately touched younger girls in the family. this is documented on many levels--his own family, legally, church members.

7. his father (who is considered head of the household and who sets the rules that everybody follows) handled those confessions by shaming josh in front of church (cut off his hair), sending him to a work camp, bringing him to a family friend that was a cop to scare josh--

(i think the cop actually even had his own legal problems and i think he even committed suicide, but i can't remember clearly and i can't find any details now since all returns are for current arrest)

7 cont--making josh apologize to the girls he was inappropriate with, sending josh back to a work camp, and...making his sisters go on national television and swear that they've forgiven josh and everything is just fine and lets move on.

7 cont--the duggars made a big show of swearing that josh went to a counselor, but they told police that the 'councilor' he went to was not certified and oops it all was just a work camp.

it was the same thing for the most recent disclosure that he has been cheating on his wife and watching porn--he was 'treated' for sex addiction by...going to a work camp.

follow up (thanks for finding this for me!) on the family friend that was a cop that they took josh to in order to 'scare' him: https://twitter.com/ellesystem/status/1388199532538712064

so these parents, in an effort to 'help' their child that kept coming to them about his inappropriate actions and urges...brought him to a grown adult who was doing the same thing the child was.

here is info about the police officer. https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2012/jun/01/retired-trooper-sentenced-56-years/

so. i will say frankly, i don't know as if josh had been put through criminal system as a kid if that would've stopped all the garbage that has happened since. i read an article that made a case that young offenders can be treated, but of course, its all very new research-

and i basically read a good article and i'm no where near even close to be an expert. so i'm not going to comment on whatever the fuck is going on in josh's head. i think there is strong evidence he knew what he was doing was wrong and asked for help. but he's an adult now-

and the only way we know NOW of dealing with people with addictions to child pornography is criminal charges to keep them away from children.

so that is as much as i want to say about that.
what i DO want to focus on is the way that this family has simultaneously protected their son (even at the expense of their daughters) while using their power to decide who will be criminalized within public sphere-

michelle duggar wanted to criminalize trans women for using public rest rooms. jim bob was not only a member of arkansas congress, but was on the House Corrections and Criminal Law Subcommittee.

josh got to be the executive director of the policy branch of a notoriously conservative and powerful DC org. this family doesn't just have 'beliefs,' they have power. and they've used that power to encourage and advocate for the criminalization of the LGBTQ community-

women who get abortions and doctors that give them, immigrants, undocumented workers, and god knows who else. the people that they are NOT working to criminalize are their sons. that is 'private.'

and it's important to notice their efforts to criminalize others while protecting their son not just bcz of the hypocrisy. which is outrageous. but bcz of the *power*. when i say that 'white supremacy is not just marching around in white sheets--THIS is what im talking about.

white supremacy is *having the power* to not just shield your white son from the same criminalization that would get anybody else killed--but to write it into law.

white supremacy is being able to call on the institution of policing to overlook troubling behavior of your white son while encouraging that same institution to incarcerate and kill people of color.

white supremacy is knowing josh as a human being, having empathy for him and his ongoing issues, seeing him as 'josh' first and foremost--josh who committed crimes--rather than 'white rapist.'

his wife, anna duggar, married josh even while knowing his past issues. but here's the thing. that community doesn't deal with marriage the way the rest of us do. they don't date. they court with the intention of getting married. the courtships are conducted through the fathers.

the only reason josh got to talk to anna in the first place, was because her father allowed it. the only reason she got to marry him at all is bcz her father allowed it. josh had to ask the father for actual permission, not symbolic, just letting u know i'm getting married!

and in all that transactioning between men? josh TOLD anna's father that he had past issues. and he TOLD anna's father what they were. and the father still approved the marriage and gave an interview saying that josh was sorry for what he did, apologized, etc.

THAT is white supremacy. that implicit understanding that white male criminality...are 'past indiscretions' that they can apologize for and as long as family forgives, the rest of us have no right to be upset. that understanding is institutionalized and effects EVERY part of US.

and you see it with the 'rewriting' of the attack on the capitol most clearly. how *easily* that rewriting has happened. even with actual visual evidence and testimony right in front of our eyes. they are not white criminals. they are people that were upset.

you see it in the chauvin trial. 46% of Rs think that it was ok to kill a black man for using a $20 bill. you see it in the justifications of murder of Ma'Khia Bryant. you see it in all the justifications.

the violent institutional power that the justifications unleash against communities of color. versus the compassion, love, understanding and empathy white men are embraced with. the institutional and personal rewards they get.

they even willingly sacrifice their own white daughters to the cult of white supremacy.

the one thing i know for sure. white supremacy will never EVER fix sexual violence. white supremacy is actually *a root cause* of sexual violence.

'traditional family values' that position and normalizes white men as the 'natural' leader of family, church, govt are a root cause of sexual violence.

'traditional family values' are not just 'beliefs.' they are power. institutional power. they position white men as head of family, church, govt as not just natural, but *expected by god*.

the power that white men have is understood as literally given to them by god. to stand up to them, to fight against them, is to fight against god. that's not a belief, that's power.

and that power of the 'traditional family value' set? has infiltrated every single aspect of US. every *iota*. fundie christians are 100% not the only group with chronic unending sexual violence.

but that's less bcz 'humans just suck' and more bcz 'traditional family values' are integral part of US and imbued with unconditional limitless institutional power.

so. in the end. i don't know what to do or what could've been done about josh dugger. i DO know that his family values have proven over and over and over again that they don't stop sexual violence. they most often allow it. and very often outright encourage it.

and so i will work until my last dying breath to delegitimize the moral authority we as US culture have given to 'traditional family values.'

god didn't give them SHIT. white supremacy did.

they are literally the abominations that the bible warned about--and i'm not even talking about josh. i'm talking about his dad, his church, the white R govt, that use god's word to fuel their white supremacist power.

may this be one of many nails in the coffin of christian white supremacy.