Josh Duggar Arrest Reminds Fans: The Duggars Were Always Bad

It has now been over two weeks since Josh Duggar’s arrest by federal agents.

He was charged with downloading child porn, and his family is struggling to weather the scandal.

They are no longer able to hide his crimes or cover for him as they have in the past.

This arrest is reminding fans that the Duggars — everything about them — was always toxic and deceitful.

For nearly two decades, the Duggars have had a degree of national notoriety.

They were first cast in the spotlight in 2003.

Jim Bob and Michelle were photographed voting — with 14 children with them.

National attention led to Parenting magazine inviting Michelle to write ana rticle.

Discovery Health took an interest, producing and airing multiple hour-long specials on the Duggar family.

The natural conclusion of this was the 2008 premiere of 17 Kids and Counting, near the beginning of the Reality Boom.

Even before one of the most irresponsible reality TV launches of all time, there were obvious red flags.

(As if someone in the 21st Century having 14 — or more — children were not already setting off alarm bells)

The Duggar household was toxic, and the world knew that as far back as 2005.

That year, the Dallas Morning News shared the “Duggar house rules” which were posted in the dining area.

“Always use soft words,” even when you don’t feel well,” might be innocuous enough.

“Have sincere motives with no thought of self-gain,” is … iffy.

“Think pure thoughts,” on the other hand, sounds like a line straight out of a horrifying cult.

That, of course, is appropriate because that is an accurate description of the Duggars and their church.

It is not enough for them to police the thoughts of their family members — they post visual reminders to promote the brainwashing.

From 1999 until 2002, Jim Bob Duggar was a state legislator in Arkansas.

(The next time that someone questions if democracy has any downsides, you can cite that)

Jim Bob also ran for office at the federal level — but, mercifully, those bids ended in defeat.

Josh was homeschooled like his many siblings, a move made to isolate them from the real world.

He had accompanied his father during his years as a politician.

In Little Rock, he even had a nickname given by reporters — “the governor.”

This once-cute nickname accurately foreshadowed Josh’s sinister political ambitions.

He worked for years as a conservative activist, promoting the worst imaginable political causes and making his parents proud.

He rubbed elbows with Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and other notorious slimeballs infesting our political ecosystem.

Josh was not the only member of the Duggar family who actively used their celebrity status to make the world worse.

In 2014, Michelle recorded a robocall to help discourage votes for an anti-discrimination ordinance.

Think that it should be legal to fire someone or deny them housing or service because they’re gay, bi, or trans? Michelle does.

It was a wakeup call for some viewers of the reality series who had convinced themselves that it was “just entertainment.”

No, Michelle is not just a woman with a tired uterus and a terrible hairstyle.

She is a bigot and an accomplice. Some fans were shaken, and there was an unsuccessful petition to cancel the show.

Little reminders that the Duggars want a world in which many of us would not survive were just a taste of what was to come.

In May of 2015, In Touch Weekly revealed to the world that Josh Duggar had molested five underage girls.

Four of the victims were his sisters. He had been a teenager at the time, and his sisters several years younger than he was.

At the time, Josh was already married to Anna, with whom he shared three children. She was pregnant at the time.

Josh had held a position as executive director of Family Research Council Action.

The FRC itself is a notorious hate group that lobbies politicians to attempt to turn America into The Handmaid’s Tale.

Jim Bob, Michelle, Jill, and Jessa had a sit-down interview with Megyn Kelly (then still on Fox News).

It was a twisted interview, including insistence that Josh’s “very wrong” actions did not make him a sexual predator.

Somehow, it took until July before TLC actually canceled 19 Kids And Counting after nine seasons.

More and more harrowing information poured out as ex-cult members and others leaked new information to the world.

Josh had, for example, been forced to shave his head as a teen to atone for his molestation of the young girls.

However, he had been pressured into doing so — with the threat that his victims might be shamed in this way instead.

Josh had also never received actual treatment.

At first, Jim Bob claimed that Josh had been sent to faith-based “counseling” at a rehab that included physical labor.

It later came to light that this was simply a family friend (not a counselor) who was working on a remodeling project at the time.

The revelation that Josh was a child-molester shook the Duggar world.

He has since been featured very little on the family’s social media even though he clearly remained part of their lives.

The reason was simple: deception. The Duggars didn’t want Josh’s crimes to interfere with promoting their toxic lifestyle to the world.

Of course, when it rains, it pours.

Just weeks later, there was the infamous Ashley Madison dating site leak.

Ashley Madison is a site existing explicitly to help married people cheat … and Josh ws revealed as part of the breach.

Josh was once again sent to a “rehab” facility, this time a six month stint in a “long-term treatment center.”

It was another faith-based counseling option with no real-world qualifications that anyone could make out.

it’s also unclear how it could be a rehab facility, really. Cheating is a choice, not an addiction.

The Duggars very openly referred to these revelations about their family as spiritual warfare.

Josh’s crimes, his betrayal of Anna, and the fact that they became public knowledge were characterized as attacks by the devil.

When you think that you’re the most holy, most righteous people in the world, you imagine that sinister forces are desperate to destroy you.

The reality, of course, is that the nature of the cult to which the family belongs made Josh’s crimes easy to commit.

His sisters likely lacked the language to even explain what he had done to them, because their concept of sex and sex crimes would have been nonexistant.

Additionally, they were taught in every way that women are responsible for men’s desires and actions. It’s a perfect storm for predators.

By covering Josh’s crimes, putting their brand and their malevolent agenda above justice, the Duggars further enabled all of this.

Even without Josh’s wrongdoings, of course, Jim Bob and Michelle are abusive and awful in countless ways.

But fans who have willfully ignored that for years have a hard time explaining away how they could lend aid and comfort to a monster like Josh.

Josh Duggar Disgusts Fans with "Suggestive" Video of Young Girl

In the wake of Josh Duggar being arrested on child porn charges, a lot has been said about him and his family.

Unfortunately, we must now discuss yet another video of a young girl.

While this particular video of Josh’s is legal, in context, it is appalling.

It is something that Josh shared years ago … and fans want it taken down, calling it sick and obscene.

We are going to describe a video that we absolutely cannot show you.

The video does not feature illegal content.

But as people have noted to their horror on social media, it is rendered disgusting by context.

On February 22 of 2015, the world did not know nearly so much about who Josh really is.

At that time, he and Anna made a post to their shared Facebook account.

(Shared marital social media accounts are creepy under even the best of circumstances)

The video was captioned “How to eat a banana quickly.”

In it, one of Josh’s sisters, only 10 years old at the time, ate a banana in just a few bites.

While we are not identifying that sister, Josh’s post did identify her by name.

Obviously, in that girl’s mind, particularly given the lack of education in the Duggar family, it was a harmless video about fruit.

Many parents these days would know better than to publicly share some innocuous content.

After all, one never knows what creeps on the internet might find photos and videos of their young children.

In this case, unfortunately, the call was coming from inside of the house.

The Duggar family didn’t need the internet to find an adult man who might sexualize an innocent video.

Josh, the man who posted it, is a man synonymous with just that.

When Josh was a teenager, he molested five young girls — that we know of — including his own sisters.

His parents and their cult may consider this to be on par with his cheating and with his regular “porn scandal.”

But to the rest of the world, preying upon innocent children is always worse than cheating, and regular porn is a neutral issue.

Josh’s latest scandal stems from his arrest and charges for child porn.

Investigators found video and dozens of images of girls between the ages of 5 and 10 years of age.

That content depicted the sexual abuse of little girls, some carried out by an adult man.

Obviously, a fully clothed girl eating a banana is not in the same category.

But in the adult world, banana eating is often used to playfully suggest oral sex.

Even without Josh’s reputation, an adult man posting a video of a child eating bananas would be in poor taste.

“I hope this video does get taken down, to protect the family from someone stealing this for some sick purpose or game,” one commenter wrote.

Another added: “Josh and Anna, please be extra careful with things you post or repost of younger siblings or your own kids.”

Obviously, even people who support the Duggar family do not like seeing this kind of content posted … or remaining up for 5 years.

We don’t know if Josh was deliberately sexualizing his then 10-year-old sister in his mind at the time.

It is possible that the video was only posted for innocent reasons.

But given that Josh has not exactly been known to exclude his sisters from his perversions, fans cannot rule it out.

Josh Duggar: How Did he Hide His Disgusting Obsession From His Wife?

By now, you’ve almost certainly heard about the most appalling celebrity scandal in recent memory:

Former 19 Kids and Counting star Josh Duggar has been arrested on child pornography charges, having allegedly amassed a collection of hundreds of gra…

Josh Duggar: Can He Ever Be Cured? Will He Do This Again?

Disgusting monster Josh Duggar was released from jail pending his child porn trial.

For now, his bond includes close restrictions to keep him out of contact with children, including his own.

Many fans are also placing blame on his father, Jim Bob, who never got him real treatment after past offenses.

But is Josh’s twisted attraction to extremely young girls something that can ever be cured?

According to court testimony at a hearing this week, Josh allegedly accessed photos and video of children.

The girls, shown being sexually abused, were reportedly between the ages of 5 and 10.

It is a horror to think of someone gleefully collecting footage of ruined lives.

That, of course, is why receiving child porn is illegal — not just the making of it.

Victims of child porn, whether they are still children or are adults and even those who have died, deserve better.

It’s not enough to prosecute the people who hurt them; the footage must be kept out of circulation.

It’s not illegal merely because it’s gross; many things are gross but perfectly legal.

We have to understand the depths of the crime to appreciate how sinister this is.

In this case, a father of six is accused of collecting media of the sexual abuse of little, prepubescent girls.

What makes matters worse, but also less surprising, in Josh’s case is his personal history.

We’re not talking about the Ashley Madison cheating scandal or his prior (adult) “porn scandal.”

His family may see all of this as part of the same problem, but cheating and porn are not the same at all.

When Josh was 14 years old, he sexually abused multiple little girls, including several of his own sisters.

A teenage boy preying upon 5-year-olds is not childhood experimentation — it’s the actions of a budding monster.

Instead of reporting the crimes or getting him into treatment, his family covered it up, opting for “faith-based counseling.”

The problem with that and every other “rehab” of Jim Bob’s choosing is that it could not possibly have helped.

Within the fundamentalist cult to which they belong, just about all of human sexuality is seen as evil.

It’s seen as the fault of women, who apparently “tempt” men merely by existing.

They effectively view child molestation as the same problem as masturbation, or child porn as the same problem as adultery.

As a result, no faith-based counseling could possibly have helped.

It’s like trying to get help for an infection from a “doctor” who doesn’t believe in germs. They can’t help, because they don’t understand.

In Josh’s case, he — like his victims — was deliberately kept ignorant about much of sexuality.

It’s not just not knowing about sex; they were also not taught about consent.

Their fundamentalist beliefs take consent out of the equation, as wives are compelled to cater to the desires of their husbands.

We may never know if Josh would have even had an interest in such extremely young girls if he’d grown up in normal society.

Sexual attraction to children is believed to be rooted in mixed signals between the instinct to have sex and the instinct to nurture.

(This does not really apply to grown men who pursue teen girls; that’s usually about power more than physical attraction)

But the question is … could he have changed? Could he still change?

If he’d gotten real help at 14, would he still have reached his thirties with a desire for extremely young girls?

And if the court orders him to seek real counseling after this trial (possibly in prison), could it make a difference?

Studies have shown that there is a high rate of recidivism among sex offenders.

One of the reasons is that the very complicated motivations that drive them to commit their crimes don’t go away.

It’s not like financially motivated crimes, because there is a very real psychological element behind it.

It is thought that sex offenders repeat their harmful behaviors because they have no means to report them.

If an alcoholic has a relapse, they tell a support group, a sponsor, or a therapist.

Obviously, someone whose “relapse” involves accessing video of children’s lives being destroyed will likely be (correctly) reported to authorities.

Ultimately, for any “rehab” to work, a pathological sexual impulse would have to be put into the proper context.

After that, someone with a sexual attraction to children would have to want to change.

It’s not that their attraction would magically change — it’s that they would choose to prioritize child safety over their own desires.

This isn’t some sort of impossible goal.

Though it is under-studied (and difficult to study), there are people in our society who feel but do not act upon these same desires.

Many experts believe that these non-predators may outnumber the people who do seek child porn or physical victims.

We can only assume that the primary reason for this self-control is prioritizing the safety of children.

So, in theory, someone who has committed offenses like Josh could choose to change, in the right circumstances.

Josh can’t be “cured” of his desires, but someone could choose to not be a danger to kids.

For those who do seek counseling, treatment is about finding healthy sexual outlets for their urges.

(That might be impossible within the Duggar cult, which of course is a huge part of the underlying problem)

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and strengths-based therapies are employed to redirect a person away from actual victims.

That said … Josh was first caught when he was 14. He is now 33 years old.

He has had more than half of his life to make better choices, but if the charges against him are true, he has not.

Therefore, fans can only conclude that Josh himself is never going to change.

But the Duggar family as a whole — most of them, anyway — will continue to deliberately misunderstand the problem.

Viewing Josh’s scandals as demonic attacks against their family will not keep children safe.

And no amount of prayer or performative repentance can replace a genuine desire to change.

Josh Duggar Accused of Downloading 65 Pornographic Images of Girls Ages 5-10; Former Reality Star Told Police He’d Been Framed

A lifetime of being enabled by your family, church, and cult cannot protect you forever.

Last week, Josh Duggar was hauled off to jail on charges of possession of child porn.

At his bond hearing, grim facts of the case were revealed for the first time.

Warning: The details of this case are deeply upsetting and involve the ruined lives of extremely young girls.

The Sun got their hands on court documents from the hearing on Wednesday, May 5.

Much of the case involved Josh’s attorney fighting for Josh to be released.

It was argued that Josh has “no criminal convictions” and has “known about the federal criminal investigation since November 2019.”

But on the other side of things was Special Agent Gerald Faulkner from the Department of Homeland Security.

Faulkner was the first to take the stand at the hearing as he was questioned by the prosecutor.

“In May of 2019,” he noted, “[an Arkansas police officer] identified a computer participating in the known sharing of photos and videos of child pornography.”

For the upsetting specifics, Faulkner revealed that the investigation found a two-minute video on Josh’s computer.

In that video were two underage girls and an adult male, who was performing sex acts upon the children.

In addition to the videos, the electronics search found 65 images of an underage girl that qualified as child pornography.

The age range was reportedly of minor girls between the ages of 5 and 10.

“October 2019, the IP address was assigned to Joshua Duggar with an address in Springdale, Arkansas,” Faulkner recalled.

An HP desktop computer from the car lot, a MacBook laptop in an RV, and Josh’s cell phone were confiscated by authorities during a search.

According to court documents, Josh was not told the reason for the investigation.

But curiously, he allegedly asked authorities if “someone” had downloaded child pornography on his computer.

He then acknowledged to investigators that he had a TOR browser on his computer — allowing somewhat anonymous internet access.

When Josh was asked about images of minors between the ages of 5 and 10 years, Josh reportedly replied: “I’d rather not answer that question.”

Apparently his password for a program used to obtain the images was the last four digits of his date of birth.

(Cartoonishly, he reportedly uses the same password for his bank accounts, various websites, and more)

Josh reportedly used one of these programs to view porn featuring rape and child porn.

In court, the agent went into detail about how downloads were made from a specific file.

The file was described by the agent as one of “the top five worst I have ever had to examine.”

The reason is that the file, if not what Josh specifically accessed, includes child victims as young as 18 months of age.

Additionally, the agent shared in court that Josh’s friends and family confirmed that he had a “porn addiction.”

This is, plainly said, disgusting. Downloading material of children’s lives being ruined encourages the making of more of that material. It’s evil.

The attorney nonetheless argued that Josh should be released on bail pending trial.

Josh, his wife, and their six children have “continued to reside in the Western District of Arkansas” following the search.

Additionally, Josh has “maintained an open dialogue with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in connection with this investigation.”

It was also claimed that since Josh “voluntarily self-surrendered” he is “neither a risk of flight nor a danger to the community.”

Josh’s attorney also confirmed with the witness that the images were traced to an IP address, not a specific device.

Worse, it appears that Josh’s attorney argued that he was not a danger to children.

“Indeed, while child pornography crimes are unquestionably serious,” his lawyer argued.

“The indictment certainly does not allege that Duggar personally interacted with a single child,” Josh’s attorney noted.

“And the Government would be hard-pressed to identify how conditions of release set by this Court would not protect the community from criminal conduct,” he added.

“Duggar has a widely-recognizable face and has spent the majority of his life in the public spotlight,” his attorney noted.

He claimed that this makes “any concern that he is a risk of flight all the more unwarranted.”

He added: “As he has demonstrated for the 17 months during which he has been aware of this investigation, there is no danger of Duggar fleeing.”

“Duggar is requesting that this Court permit him to return home to his immediate family during the pendency of this case,” his attorney asked.

His attorney then noted: “The residents of his home are his wife (who is pregnant) and their six children.”

At the hearing, the judge said that if Josh is released, there would be hefty conditions imposed.

The judge said “the court would likely require a third party custodian” to be a live-in monitor of Josh.

The goal would be for the bond conditions to be upheld — beyond merely ensuring that he does not flee the area.

“It would need to be a residence where there are no minors in the home,” the judge emphasized.

As of the writing of this article (on Wednesday afternoon), it is not yet clear if Josh will be granted bond.

What is clear is that his full request will not be granted.

He wanted to go home to his wife and kids. The judge has wisely shut that part, at least down.

Josh has admitted to direct inappropriate contact with minors before. It’s not like his history makes him a “safe” person.

Though downloading this egregious material is only involving himself in predation after-the-fact, the court must weight the risks.

If Josh looks at the idea of spending decades behind bars and chooses to do something drastic before that … the court wants to take precautions.

Josh Duggar Hires Lawyer Specializing in Sex Crimes, Seeks to Avoid 20-Year Prison Sentence

Last week, former reality star Josh Duggar was arrested by federal agents and held without bail.

A car dealership owned by Duggar was raided in 2019 by agents from the Department of Homeland Security, and it was initially rumored that the arrest ha…

Josh Duggar: How He Was Enabled by Duggar Family, Church, Cult, and Counting On

Last week, as THG reported, disgraced former reality star Josh Duggar was hauled off to jail following his arrest.

The child porn charges were disgusting, but remarkably, not that big of a surprise given his personal history.

Josh has, after all, very famously targeted little girls in the past (four of his victims were his own sisters).

And more and more fans are pointing out that Josh’s crimes are inseparable from the Duggar brand.

Josh was arrested and charged for possessing media depicting the sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12.

This is both disturbing and morally repulsive, and there has been a lot of talk about what the heck happened.

But at the same time, some longtime viewers of TLC’s hit Counting On are making requests of other fans.

On celebrity gossip and across social media, some Duggar fans are trying to police how this is discussed.

They would like more “positive” posts about the Duggar girls and their babies and about Counting On.

After all, Josh and his wrongdoings have “nothing” to do with any of that, they would have you believe.

In reality, it’s hard to argue that Josh’s sisters – some of whom were also his victims, and forced to forgive him – aren’t relevant.

And Counting On may have been TLC’s sneaky way of profiting from the Duggars after Josh’s 2015 scandal, but it’s not innocent.

The show is a mouthpiece designed to help promote and normalize the very same toxic purity culture and fundamentalist cult.

This lifestyle, or belief system (if you don’t like the word cult) is the same one that enabled Josh this whole time.

There are so many infamous aspects of the cult to which the Duggars belong, based upon the teachings of Bill Gothard.

The extreme fundamentalist beliefs range from the superficial – those absurd perm jobs – to the serious.

But in addition to the emotional, psychological, and physical abuse encouraged within the cult, there is … more.

Much more. And none of it good.

The antiquated dress codes for “modesty” aren’t just disturbingly toxic and misogynistic, though they are that.

The requirements of homeschooling are about more than keeping children isolated from other people and real world ideas.

And the division between women and men in every walk of life?

It’s about more than just reminding women that they are “less than” – troubling as that is, it’s deeper than that.

Several years, back when Josh Duggar’s history of sexually abusing little girls first became public, the world learned a lot.

As we have previously reported at length, one survivor of the cult who broke away spoke out.

She offered the world a vivid description of how the cult groomed every little girl to be a man’s victim.

“Like any system of abuse, ATI relies on control to maintain its power,” wrote Brooke Arnold in 2015.

“And a critical component of that power is the total indoctrination of its members,” she elaborated.

The church to which the Duggars belong, Arnold noted, did so in part “through its homeschool curriculum.”

The teaching materials used within the cult “contain more Bible verses than they do information.”

“Particularly lacking, in a religious sect so obsessed with reproduction, is any kind of sex education,” Arnold noted.

“This is especially true for young women,” she pointed out.

Brooke Arnold wrote of herself and other girls “who receive very little sex education.”

This is because “because the church teaches us that women do not have sex drives.”

“However,” Arnold noted, “the opposite is believed of men.”

“ATI teaches that men have nearly uncontrollable sex drives,” Brooke Arnold wrote.

Members of the cult are taught that men are “ready to erupt at the mere sight of a pant leg or a perm.”

“To illustrate this point: ATI families are encouraged to maintain a ‘no computer’ rule for their sons, but not their daughters,” she noted.

Arnold added: “Gothard also encouraged men to turn toward the wall when dining at restaurants.”

This was “so as not to be ‘tempted’ by a waitress or a stray attractive woman.”

“Essentially, a good ATI woman is sweet, silent, and obedient,” she summarized.

“This combination of zero sexual knowledge and deeply-ingrained submissiveness,” Arnold spelled out.

She continued: “left many young girls in our church especially vulnerable to sexual abuse.”

“As a teenager, I became aware that several of my friends were being molested by their older brothers or fathers,” she recalled.

“They would start stilted conversations with me about it,” Brooke Arnold described.

“But,” she explained, “none of us actually understood the concept of sex or rape or molestation enough to actually discuss it.”

“So,” Arnold added, “it stayed on the level of furtively whispered hints.”

“That vulnerability to abuse increases through the isolation of homeschool,” Brooke Arnold pointed out.

“There are no teachers or school counselors for abused children to confide in,” she lamented.

“So for most of them,” she reasoned, “the abuse would continue for their entire adolescence.”

“The only hope of escape for young women was through courtship and marriage to a man,” Arnold described.

This would be a man of course “who would attempt to immediately impregnate her.”

“And to whom,” she wrote, “she would then relinquish all sexual control.”

So, to summarize, women are sculpted into perfect victims from earliest childhood, often with no where to turn.

Meanwhile, men are labeled as uncontrollable sexual beings, so women are blamed for their wrongdoings.

And there is another layer to the way in which men like Josh (or Bill Gothard) are declared blameless for their crimes.

Back when Josh’s scandal first broke, some of the comments from the Duggar family shifted the blame to the supernatural.

Josh’s sex crimes and their revelation were framed as the work of the devil — an attempt to attack and destroy the family.

We’re no theologians, but exposing sex crimes doesn’t really sound like the M.O. of a being of infinite evil.

Kinda sounds like the right thing to do.

When the family is the one hiding the sex crimes and continuing to support the sexual predator, they’re not the good guys.

Bottom line: Counting On isn’t just innocent entertainment. It has a sinister agenda and helps Jim Bob & Co. enable Josh.