Michelle Duggar #fundie

Michelle Duggar #fundie huffingtonpost.com

Michelle Duggar, star of TLC's reality show, "19 Kids and Counting", says there needs to be more children because our world needs more joy. And as for overpopulation? That's just a lie, Duggar recently told the Christian Broadcasting Network in a web interview. "The idea of overpopulation is not accurate," Duggar says, because the entire population of the world could fit inside of Jacksonville, Florida.

"I agree with Mother Teresa when she said, 'to say that there are too many children is like saying there are too many flowers,'" Duggar said.

133 comments

old comment by Robespierre

Yes, fitting exactly 3 people per square meter. (They used to say we could fit in Texas, they have got crazier).
Unfortunately, the ecological weight of an average world citizen is 2.7 (good) hectares, and the world can sustainably support only 1.8 each. of course, the number will decrease if we keep a) increasing in numbers b) depleting resources faster than they can be renewed.
The ecological weight of a Western European is 5.0, that of a North American is 8.0.
And of course ANY number is ultimately unsustainable if the population keeps increasing, not to mention multiply itself by 10 each generation (assuming 20 kids per couple is even possible).

That is not even considering the obvious facts that
1) A woman who bears many children has much higher risks of eventually dying in childbirth, especially if she starts young.
2)The same woman will have to avoid education if she starts childbearing early and will of course not be able to work. Therefore very high fertility is inherently opposed to the free and idepedent life of women.
3)The children will be neglected, even assuming no poverty and the best itentions from the parents.

God, natalists bring out my inner sociopath.

old comment by Brendan Rizzo

Um, no. The last time I heard this fundie canard, it was that the whole world's population could fit in Texas (which may well be true; Texas is big). However, land area isn't what matters when determining overpopulation. What matters is whether or not there are enough resources to sustain the population into the indefinite future, and while the carrying capacity of Earth is higher than it's ever been thanks to advances in agriculture, that trend won't hold up eventually. Also, impoverished nations are already feeling the effects of overpopulation, so maybe if fundies were less parochial (as if!) they would realize that and help us avert disaster.

old comment by Swede

Can you also grow/produce enough weat, corn, carrots, apple, beef, milk and cotton (etc) for the entire population inside Jacksonville, Florida?
Is there clean freshwater enough for the entire population, and enough waste facilities inside Jacksonville, Florida?

To say there are too many children is more like saying there are too many cars.
Try driving in New York or Tokyo during rush hour.

Can you really show each child enough love, respect and interest, when you have 19 of them? What quality time can each expect from their mother each day? From their father? How do they support this large a family? Is that why they have a reality show, to get a lot of sponsors?

old comment by Atheissimo

Since when has it ever been about space with regards to overpopulation?

We've got bags of space/ So much space we couldn't even hope to fill it. Most of the largest countries in the world have large amounts of their area completely uninhabited like Canada, Russia and even parts of the US.

What matters is our ability to feed these people. The more people there are, the more land has to be taken up housing them and building places for them to work and places that build the things they need. This means less land for growing their food.

Last time I checked, the average human needs more than one acre of land to support their food needs for a year (maybe two or three). There are 6 billion humans and counting. Eventually the world is simply going to run out of viable food producing land, and so humanity will run out of food. And that's assuming that all humans use the same amount of food. Certain areas of the world use five times their allocated amount per person.

So what's it to be Michelle? Are you going to give up your all-you-can-eat Texas style barbecues? Or are you going to breed responsibly?

old comment by Horsefeathers

"Michelle Duggar, star of TLC's reality show, '19 Kids and Counting', says there needs to be more children because our world needs more joy."

That reasoning is rather juvenile, if you'll pardon the pun.

"'The idea of overpopulation is not accurate,' Duggar says, because the entire population of the world could fit inside of Jacksonville, Florida."

Yeah, if they were piled atop one another about five high with no fucking space at all between them.

You're ... how should I put this? simple, aren't you?

"'I agree with Mother Teresa when she said, 'to say that there are too many children is like saying there are too many flowers,'' Duggar said."

She's probably not the person you want to try to emulate. Particularly when it comes to kids.

old comment by Deep Search

We have a patch of garbage in the Pacific that is twice the size of Hawaii. Thousands of acres of rainforest are lost every hour. The world's fish supplies are down to the point global fisheries could collapse in the near future. Biodiversity is down to a rate the planet has never seen before.

Anyone who says that "overpopulation is a myth," even if they do it more rationally than this idiot, irritates the shit out of me. Humanity is not responsible and we are already polluting and using the earth to the point we could easily destroy it and ourselves. We are not capable of responsibly supporting our population now and I'm sure as it gets even bigger things will only get worse. More countries will develop and become like the West and use up even more resources. Plenty of people have enough issues surviving as it is. Adding more people will make things even more difficult.

Space won't even matter if we have no clean water to drink or there's not enough food or we pollute the environment to the point we can't live n it. We should strive to improve the quality of life for people who exist now. That will be hard enough as we continue to fail.

old comment by Anon-e-moose

"The idea of overpopulation is not accurate," Duggar says, because the entire population of the world could fit inside of Jacksonville, Florida."

And Jacksonville could provide the material needs of 7 billion people, amirite? And you can pay for the feeding of such yourself...?

The world as a whole can barely feed that amount. Two words, Mish: Finite Resources.

Besides, why are you lot so worried about immigration, again...? When you say - by definition, according to your logic - that there's more than enough room in your country for more children, and their parents. What does Philippians 4:19 say...?! [/smartarse]

So, I guess you & your ilk are gonna drop all that opposition to 'Amnesty for Illegals', and demand that the US's Immigration Service be disbanded (to say nothing of demolishing the border with Mexico), and let anyone and their grandchildren in your country regardless; willy, and indeed, nilly. Because, as you say, 'there needs to be more children because our world needs more joy'. Amirite?!

I love the smell of arguments not ony blasted out of the space-time continuum, but completely erased from the timeline, nay, the infinte Multiverses in the morning. Smells like... intellectual superiority.

(That's the key to Argument Annihilation, o good peeps of FSTDT: just take the quoted fundies' own argumental logic, take it to it's ultimate extreme, then turn it against them >:D )

old comment by Burning Stake

More children automatically equals more joy? Yep, sounds like an upper-middle class American talking. Try going to slums in 3rd World countries and see how well that talking point works.

...the entire population of the world could fit inside of Jacksonville, Florida.

...The fuck?

Also, Mother Teresa was a nun who never had children of her own, and lived inside religious institutions most of her life-i.e., she never really had to work for a living. So her viewpoint is already hypocritical.

Also, I know I've mentioned this before, but...my aunt has endometriosis. She's married to my uncle, who also can't have children due to a childhood illness. So...if they hadn't adopted my cousin, they wouldn't have any joy in their lives? Their lives would be meaningless?

I know Mrs. Duggar thinks these things because she's been brainwashed too, but...please, just go away. I hope all of your children adopt kids just to try to even out all the overpopulation.

old comment by pete

Many years ago some psychologists tried an experiment in overcrowding. They used various animals. What they did was to put too many in a cage. The animals were given ample food and water and the cages were kept clean. Their only hardship was having no space of their own.

Well? Before long the animals started, for lack of a better term, to go insane. Some tried to mate with every other animal in the cage. Some became homicidal and/or cannibalistic. Some just huddled in a corner and starved themselves to death. And virtually none of them returned to normal behavior, even for lab animals, after the study was finished.

Obviously, not all animal studies directly translate to humans but one can see real world examples that tend to support the conclusion that overcrowding, in and of itself, is injurious to people too.

old comment by Canadiest

@Corncake said:

"Uh, Canadiest?

The Duggar's are Baptists, not Catholics. Us Catholics are the ones using birth control in spite of what the Church says."

Gotcha, my bad. Baptist Stepford wife. I'll check closer next time, you gotta know though that her opinion is where Catholics and Fundies come together.
Mother Teresa was a Catholic , one who believes ya should keep popping out kids till it kills ya, like Nuns do,,,oh wait they don't.

Look, Duggar can have kids till her eggs dry up so I don't know how fundie the top comments are. I do know a church raised her to make as many babies as she could and raise them with the same mission, people die, that's unfortunate, but God sez y'know.

At least this family had the money, health and commitment and now the reality show cash-in to carry it off.

Them seem nice and wholesome.
They do. I don't see one trainwreck in the shows I've seen unlike every oyher "reality" show.

old comment by Anon-e-moose

Further my previous post; also emphasising my point, re.finite resources:

"I agree with Mother Teresa when she said, 'to say that there are too many children is like saying there are too many flowers"

Okay, Mish. 'Let them eat flowers'. [/Marie Antoinette] And when they have all gone...:

image

Your argument isn't just invalid, Mish, it never fucking existed in the first place.

Now mix the metaphors well, place in a baking tin, and put in a pre-heated oven at Gas Mark OVER 9000 for 30 mins. Then serve with a side order of Crow. Followed by a universe-sized piece of Humble Pie.

Because metaphors are all that'll be left to eat, going by your logic, Mish.

...how's those flower sandwiches taste, BTW? Then a flower pot roast later, with flower souffle for dessert, eh Mish? [/smartarse]

Michelle Duggar #fundie huffingtonpost.com

133 comments

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