I have watched 19 Kids and Counting once with my wife. I found the family admirable and I wondered when they will be a target like the Robertson family of Duck Dynasty. The parallel media hate-fest is identical. I wonder why? Hint: Christianity.
I think its not just Christianity but the concept of large families. A lot of folks pay lip service to being anti-abortion but are really uncomfortable with a family larger than 3 kids. I do genealogy. Families in the 16th through 19th century had huge families, 6-12 was typical but one of my ancestors was one of 19. I’m not sure what caused the bubble but perhaps the ability to grow food in the new world, safe water, plenty of land to spread out. Reality shows however are typically freak shows. It is somewhat freaky to have 19 kids. When I was a kid we went to the Dallas State Fair every year. I was a free range kid so our parents turned us loose but we were strictly forbidden to go anywhere near the part of the midway where they had the freaks. And of course, that’s what totally fascinated me. Back to the Duggars - I maybe watched pieces of 4-5 shows. I was interested in the series where Michelle had the tiny premmie. That’s where I lost interest however because with this crisis I could see that the other kids were close to being neglected. I do question the judgment of going into a reality show with these dark events in their past.
Gothardism is nothing but super-repressive legalism which Gothard devised so that he---and his brother---could have a source of young, naive, biddable girls to prey on.