Following attacks by the so-called “liberal media” on the Duggar family — reality stars of cable network program “19 Kids and Counting” — for their handling of son Josh’s sexual abuse of five underage girls including four of his sisters, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin recently went off through social media by attacking author and actress Lena Dunham as a “pedophile.” Palin, in the blatant ploy to stay relevant and in the news, rehashed a dead controversy related to Dunham’s book “Not That Kind of Girl,” in which she wrote of touching her sister’s genitals.
In late 2014, conservative commentators blasted Dunham’s behavior as a 7-year-old as sexual abuse. Her book and her actions then became the subject of a manufactured controversy. Palin’s latest missives are just a continuation of this cynical, false comparison meant to rile up the right while putting down those nasty liberals.
Last week on Facebook Palin posted:
“HEY LENA, WHY NOT LAUGH OFF EVERYONE’S SEXUAL “EXPERIMENTS” AS YOU HAUGHTILY ENJOY REWARDS FOR YOUR OWN PERVERSION? YOU PEDOPHILE, YOU.”
Nice work on the all caps, Sarah, it really goes far to expressing your feigned outrage.
Preeminent child therapists and leading experts in the field of child sexual abuse dismissed claims that Dunham’s behavior was molestation. Dunham’s tongue-in-cheek jest over sexual abuse — for which she quickly apologized — and Josh Duggar’s criminal molestation of five girls when he was a teenager are completely different.
The curious play of a young child and sexual abuse by a teen, who was supposedly brought up honest and true by his God-fearing parents, is a ridiculous perversion of a serious subject callously done to earn political points. It also continues the pattern of dishonesty, misinformation and hypocrisy that heads of the Duggar family, Jim Bob and Michelle, have done nothing to clear.
Read more: TLC Must Stop Hypocritical Duggar Insanity
Following Josh’s actions, which occurred more than 10 years ago, there have been plenty chances to come clean. After the reveal of his conduct — where he admitted to inappropriately touching five girls multiple times — the family was recently provided another chance at redemption during Fox News’ sycophantic interview with sympathetic ear Megyn Kelly. But instead of being honest and forthright about what’s happened and their role in it, Ma and Pa Duggar continued to be illogic and evasive.
Under the guise that Josh made a mistake and God forgave him for it, Michelle and Jim Bob all but apologized for their son’s terrible and immoral behavior.
I don’t fault the parents for observing a rigid, fundamentalist religion more than any other, but the Duggars are the ones who act morally superior and get pissed when someone says they are not better than the rest of us. As shown by their continued attempts to evade and not admit any wrongdoing, they are actually worse.
It took Josh and his parents more than 10 years to acknowledge the allegations. Fortunately for his parents, they cannot be charged with failing to report the crime because a statute of limitations has since passed.
AND NOW BACK TO PALIN …
HEY LENA, WHY NOT LAUGH OFF EVERYONE’S SEXUAL “EXPERIMENTS” AS YOU HAUGHTILY ENJOY REWARDS FOR YOUR OWN… http://t.co/LVmOPuLpYM
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) June 4, 2015
Palin’s tweet just halfway explained why she is irrelevant, but only because it cut off after 140 characters.
For those who don’t know, Dunham is a writer, director and co-star of HBO’s “Girls.” The show follows four female friends as they try to navigate the pitfalls of living in New York City — in Brooklyn, to be exact — and their lives, loves and the hardships of being a twenty-something woman. The show, which features indie bands, drugs and sex, would make any conservative blowhard pink with anger or childish embarrassment, and therefore is an easy target for attention-seekers like Palin.
It’s a tired, old cliché, but it applies here: Maybe Palin should pick on someone who deserves it, and not try to reopen a healed wound. If conservatives like Palin can’t help but continue to apologize for other crazies in their midst, how do they expect to be taken seriously?
Or maybe they don’t. Remember, in the end for Palin, it’s all the liberal media’s fault anyway. So go ahead, Duggars, keep on pretending to be morally superior, then sinning and pretending you did nothing wrong. Sarah Palin’s got your back.
Noah Zuss is a reporter for TheBlot Magazine.
