To all the people expressing shock and horror with the candor from one of the stars in the reality TV series Duck Dynasty this week all I can ask is: What the hell did you expect?
Did people really think that the backwoods Louisiana family depicted in the A&E series were actually longbearded hipsters with some sort of politically correct Wiccan spiritualism that embraced tolerance and a strong understanding of the world at large?
I think some people need to get out more and not just the backwoods types. The people who are demonstrating an ignorance here are the urban living self-styled “progressives” who until now enjoyed what they thought was a sanitized version of how rich hillbillies live.
I guess we sort if set up that illusion in the 60s with the show pictured below.
I hate to break it to the shocked urbanist reality TV voyeurs who had previously been enjoying watching the Duck Dynasty family but the family pictured above is actually a bunch of actors. The family in Duck Dynasty is for real.
I have spent a great deal of time working in the Appalachians in this last few years. As I type I am in a hotel room in rural Pennsylvania. I can assure you that what you heard coming from the fellow on Duck Dynasty is pretty tame when compared to some of the views that some backwoods locals have shared with me at times. For somebody to to hold intolerant views and to take a literal approach to the bible is actually not all that uncommon in many rural areas. Get over it folks.
It was that strange world outlook that made the family in Duck Dynasty so quaint and appealing to viewers. How dare they open their mouths with social views however!! Again folks, what the hell were you expecting?
By the way, before folks get on a high horse I have seen these attitudes from many Canadians too.
Personally I never thought much of the show. I think camouflage outfits only belong on military personnel or people actually in the act of hunting. Unlike the hyperventilating folks jumping on the condemnation bandwagon with Duck Dynasty however I am tolerant. Live and let live. I really don’t give a shit what the social views of a Louisiana hillbilly are.
What were people seeking from that show? Social and spiritual guidance? The meaning of life? Will you now move on to Pawn Stars to seek deep spiritual revelations and philosophies? I am afraid that you are in for disappointment.
Do I care that A&E has suspended the guy? No, I don’t really care about that either. They are a private company. They can hire and fire whoever they like. This is not an offense of freedom of speech. Phil Robertson is still free to hold his views and to speak them, he just no longer has A&E as a platform to promote them. I couldn’t care less if A&E takes him back either.
The only thing that has gotten me worked up is the Pollyanna “well I never!” faux-outrage from the idiots who are all pissed off about this.
If people really want to battle intolerance from bearded backwoods bigots, may I suggest that they start with the fellow below and his compatriots. The last I heard they were still executing gay folks in his mountain land. Tying your balls in a knot over the open views of a harmless reality TV star isn’t really changing anything.
Oh and I may as well bust one more myth for reality TV fans. The friendly folks encountered by the guys on American Pickers (I do like that show) are staged to a degree and fictional. I can assure you from personal experience that more often than not when you approach a yard overflowing with junk and personal treasures that the homeowner is paranoid, well-armed and crazier than the proverbial shithouse rat. Sorry to break that to you but I would hate to see a person walk up to a hoarder’s door unexpectedly and learn the hard way that the person is not exactly interested in visitors or selling their stuff.
Your insights are right on point, reminds me of the story of the old guy at a job interview.
The interviewer being a sophistcated urban type asks the old guy what he thinks is his worst fault.
The old guy says, “Honesty”
Interviewer “Thats not a fault”
Old Guy “I don’t give a shit what you think”
Just to keep the ball rolling all “reality shows” are scripted. Put the remote down go out side say hi to another human
we tolerate the intolerable and wonder why we are where we are. we tolerate perverse and deviant behaviour. we tolerate a religion who’s holy book says non-believers must be killed. we tolerate government interference in our lives and think we are free. the older I get the more I want to be left alone by the idiots and morons who think they should tell me how to live and how to run my life and then tax me for the privilege of doing what they say.
old white guy .. I know exactly where you are coming from, the problem is the generations of younger “tolerant progressives” think that older folks don’t know anything, they have not witnessed what mass tolerance has done, hitler, stalin etc. The sad part is I don’t think they will wake up in time to stop it I hope they are ok with learning the rules of islam in the future.
It’s interesting that the people in the area, the actual people involved and their millions of supporters are not offended. Those that are offended, don’t live there, are not actually involved with the Robertsons and are not supporters. Hmmm?
So, let’s recap. You don’t give a shit about this. You don’t give a shit about that. You don’t care for the show and you don’t care what A&E decides. So, really, a reader is left with a couple of questions.
1) Why the hell did you bother to write a post in first place?
–answer – Because you wanted to preen about how wonderfully sophisticated and intellectually superior YOU ARE than rural people or liberal urban types.
2) Who gives a shit what YOU think?
–answer- probably only you.
He writes for the rest of us, moron.