A TV show has made me angry

[Iroscato]

Watching Louis Theroux: America's Most Hated Family In Crisis. It has the dubious honour of being the third TV show ever to make me genuinely angry, the first being a documentary about the holocaust, and the second about poverty in Africa. I'm literally shaking watching it. This is the very reason I get my Richard Dawkins on when it comes to religion...

[Zixinus]

While I sense I may regret this: what pisses you off so much about the show?

[CaptainChewbacca]

I've never even heard of this show, and I know nothing about it. Your post tells me nothing, Spiro.

[Iroscato]

Oh you know, just...
The way the members of the WBC are trapped in a never ending cycle of lies, hatred, bigotry, homophobia, and general insanity. The fact that they picket the funerals of dead soldiers and muslims, they way they seem to get a perverse pleasure out of natural disasters causing suffering of thousands. My anger doesn't extend to the ordinary layman, born and bred as a member of the cult. They don't stand a chance against the evil surrounding them, poor bastards.

My anger lies with the Phelps family, the way the father created an entire network of control and ego massagingin the form of religion. It's just...frustrating...

Oh, and sorry for not saying what it is. Basically, Louis Theroux visited the Phelps family of Westoro Baptist Church fame four years ago, and has now returned to see how things are going a bit wrong for them.

Rant over now, I just needed to get it off my chest

[Zixinus]

Oh, those assholes. Yeah, they can fuck it with a broken stick, but I wouldn't necessarily call it religion's fault. For them, it's just that they feel the need to express their superiority of religion.

[Maelstrom]

Argh!!! The Phelps'. Though I'm as much a supporter of free speech as the next guy, I wouldn't shed a tear if their entire congregation just up and, well, vanished one afternoon. They truly make me proud to be a Kansan, anyway. I still remember a few years ago when Phelps and crew showed up in my hometown to protest at a local baptist church, of all places. Apparently, the "liberal" pastor was scheduled to give a sermon that, gasp!, was pro homosexual. As in, we shouldn't hate homosexuals. The horror! Even in this staunchly religious, conservative town, Phelps was not well received.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Isn't their 'entire congregation' 100% blood relatives of Phelps?

[mr friendly guy]

Is this a follow up to the other docu he did on the WBC? That one was titled America's most hated family. Louis Theroux himself seems to handle his journalistic duties fine as far as I can tell from his documentaries (which have been posted on youtube).

[Falarica]

Is this a follow up to the other docu he did on the WBC? That one was titled America's most hated family. Louis Theroux himself seems to handle his journalistic duties fine as far as I can tell from his documentaries (which have been posted on youtube).

Yep, it is a follow up to The Most Hated Family in America. This new one is called America's Most Hated Family in Crisis.

Its heartening to see how many people come to counter demonstrate every time they went outside. It also makes me appreciate that I live in a country that does not put up with such bigotry.

[mr friendly guy]

The WBC obviously pisses me off on some level, however... the documentary itself shows some glimmer of hope. Not for Phelps senior and his most deluded followers, but its pleasing to see how several family members have ditched the bullshit indoctrination and starting to live their own lives. Also coupled with the fact that once people are onto them they can be defeated easily enough by the awesome power of mockery.