Josh Duggar is in prison where he belongs. He will rot behind bars for about the next decade.
Mike Johnson is not where he belongs. Through a series of unfortunate events, he has become Speaker of the House. Of the actual United States. Of America.
On the surface, one might assume that these men have very little in common — aside from general malice and a slew of bad takes.
But Johnson uses a controversial software on his devices. It is the same type of porn-monitoring software that Josh had on his computer when federal agents arrested him. Weird!!
Disgraced former reality star Josh Duggar is probably most infamous for molesting a number of young girls, including several of his sisters. However, that is not why he is in prison.
Several years ago, Josh downloaded a series of media files containing child sex-abuse material (CSAM). Specifically, photos and video of prepubescent girls’ lives being ruined for the enjoyment of Josh and other monsters like him.
Josh did this despite the presence of the extremely creepy software, Covenant Eyes, whose purpose may be even more unsettling than its name. And that’s saying a lot.
Covenant Eyes brands itself as an “accountability software.” In reality, it’s a supposedly consensual spyware program that allows family members (at least, that’s the intent) to snoop upon one another.
We cannot emphasize enough how unsettling and deranged the branding on this software sounds.
Lots of stuff about “temptations” and “sin” gaining “power” and a “standard of purity.” That last one sounds like something that the FDA would discuss at a factor that makes peanut butter, but in this case, it means the “purity” of natural human sexuality.
Mike Johnson was relatively unknown until just a few weeks ago. The current Speaker of the House, who holds one of the most powerful political positions on the planet, only became a member of Congress in 2016.
In a recently resurfaced clip, Johnson spoke about using Covenant Eyes at a panel called “War on Technology” at Cypress Baptist Church.
“It scans all the activity on your phone, or your devices, your laptop, what have you,” he described at the time.
“We do all of it,” Johnson shared. “And then it sends a report to your accountability partner.”
“So my accountability partner right now is Jack, my son… He’s 17,” he detailed. That’s inappropriate for so many reasons. “So he and I get a report of all the things that are on our phones, all of our devices, once a week.”
Johnson explained: “If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice. I’m proud to tell ya, my son has got a clean slate.” The association of, again, normal human sexuality with being unclean remains disturbing.
In addition to the “oh no, this creepy dude wields actual political power in our country” panic, a number of social media users have raised the alarm about security.
A non-secure outside company may have unfettered access to the Speaker of the House’s devices.
Covenant Eyes is a company where most customers are cheating partners, their spouses, or toxic parents who invade their teens’ privacy. Marketing spyware to cult members does not necessarily prepare them for security breaches from hostile foreign powers that covet state secrets.
Now, none of this is surprising or off-brand for Johnson.
This is a man who has alarmingly close ties to Christian nationalism and has expressed unspeakable bigotry against the LGBTQ+ community.
In that regard, he has a great deal in common with Josh Duggar and with most of his family and their twisted beliefs.
Anna had Covenant Eyes on Josh’s devices. In addition to having sexually abused little girls, Josh also had a scandal for cheating on her and watching adult and presumably normal pornography. In their cult, it’s all the same.
Because of this software, Josh partitioned part of his computer — effectively hiding it from spyware. Imagine it like hiding a room from a robot vacuum cleaner by simply blocking off the doorway.
The robot vacuum thinks that the house ends there — and the spyware similarly doesn’t know about an entire other section of your device.
At the risk of sounding like we’re praising this creepy software, it’s likely a good thing that Josh avoided focusing upon it.
He clearly put a lot of time and energy into hiding his search for CSAM from his wife. As a result, he clearly forgot to hide it from the United States government.
In the Duggar cult, it’s all the same. To the United States government, CSAM is a crime because it has actual victims, while pornography is just video of adults that’s not really anyone else’s business. Unless, perhaps, Speaker Johnson gets his way.