A documentary on the Fred Phelps clan, The Most Hated Family in America, aired over the weekend on the BBC. To supplement it, on Friday the BBC published an interview with journalist Louis Theroux, who tried to get to the bottom of it all:
“What we’re trying to do in the documentary is look at an activity that is so antisocial, so strange, so futile and at its worst, so cruel, and we’re saying ‘Why? Why do that?’, especially when you seem to be, for the most part, kind and sensitive people. We’re exploring what is cruelty, trying to explain how something that really does very often just amount to cruelty could be perpetuated and passed down in a family. Why would nice people do such horrible things?”
Parts 1-4:
Parts 5-7 after the jump…
The Most Hated Family in America [bbc]
Westboro Baptists Continue To Rock The House [queerty]
Video: ‘The Sur-Real World’ [good as you]
