Really.
August 15, 2015 12:14 PM Subscribe
Read through the first paragraph, got outraged. Stopped. I can't do it.
posted by persona au gratin at 12:21 PM on August 15, 2015 [20 favorites]
posted by persona au gratin at 12:21 PM on August 15, 2015 [20 favorites]
Ann Coulter Is a Human Being
And yet this had to be pointed out in a headline.
posted by Rangi at 12:22 PM on August 15, 2015 [64 favorites]
And yet this had to be pointed out in a headline.
posted by Rangi at 12:22 PM on August 15, 2015 [64 favorites]
She is a fascinating figure, although one I stopped paying attention to about a decade back. Do not feed the trolls.
posted by yellowbinder at 12:23 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
posted by yellowbinder at 12:23 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
First rate minds become well-paid pundits on merit, third rate minds become well-paid pundits by saying whatever the people who are paying want them to say.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:25 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:25 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
Is it cognitive dissonance? Is she just fucking with us?
LOL
posted by Nevin at 12:26 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
LOL
posted by Nevin at 12:26 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
about a decade back.
The funny thing was when she tried to twist arguments and go way off fundamental principles. It was once laughable. Now it's just a yawn. Who gives a rat fuck about her?
posted by uraniumwilly at 12:29 PM on August 15, 2015 [8 favorites]
The funny thing was when she tried to twist arguments and go way off fundamental principles. It was once laughable. Now it's just a yawn. Who gives a rat fuck about her?
posted by uraniumwilly at 12:29 PM on August 15, 2015 [8 favorites]
First rate minds become well-paid pundits on merit, third rate minds become well-paid pundits by saying whatever the people who are paying want them to say.
I think she has a first-rate mind, but it's too bad she's decided to use it in a completely frivolous way. It's like removing and selling all the jewels from a boxing championship belt to feed a crack habit.
posted by Nevin at 12:29 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think she has a first-rate mind, but it's too bad she's decided to use it in a completely frivolous way. It's like removing and selling all the jewels from a boxing championship belt to feed a crack habit.
posted by Nevin at 12:29 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
...then she should start acting like one.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:30 PM on August 15, 2015 [23 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:30 PM on August 15, 2015 [23 favorites]
Just don't look. It's got paul anka's guaranteeeeee....
posted by Poldo at 12:30 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
posted by Poldo at 12:30 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
Interesting concept.
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 12:32 PM on August 15, 2015
posted by devious truculent and unreliable at 12:32 PM on August 15, 2015
The premise of this article is weird. I don't think she really is benefiting from the internet outrage machine. I think the internet outrage machine is sort of bored of her. She's a self-evident troll, and nobody thinks she really believes half the stuff she says. She may still be popular among the kind of people who support Donald Trump, but it's not because liberals are outraged at her.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:32 PM on August 15, 2015 [16 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:32 PM on August 15, 2015 [16 favorites]
Of course she's a Human Being! No other species has invented lying yet.
posted by DGStieber at 12:36 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by DGStieber at 12:36 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
You know who else was a human being?
*ducks*
posted by daninnj at 12:37 PM on August 15, 2015 [33 favorites]
*ducks*
posted by daninnj at 12:37 PM on August 15, 2015 [33 favorites]
She may still be popular among the kind of people who support Donald Trump, but it's not because liberals are outraged at her.
I thought she had completely fallen off the radar, but "¡Adios America! debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, landing at the top of the list as most of her books do." - Is the NYT bestseller list completely broken? Because I have never heard of this book before.
"A few weeks ago, she starred as the Vice President in Sharknado 3 alongside fellow camp icon Tara Reid, trending on Facebook and Twitter in the process." - Sounds like the Sharknado franchise has jumped itself.
posted by Apocryphon at 12:40 PM on August 15, 2015 [17 favorites]
I thought she had completely fallen off the radar, but "¡Adios America! debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, landing at the top of the list as most of her books do." - Is the NYT bestseller list completely broken? Because I have never heard of this book before.
"A few weeks ago, she starred as the Vice President in Sharknado 3 alongside fellow camp icon Tara Reid, trending on Facebook and Twitter in the process." - Sounds like the Sharknado franchise has jumped itself.
posted by Apocryphon at 12:40 PM on August 15, 2015 [17 favorites]
I think she has a first-rate mind
Uh no, nope, not.
Her insistence that Canada fought alongside the US in Vietnam... the stupid... it hurts.
posted by Cosine at 12:42 PM on August 15, 2015 [13 favorites]
Uh no, nope, not.
Her insistence that Canada fought alongside the US in Vietnam... the stupid... it hurts.
posted by Cosine at 12:42 PM on August 15, 2015 [13 favorites]
You know who else was a human being?
posted by acb at 12:43 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by acb at 12:43 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
A first rate mind? What a joke.
Who cares about this person? I haven't heard her name in years.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 12:44 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Who cares about this person? I haven't heard her name in years.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 12:44 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Read between the lines, and you realize that Coulter's ideology is fairly simple: no one well-off *really* cares about the badly off, so conservatives are just being "honest." She, and the people in the article who vouch for her, fundamentally reject the notion of intersectionality.
"¡Adios America! debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, landing at the top of the list as most of her books do." - Is the NYT bestseller list completely broken? Because I have never heard of this book before.
Make your right-wing "non"fiction book a bestseller with this one weird trick! (tl;dr - bulk purchases by conservative groups)
posted by kewb at 12:44 PM on August 15, 2015 [13 favorites]
"¡Adios America! debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, landing at the top of the list as most of her books do." - Is the NYT bestseller list completely broken? Because I have never heard of this book before.
Make your right-wing "non"fiction book a bestseller with this one weird trick! (tl;dr - bulk purchases by conservative groups)
posted by kewb at 12:44 PM on August 15, 2015 [13 favorites]
We have one of these gobshites over here too. She's called Katie Hopkins. Look her up. Actually don't.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:45 PM on August 15, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:45 PM on August 15, 2015 [9 favorites]
She's so far off the radar that I was fairly certain upon seeing this FPP that it had misspelled her name, and I'm pretty good at remembering how to spell people's names.
posted by Etrigan at 12:47 PM on August 15, 2015
posted by Etrigan at 12:47 PM on August 15, 2015
Coulter's whole schtick is designed to inspire outrage. Even if the rest of us ought to be better than to respond to her trolling, why should she get any sympathy for succeeding?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:48 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:48 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
>You know who else was a human being?
Beat me to it ACB :)
I could not read the article save for a sentence here and there because it is just another thing written to glorify her and her particular brand of ignorance (no such thing as bad publicity, etc.). Sure she's a human being and so are the other 5-10% of us who are utter sociopaths and would do anything at all for more glory, power or money.
In a more intelligent world she would have been utterly ignored and cast out of all social discourse.
posted by AGameOfMoans at 12:48 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
Beat me to it ACB :)
I could not read the article save for a sentence here and there because it is just another thing written to glorify her and her particular brand of ignorance (no such thing as bad publicity, etc.). Sure she's a human being and so are the other 5-10% of us who are utter sociopaths and would do anything at all for more glory, power or money.
In a more intelligent world she would have been utterly ignored and cast out of all social discourse.
posted by AGameOfMoans at 12:48 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
> Is the NYT bestseller list completely broken? Because I have never heard of this book before.
You don't have to sell that many books to make the best seller lists these days, plus it helps to have stuff like this boosting your figures.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:52 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
You don't have to sell that many books to make the best seller lists these days, plus it helps to have stuff like this boosting your figures.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:52 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Ann Who?
posted by five fresh fish at 12:52 PM on August 15, 2015
posted by five fresh fish at 12:52 PM on August 15, 2015
Old news. The Boondocks declared Ann Coulter a down ass bitch all the way back in 2008. (NSFW)
posted by fuse theorem at 12:53 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by fuse theorem at 12:53 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
"Gays are not liberals," she says. "Gays are right wingers who like butt sex."
This gay is a liberal, and has been all his adult life. Go fuck yourself.
posted by blucevalo at 12:54 PM on August 15, 2015 [30 favorites]
This gay is a liberal, and has been all his adult life. Go fuck yourself.
posted by blucevalo at 12:54 PM on August 15, 2015 [30 favorites]
Beat me to it ACB :)
You know who else beat it to you AGameofMoans? :p
posted by daninnj at 12:54 PM on August 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
You know who else beat it to you AGameofMoans? :p
posted by daninnj at 12:54 PM on August 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
Al Franken used to be a liberal troll writing light reading NYT bestsellers. Has anyone heard of him lately?
posted by benzenedream at 1:00 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 1:00 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Al Franken used to be a liberal troll writing light reading NYT bestsellers. Has anyone heard of him lately?
Only when he makes headlines by being a U.S. senator, sponsoring bills and making the occasional interview on major news networks. That kind of thing.
posted by uraniumwilly at 1:05 PM on August 15, 2015 [60 favorites]
Only when he makes headlines by being a U.S. senator, sponsoring bills and making the occasional interview on major news networks. That kind of thing.
posted by uraniumwilly at 1:05 PM on August 15, 2015 [60 favorites]
Al Franken used to be a liberal troll writing light reading NYT bestsellers. Has anyone heard of him lately?
He was re-elected as a US senator of Minnesota in 2014. (He won the 2008 election by just 312 votes.)
Meanwhile in 2014, Ann Coulter claimed that Americans' interest in the soccer World Cup was a sign of "moral decay." (Sorry for citing the Daily Mail.)
posted by Rangi at 1:06 PM on August 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
He was re-elected as a US senator of Minnesota in 2014. (He won the 2008 election by just 312 votes.)
Meanwhile in 2014, Ann Coulter claimed that Americans' interest in the soccer World Cup was a sign of "moral decay." (Sorry for citing the Daily Mail.)
posted by Rangi at 1:06 PM on August 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
Read between the lines, and you realize that Coulter's ideology is fairly simple: no one well-off *really* cares about the badly off, so conservatives are just being "honest." She, and the people in the article who vouch for her, fundamentally reject the notion of intersectionality.
To be fair, this is a fairly accurate reading of the culture. It is considered weak and petty to express a concern for the badly off. The premise behind the article is that Coulter is popular because she is successful and famous, and that is what is valued where she lives, and her popularity reflects that.
posted by deanc at 1:08 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
To be fair, this is a fairly accurate reading of the culture. It is considered weak and petty to express a concern for the badly off. The premise behind the article is that Coulter is popular because she is successful and famous, and that is what is valued where she lives, and her popularity reflects that.
posted by deanc at 1:08 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Ann Coulter Is a Human Being
I'll take this as undetermined until we see if her blood screams when we dip a hot wire in it.
posted by happyroach at 1:14 PM on August 15, 2015 [47 favorites]
I'll take this as undetermined until we see if her blood screams when we dip a hot wire in it.
posted by happyroach at 1:14 PM on August 15, 2015 [47 favorites]
Outrage culture was invented to annihilate by people like Coulter
There was an obvious error in TFA, which I have corrected above. They should hire an editor or something (or just not allow people to write articles about themselves).
posted by IAmUnaware at 1:14 PM on August 15, 2015 [18 favorites]
There was an obvious error in TFA, which I have corrected above. They should hire an editor or something (or just not allow people to write articles about themselves).
posted by IAmUnaware at 1:14 PM on August 15, 2015 [18 favorites]
As with all public figures that might otherwise rouse me to a furious cardiac arrest, I choose to see Ms. Coulter as a talented and dedicated character actor, who takes her work very seriously indeed. (It also works for Trump et al).
This is how I get through the day.
posted by The Zeroth Law at 1:19 PM on August 15, 2015 [13 favorites]
This is how I get through the day.
posted by The Zeroth Law at 1:19 PM on August 15, 2015 [13 favorites]
Hey wait, so is Ann Coulter being a "gay icon" actually a Thing, or is that just made up?
posted by pravit at 1:21 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by pravit at 1:21 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
I have always gotten this impression she carries a stiletto.
posted by clavdivs at 1:24 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 1:24 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Happy to hear that camp is alive and well in gay culture.
posted by borges at 1:24 PM on August 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by borges at 1:24 PM on August 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
Lots of people are human beings. The important fact about Ann Coulter is that she holds views that are basically the same as those of white nationalists, and yet gets a fairly "mainstream" hearing for her ideas. The SPLC's Hatewatch blog has a comparison of her statements to white nationalists', and the differences are thin. Searching for her on the SPLC website is instructive.
posted by graymouser at 1:32 PM on August 15, 2015 [23 favorites]
posted by graymouser at 1:32 PM on August 15, 2015 [23 favorites]
The Zeroth Law: This is how I get through the day.
I've tried that, but it only reminds me that—while probably true—the people who like them and keep them on Fox News and in the Daily Mail et cetera really think what they express.
posted by traveler_ at 1:34 PM on August 15, 2015
I've tried that, but it only reminds me that—while probably true—the people who like them and keep them on Fox News and in the Daily Mail et cetera really think what they express.
posted by traveler_ at 1:34 PM on August 15, 2015
Of course she's a Human Being! No other species has invented lying yet.
Not true! She could be a two-inch, crayfish-like stomatopod crustacean.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:34 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
Not true! She could be a two-inch, crayfish-like stomatopod crustacean.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:34 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
When a homeless man spots her from the street, shouts, "Ann Coulter! Provocateur!" and then walks into the restaurant and asked her to pound it, she smiles and obliges his request.
What is going on in this sentence, exactly?
"Sexual harassment law is a tool to be used against ideological enemies of the feminist movement."
Of course it is, and a good thing, too. And civil rights laws are tools to be used against the ideological enemies of the civil rights movement, and labor rights laws are tools to be used against the ideological enemies of the labor movement.
Also, she was outed hanging out in West Hollywood years ago.
posted by univac at 1:40 PM on August 15, 2015 [10 favorites]
What is going on in this sentence, exactly?
"Sexual harassment law is a tool to be used against ideological enemies of the feminist movement."
Of course it is, and a good thing, too. And civil rights laws are tools to be used against the ideological enemies of the civil rights movement, and labor rights laws are tools to be used against the ideological enemies of the labor movement.
Also, she was outed hanging out in West Hollywood years ago.
posted by univac at 1:40 PM on August 15, 2015 [10 favorites]
Ann Coulter is a human being
Sure, she's just bad at it.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 1:43 PM on August 15, 2015 [44 favorites]
Sure, she's just bad at it.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 1:43 PM on August 15, 2015 [44 favorites]
I thought she had completely fallen off the radar, but "¡Adios America! debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, landing at the top of the list as most of her books do." - Is the NYT bestseller list completely broken? Because I have never heard of this book before.
Ditto here. I totally thought her star had dimmed at this point.
"A few weeks ago, she starred as the Vice President in Sharknado 3 alongside fellow camp icon Tara Reid, trending on Facebook and Twitter in the process." - Sounds like the Sharknado franchise has jumped itself.
They're perfect for each other. They're both absolutely awful in really cynical and calculated ways.
posted by brundlefly at 1:57 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ditto here. I totally thought her star had dimmed at this point.
"A few weeks ago, she starred as the Vice President in Sharknado 3 alongside fellow camp icon Tara Reid, trending on Facebook and Twitter in the process." - Sounds like the Sharknado franchise has jumped itself.
They're perfect for each other. They're both absolutely awful in really cynical and calculated ways.
posted by brundlefly at 1:57 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think it more important that it be pointed out to Ann Coulter that all human beings including herself matter, as she is working really hard to undermine the welfare of her fellow humans while liberals and those who care about human welfare are "outraged" because they DO care about the welfare of all humans, in fact often heinous and awful human beings like Ann who are actively part of the forces destroying the welfare of the vulnerable among us.
If she were being ACTUALLY assaulted, it's often the liberals who stand up against violence, against inhuman punitive measures in the punitive system.
Essentially, it' the human rights activists who would have her back if she became poor, got raped and needed EITHER an abortion or financial assistance to raise a child in a healthy way...
Calling passionate care for the welfare of others and a willingness to rise to action to come to their aid and defend and protect them from harm "outrage culture" and other crap like that is the new "hysteria" a label that implies mental illness or inability to see reality (as defined by people in power who want to continue harming the vulnerable unchecked) that silences and erases the voices standing up for what is truly right, however inconvenient or outright painful and difficult that is for those who would rather not be stood up to.
See Ann laugh about all the people's whose lives she contributes suffering to! For her it's all one big laugh party because she happens to be reaping the benefits of those she tramples on and those she hurts need to just lighten up!
Yeah. Of course life's a lot funner when you're drenched in ill gotten gains from increasing the suffering of others and exploiting them without concern- and making money/popularity encouraging others to as well.
posted by xarnop at 2:07 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
If she were being ACTUALLY assaulted, it's often the liberals who stand up against violence, against inhuman punitive measures in the punitive system.
Essentially, it' the human rights activists who would have her back if she became poor, got raped and needed EITHER an abortion or financial assistance to raise a child in a healthy way...
Calling passionate care for the welfare of others and a willingness to rise to action to come to their aid and defend and protect them from harm "outrage culture" and other crap like that is the new "hysteria" a label that implies mental illness or inability to see reality (as defined by people in power who want to continue harming the vulnerable unchecked) that silences and erases the voices standing up for what is truly right, however inconvenient or outright painful and difficult that is for those who would rather not be stood up to.
See Ann laugh about all the people's whose lives she contributes suffering to! For her it's all one big laugh party because she happens to be reaping the benefits of those she tramples on and those she hurts need to just lighten up!
Yeah. Of course life's a lot funner when you're drenched in ill gotten gains from increasing the suffering of others and exploiting them without concern- and making money/popularity encouraging others to as well.
posted by xarnop at 2:07 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
The right needs her to help deal with their 'woman problem' in 2016, and to attack Hillary if it comes to that.
Hence, this attempt toward rehabilitation.
posted by jamjam at 2:10 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Hence, this attempt toward rehabilitation.
posted by jamjam at 2:10 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
I don't think she would have been at all successful and wealthy a troll were it not for the Bush years. She took advantage of the post 9/11 success the GOP held. So for a liberal American, not only did you have to deal with the Bush getting re-elected, the Republican party controlling Congress and the Supreme Court, and Fox News as one of the most popular sources of info, you also had this woman's tremendous popularity for saying the worst things about liberals.
The nasty things Coulter said were hurtful to many on the left, deeply. In the '00s, her shouting that liberals are not real Americans and hate the country, well, that was hard to take and harder to ignore, particularly when it looked like the majority of Americans agreed with her.
Ann Coulter was the finest example of the 'sore loser' mentality the right had that decade; it wasn't enough for them control the entire government, they wanted anyone who disagreed with them to be worse off for doing so. She was more than a troll, she was a straight up bully.
Which is why she's fallen off the radar this decade. First, the Dems took Congress, then Obama took the White House (and the next president will probably also be a Democrat). The GOP still has power, but not nearly as much, so the political climate isn't nearly as dire for for a liberal. Which makes it so much easier to ignore Coulter's bait. It's realizing the wolf who had been barking at you is really a chihuahua (Coulter would hate to be a chihuahua).
The Vice piece points out her career wasn't going anywhere before 9/11 (when she had her book contract canceled) but doesn't correctly get into how her post-9/11 was fueled or why she is in this new phase of her career.
posted by riruro at 2:10 PM on August 15, 2015 [16 favorites]
The nasty things Coulter said were hurtful to many on the left, deeply. In the '00s, her shouting that liberals are not real Americans and hate the country, well, that was hard to take and harder to ignore, particularly when it looked like the majority of Americans agreed with her.
Ann Coulter was the finest example of the 'sore loser' mentality the right had that decade; it wasn't enough for them control the entire government, they wanted anyone who disagreed with them to be worse off for doing so. She was more than a troll, she was a straight up bully.
Which is why she's fallen off the radar this decade. First, the Dems took Congress, then Obama took the White House (and the next president will probably also be a Democrat). The GOP still has power, but not nearly as much, so the political climate isn't nearly as dire for for a liberal. Which makes it so much easier to ignore Coulter's bait. It's realizing the wolf who had been barking at you is really a chihuahua (Coulter would hate to be a chihuahua).
The Vice piece points out her career wasn't going anywhere before 9/11 (when she had her book contract canceled) but doesn't correctly get into how her post-9/11 was fueled or why she is in this new phase of her career.
posted by riruro at 2:10 PM on August 15, 2015 [16 favorites]
You know who else was a human being?
*ducks*
I'm reasonably sure they're waterfowl.
posted by Spatch at 2:18 PM on August 15, 2015 [88 favorites]
*ducks*
I'm reasonably sure they're waterfowl.
posted by Spatch at 2:18 PM on August 15, 2015 [88 favorites]
In noting that Coulter's career really took off after 9/11, I've always found it interesting/sad/ironic that her chief rival up to that day for photogenic woman conservative television pundit, Barbara Olson, died that day in the plane crash at the Pentagon.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:23 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 2:23 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
Is the NYT bestseller list completely broken?
It always has been otherwise the non-fiction category would be all cookbooks (and the world would seem like a better place)
posted by srboisvert at 2:25 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
It always has been otherwise the non-fiction category would be all cookbooks (and the world would seem like a better place)
posted by srboisvert at 2:25 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
The right needs her to help deal with their 'woman problem' in 2016, and to attack Hillary if it comes to that.I actually don't think they do need her. I don't get the sense that she appeals to women as much as to men, and they've got much more appealing right-wing women who can credibly attack Hillary Clinton. I think there's a fairly good chance that Carly Fiorina will get the VP nod for just that reason.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 2:30 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm reasonably sure they're waterfowl.
damn you
posted by ominous_paws at 2:49 PM on August 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
damn you
posted by ominous_paws at 2:49 PM on August 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
The very first sentence made me think "Was this fact checked?".
posted by srboisvert at 2:50 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by srboisvert at 2:50 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Hey wait, so is Ann Coulter being a "gay icon" actually a Thing, or is that just made up?
Not that this gay dude has heard -- I don't know a single gay man who has even ever brought her up in conversation, even ones who are registered Republicans. Though sadly, I'm sure there's some Venn Diagram there of xenophobic (esp. Islamophobic), racist gay guys who think she's okay.
posted by en forme de poire at 2:52 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Not that this gay dude has heard -- I don't know a single gay man who has even ever brought her up in conversation, even ones who are registered Republicans. Though sadly, I'm sure there's some Venn Diagram there of xenophobic (esp. Islamophobic), racist gay guys who think she's okay.
posted by en forme de poire at 2:52 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
She considers herself "the Judy Garland of the Right."
That's nice, but does anyone else agree?
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:56 PM on August 15, 2015 [9 favorites]
That's nice, but does anyone else agree?
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:56 PM on August 15, 2015 [9 favorites]
It sounds like she was declared a gay icon by some now-defunct group called GOProud, which apparently was an offshoot of the Log Cabin Republicans started by gay people who thought the Log Cabin folks weren't conservative enough. I am not sure that GOProud calling her a gay icon is necessarily evidence that she is. It sounds like she's more an icon for Peter Thiel and his libertarian buddies.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:02 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:02 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Hey wait, so is Ann Coulter being a "gay icon" actually a Thing, or is that just made up?
I've never heard a LGBT person express anything admiring about her. I did hear some persistent urban legends in the trans community that Coulter was a trans woman, but it wasn't like anybody was eager to claim her as one of us.
That being said, I have met some LGBT people who were full-on Republicans. Poor, confused, self-loathing souls.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:13 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
I've never heard a LGBT person express anything admiring about her. I did hear some persistent urban legends in the trans community that Coulter was a trans woman, but it wasn't like anybody was eager to claim her as one of us.
That being said, I have met some LGBT people who were full-on Republicans. Poor, confused, self-loathing souls.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:13 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
The truth is spoken in the article's url: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/ann-coulter-is-a-human-being?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=diggtwitter
The good thing about rendering the headline with a question mark is that it becomes instantly Betteridge's Law compliant.
posted by The Bellman at 3:13 PM on August 15, 2015 [10 favorites]
The good thing about rendering the headline with a question mark is that it becomes instantly Betteridge's Law compliant.
posted by The Bellman at 3:13 PM on August 15, 2015 [10 favorites]
Ann Who?
More like "Ann Why?" I rather hope there aren't any like her at home.
posted by datawrangler at 3:16 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
More like "Ann Why?" I rather hope there aren't any like her at home.
posted by datawrangler at 3:16 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ann Coulter is a human being [not in citation given]
posted by double block and bleed at 3:18 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by double block and bleed at 3:18 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's so adorable that she thinks anybody still takes her seriously.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 3:34 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by LastOfHisKind at 3:34 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
"When a homeless man spots her from the street, shouts, "Ann Coulter! Provocateur!" and then walks into the restaurant and asked her to pound it, she smiles and obliges his request. "
What is going on in this sentence, exactly?
It's what PC librull "journalism" majors might call the Terrorist Fist Bump if they had any balls. Homeless man held out a clenched fist to Ann Coulter, who bared her teeth and hit him with her own clenched fist on the indicated area.
posted by carsonb at 3:34 PM on August 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
What is going on in this sentence, exactly?
It's what PC librull "journalism" majors might call the Terrorist Fist Bump if they had any balls. Homeless man held out a clenched fist to Ann Coulter, who bared her teeth and hit him with her own clenched fist on the indicated area.
posted by carsonb at 3:34 PM on August 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
I have always gotten this impression she carries a stiletto.
the doctor left it in after the lobotomy
posted by pyramid termite at 3:40 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
the doctor left it in after the lobotomy
posted by pyramid termite at 3:40 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
"Ann Coulter is a human being"
Good. She qualifies for a new career!
An eternal crowd of onlookers is hers for the taking!
posted by markkraft at 3:43 PM on August 15, 2015
Good. She qualifies for a new career!
An eternal crowd of onlookers is hers for the taking!
posted by markkraft at 3:43 PM on August 15, 2015
"I have always gotten this impression she carries a stiletto."
Shoe daggers.
Rosa Klebb is one of her heroes. Reminds her of Ayn Rand.
posted by markkraft at 3:52 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Shoe daggers.
Rosa Klebb is one of her heroes. Reminds her of Ayn Rand.
posted by markkraft at 3:52 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ann Coulter is a human being that makes her living as a professional troll. Every time you mention her name, in any context, she uses that to earn a tiny bit of money.
Fuck, I did it again.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:01 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
Fuck, I did it again.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:01 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
"You just have to get used to a small explosion going off in your hands," Coulter said as she taught me how to shoot a gun. But she could have also been talking about the explosions she encounters as she goes about America speaking her mind.
That is some bad writing right there.
posted by Novus at 4:05 PM on August 15, 2015 [29 favorites]
That is some bad writing right there.
posted by Novus at 4:05 PM on August 15, 2015 [29 favorites]
She considers herself "the Judy Garland of the Right."
So...she has a pill problem, and isn't a real blonde?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:15 PM on August 15, 2015 [13 favorites]
So...she has a pill problem, and isn't a real blonde?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:15 PM on August 15, 2015 [13 favorites]
"But she could have also been talking about the explosions she encounters as she goes about America speaking her mind." This is so funny I could vomit. And by funny I mean vomit.
But seriously, vomit.
Ann Coulter, poor helpless persecuted rich powerful influential white woman! What, does she think other people's words actually have the power to hurt her?
Funny that... words can really hurt. In fact, they can destroy. The pen is mightier than the sword, and it has the power to take away needed resources, to turn people against entire factions of society, to cause some people to starve, lose jobs, be denied health care, be denied education, housing, food....
These are the things people she mocks and degrades actually face because of the cultural movement she's part of, and some have the audacity to be concerned that the WORDS of people who are hurt by her are too cruel? No one is calling for her to be imprisoned in a place where she will be raped and assaulted, no one who is opposed to her is calling for her to be sent back to Europe or wherever her ancestors immigrated from like she is doing to others.
Her words carry a weight and a power that those who try to stand up to her don't have against her.
I'm just, even more grossed out about this the more I think about it, which is weird because I actually put a lot of effort into finding compassion for everyone (even well beyond what is likely healthy or just). I'm just... I feel like the standards put on the vulnerable to understand the humanity of those who oppress is despicable compared the actual real violence done by those in power toward the oppressed either directly or by directly supporting and benefitting from such acts.
posted by xarnop at 4:27 PM on August 15, 2015 [10 favorites]
But seriously, vomit.
Ann Coulter, poor helpless persecuted rich powerful influential white woman! What, does she think other people's words actually have the power to hurt her?
Funny that... words can really hurt. In fact, they can destroy. The pen is mightier than the sword, and it has the power to take away needed resources, to turn people against entire factions of society, to cause some people to starve, lose jobs, be denied health care, be denied education, housing, food....
These are the things people she mocks and degrades actually face because of the cultural movement she's part of, and some have the audacity to be concerned that the WORDS of people who are hurt by her are too cruel? No one is calling for her to be imprisoned in a place where she will be raped and assaulted, no one who is opposed to her is calling for her to be sent back to Europe or wherever her ancestors immigrated from like she is doing to others.
Her words carry a weight and a power that those who try to stand up to her don't have against her.
I'm just, even more grossed out about this the more I think about it, which is weird because I actually put a lot of effort into finding compassion for everyone (even well beyond what is likely healthy or just). I'm just... I feel like the standards put on the vulnerable to understand the humanity of those who oppress is despicable compared the actual real violence done by those in power toward the oppressed either directly or by directly supporting and benefitting from such acts.
posted by xarnop at 4:27 PM on August 15, 2015 [10 favorites]
Once again people seem to abusing the word "troll". Like Katie Hopkins over here, Coulter just hates people who are not like her. Hatred is not trolling. It's hatred.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:28 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:28 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
"Gays are not liberals," she says. "Gays are right wingers who like butt sex."
Oh, screw you.
To be sure, there are some LGBT people who are so into celebrity and glamour that they lose sight of who their enemies are. I've met them. But those people aren't Republicans, they're short-sighted fanatics for camp and kitsch. They're William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
To say that gays as a group skew conservative, that's horse shit. If you're a gay Republican, you're signing up with a group that openly despises you, a group actively working against your interests, trying to shove you back in the closet and pray you away.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:32 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
Oh, screw you.
To be sure, there are some LGBT people who are so into celebrity and glamour that they lose sight of who their enemies are. I've met them. But those people aren't Republicans, they're short-sighted fanatics for camp and kitsch. They're William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
To say that gays as a group skew conservative, that's horse shit. If you're a gay Republican, you're signing up with a group that openly despises you, a group actively working against your interests, trying to shove you back in the closet and pray you away.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:32 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
Once again people seem to abusing the word "troll". Like Katie Hopkins over here, Coulter just hates people who are not like her. Hatred is not trolling. It's hatred.See, I actually don't believe that. I think that Coulter is a troll. I don't think she actually believes most of the things she says. I think she makes a good living by being outrageous and appealing to people who like to hear her say outrageous, offensive things. She's playing a character. In some ways, that's worse than if she really were a true believer.
I think she and Trump actually have a lot in common. They're both terrible, terrible people, but it's not because they really believe that gay marriage is wrong and Mexicans are destroying America.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:44 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
I know it's wrong to comment without reading the article, but:
Too Ann Coulter; Didn't Read
posted by uosuaq at 4:46 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
Too Ann Coulter; Didn't Read
posted by uosuaq at 4:46 PM on August 15, 2015 [11 favorites]
It's possible to be a bad person and still have friends. Ann Coulter is a very bad person.
posted by arcticseal at 5:12 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by arcticseal at 5:12 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
Re: the troll label ... Yes, I think it's accurate. She doesn't believe what she writes, it is a all an elaborate put-on.
More specifically, IMO, Coulter and Limbaugh and Trump, etc, don't burn any calories at all in forming and holding beliefs about anything other than presenting a persona crafted to get ratings.
It's as if a white guy opened a Chinese restaurant because he saw that the town didn't have one. He's not Chinese, doesn't know or care anything about Chinese food, but hey, look, there's a lucrative niche and business opportunity here!
They looked around, saw that "angry conservative cartoon character" played in the red states, so...profit!
Every second you spend telling your friends how much you hate them just helps their brand. They literally pay PR firms to track this activity. Their search algorithms are looking at this right now.
Fuck, I keep doing it! Shit!
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:14 PM on August 15, 2015 [12 favorites]
More specifically, IMO, Coulter and Limbaugh and Trump, etc, don't burn any calories at all in forming and holding beliefs about anything other than presenting a persona crafted to get ratings.
It's as if a white guy opened a Chinese restaurant because he saw that the town didn't have one. He's not Chinese, doesn't know or care anything about Chinese food, but hey, look, there's a lucrative niche and business opportunity here!
They looked around, saw that "angry conservative cartoon character" played in the red states, so...profit!
Every second you spend telling your friends how much you hate them just helps their brand. They literally pay PR firms to track this activity. Their search algorithms are looking at this right now.
Fuck, I keep doing it! Shit!
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:14 PM on August 15, 2015 [12 favorites]
No, but it changes how you / we react to her. I don't believe Ann Coulter is really that crazy. I also don't believe circus clowns really like to travel 30 dudes to a car.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:32 PM on August 15, 2015
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 5:32 PM on August 15, 2015
Ugh, why on earth would someone write this? Why shine the light on Anne Coulter if it's not to get her to scurry back into that crack in the wall behind the fridge?
posted by Hoopo at 5:41 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Hoopo at 5:41 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ann Coulter is the living embodiment of Cleek's Law.
posted by NoMich at 5:44 PM on August 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by NoMich at 5:44 PM on August 15, 2015 [7 favorites]
See, I actually don't believe that. I think that Coulter is a troll. I don't think she actually believes most of the things she says. I think she makes a good living by being outrageous and appealing to people who like to hear her say outrageous, offensive things. She's playing a character. In some ways, that's worse than if she really were a true believer.
I think she and Trump actually have a lot in common. They're both terrible, terrible people, but it's not because they really believe that gay marriage is wrong and Mexicans are destroying America.
I completely agree. As a native North Carolinian, I always thought this was what Jesse Helms was doing. He himself didn't feel the hate he expressed, he was simply pandering to the absolute worst of his constituency for votes. The fact that it worked for so long is horrible. The fact that a human being would say those things knowing they were wrong just to gain power is much more horrible.
posted by hydropsyche at 6:18 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
I think she and Trump actually have a lot in common. They're both terrible, terrible people, but it's not because they really believe that gay marriage is wrong and Mexicans are destroying America.
I completely agree. As a native North Carolinian, I always thought this was what Jesse Helms was doing. He himself didn't feel the hate he expressed, he was simply pandering to the absolute worst of his constituency for votes. The fact that it worked for so long is horrible. The fact that a human being would say those things knowing they were wrong just to gain power is much more horrible.
posted by hydropsyche at 6:18 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
It's threads like this that remind me how much the internet needs a universal ignore list, something I'm sure that Coulter would oppose for obvious reasons.
posted by Beholder at 6:33 PM on August 15, 2015
posted by Beholder at 6:33 PM on August 15, 2015
NoMich: "Ann Coulter is the living embodiment of Cleek's Law."
I feel bad for her that she's decided to spend every waking moment thinking about how to be seen pissing off the liberals. It must be very confining. Personally, I spend most of my time thinking about things more important than what the gobshites are doing. Hopefully a rock will fall out of the sky and put her out of her misery. Or maybe an Ayn Rand novel dropped from Trump's private jet.
posted by double block and bleed at 6:36 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
I feel bad for her that she's decided to spend every waking moment thinking about how to be seen pissing off the liberals. It must be very confining. Personally, I spend most of my time thinking about things more important than what the gobshites are doing. Hopefully a rock will fall out of the sky and put her out of her misery. Or maybe an Ayn Rand novel dropped from Trump's private jet.
posted by double block and bleed at 6:36 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Ann Coulter is a human being
Maybe, technically, but so were a lot of other "people" the planet could have happily done without. She still makes her money saying awful things to an audience of agitated morons with the aim of agitating them even further. Not really a useful person in my book.
posted by doctor_negative at 7:03 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Maybe, technically, but so were a lot of other "people" the planet could have happily done without. She still makes her money saying awful things to an audience of agitated morons with the aim of agitating them even further. Not really a useful person in my book.
posted by doctor_negative at 7:03 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
meh, she's like tabloids in the checkout aisle... i know she's there, someone must be paying attention, really cannot be bothered to give any single fuck.
posted by nathancaswell at 7:22 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by nathancaswell at 7:22 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
She still makes her money saying awful things to an audience of agitated morons with the aim of agitating them even further.
Not exactly. Very little of what she says is directed to the right. Everything that comes out of her mouth is targeted towards the left. Liberal criticism gives her "street cred" which she uses to sell books and personal appearances. This is a very important distinction, because if liberals just ignored her, really ignored her, it would deflate her career and earnings.
There's a business model that exist solely on being offensive. Say or do obnoxious things and hope people give you money because you piss off another group of people they don't like. If you consider Bill Maher a liberal (some probably don't), he'd be the left wing version of Coulter. It shouldn't be surprising they claim to be friends.
posted by Beholder at 7:25 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
Not exactly. Very little of what she says is directed to the right. Everything that comes out of her mouth is targeted towards the left. Liberal criticism gives her "street cred" which she uses to sell books and personal appearances. This is a very important distinction, because if liberals just ignored her, really ignored her, it would deflate her career and earnings.
There's a business model that exist solely on being offensive. Say or do obnoxious things and hope people give you money because you piss off another group of people they don't like. If you consider Bill Maher a liberal (some probably don't), he'd be the left wing version of Coulter. It shouldn't be surprising they claim to be friends.
posted by Beholder at 7:25 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
isn't that basically keith olbermann?
posted by nathancaswell at 7:26 PM on August 15, 2015
posted by nathancaswell at 7:26 PM on August 15, 2015
Well sure, Ann Coulter is a human. But what do we really know about these so-called gay friends of hers?
posted by Spathe Cadet at 7:28 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Spathe Cadet at 7:28 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Heh. I wrote a paper in college essentially saying something like what this article does. There are a few gems of truth there. At the time, I did feel like being a conservative could be in some way radical. I won a best-new-writer award from the conservative paper on campus...for my outraged opus about how wasteful our college and its students were regarding furniture during move-out, among other things. Stealth liberalism, in retrospect!
Overall, since then, I've decided that Ann Coulter is very good at sounding definitive about things and using that power to write books and be a personality without saying much of anything that she doesn't soon contradict in some way. There is no coherent center to her arguments, but she's very good at making people believe there is. It's kind of hypnotic, what she does with her writing.
Anyway, in most cases, when a writer says someone "screams" a phrase, especially more than once, I think it's hyperbole, but in this case I know it's not an exaggeration.
posted by limeonaire at 7:30 PM on August 15, 2015
Overall, since then, I've decided that Ann Coulter is very good at sounding definitive about things and using that power to write books and be a personality without saying much of anything that she doesn't soon contradict in some way. There is no coherent center to her arguments, but she's very good at making people believe there is. It's kind of hypnotic, what she does with her writing.
Anyway, in most cases, when a writer says someone "screams" a phrase, especially more than once, I think it's hyperbole, but in this case I know it's not an exaggeration.
posted by limeonaire at 7:30 PM on August 15, 2015
So?
Pol Pot was a human being
Josef Stalin was a human being.
Adolf Hitler was a human being.
Just because you are a human being does not mean you are not someone doing evil.
posted by eriko at 7:35 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Pol Pot was a human being
Josef Stalin was a human being.
Adolf Hitler was a human being.
Just because you are a human being does not mean you are not someone doing evil.
posted by eriko at 7:35 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
I dont't know why I bothered to read that article: I did not care and I still don't care.
posted by francesca too at 7:47 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by francesca too at 7:47 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
She's venomous clickbait in a shiny wrapper.
posted by puddledork at 7:52 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by puddledork at 7:52 PM on August 15, 2015 [4 favorites]
When a homeless man spots her from the street, shouts, "Ann Coulter! Provocateur!" and then walks into the restaurant and asked her to pound it, she smiles and obliges his request.
univac: What is going on in this sentence, exactly?
Ann is such a considerate human, she didn't immediately ask for the restaurant to escort out that filth, and she actually touched his hand, even if it was knuckle-to-knuckle.
In other words, this is another attempt at humanizing someone who tries to dehumanize non-white people (quickly found link to an old round-up of Coulter quotes - OK, why did I even go to that much effort, she's terrible from the beginning of the fucking article:
Damn, while looking for the "homeless man" quote, I read more of the article:
posted by filthy light thief at 7:56 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
univac: What is going on in this sentence, exactly?
Ann is such a considerate human, she didn't immediately ask for the restaurant to escort out that filth, and she actually touched his hand, even if it was knuckle-to-knuckle.
In other words, this is another attempt at humanizing someone who tries to dehumanize non-white people (quickly found link to an old round-up of Coulter quotes - OK, why did I even go to that much effort, she's terrible from the beginning of the fucking article:
She has chosen El Coyote, specifically, because she fears the town's Mexican restaurants will ban her once they hear the premise of the book: It's a manifesto arguing that Mexicans, Somalis, and Latin American and Middle Eastern immigrants are importing "peasant cultures" into the US. Over margaritas, Coulter and her friends joke about how immigrants "stole" lesbians' jobs and debate whether Mitt Romney could stage a comeback.SERIOUSLY? Let's play Terrible Human Bingo: fear of brown people? Check! Specifically calls out "dangerous" minority groups? Check! Fear of America becoming lesser because of invading forces? Check! Joking about broad swath of people based on sexual orientation? Check! Fuck this noise.)
Damn, while looking for the "homeless man" quote, I read more of the article:
If it were up to her, she would live in Portland instead of California; she identifies with the Pacific Northwest's aesthetic, considering herself "DIY" both because she promotes her own products (she's her own publicist and researcher) and sees conservatives as America's last true punks.Doublespeak check: this is not the definition of DIY most people understand, and conservatives are anything but punk, any more than they can claim Johnny Cash was a Republican.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:56 PM on August 15, 2015 [6 favorites]
Why shine the light on Anne Coulter if it's not to get her to scurry back into that crack in the wall behind the fridge?
I'm now scared to look behind my fridge.
posted by arcticseal at 8:08 PM on August 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
I'm now scared to look behind my fridge.
posted by arcticseal at 8:08 PM on August 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
Ann Coulter Is a Human Being
And yet this had to be pointed out in a headline.
Pat Kilbane used to do this character on MADtv called Smith Comma John, whose political ads used to insist, rather emphatically, that he was human, and would include things such as showing him eating (although cutting away right before he put the food in his mouth).
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:16 PM on August 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
And yet this had to be pointed out in a headline.
Pat Kilbane used to do this character on MADtv called Smith Comma John, whose political ads used to insist, rather emphatically, that he was human, and would include things such as showing him eating (although cutting away right before he put the food in his mouth).
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:16 PM on August 15, 2015 [5 favorites]
isn't that basically keith olbermann?
The sportscaster?
posted by Xavier Xavier at 8:54 PM on August 15, 2015
The sportscaster?
posted by Xavier Xavier at 8:54 PM on August 15, 2015
Sadly, we'll have to endure more of these journalistic handjobs as Coulter lobbies her media buddies to get Trump's pick for his ticket.
posted by bonehead at 9:36 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by bonehead at 9:36 PM on August 15, 2015 [1 favorite]
Thanks, carsonb, for explaining what "pound it" means in this context.
I tried a Google search and got lost for hours!
But I meant not only that, but what was happening with the verb tense switch-up. A disaster of a sentence in a disaster of an article in in a disaster of a political milieu, on a disaster of a planet.
posted by univac at 9:55 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
I tried a Google search and got lost for hours!
But I meant not only that, but what was happening with the verb tense switch-up. A disaster of a sentence in a disaster of an article in in a disaster of a political milieu, on a disaster of a planet.
posted by univac at 9:55 PM on August 15, 2015 [2 favorites]
Just because you are a human being does not mean you are not someone doing evil.
"In order for men to do great evil, they must first believe they are doing good."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
posted by 445supermag at 10:55 PM on August 15, 2015 [8 favorites]
"In order for men to do great evil, they must first believe they are doing good."
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
posted by 445supermag at 10:55 PM on August 15, 2015 [8 favorites]
"My main reason for opposing gay marriage is once your friends get married, you lose them," she laughs.
Seems legit.
So, if I might apply logic, she hates marriage, and wants to ban all marriage.
Seems like she might be a threat to traditional marriage.
posted by Mezentian at 11:16 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
Seems legit.
So, if I might apply logic, she hates marriage, and wants to ban all marriage.
Seems like she might be a threat to traditional marriage.
posted by Mezentian at 11:16 PM on August 15, 2015 [3 favorites]
Saying a woman has a "first rate mind" is anti-female. It's like saying that the dog is upright and talking. You wouldn't say that about a male troll of her caliber. Don't go there. Also, she doesn't have a first rate mind.
posted by Peach at 5:27 AM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Peach at 5:27 AM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
Ann Coulter fails at every demarcation of basic humanity.
Worse, she fails by choice. For profit and attention.
posted by Legomancer at 5:43 AM on August 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
Worse, she fails by choice. For profit and attention.
posted by Legomancer at 5:43 AM on August 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
The being Ann Coulter or someone like her (I'm withholding judgement as to her species until the autopsy) was bound to exist or to be called into existence due to the fact that it has long been known that if a corporation or government has to announce a socially or politically regressive change or policy, it should use a female spokesperson. Insecure white male conservatives like it (it helps them feel less lonely, as does the use of token minority spokespersons) and it "masks" the blow to moderates and makes liberals sound hypocritical ("Aren't they supposed to be feminists? What are they doing opposing that woman, then? Liberals are the real sexists, etc.")
posted by Captain l'escalier at 7:17 AM on August 16, 2015
posted by Captain l'escalier at 7:17 AM on August 16, 2015
Sadly, we'll have to endure more of these journalistic handjobs as Coulter lobbies her media buddies to get Trump's pick for his ticket.
Oh god that would be awesome.
Except for the relentless barrage of racism and sexism
posted by Nevin at 7:58 AM on August 16, 2015
Oh god that would be awesome.
Except for the relentless barrage of racism and sexism
posted by Nevin at 7:58 AM on August 16, 2015
Trump/Coulter 2016: for anyone who just wants to watch the world burn.
Trump/Coulter 2016: because you can't actually vote for Cthluhu, but we'll do our best.
Trump/Coulter 2016: Jon Stewart wouldn't even know where to begin.
posted by Rangi at 9:25 AM on August 16, 2015 [6 favorites]
Trump/Coulter 2016: because you can't actually vote for Cthluhu, but we'll do our best.
Trump/Coulter 2016: Jon Stewart wouldn't even know where to begin.
posted by Rangi at 9:25 AM on August 16, 2015 [6 favorites]
He would turn his head to look at the image, then turn back to the camera and just stare for five minutes.
Hey wait, so is Ann Coulter being a "gay icon" actually a Thing, or is that just made up?
I can see it happening. What's that AbFab line? "You're so easy, aren't you? Give you a bitch with a drinking problem and you're anybody's." (Gendered insult, sorry.) In some ways it's kinda true--mainstream gay culture tends to have a Thing about powerful women, and/or women who don't put up with shit from men. Coulter kinda fills that if you squint. So I don't doubt that it happens; I do doubt that it's very widespread.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:06 AM on August 16, 2015
Hey wait, so is Ann Coulter being a "gay icon" actually a Thing, or is that just made up?
I can see it happening. What's that AbFab line? "You're so easy, aren't you? Give you a bitch with a drinking problem and you're anybody's." (Gendered insult, sorry.) In some ways it's kinda true--mainstream gay culture tends to have a Thing about powerful women, and/or women who don't put up with shit from men. Coulter kinda fills that if you squint. So I don't doubt that it happens; I do doubt that it's very widespread.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 10:06 AM on August 16, 2015
It's an admittedly unfair and questionably attributed smear, but I remember being on some now forgotten discussion page where this guy revealed that he had attended law school with Ms. Coulter. He mentioned that she wasn't exactly a white-hot firebrand of conservative political opinion, but rather would just sit there with that disconcerting mildly bug-eyed stare. No one wanted to sit next to her.
(I feel dirty now. To mitigate, seek ye out actor and satirist Steven Weber's hilarious essay about a (fictional) date he had with Coulter.)
posted by Chitownfats at 1:10 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
(I feel dirty now. To mitigate, seek ye out actor and satirist Steven Weber's hilarious essay about a (fictional) date he had with Coulter.)
posted by Chitownfats at 1:10 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm queer and moderate/liberal, and I think Ann Coulter is why the phrase "don't hate the player, hate the game" was invented.
Saying a woman has a "first rate mind" is anti-female. I don't think so. "That was a first rate cake!" implies that there are many cakes, but this one is better. And those who are arguing that she's not incredibly smart simply because they disagree with her are dismissing the fact that she didn't simply wake up on top of a heap of pundits.
She's playing conservatives and charging them for the privilege. Politics - particularly the pundit/author/public speaking circuit kind of politics - is a circus. She knows this, and she has made her fortune off of conning conservatives to pay her to say outrageous things. And then the liberals get mad and the conservatives love this! How hilarious! And here in this conversation, people lobbing the same brand of attacks she lobs at other people - but when she does it then it's hateful? Hmm. Is she trolling? Probably. But the only difference between her and everybody else on CNN/Fox/MSNBC/wherever else is that she's pretty frank about the fact that she's trolling. Her comments fall into two buckets: conservative ideas communicated bluntly/hyperbolically, and then shit that is so completely outrageous that people who actually hold those ideas as convictions did so long before they ever heard her.
Calling her less than human/waiting for the autopsy?/questioning her worth/likening her to people who have killed/abused/denied rights to millions is, frankly, ridiculous. Whatever the number of acts of hate she may have inspired in her lifetime, the consequences don't even come close to registering as evil. And if she's worthless just for having a public-facing job with low positive impact then probably 70% of the rest of Americans have no hope either.
Ann Coulter isn't evil. Ann Coulter's just an asshole, the Johnny Knoxville of politics. Saying she is responsible for some kind of cultural undoing is like saying "but the kids would be watching Nova if not for Jackass!"
posted by good lorneing at 1:38 PM on August 16, 2015
Saying a woman has a "first rate mind" is anti-female. I don't think so. "That was a first rate cake!" implies that there are many cakes, but this one is better. And those who are arguing that she's not incredibly smart simply because they disagree with her are dismissing the fact that she didn't simply wake up on top of a heap of pundits.
She's playing conservatives and charging them for the privilege. Politics - particularly the pundit/author/public speaking circuit kind of politics - is a circus. She knows this, and she has made her fortune off of conning conservatives to pay her to say outrageous things. And then the liberals get mad and the conservatives love this! How hilarious! And here in this conversation, people lobbing the same brand of attacks she lobs at other people - but when she does it then it's hateful? Hmm. Is she trolling? Probably. But the only difference between her and everybody else on CNN/Fox/MSNBC/wherever else is that she's pretty frank about the fact that she's trolling. Her comments fall into two buckets: conservative ideas communicated bluntly/hyperbolically, and then shit that is so completely outrageous that people who actually hold those ideas as convictions did so long before they ever heard her.
Calling her less than human/waiting for the autopsy?/questioning her worth/likening her to people who have killed/abused/denied rights to millions is, frankly, ridiculous. Whatever the number of acts of hate she may have inspired in her lifetime, the consequences don't even come close to registering as evil. And if she's worthless just for having a public-facing job with low positive impact then probably 70% of the rest of Americans have no hope either.
Ann Coulter isn't evil. Ann Coulter's just an asshole, the Johnny Knoxville of politics. Saying she is responsible for some kind of cultural undoing is like saying "but the kids would be watching Nova if not for Jackass!"
posted by good lorneing at 1:38 PM on August 16, 2015
Ann Coulter isn't evil. Ann Coulter's just an asshole, the Johnny Knoxville of politics.
We can argue for a long time over whether people are evil or merely do evil. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. Like the creeps at conventions, it doesn't matter if Coulter really believes the vicious nonsense that she peddles or is just doing it for exposure or laughs. She makes the world a worse place. She gives comfort and cover to people who are trying to burn down the US out of paranoia and greed. She is in the Devil's camp, and, when you find yourself there, it does not matter one bit what your motive and intentions are or were.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:09 PM on August 16, 2015 [11 favorites]
We can argue for a long time over whether people are evil or merely do evil. At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. Like the creeps at conventions, it doesn't matter if Coulter really believes the vicious nonsense that she peddles or is just doing it for exposure or laughs. She makes the world a worse place. She gives comfort and cover to people who are trying to burn down the US out of paranoia and greed. She is in the Devil's camp, and, when you find yourself there, it does not matter one bit what your motive and intentions are or were.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:09 PM on August 16, 2015 [11 favorites]
Ann Coulter is a human being? Perhaps she used to be but is no longer recognizable as the compliment. Perhaps she can be again. apathy towards her is a feasible strategy. apathy and ignorance. apathy and ignorance and "so-whatism".. cheers
posted by SteveLaudig at 3:11 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by SteveLaudig at 3:11 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
See, I actually don't believe that. I think that Coulter is a troll.
My guess is that the people she targets with hatred don't see it that way.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 3:46 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
My guess is that the people she targets with hatred don't see it that way.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 3:46 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
I am one of the people she targets for hatred, for what it's worth. That doesn't make me particularly special, given the range of people she targets for hatred.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:55 PM on August 16, 2015
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:55 PM on August 16, 2015
Doublespeak check: this is not the definition of DIY most people understand, and conservatives are anything but punk, any more than they can claim Johnny Cash was a Republican.
Johnny Ramone, on the other hand
posted by Apocryphon at 4:52 PM on August 16, 2015
Johnny Ramone, on the other hand
posted by Apocryphon at 4:52 PM on August 16, 2015
See, I actually don't believe that. I think that Coulter is a troll.
My guess is that the people she targets with hatred don't see it that way.
Her being a troll is orthogonal to the harm she causes. weev is a troll, too, and did real-world damage.
posted by Etrigan at 5:03 PM on August 16, 2015 [4 favorites]
My guess is that the people she targets with hatred don't see it that way.
Her being a troll is orthogonal to the harm she causes. weev is a troll, too, and did real-world damage.
posted by Etrigan at 5:03 PM on August 16, 2015 [4 favorites]
Her being a troll is orthogonal to the harm she causes. weev is a troll, too, and did real-world damage.
And to paraphrase Burroughs, some people are just shits, I don't doubt for a minute she believes every word she says. She is openly, actively hateful. It may be hard to believe there exist people as empathy deficient as her and others like her, but there they are all the same, doing a very convincing job of being just that, causing unironic harm.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 7:08 PM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
And to paraphrase Burroughs, some people are just shits, I don't doubt for a minute she believes every word she says. She is openly, actively hateful. It may be hard to believe there exist people as empathy deficient as her and others like her, but there they are all the same, doing a very convincing job of being just that, causing unironic harm.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 7:08 PM on August 16, 2015 [3 favorites]
I don't doubt for a minute she believes every word she says.Oh come on. She's repeatedly said that she doesn't think women should have the right to vote. Do you think she really believes that?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:09 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
Johnny Knoxville is a stuntman goofball who lets himself get kicked around for our amusement. There is an element of sadism in some of the Jackass pranks, where the guys slap each other around, but most of the stunts are based on humorously horrible acts of masochism. They'll politely take turns injuring each other, or they'll all line up and get punched in the balls by some ball-punching mechanism. They're not hurting anybody who hasn't consented to be hurt, and most of the time they're just hurting themselves. It's stupid, fun, punk rock Three Stooges little boy stuff, and I have zero idea how that has any relevance to Coulter.
Even if you don't believe she means the worst shit she says, it's still evil that she's out there trying to sell her racist, homophobic, sexist, fascist, crazy-ass ideas. If you do evil things but you're not really invested in them, that makes you a sociopath. So, she's evil or she's dead inside. Either possibility makes her a person to avoid at all costs.
Comparing her to Keith Olbermann or Bill Maher makes even less sense to me than comparing her to Knoxville. To be the bizarro-Coulter, somebody would have to be a King of the Hill-esque Liberal simp who was pushing to outlaw all cars and the eating of red meat.
Olbermann is a smart guy, and I think he very much means what he says. Sometimes he can be an asshole, but he is a solid lefty with good intentions. He is also prickly and vain and moody in a way that hasn't done his career any favors. Maher comes a bit closer to the Coulter model and he does say some things purely to offend people, but he's not as left-wing as people think. He's more of a cranky Libertarian. He went after Bill Clinton relentlessly in the 90s, and I think the only reason he seems like such a lefty today is because the conservatives have gone off into crazy land. Maher likes pot and strippers, and that doesn't really make him a lefty but it does set him in sharp opposition to most of the Republican candidates these days. He can be friends with Coulter because he is not an idealist in any way. I suspect Olbermann and Coulter are not friendly, even when the cameras are off. Olbermann gives a damn, and you can't shake that woman's hand if you give a damn about anything.
In sum: Ann Coulter is a hateful pile of awful. She dishes out a lot of horrible shit to people who haven't done anything to deserve it, and she's done a lot to deserve whatever horrible shit gets dished her away.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:11 PM on August 16, 2015 [11 favorites]
Even if you don't believe she means the worst shit she says, it's still evil that she's out there trying to sell her racist, homophobic, sexist, fascist, crazy-ass ideas. If you do evil things but you're not really invested in them, that makes you a sociopath. So, she's evil or she's dead inside. Either possibility makes her a person to avoid at all costs.
Comparing her to Keith Olbermann or Bill Maher makes even less sense to me than comparing her to Knoxville. To be the bizarro-Coulter, somebody would have to be a King of the Hill-esque Liberal simp who was pushing to outlaw all cars and the eating of red meat.
Olbermann is a smart guy, and I think he very much means what he says. Sometimes he can be an asshole, but he is a solid lefty with good intentions. He is also prickly and vain and moody in a way that hasn't done his career any favors. Maher comes a bit closer to the Coulter model and he does say some things purely to offend people, but he's not as left-wing as people think. He's more of a cranky Libertarian. He went after Bill Clinton relentlessly in the 90s, and I think the only reason he seems like such a lefty today is because the conservatives have gone off into crazy land. Maher likes pot and strippers, and that doesn't really make him a lefty but it does set him in sharp opposition to most of the Republican candidates these days. He can be friends with Coulter because he is not an idealist in any way. I suspect Olbermann and Coulter are not friendly, even when the cameras are off. Olbermann gives a damn, and you can't shake that woman's hand if you give a damn about anything.
In sum: Ann Coulter is a hateful pile of awful. She dishes out a lot of horrible shit to people who haven't done anything to deserve it, and she's done a lot to deserve whatever horrible shit gets dished her away.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:11 PM on August 16, 2015 [11 favorites]
Oh, and I muffed it a bit with the King of the Hill line. I meant those strawman Liberal simp characters who would show up on King of the Hill, the ponytailed, big city folk who would come into town and ruin everything with their drum circles and environmental regulations.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:26 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:26 PM on August 16, 2015 [1 favorite]
Oh come on. She's repeatedly said that she doesn't think women should have the right to vote. Do you think she really believes that?
Is she arguing that women should lose the right to vote this second, or is she arguing that in an idealized, perfect America, women shouldn't have the right to vote?
posted by Going To Maine at 8:03 AM on August 17, 2015
Is she arguing that women should lose the right to vote this second, or is she arguing that in an idealized, perfect America, women shouldn't have the right to vote?
posted by Going To Maine at 8:03 AM on August 17, 2015
From the link: Other conservative Cornell students flocked to Rabkin and identified with Coulter's pain. With Coulter, they founded a conservative college newspaper called the Cornell Review. According to Coulter, early issues featured layout errors because the students had no journalism experience.
So I was an undergrad at Cornell the same time as Coulter and in my memory everyone I knew considered the Cornell Review lame and tedious. I mean, it was even more pathetic and amateurish than the regular undergrad newspaper, which is embarrassing enough (like many/most undergrad papers, to be fair). That Coulter went on to the media fame (infamy) she has was dumbfounding to me for many years. I think the other whiny CR dipshits went into the usual banking / corporate law kinds of frat- and country club-connected jobs one would have expected of that privileged ilk.
posted by aught at 8:13 AM on August 17, 2015
So I was an undergrad at Cornell the same time as Coulter and in my memory everyone I knew considered the Cornell Review lame and tedious. I mean, it was even more pathetic and amateurish than the regular undergrad newspaper, which is embarrassing enough (like many/most undergrad papers, to be fair). That Coulter went on to the media fame (infamy) she has was dumbfounding to me for many years. I think the other whiny CR dipshits went into the usual banking / corporate law kinds of frat- and country club-connected jobs one would have expected of that privileged ilk.
posted by aught at 8:13 AM on August 17, 2015
Coulter's minions:
(attributed to anonymous)
Though the wind does not blow here
still there are sad songs
and little dogs with angry hearts
barking with their fingers
at everything which moves
and some birds who fly in their sleep
but their feathers are not real
wishing for a life in someone else's body
words that do not roll along any rivers
like water
looking for relatives
and counting blessings
the drum beats in the quiet void
where strangers posture strangely
and the door stays open
all night
posted by mule98J at 11:27 AM on August 17, 2015
(attributed to anonymous)
Though the wind does not blow here
still there are sad songs
and little dogs with angry hearts
barking with their fingers
at everything which moves
and some birds who fly in their sleep
but their feathers are not real
wishing for a life in someone else's body
words that do not roll along any rivers
like water
looking for relatives
and counting blessings
the drum beats in the quiet void
where strangers posture strangely
and the door stays open
all night
posted by mule98J at 11:27 AM on August 17, 2015
Do you think she really believes that?
Yes. It honestly does not break my brain to imagine someone, even a woman, could hold this opinion. But more importantly, does it matter if her hatepuke is ironic, long-game dark humor, if the effect is the same?
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:34 PM on August 17, 2015
Yes. It honestly does not break my brain to imagine someone, even a woman, could hold this opinion. But more importantly, does it matter if her hatepuke is ironic, long-game dark humor, if the effect is the same?
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 6:34 PM on August 17, 2015
"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot,' so I'm - so, kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions," said Coulter, whose comment was followed by applause.
posted by andoatnp at 12:10 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by andoatnp at 12:10 PM on August 19, 2015 [1 favorite]
Whatever the number of acts of hate she may have inspired in her lifetime, the consequences don't even come close to registering as evil.
Whatever the number? So inspiring acts of hate isn't evil? Isn't ever evil? And neither is consistently, actively working to make the world a more terrible place, especially if you *don't* believe the things you are saying?
At best, I think we have very different bars for what constitutes 'evil'.
Would you accept 'very, very bad'?
I have heard formulations that held humans can't ever be considered evil, but that was mostly in the context that only supernatural/mythological beings, like Satan/demons could be considered actually evil, which is pretty far outside my concept of the universe.
But hey, it isn't like there is an independent scale for what is considered evil.
The point about the worst of the worst still being human is that that is still the case for every human being who has committed evil on this world.
posted by Elysum at 5:46 AM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Whatever the number? So inspiring acts of hate isn't evil? Isn't ever evil? And neither is consistently, actively working to make the world a more terrible place, especially if you *don't* believe the things you are saying?
At best, I think we have very different bars for what constitutes 'evil'.
Would you accept 'very, very bad'?
I have heard formulations that held humans can't ever be considered evil, but that was mostly in the context that only supernatural/mythological beings, like Satan/demons could be considered actually evil, which is pretty far outside my concept of the universe.
But hey, it isn't like there is an independent scale for what is considered evil.
The point about the worst of the worst still being human is that that is still the case for every human being who has committed evil on this world.
posted by Elysum at 5:46 AM on August 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
I really didn't think this story could be true until a (gay, white, cismale) acquaintance posted a photo of him and Ann Coulter at dinner tonight on Facebook with the caption "Such a lovely dinner." Sigh.
posted by jaksemas at 9:40 PM on August 26, 2015
posted by jaksemas at 9:40 PM on August 26, 2015
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They have it backwards. Coulter is a well-seasoned troll, and inciting a backlash has always been a part of her strategy.
posted by schmod at 12:17 PM on August 15, 2015 [92 favorites]