My Take on Ann Coulter

Yahoo! has a message board for Ann's weekly columns. It is riddled with people who go there because they despise her and probably gets around six or seven thousand posts a week. Most of them that are critical of her do just what you point out - attack her personally and rarely ever bring up counterarguments against what she says.

Annoying? Methinks thou doth protest too little. She "jokes" about domestic terrorists blowing up the NY Times building. She "jokes" about poisoning a Supreme Court justice. She "jokes" about sending anthrax to the NY Times. If that is just a "little too far" I would hate to see what "too far" is.

If she just wants to be the Andrew "Dice" Clay of right-wing punditry, at least she could do it without trying to incite violence. Is that really too much to ask? She's welcome to call me a 'blame america first commie liberal', I'd just rather not have to worry about her followers coming after me with a noose. Literally.

I just don't find her shtick of vilification very mind opening. There are plenty of conservative pundits who make their points with data, historical facts, and logical thinking and don't find the need to resort to her low-brow tactics. But then, they are boring. No "red meat" to get the blood going. Yes, I understand that I play right into that by replying to this...but I will not sit by and let what she does be minimized to 'just kidding' or 'a view form the other side.'

I will give her credit for continually reminding me that freedom is hard.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".

So, it's not that we shouldn't be concerned about Ann, just more concerned with others. Yes, yes...a semantic nitpick. Apologies. I know, but I don't really think a good slogan is "Ann Coulter, she's not as bad as people who wage jihad against us!"

I do want to agree with you overall point, if I may try and summarize, that it would do us all good to have strong opinions, that are weakly held. That is, you are willing to be convinced that you are wrong if presented with a good case.

"... Ann Coulter ... sometimes a little annoying ..."
"... Ms. Coulter has been known to go a little to far in her hatred of the left ..."
Looks to me like you are trying to understate just how personal and hateful Ann Coulter's writing really is.

Despite the fact that Coulter is a Troll in more ways than one, it is good to see opposing views on Newsvine. Besides, how else will I reinforce my elitist sense of moral superiority?

Before I "got the joke" as it were (as in, stopped taking anything she says seriously), I'd generally read her rants with my jaw hanging open thinking "She can't be @!$%#ing serious".

It always seemed to me that the content of her rants gets ignored because of *HOW* she presents it.
Just as we tend to ignore, or end up in flame wars with viners that would present their opinions (regardless of their validity) in the inflammitory manner that she does, we tend to ignore, or rant back (often in the same vitriolic way) at Ann.

Her arguements may occasionally have sound logic to them, but I honestly don't think she has any desire to have a discourse of ideas, she *WANTS* to spread her opinions in ways that elicit that kind of reaction from the left, because it sells books, and it makes her lots of money.

She may be smart, I don't honestly know, but one thing I know for sure is that her method of discourse does not encourage rational response, and is bound never to get it.

How man times can we misspell a three letter word?? Let us count the ways!

been to of my most commented

a little to far in her hatred of the left

way to much Bush bashing

For the record, I don't actually care. I just found it amusing. I know someone will bother to yell at me for picking on a misspell, but again, I don't care. Have fun.

One interesting thing about Ann Coulter (and I see it on this message board) is that so many conservatives are hesitant to admit that she is a good political pundit or that they secretly admire her. I was this way for years until I figured out what she is really about. And why do conservatives approach Coulter this way? Because the left is so adamant in villifying her and painting her as someone who is just as bad as the worst bomb throwers on the left, that conservatives by nature feel they must somewhat distance themselves from her.

Here's a suggestion to conservatives: if you like Ann Coulter or agree with her substance, then don't let liberals tell you that you shouldn't and don't feel you have to distance yourself from her. Then they are accomplishing the very thing that Ann's positions are designed to counter against and why should they define our points-of-view for us and what we should deem appropriate or not? They seem to have enough trouble managing their own controversial representatives; why should we let them manage ours? Ann does not set back conservatism; she promotes it with deadly precision and we should thank her for doing what she does.

There. I said it. Now spank me for it.

I've met Ms. Coulter when she visited my college several years ago, and I have to say I think she's rather pathetic. Her diatribes are the exact opposite of intelligent discourse. She's hateful, smug, rude, dishonest, and a really lousy public speaker. I was actually very excited to hear her speak, because the speakers on the college circuit tend to be more liberal, but instead of an insightful conservative argument, she offered an hour-long string of nervous one-liners. She was visibly shaking the entire time and she always laughed at her own jokes as she artlessly navigated from one non-sequiter liberal cliche to the next. Getting smarter? Not by listening to or reading Ann Coulter.

Here in the UK, Coulter and her views have (understandably) passed us by - but the other week Newsnight (BBC news analysis programme) interviewed her. She came across as a purveyor of one liners with no substance or thought behind them, whose only defence was to attack the interviewer (I doubt Paxman lost any sleep!) and we, the viewers, were left wondering why anyone took her seriously or indeed took any notice of her at all.

Perhaps the right in the US distance themselves from her because they don't find her credible? And maybe the "left" needs to just ignore her and that will be the end of her. Arguing with her gives her credibility that perhaps she does not merit.

Let's see, weekly frothing attacks on the values and ideology of ~50% of the U.S. population and we wonder why she elicits so much hatred?

I'm so befuddled.

I liked this article. Someone is finally acknowledging that people have rights to their opinions even if they are on the Right.