Monday night at the end of the presidential debate Ann Coulter, syndicated columnist, author, and female adam’s apple model tweeted this:
Before anyone decides to give her the benefit of the doubt I want to rattle off a bit about her education:
She graduated cum laude from Cornell in 1984 with a B.A. in history, and received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1988, where she achieved membership in the Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Michigan Law Review. At Michigan, Coulter was president of the local chapter of the Federalist Society and was trained at the National Journalism Center.
Does anyone believe she made a mistake with her choice of language? Does anyone believe that this was anything other than an attention getting tweet? She’s a smart lady. It was no mistake.
Why is this acceptable? The disability community is fighting the same fight against hate speech that the black community and the gay community fought (and continue to fight).
Try these sample tweets on for size. Tell me how easily they roll off your tongue:
I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the nigger.
I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the faggot.
I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the kike.
I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the rag head.
I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the cripple.
How do those sound? Do they seem in any way “acceptable”? Why is “retard” acceptable? Why is Ann Coulter’s tweet not considered hate speech? Why are Ann Coulter’s advertisers not abandoning ship?
It is no secret that Ms. Coulter’s entertainment career is built upon shocking her audience. I want to make clear that she’s an entertainer. I know her background is in journalism, but she’s not a journalist. Can we all agree that it’s time, as an audience, to leave her particular theater behind?
The Sadder But Wiser Girl
10/23/2012
Ridiculous. I have never liked her, and I am reminded why. How insensitive!
Jim
10/23/2012
Here sensitivity was never what sold her books. . . but hate speech SHOULD stop them from being sold. . . if there’s justice in the world.
Bec
10/23/2012
The most intelligent explanation I’ve read about why *everyone* should care about this. Well done.
Jim
10/23/2012
Thanks, Bec!
Kristi
10/23/2012
A-FUCKING-men!! I don’t question her smarts but she can be controversial without spreading hate. She can’t seem to help herself.
Jim
10/23/2012
She sells books. Hate sells apparently.
Andrea
10/23/2012
I forgot dyke. I commend you for this ballsy article. totally ballsy. well done.
this kind of language is not okay, it is hate speech, and Ann Coulter is a parasite.
Jim
10/23/2012
Soooo many slurs that could have been added. I almost feel as if I’m racist for not adding them. . . tell me THAT’S not ironic.
Thanks, Andrea.
Lance
10/23/2012
It’s part of who she is. She tweets the way she talks. Bill Maher (who I’m not the biggest fan of, either) has told stories about how Coulter is away from the cameras. She’s exactly the same but drunker and more vile in her speech.
The bulimic shoved into a cocktail dress two sixes two small while on her fourth cosmopolitan act was lame 10 years ago. She’s pushing 50, now. She’s gone from lame to sad and pathetic.
Jim
10/23/2012
But she still sells books. If only you and I were HALF as sad and pathetic at selling books we’d both be doing QUITE well. She shouldn’t be getting air time. She shouldn’t have sponsors.
lexi
10/23/2012
Jim, when I read what you wrote on my blog post about the subject, I RAN over to tell you that you needed to post about it. But then you did. Because you’re psychic.
Great post. It’s tough to hear those words, but it puts everything in context.
Have you seen this post by John C. McGinley? (Doctor Cox from Scrubs- son has Down syndrome)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-c-mcginley/r-word_b_456316.html
Jim
10/23/2012
Thanks, Lex. No, I haven’t. I’ll go check it out!
Spectrummy Mummy
10/23/2012
Show the hate for what it is, Jim. Well done.
Jim
10/23/2012
Thanks J-. . . um. . . Spectrummy Mummy !
Kelly Hafer
10/23/2012
Ann is a vile woman. Her use of the word “retard” is as disgusting as all of the examples you gave. She okay’d the use of that word by her millions of fans. Fans who blindly retweet and regurgitate whatever she has said. She has managed to bully the most helpless among us. Yes, why AREN’T her sponsors jumping ship? Why hasn’t FOX NEWS made a statement? This cannot be allowed to exist in our society.
Jim
10/23/2012
Absolutely. . . hey! a smart lady whose books I read uses the R word! I’ll use it!!!
kath galasso
10/23/2012
I cannot think of another human being, and I honestly think that is a gray area in her case, who makes my blood boil more than Ann Coulter. I see her more of a caricature than a real person. After the time my remote barely missed her face on the TV screen, I decided she was not worth the replacement value of a flat screen and I automatically turn her right off.
I picture her soul, if she actually has one, as a shriveled and blackened mass of gunk. The fact that she sells so many books is a sad reflection on our society.
Jim
10/23/2012
maybe that’s the way we should all think of her. . . as a character or caricature rather than a real person. She’s an entertainer. . . and her act is pissing off half of her audience and thrilling the other half. I don’t know. I wish she’d go away.
Danielle
10/23/2012
I’m glad you wrote this, Jim. You took the words right out of my mouth.
How is that we live in a society where even John McCain was offended by and corrected his supporters who started shouting “Obama is a terrorist” at McCain’s campaign rallies, but nearly 4,000 people saw fit to “favorite” or “retweet” that Obama is a “retard”? (And who knows how many more since 12:19 a.m. …)
To me – that’s the issue. It isn’t about Ann Coulter or Fox News (as much as I wish they’d both go away). It’s about US. ALL of us. Fox News and Ann Coulter exist because they are profitable. They are profitable because a significant segment of Americans AGREE with them.
Why? Why do we accept a level of political discourse no more intelligent than grade-school sandbox play? Why do we, as a society, adopt the names for marginalized, stereotyped and weaker segments of society as our taunts and insults? I didn’t have to have an autistic daughter to understand how offense it is to use “retard” as an insult. I didn’t have to have a gay relative to understand how offense it is to use “fag” or “queer” or “homo” as insults. I didn’t have to have relatives or friends who are black to understand how horrible the N-word is. So, how come I get it, and so many more don’t?
THAT’s the conversation that I’d love to see come from this. I don’t want that fruit-loop of human being to get any more air time.
Jim
10/23/2012
I did actually mean to mention the retweets and favorites, but . . . it’s just depressing.
Thanks, Danielled.
J-Nut
10/23/2012
Very well said, Jim. It is sad that this is the level that “political discourse” has sunk to. It is sad that it is so easy for someone to get attention in this way.
She may be an entertainer, and out for attention. We probably won’t get her to stop doing what she does. But she also has many followers – and those are the people that we can reach.
Jim
10/23/2012
can reach. . . but can’t reach. . . so close but so far. The only way to reach HER is to reach her advertisers. The only way to reach them is to have her tell them.
Lisa
10/23/2012
Exactly!! I couldn’t agree with you more. Time to leave her shock-jock drivel behind.
Jim
10/23/2012
Punch it in, Lisa!
Diane
10/23/2012
Nicely done Jim!!! Great post! D
Jim
10/23/2012
Thanks, Diane!
Niksmom
10/23/2012
I think Dr. Paul Farmer sums it up nicely for me… “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.”
Your post is spot on, Jim. Spot on.
Jim
10/23/2012
Thanks. I like that quote. Applies straight across the board.
Dani G
10/23/2012
Nailed it, Jim. Great post. “An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.”
Jim
10/23/2012
oooh. . . I like THAT line too!
Angie
10/23/2012
I absolutely love this piece, Jim. Bravo.
Jim
10/23/2012
Thanks, Angie!
Cassandra
10/23/2012
Since when is “cripple” considered hate speech? I think “spic” or something equally vulgar would have made more sense. Altogether it is an effective post….
Jim
10/23/2012
Hmmm. . . cripple is definitely offensive, and people with disabilities are a protected class. But perhaps you’re right. Maybe that word is not ‘hate speech’. . . just offensive.
Wonderbaby
10/23/2012
I have often said that I don’t live in the same world as everyone else. The world of Autism lives parallel to everyone else. We exist in the same stores, parks or neighborhoods, but our focus, goals and achievements are none the same. But every once in a while our parallel lives collide together when people use hateful speech just to shock their audience.
Her use of the word “retard” left a shattering effect on anyone struggling with any kind of mental challenges. Now I could go off the deep end here comparing her failed attempt at wit against my kids knowledge would knock her out of the park. But I won’t and honestly I just don’t have time for that anymore. Yet now I am left with damage of again proving to a world I no longer exist in, that this use of speech is hateful.
Maybe I should take a moment to thank her personally because I now am even more focused to help my boys overcome their challenges they face each day.
Thank you for standing up and sharing all that I felt too!
Jim
10/23/2012
Thanks, Wonderbaby!
Flannery
10/23/2012
Excellent message!
Jim
10/23/2012
Thanks, Flannery!
Shazza
10/23/2012
Great post Jim. She is plain nasty.
Jim
10/24/2012
Thanks, Shazza!
Tom Ledford
10/24/2012
Sadly, there is an audience for everyone, even those who don’t deserve the smallest of platforms to speak from. I have not seen anyone that has such a platform to shout from as Ann Coulter does, that cares so little about belittling and harming others. She is morally bankrupt, vile and disgusting.
Fortunately, there is a balance in our universe. Perhaps it is karma. But there are also lights shining loving rays from the blogosphere. Their platforms may not be as high, but their ideals tower above hers.
I have enjoyed reading your wonderful little blog -”Just a Lil Blog.” I have a nephew who is autistic. My heart goes out to his mother and father. There are very few better examples of pure Love than parents that care for autistic children diligently and without complaint.
I congratulate you on your bravery and your voice. It IS being heard.
Jim
10/24/2012
Thanks, Tom!
Sometimes there’s not much comfort being one of a thousand little voices crying out against the injustice of one ENORMOUS voice’s ignorance and lack of sensitivity even if there IS balance.