I usually don't pay much attention to Ann Coulter. Well, except for yelling at my television screen whenever she comes on the air. While I tend to be on the more liberal side of issues, I certainly don't turn a blind eye to columns and television appearances by most Republicans. I've expounded before on my enjoyment of MSNBC's Morning Joe, hosted by conservative Congressman Joe Scarborough. But, there's just something about Ann Coulter. Maybe it's her often racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and mostly outrageous remarks. Most of which are likely made to get her attention so she can sell her books and appear on even more television shows than she already does. I saw her on Tucker Carlson's show earlier in the week (hey, another Republican show I watch) and aside from hawking her latest book, she found time to plug a National Enquirer story about a politician she obviously has some sort of unhealthy obsession with. When you are citing and publicizing stories from the National Enquirer, that's one step above saying that Bigfoot exists because it was in the Weekly World News.
This makes me embarrassed to be an almost-graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where, I'm sad to say, Coulter once attended. But this week, Coulter's really gone and upset me, and a lot of other members of the Jewish faith, by going on CNBC's The Big Idea (a very underrated show hosted by advertising guru Donny Deutsch) and claiming that the world would be better without any Jewish people in it. Excellent. There's somebody who people should be listening to and spending money to buy her books and keep her in business. Even after Deutsch gave her a chance to take back her obviously anti-semitic comments, she went further, saying that Jews needed to be "perfected" by converting to Christianity. Media Matters posted the video and transcript (And before people start, let me go on record saying that Media Matters is not perfect and gets things wrong, like the Rush Limbaugh fiasco a few weeks back, but they had the video and I wanted to post it) which I've embedded below.
I fear, though, that by even talking about her, I'm feeding the beast, so to speak. People (including me) need to start ignoring Coulter, in hopes that she'll go away. By talking about her offensive comments, it just encourages her to make more and more comments that are even more offensive than her original remarks. So, after this post, Quo Vadimus will return to being a Coulter-Free-Zone.
Until, you know, the next time she makes outrageous, offensive, anti-semitic remarks. So, in other words, check back in an hour or so.
11:00 Update: Reading TV Newser's report on Coulter-gate, I saw that somebody is taking my advice. The National Jewish Democratic Council has started a petition demanding media outlets stop giving Ann Coulter airtime. There's a novel concept.
We are writing to ask you to refrain from inviting Ann Coulter to participate as a guest on your network's news programming.
As you know, it has long been documented that Ms. Coulter takes liberties with the facts. Furthermore, her comments -- be they about Democrats, 9/11 widows, Jews, or others -- often border on hate speech.
While Ms. Coulter has her freedom of speech, you have the freedom to exercise better judgment. You wouldn't put people who claim Martians roam the earth to frequently comment on science. It is time to stop putting Ms. Coulter on the air to comment on politics, thus giving her free publicity and attention.
I think I would have written the petition a bit differently (Martians? Really?) it's the thought that counts.
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5 comments:
I am amazed that this broad still gets to pollute our airwaves. When are these clods going to quit wasting valuable electrons on this "Hitler in Heels?"
We Jews are a people, not a faith. The "Jewish faith" is a common Gentile mistake, trying to equate the Jews with other religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, etc. But that grouping is fundamentally wrong. The Jews are a distinct people with a long history, not a world religion.
I knew I should have paid more attention at Hebrew School. Too busy learning the Hustle for my Bar Mitzvah party I guess.
I read the transcript and I am convinced that your summary of Coulter's comments "claiming that the world would be better without any Jewish people in it." It misleading at best and false at worst.
She was referring to the idea of prostelitizing people who are of the Jewish faith (i.e. that practice Judaism). This means that essentially her comments wouldn't apply to someone who is ethnically Jewish and a Christian, because they are already Christian, thus no need to convert. (see: www.jewsforjesus.org)
Her point was solely one about the conversion of non-Christian Jews to Christianity and not to be conflated with others who advocate the extermination of the Jewish state, et. al who are of Jewish heritage.
Saying that Jewish people should convert to Christianity is not the same as saying she wishes all Jewish people were non existent. For that matter, she would probably argue the same point about Hindus, Muslims, and all other non-Christians and assert that the world would be better if they too converted to Christianity. I'm not necessarily agreeing with her on this, just pointing out the distinction between the two ideas.
These are two very distinct ideas. Sometimes, the fine distinctions are the most important ones.
PhiloKing
Philoking -
That's a well reasoned view, I just don't think it's right. She was asked what her vision of the perfect country was, and her answer was, in part, one without Jews. And you're right, she also holds the same view with all other religions, which I think makes her comments worse, not better.
It's not that "she wishes that all Jewish people are non-existent," it's that she wants all Jewish people to not be Jewish. The world would be better if there weren't any Jewish people, because the world would be better if everyone was Christian.
Fine distinctions do matter, but in this case, I think the distinction you are trying to draw is one without a difference.
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