A letter to the editor last week in the Journal took aim at a book review I wrote on Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America. While I appreciate all feedback, the letter writer seems to have missed the point. Instead of engaging with any of the author’s ideas, the letter writer writes Ann Coulter off as a “violent right wing extremist.”
Coulter has not been convicted in an incident that could be considered “violent.” As to the accusation of “hate speech,” Coulter has never been convicted of such.
I was surprised the writer did not consider that “hate speech” will soon not be prosecutable in Canada under the Canadian Human Rights Act. The result will be that “hate speech” will no longer be considered as such in the eyes of the law and will instead be called “free speech,” a novel concept that has been missing from Canada for quite some time.
It’s too easy to label an intellectual or political foe misnomers like “right wing extremist” or purveyor of “hate speech.” It’s much harder to defeat one’s political opponents’ strongest arguments. But to do that, one might also want to read the book under review rather than warn people about the author based on reputation. The views in the letter to the editor rely on the very opinions cultivated in the American media Coulter spends considerable time in Demonic criticizing as exemplifying the liberal mob mentality.
It’s easier to rip provocative commentary out of context. Without context, the quoted items certainly seem ridiculous – but perhaps it is the context within which the commentary is made that is more accurately described as ridiculous.
One need only look to the recent and unsubstantiated claims reported in a national paper to indicate validity among Coulter’s views of the mob mentality. At a minimum, it shows that people need to grapple with what Coulter is putting down.
A story broke of two same-sex foreign nationals who married in Canada in 2005 and then were unable to legally get a divorce in Canada or their home countries. Liberals and the Liberal Party immediately jumped on it saying Harper intends to reopen the debate on gay marriage.
As it turns out, the matter related to the conflicts of law. So the journalist concocted a scandal where none existed, and leftists and liberals were crying over nothing at all, making claims that bore no validity, riling up people without the capacity to see beyond the rhetoric. The incident was aimed clearly at ramping up the mob.
An intelligent reader must ask, why make a fuss of nothing, why distort the facts so badly? Coulter has an answer. From Demonic and as noted in the initial review on Jan. 3, the mob doesn’t require its views to be based on facts, instead relying on emotional incitement. Mob mentality is the only explanation as to how this particular legal proceeding could become a fake scandal.
