I have come to believe that Ann Coulter really does not give a tinker's cuss about religion. politics, or anything else for that matter, except Ann Coulter. Her unitelligible ideology, mindless rants, and shock value have created quite a cottage industry for her.
Her only job and concern is to keep the spotlight firmly onAnn; and be damned anything and everything else. Her twisted myopic viewpoints should be taken with no more than a grain of salt because she doesn't even believe it. She can't, because you have to have a conscience to believe in anything. I can not even call her a conservative. Imus, Buchanan, Dobbs, Ingram and even that little twit Carlson are at least debatable. With the afore mentioned group there can at least be some discourse, even points of agreement, but not with Ann. The only goal is continued progress up the NYT bestsellers list and as much face time she can achieve around the cable dial.
Virgil's point applies to many of our most famous wingnut pundits, including Rush Limbaugh, John Gibson and Michael "the" Savage "Wiener". Unlike, say, George Will or that obnoxious whiner Sean Hannity, who seem to actually believe their conservative bullshit, these others are nothing but agitators getting rich from cheapening our political discourse. That's one reason I tune in to the Rush Limbaugh show when I can: I think he's funny. He so clearly doesn't believe most of the garbage he spews out over the airwaves that it's comical to me. He's getting paid to make close-minded conservatives feel like their lifestyle is under attack and Rush gives them a flag to rally around.
Coulter is even a step beyond this. She purposefully writes the most offensive, invective-laden screeds she can come up with; not because she really believes what she's saying. She couldn't possibly. After all, for all her faults, she is an educated woman. For all that she is, however, she's also smart enough to know just how to tap that wingnut welfare. She panders to the very worst of the conservative movement; those "America is for whites only", Christian fundamentalist, anti-social types that see a culture war in every aspect of society with which they don't personally agree. Coulter feeds their mania with all the reactionary red meat they can stomach, and collects some fat royalties in the process.
Hate gays? Ann will tell you all about the "homosexual agenda" and some mythical cities in Genesis. Hate Arabs, Blacks and Mexicans? She's got some great coded words for you about "ragheads", "welfare queens" and "border jumpers", with just enough politics thrown in to make her points sound almost legitimate. Feel like you and the other 255 million Christians in the country are being oppressed by we 5 million or so atheists? Ann's got a new book for you talking about how your faith is being stripped away from you, all framed in some militaristic eliminationist rhetoric to inflame your inner culture warrior. After all, once you agree with Ann that all liberals and progressives are unprincipled, godless, unpatriotic traitors trying to destroy the country and tear down the entire Christian faith, what response is really too much?
But it's all a sham, you see. Ann's not really a culture warrior; she's a self-interested businesswoman. She and Limbaugh and Savage and others have learned that there is a vibrant market out there for barely-coded hate speech and they tap that market to its fullest potential. They're not conservatives. They're rightwing reactionaries milking their mouth-breathing hordes for every dollar they can get. And the poor fools just keep on buying...
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