# Who are Ann Coulter's fans? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 31, 2007, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709 "2007-10-31T14:07:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/121 "2007-11-01T20:12:07Z")
[QUOTE=Algher] I will happily sympathize with any Lefty upset by Coulter who can show (or even honestly claim) that they stood up against their fellow leftists for the SHIT that right wingers went through on college campuses back in the day. If not, then welcome to our world. [/QUOTE] The most controversial guy at my college, the one who was a reviled campus figure for his comments about race, the one who publically made fun of Anita Hill, was and is one of my good friends. I don’t remember anyone ever calling him a Nazi. It may have happened on occasion but was certainly not a recurring theme of attacks on him. The main recurring theme was that he was being an asshole. Which, in all honesty, he was. As he himself might admit if you pressed him on it. He’s a pretty weird guy. ---
**Author:** ![lobstermobster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobstermobster/32/10033_2.png) [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/122 "2007-11-01T20:16:54Z")
Me! I read her books at the airport in other cities. I don’t ever see them on display in SF so she’s become part of my travel routine. The looks people give me are priceless. You have to hold your chin and nod thoughtfully while reading it. I want her to come to my birthday party. I don’t see what the huge deal is. She’s a real life troll. If you get pissed off or irritated then YOU end up being the loser. I should also mention I am a fan of the shirtless toothless guy on the corner that says my dog is his husband. Its comparable. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/123 "2007-11-01T20:20:40Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] In other words, one might say that she took the rhetoric of a college hothead (and colleges are a pretty natural place for hotheadedness, although that doesn’t mean that it’s OK for people to have been asses to you) and turned it into a mainstream bestseller. [/QUOTE] This is pretty much the point I’ve been wanting to make. A prominent opinion leader for a politcal philosophy should not engage in the same rhetoric as college students. I was a moderate-to-lefty student on a mostly conservative campus. I was told more than once that I was going to hell. Meh. I was probably a bit of a prick at the time myself, and I’m sure I said some bizarro shit. We were kids. I, for one, got better. We should not judge mainstrem political discourse by the yardstick of what seems reasonable to adolescents. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/124 "2007-11-01T20:20:45Z")
[QUOTE=Sarahfeena] I assume you have read Treason. I haven’t, so I’m speculating here. What I take it that Ann is saying is that, in her opinion, liberal _opinions_ are treasonous, not that liberals have actually _committed treasonous acts_ that they could literally be prosecuted and hung for. [/QUOTE] Don’t speculate, read. Then tell me if you support her position in _Treason_. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/125 "2007-11-01T20:37:38Z")
[QUOTE=Polycarp] Don’t speculate, read. Then tell me if you support her position in _Treason_. [/QUOTE] Look, I never said that I support her postition, and I don’t care enough about her to read it. I am not interested in her opinions, and overall she doesn’t impress me. ALL I said was that I found SOME of the quotes in her latest book…which is an all-quotes book…to be funny. On that basis alone, I was deluged with questions, basically asking me how I could defend her, when I never intended to in the first place. I never brought up Treason. I was asked how I would feel if someone called all conservatives child molesters, as an analogy, apparently, to what she said in that book. Not having read the book, I had to trust that what the poster represented as her opinion is regarding liberals and treason. Given the little I knew, I believe that the analogy is a flawed one, and tried to point that out. I was happy to give another example of something very insulting that could be and is said about conservatives that I thought would be a better analogy. \*\*\*I in no way support Ann Coulter or anyone else calling liberals treasonous. \*\* \* ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/126 "2007-11-01T20:42:55Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] I didn’t go to your college. If I had, I certainly would not have called you a nazi. And I’d like to think (although I can’t swear to this) that I would have publically and visibly objected when other people called you a nazi. Assuming you were not, in fact, advocating the burning of books and locking gays up in concentration camps.. [/QUOTE] Nope - I promise! I did hold some now-regrettable opinions regarding homosexuality, but I never expressed them in any formal setting. I actually went out of my way to engage that particular group on campus as my attitude shifted during my tenure as a student. [QUOTE=MaxTheVool] In any case, I will restate my point. Ann Coulter was not the first person to use hateful rhetoric. However, she was the first that I know of to write a book which became a popular bestseller, leading to her becoming at least a quasi-respected commentator, which clearly and unambiguously directed hateful rhetoric towards an entire mainstream political movement. In other words, one might say that she took the rhetoric of a college hothead (and colleges are a pretty natural place for hotheadedness, although that doesn’t mean that it’s OK for people to have been asses to you) and turned it into a mainstream bestseller.. [/QUOTE] Hmm - she attacks Liberals in her book (I think - I also have not read it, and will not). What about attacks on the Christian Right? Would you consider them to be a mainstream political movement? How about gun owners & the NRA? Pro-Lifers? Each of these groups is often reviled with a fair amount of vitriol by the Left. Whether or not a full-blown best-seller has been written - I don’t know (honestly - I just don’t track those lists). [QUOTE=MaxTheVool] “The left” has The Daily Show and Colbert, which are probably in the same order of magnitude of popularity of Coulter and Limbaugh. (Anyone know?). But the important distinction, which I’ve been hammering on over and over again, is that John Stewart doesn’t insult republicans in general. He is pretty damn merciless towards Bush and Bush’s cronies, but he doesn’t call republicans as a whole nazis, or claim they hate the poor, or anything of that sort. He just. Doesn’t. Do. It. [/QUOTE] I was not accusing Stewart of Colbert of that - apologies if that was insinuated. I was more interested in the general spectrum of entertainment wrapped up in political clothes. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/127 "2007-11-02T00:07:37Z")
Bottom line: Coulter is funny. She is the best political opinion writer out there. Even Chris Matthews, who is miles to the left of her, gives her her writing props. And if she weren’t so smart, such a good writer, and so funny, she wouldn’t be—couldn’t be—selling all those books. Though many of you will not be able to see her as anything but the devil in Prada mini skirts, for those of you whose indoctrination is less than 100% complete and have yet to undergo the requisite funnybonedectomy, I offer two quick examples from her [latest column.](http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23174) Enjoy. > [@](#): > > For decades, most Jews supported the left, and the left supported Jewish causes. But the left moved on long ago. For liberals, Jews are just so “last Holocaust.” > [@](#): > > At least the ADL wouldn’t object. > > They’re too busy conspiring with the Council on American-Islamic Relations to denounce Dennis Prager. And promoting gun control. And gay marriage. And illegal immigration. You know, all the issues that have historically kept the Jews safe. > > The ADL denounces the teaching of intelligent design, the placement of the Ten Commandments on public property and Bibles in public schools. Any entity that disagrees with them on these issues will be labeled an “extremist organization.” > > Gosh, it’s a good thing there isn’t a worldwide terrorist movement dedicated to killing Jews. The ADL might have to tear themselves away from promoting faddish liberal causes. > > The ADL is more concerned with what it calls the “neo-Nazis” and “anti-Semites” in the Minutemen organization than with people who behead Jews whenever they get half a chance. It’s only a matter of time before the ADL gets around to global warming. Incisive. Biting. Adroit use of sarcasm. Funny. Sorry guys, that’s good writing. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/128 "2007-11-02T00:31:41Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Incisive. Biting. Adroit use of sarcasm. Funny. Eh, it seems funny to you because she’s insulting liberals. Similarly, a lot of liberals find Michael Moore and Al Franken funny because they insult conservatives (to which many conservatives react with screams of hysterical outrage that make the liberal Coulter-haters look serenely indifferent). **Real** funny is when an author can make a joke (and a point) that’s more than just a smear or an insult. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/129 "2007-11-02T00:33:37Z")
[QUOTE=Kimstu] Eh, it seems funny to you because she’s insulting liberals. Similarly, a lot of liberals find Michael Moore and Al Franken funny because they insult conservatives (to which many conservatives react with screams of hysterical outrage that make the liberal Coulter-haters look serenely indifferent). **Real** funny is when an author can make a joke (and a point) that’s more than just a smear or an insult. [/QUOTE] Uh, she’s done precisley that in the passages I quoted. If you were unable to digest them, I understand. And by the way, I thiink Al Franken can be very funny when he wants to be. Even when he uses conservatives to do it. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/130 "2007-11-02T00:39:36Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > Uh, she’s done precisley that in the passages I quoted. No, she hasn’t. If you’re unable to perceive that, I understand. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/131 "2007-11-02T00:53:13Z")
[QUOTE=Kimstu] No, she hasn’t. If you’re unable to perceive that, I understand. [/QUOTE] :rolleyes: So, you are unable to see a point being made in what I supplied from her? Tsk, tsk… But okay… [picks up phone] Hello, shipping? The Kimstu Model is at 100%. You can ship her off to Berkeley now. Don’t forget the the ankle tribal tatoo and matted hair. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/132 "2007-11-02T00:56:02Z")
[QUOTE=magellan01] Bottom line: Coulter is funny. [/QUOTE] That’s all that matters to you? To paraphrase someone else in this thread, if the grand wizard of the KKK was a generally funny person who had really good comedic timing and quick wit (and it’s conceivable that that could be the case), and a bunch of people in a thread were complaining about his diatribes, you would say “bottom line: he is funny”? > [@Kimstu](#): > > Eh, it seems funny to you because she’s insulting liberals. Similarly, a lot of liberals find Michael Moore and Al Franken funny because they insult conservatives (to which many conservatives react with screams of hysterical outrage that make the liberal Coulter-haters look serenely indifferent). [I wish people would stop comparing Al Franken and Ann Coulter](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4981174&postcount=64) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/133 "2007-11-02T00:56:07Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > [picks up phone] Hello, shipping? The Kimstu Model is at 100%. You can ship her off to Berkeley now. Don’t forget the the ankle tribal tatoo and matted hair. Okay, now **that** was funny. 🙂 > [@Max The Vool](#): > > I wish people would stop comparing Al Franken and Ann Coulter. Oh, I don’t think they’re alike in most respects: I agree with you that Franken (and even Moore) is much more fact-based than Coulter, who pretty much just makes up whatever shit she wants to say. But I don’t think either of them is really any better at political-humor essay writing than Coulter is, and I think most people who laugh at the books of any of the three of them are doing so just because they enjoy seeing the other side insulted. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/134 "2007-11-02T01:18:08Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] That’s all that matters to you? To paraphrase someone else in this thread, if the grand wizard of the KKK was a generally funny person who had really good comedic timing and quick wit (and it’s conceivable that that could be the case), and a bunch of people in a thread were complaining about his diatribes, you would say “bottom line: he is funny”? [/QUOTE] No. But what does that have to do with anything? She is NOT the grand wizard, so whatever she says is not colored by that hypothetical. He, on the other hand, would be an avowed racist (or a more popular and successful Rovery Byrd), so everyhting he said that might possibly be construed as racist would very likely be racist. Surely this isn’t nesw to you. Since Coulter is not the grand wizard, her words are not automatically viewed as if she were. What she actually is is that she’s smart (Cornell, _cum laude_, 1984) and well-educated (Michigan Law School; Editor, _Michigan Law Review_). She is a great writer. Disagree with her politics or not, she is. The same way for me that Franken is a very funny guy. He can make a point I do not agree with, but I’ll admit it if it’s done well. Hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/135 "2007-11-02T01:40:30Z")
Ann Coulter is the residue from a tarantula’s Pap smear. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/136 "2007-11-02T02:02:40Z")
[QUOTE=Kimstu] I think most people who laugh at the books of any of the three of them are doing so just because they enjoy seeing the other side insulted. [/QUOTE] Do you realize how incredibly condescending and patronizing that is? I mean, here I thought I enjoyed Al Franken because he is witty and intelligent and knowledgeable and doesn’t take himself too seriously… and it turns out I’m just partisan. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/137 "2007-11-02T02:13:16Z")
[QUOTE=magellan01] No. But what does that have to do with anything? She is NOT the grand wizard, so whatever she says is not colored by that hypothetical. He, on the other hand, would be an avowed racist (or a more popular and successful Rovery Byrd), so everyhting he said that might possibly be construed as racist would very likely be racist. Surely this isn’t nesw to you. Since Coulter is not the grand wizard, her words are not automatically viewed as if she were. What she actually is is that she’s smart (Cornell, _cum laude_, 1984) and well-educated (Michigan Law School; Editor, _Michigan Law Review_). She is a great writer. Disagree with her politics or not, she is. The same way for me that Franken is a very funny guy. He can make a point I do not agree with, but I’ll admit it if it’s done well. Hope that helps. [/QUOTE] You seem to have missed the point I’ve been trying to make in this thread. Ann Coulter isn’t a KKK grand wizard, sure, but I’m actively accusing her of Bad Things. She is spiteful and hateful and libelous, and I believe her writings have in and of themselves weakened the level of national discourse. It is, of course, preposterous to think that all liberals hate America. But if enough people say it, and if it’s an idea that’s tossed around and repeated enough, then people start to believe it. And are we better off living in a country where 50% of the country thinks the other 50% actually hates the country? I may be going a bit off the deep end in overstating the importance of this issue, but I think that Ann Coulter HAS MADE THIS A WORSE COUNTRY. Not because she’s expressing ideas that I disagree with and think are wrong, but because she is expressing ideas that are hateful and divisive. And she is doing so with a level of pure undiluted singleminded vitriol that is fairly unique in a public figure of her stature and quasi-respectability. Sure, she can string a phrase together in a vaguely entertaining way from time to time. Although as **Kimstu** points out, it’s very hard for us to evaluate the literary or humor qualities of something totally divorced from their political content. BUT, I believe that her crimes against society are so overwhelming and egregious that they render any redeeming humorous quality of her words irrelevant and moot. I wish there were a left wing equivalent to her that I could natter on about in a “oh, sure, he goes a bit too far, but you have to admit that he’s clever and funny some times” way, just to put the shoe on the other foot. (And before you say anything, Michael Moore isn’t even close.) ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/138 "2007-11-02T02:26:16Z")
Does anyone else think it is highly ironic that Ann Coulter, one of the stupidest people I have ever listened to, entitled her latest book, If Democrats had Brains, They’d Be Republicans." Because you know, Republicans are famous for such brilliant ideas such as: - let’s go to war in Iraq to stabilize the Middle East - let’s deny that global warming exists in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary - lowering taxes on the rich actually raises government revenues - universal health care will ruin the greatest health care system in the world (even though we are ranked #37) - let’s appoint political hacks to run the Department of Justice – that won’t ruin anyone’s faith in the fairness of the system - let’s build a spaced-based nuclear defense system that costs billions of dollars and doesn’t work to deal with a non-existent threat Clearly, Republicans are the party of intellectuals. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![ForumBot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee59a6/32.png) [@ForumBot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForumBot)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/139 "2007-11-02T04:49:49Z")
I’ll grant you that she can be pretty funny, and she can string a few sentences together pretty well to make an easy read. Still a cunt, though. ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709/140 "2007-11-02T05:07:25Z")
[QUOTE=Frostillicus] Because you know, Republicans are famous for such brilliant ideas such as: - let’s go to war in Iraq to stabilize the Middle East [/QUOTE] The Republicans weren’t the only ones to have this idea. True, they acted on it. And have executed it so poorly as to defy description, but the idea you state is not purely a Republican one. > [@](#): > > - let’s deny that global warming exists in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary I don’t know who you’re referring to. Most Republicans I know don’t deny the numbers that point to us being in a period of warming. What they do question is 1) how much man has contributed to the natural cycles and 2) how much impact we can have on reversing the trend. > [@](#): > > - lowering taxes on the rich actually raises government revenues That seems to be true. And doesn’t appear tobe solely a Republican idea, as when JFK lowered the top rates from around 90% and voila, the country soon had greater tax revenues. See [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEdXrfIMdiU) And [here:](http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/wm327.cfm) > [@](#): > > Our true choice is not between tax reduction, on the one hand, and the avoidance of large Federal deficits on the other. It is increasingly clear that no matter what party is in power, so long as our national security needs keep rising, an economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenues to balance our budget just as it will never produce enough jobs or enough profits… In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now. _- universal health care will ruin the greatest health care system in the world (even though we are ranked #37)_ It all depends on what metric you use, doesn’t it? Still, those with means from around the world flock to the U.S. for treatment. > [@](#): > > - let’s appoint political hacks to run the Department of Justice – that won’t ruin anyone’s faith in the fairness of the system Yeah, no other party would ever give the nod to political hacks, especially those of their own stripe. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > - let’s build a spaced-based nuclear defense system that costs billions of dollars and doesn’t work to deal with a non-existent threat Well if we can get it to work, that non-existent threat may remain a non-existent threat, wouldn’t it. And wouldn’t that be a good thing. And, here’s a newsflash, there are groups around the world that wish to do us great harm. They may not be able to send rockets here now, but that can change in the future. So maybe would should start building the system then, right? After the first one or two hit? You’re a genius! > [@](#): > > Clearly, Republicans are the party of intellectuals. :rolleyes: Compared to the thiinking you’ve demonstrated here, that might very well be the case. And, no, I am not a Republican. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-ann-coulters-fans/424709.md?page=8)