Revisiting the Site: Why I Am On Ann Coulter's Side Regarding Ottawa

(CS: No, the future of this site is not just going to be reposts. My January is often stuffed with meetings, planning sessions, time-consuming administrative work, and writing for clients, plus I have several major creative projects I am trying to bring to life. I am hoping this week to get everything under control, and I will very soon be writing fresh articles and reviews on a daily basis for the site.

But I have also been recently thinking about how time almost ensures that we become very different people in our present compared to who were a decade or more ago. Since this site has been around since 2004, I am sure there are many pieces that I wrote things that I no longer agree.

I've often thought about this piece about Ann Coulter where I feel like with the rise of toxicity in social media and my eyes being opened over the divisive over Covid-19 that I may not agree with this piece anymore.

The only way to know if I still stand by it, is to give it the old revisit with a few modern thoughts thrown in. This was originally posted March 25, 2010.)

I think it is extremely unfortunate that Ann Coulter was not able to speak at her scheduled event at the University of Ottawa. I am ashamed of the protesters that caused the event to be canceled, and I feel the entire unfolding of events was a travesty. 

Now, anyone who knows me well, may be utterly shocked to read that I am in the defense of a radical, right winger, and that I am actually writing against the group that are opposing her. Am I trading in my 'liberal badge' (lower case liberal since I am pretty sure I've never actually voted for the Canadian Liberal party). Have I taken the giant leap over to the far right? Am I ready to have a beer with Rush Limbaugh and start chumming around with Glenn Beck? (CS: Is he still a thing?) Have I seen the errors of my past ways? 

Nah. . . . Summit is more likely to discover the cure to cancer (CS: RIP, my friend) and Crosby has a better chance of actually not being hungry (CS: RIP, my friend) than I ever do of promoting and supporting the belief of the far conservative right. As for Ann Coulter, whenever I read her words or hear her on television, I am still driven to the unyielding desire to gnaw off my entire left hand in a desperate hope that the agonizing pain will entirely block out the verbal vomit that spews from her mouth. (CS: The plus side of the growing chasm between the left and the right is that crazies like Coulter never show up in any of the kind of media I watch and read, so I barely hear about her insane thoughts anymore. Is she still relevant?) 

No, I don't support her outright bigotry or narrow mindness in any form. I completely agree when Conservatist strategist Tim Power described her as a performing clown. She is a pure performer and not one whose opinions should often be taken seriously. The unfortunate thing is most of her words are so full of hatred and venom that they almost always get a response and thus, she always has a crowd, which means she is unlikely to ever go away. (CS: The sad thing of the growth of social media and the erosion of politics is that Coulter isn't even really extreme anymore, and I had no idea in 2010 how many 'performers' were going to be considered credible politicians.) 

It appears there were many in Ottawa that had hoped she would go away because about 2,000 protesters descended upon the University of Ottawa, which forced the cancellation of the speaking engagement due to creating an unsafe environment. I can understand the rage that many may have for Coulter. I can also understand the desire to passionately voice one's opinion. I also understand that Coulter caused even more controversy than usual when after she was warned that hate speech is illegal (with the allusion being that Coulter's opinions and speeches often sift in that type of direction), she responded in derogatory fashion towards Canadians. (CS: So, why the hell did she even want to come here other than pure ignorance and to stir up controversy to empower her brand? Oh wait, I answered it.)

After all, it's not like she viciously insults Muslims, Arabs, socialists, and homosexuals at every opportunity -- oh wait, I am being sarcastic. In her previous engagement at Western University (in London, Ontario), she had told a Muslim women to 'take a camel', what possibly could be offensive with that statement, right (psst, I am being sarcastic again)? 

Needless to say, I can understand the desire to protest. I can understand why so many are opposed to Coulter. The problem is, the 'dangerous' protest that caused the cancellation only resulted in Coulter looking like a victim, and thus giving her even more strength. (CS: The far-right has perfected being the victim, and whining about how 'woke' culture is silencing them while they continues to have a mainstream voice and do most of the screaming and complaining.) This is quite obvious, after the cancellation, when she started calling University of Ottawa 'bush league', and began heaping numerous insults towards the University and its students. 

She added more fuel to the conversative far right fire and gave far righters more material to bash the more liberal minded thinkers. The protest only made the protesters look like simple minded savages, who were unfairly persecuting Ann Coulter. Coulter took advantage of this by even claiming she was a part of a 'hate crime', which sort of shows she doesn't understand the term but still, a strong example of how she was able to turn herself into a victim. (CS: A far-right not understanding a term and moaning they are being persecuted against? How not entirely shocking!) 

The fact is, the protesters should have allowed the speech to happen without incident. Their goal instead should have been to buy a ticket and be a part of the event. When it was time for the question and answer, this would have been their chance to level a more effective attack. Because the reality is, Ann Coulter's views and opinion are very narrowminded and laced with hate. (CS: Aha, back in the days when I was naive, and believed in the power of debate. 10-plus more years on social media and seeing the rise of Donald Trump has taught me that debate and arguing is almost always useless when engaging with a far-right nutbar, because facts and reality actually don't matter. And I am now learning that ignoring is the much healthier and fulfilling action. And maybe cancelling the talk was the right call after all, because no matter what happened, Coulter was going to paint herself as the victim, because that is exactly what these type of personalities are experts at doing.)

Any person who was intellectual, logical, and open minded should have been able to make her look like a fool. (CS: But only the left and reasonable viewers would recognize this fact, because her army isn't interested in logic, intellect, and open-mindedness.) This was an opportunity to expose her weaknesses and allow others to see how misguided her agenda is. It all could have been done in a civil and behaved manner. It would be simple questions that would challenge Coulter and force her to actually use her brain. (CS: I was misguided in thinking brains has anything to do with this and the far-right.) Instead, there was a humongous wasted opportunity that actually made her a sympathetic figure. This time I do agree with the far right and Ann Coulter, the protests should not have happened and the cancellations were an utter shame. Though that is about the only thing we will probably ever agree on. (CS: And now, I disagree. I have been beaten down by too many 'right-minded intellectuals' that counter anything I've said with 'I've done my own research' or just talk in mind-numbing circles. There is no conversation here. It is better to just hit the mute button and play dolls with your kids.)