very conservative has an opinion about why liberals are so insensitive
to reason and so intolerant of diversity of opinion. In this book, Ann
Coulter finally tells us hers. This is the book Ann Coulter fans have
been waiting for.
The thesis in Demonic is that liberals want, more than anything in the world, to convince each other they're smarter than everyone else. It's a form of groupthink, motivated by deep intellectual insecurity. Groupthink is one of the many ways mankind has discovered of avoiding the difficulties of thinking for oneself, with the attendant risks of coming to a conclusion different from the one accepted by everyone else. Groupthink also leads to mob behavior, a form of bullying, which is done by those who crave power and the approval of those who grant favors only to those who profess to agree with them.
Ann Coulter extensively cites The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by psychologist Gustave Le Bon, who described mobs as immune to reason, afraid of novelty, and willing to accept contradictory ideas. They exhibit simplistic, black-and-white thinking and blind hatred of their opponents. They are prone to hysteria and fond of simplistic slogans. Mobs never apologize when they are shown to be wrong.
Sounds familiar. Anyone who has ever accidentally stumbled into a left-wing political website will know what Le Bon was talking about. One way the mob works is by rabble-rousing by ignorant members of the news media. An example cited by Ann Coulter is the hysteria a few years ago about the "plastic gun." Because functional plastic guns are impossible, the media hysteria about plastic guns must have seemed hilarious, not just to right-wing gun nuts, but to anyone who knew anything about firearms, materials engineering, or basic physics. (This of course leaves out everyone in the news media and on liberal arts college campuses). But the children can sleep soundly now that these deadly but nonexistent weapons have been banned by an act of Congress.
Ann Coulter goes on to quote Le Bon as saying that mobs exhibit "impulsiveness, incapacity to reason, the absence of judgment and of the critical spirit, the exaggeration of the sentiments, and others ..."[p.205]. No points for guessing who Ann Coulter, who adds "humorlessness" and "rage" to the list, is thinking about. But, just as before, she's got ammo ... I mean evidence. The oppressive conformity of today's fascistic, liberal-dominated society, where one verbal misstep can cost you your career, your friendships, and your chances of becoming Majority Leader of the Senate, is far worse than the so-called conformity we had in the 1950s. It is closer to what Russians must have experienced during the Stalinist era. The degree of conformity among today's college students is the worst I have seen in my life.
Not everyone will agree with everything Ann Coulter says. Her comparison of Sarah Palin to Marie Antoinette is on shaky ground: the only thing they really have in common is having been great ladies. But no one can deny that Ann Coulter is one of the most independent-minded commentators speaking "truth to power," as the liberals say, in America today. Even Democrats can't deny the facts in this book--facts which make them look very bad indeed. And I know nothing of this thing called "MSNBC" of which she speaks.
Ann Coulter's writing style has matured. No more do we get the trademark "El-Kabong!"-style jokes she is famous for. The writing is still filled with irony and sarcasm that are sometimes too heavy, like excess eyeliner. But Ann Coulter also shows a talent for writing history. She has well-reasoned, calmly-stated (no, really!) insights into why liberals are liberals. She gives a good description of the French Revolution, when mob violence reached its peak. (Coulter is, of course, by no means the first to compare modern liberals to the Jacobins.) She unwinds decades of Democrat propaganda and hypocrisy. History, Ann Coulter documents, shows again and again that the Democratic party is the party of racists, yet hardly a day goes by when liberals and liberal opinion outlets like the New York Times fail to accuse Republicans (and anyone else who gets in their way) of racism. And the Republicans sit back and turn the other cheek.
Not Ann Coulter. She unflinchingly tells the truth about America--a truth that Americans can't get anywhere else. And that is why her books become best-sellers. Sooner or later blacks will realize they've been lied to for years by the Democrats, and they will come home to the party that liberated their ancestors from slavery. And, as Ann Coulter says, we'll be happy to have them back.
Jun 18, 2011
hy do race relations still suck in this country? There are three reasons:
affirmative action, the news media, and the racially divisive politics of
Obama and the Democrats. Or to put it more succinctly, liberals, liberals,
and liberals.
In this book, Ann Coulter continues the discussion of race in America she began in Demonic. Race is one of those grim topics that can turn even the wittiest writer into a reciter of dull facts, and even Ann Coulter seems to find it difficult to crack jokes about it. But as difficult as it may be to get interested in race, it's an important topic if you're a political person, because the Democrats are so obsessed with it, and our news media are so dishonest about it. Here are some highlights, and some thoughts:
A great many of us are getting really fed up with the practice of liberals calling everyone who disagrees with Obama a "racist." Apparently, even using the word "Chicago" is now racist. Thanks to the Democrats' inability to let racial wounds heal, Obama's election has moved us backwards, not forwards.
As far as black "oppression" is concerned, liberals are right: blacks are oppressed. It's the combination of affirmative action and welfare that's oppressing them. Try treating everyone the same and the "race problem" will disappear overnight. Continue to whip up racial hysteria and class envy, and calling everyone who says something you don't like a racist, as the liberals do, and the problem could hang around and bore us all to death for centuries. Who knows, maybe that's their goal.
Sep 28, 2012
