Manufactured Scandal Of The Week: Media Matters Accuses Coulter Of Wanting To Wipe Out American Jews, Action Alerts To Pull Her Off The Air Immediately Follow
This week's manufactured Media Matters scandal is now online. The Jewish blogs and Democratic organizations are all over it. And wow, it is totally fucking retarded. It combines the best elements of liberal sophistication: the banality of multiculturalist tolerance, the humorlessness of scolding identity politics, and the blubbering of righteous indignation. It's the shallow beginning and the myopic end of the belief gap. Liberals take their own fashionable, spineless disattachment from the world - "believing too much in something is so unsophisticated." They follow it to its logical conclusion of vapid multiculturalism, where asserting passionate belief is an attack on some incredibly fragile Other - "believing too much in something is intolerant." And then when they have to deal with a normal, healthy person of faith, their self-righteous myopia triggers everything from shocked offense to a mindboggling inability to even understand what's at stake.
It's a tic with these people. "Tolerance" is everything from a catechistic defense mechanism to an empty catchphrase attached to anything liberals like (antonym: "neoconservative"). They can't help themselves. Witness the elegant example of Deutsch's confusion at the very beginning of the Media Matters transcript. He's just asked what Ann Coulter's perfect America looks like. She's naturally launched into a discussion of politics, because for conservatives life is about the give and take of government and social tension. No, no - Deutsch wants to talk about feelings:
DEUTSCH: No, no, no, I don't want -- I'm not talking about politically the landscape. What would our -- would we be safer? Would people be happier? Would they be more --
COULTER: We would be a lot safer.
DEUTSCH: Would there be more tolerance? Would there be -- would women be happier, would the races get along better? The Ann Coulter subscription -- prescription. What -- tell me what would be different in our fabric of country, because --
COULTER: Well, all of those things.
DEUTSCH: -- I can give -- I can give you an argument there would be more divisiveness, that there would be more hate --
By now Coulter's figured out exactly what Deutsche is and exactly where the conversation is going to end up. Fragile beliefs lead to defensive people lead to social programs to "protect" everybody from anything that might offend them. The result is the suffocating fog of multiculturalist political correctness. So by the middle of the interview Coulter having a good time with Deutsch - but she's still got a genuine point. And that's the intuitive observation that, rather than being in tension with one another, genuine religious tolerance actually requires strong belief. This is certainly where some of the best Jewish theologians have been ending up. It also has the benefit of making sense - if someone's confident in their beliefs, they don't take it as an attack when someone else is also confident in their own beliefs. Disagreement is not tantamount to aggression and insult.
We've got the longest block quote after the jump, and after that we've got some random hunches about what could be driving all the seemingly disconnected but eerily related manufactured scandals. And by "random hunches" we mean "the NJDC press release".
COULTER: Oh, no.
DEUTSCH: -- that there would be a bigger difference between the rich and the poor, a lot of other -- tell me what -- why this would be a better world? Let's give you -- I'm going to give you -- say this is your show.
COULTER: Well, OK, take the Republican National Convention. People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America, they --
DEUTSCH: Christian -- so we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all Christian?
COULTER: Yes.
DEUTSCH: We should all be Christian?
COULTER: Yes. Would you like to come to church with me, Donny?
DEUTSCH: So I should not be a Jew, I should be a Christian, and this would be a better place?
COULTER: Well, you could be a practicing Jew, but you're not.
DEUTSCH: I actually am. That's not true. I really am. But -- so we would be better if we were - if people -- if there were no Jews, no Buddhists --
COULTER: Whenever I'm harangued by --
DEUTSCH: -- in this country? You can't believe that.
COULTER: -- you know, liberals on diversity --DEUTSCH: Here you go again.
COULTER: No, it's true. I give all of these speeches at megachurches across America, and the one thing that's really striking about it is how utterly, completely diverse they are, and completely unself-consciously. You walk past a mixed-race couple in New York, and it's like they have a chip on their shoulder. They're just waiting for somebody to say something, as if anybody would. And --
...
COULTER: But yeah, I think that's reflective of what's going on in the culture, but it is completely striking that at these huge megachurches -- the idea that, you know, the more Christian you are, the less tolerant you would be is preposterous.
DEUTSCH: That isn't what I said, but you said I should not -- we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or --
COULTER: Yeah.
DEUTSCH: Really?
COULTER: Well, it's a lot easier. It's kind of a fast track.
DEUTSCH: Why don't I put you with the head of Iran? I mean, come on. You can't believe that.
COULTER: The head of Iran is not a Christian.
DEUTSCH: No, but in fact, "Let's wipe Israel" --
COULTER: I don't know if you've been paying attention.
DEUTSCH: "Let's wipe Israel off the earth." I mean, what, no Jews?
COULTER: No, we think -- we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say.
First of all, there's only one answer to willful obtuseness like "are you seriously saying right here in public that I should convert?" or "are you like the head of Iran because you're saying we should wipe out Israel?" And that answer is obviously "yes, you moron, that's exactly what I'm saying."
What else are you going to say to this guy? "No, you're obviously and intentionally taking the single dumbest interpretation of my argument - albeit an interpretation suggested by your own pathological obsession with never saying anything even mildly controversial - and making it even dumber?" Honestly - how else can you begin to untangle this level of incandescent stupidity? Plus, the line about how she wants to bring him to church is objectively funny (at least as you're a confident Jew who's not afraid to have someone poke fun at you). Our gut check would have been to try to reraise with something like "thanks, but we'd rather stick with a Messiah who's powerful enough to get the whole 'peace on earth' thing right the first time." But then again she'd crush us like a bug in a game of take-it-there, so maybe not so much with the whole battle of wits thing for us.
Either way, that's where we would have stopped. But Ann - in what was undoubtedly a moment of personal weakness - tried to explain things very slowly to Deutsch. And it went exactly how you'd expect. Poor, naive woman:
DEUTSCH: Welcome back to The Big Idea. During the break, Ann said she wanted to explain her last comment. So I'm going to give her a chance. So you don't think that was offensive?
COULTER: No. I'm sorry. It is not intended to be. I don't think you should take it that way, but that is what Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews. We believe the Old Testament. As you know from the Old Testament, God was constantly getting fed up with humans for not being able to, you know, live up to all the laws. What Christians believe -- this is just a statement of what the New Testament is -- is that that's why Christ came and died for our sins. Christians believe the Old Testament. You don't believe our testament.
DEUTSCH: You said -- your exact words were, "Jews need to be perfected." Those are the words out of your mouth.
COULTER: No, I'm saying that's what a Christian is.
DEUTSCH: But that's what you said -- don't you see how hateful, how anti-Semitic --
COULTER: No!
DEUTSCH: How do you not see? You're an educated woman. How do you not see that?
COULTER: That isn't hateful at all. DEUTSCH: But that's even a scarier thought. OK --
COULTER: No, no, no, no, no. I don't want you being offended by this. This is what Christians consider themselves, because our testament is the continuation of your testament. You know that. So we think Jews go to heaven. I mean, [Rev. Jerry] Falwell himself said that, but you have to follow laws. Ours is "Christ died for our sins." We consider ourselves perfected Christians. For me to say that for you to become a Christian is to become a perfected Christian is not offensive at all.
So to recap: Coulter is stating that part of being a Christian is believing that Christianity is true, which has the fortunate side effect of also implying that Jews are saved for believing that Judaism is true. What a bigot!
We'd be inclined to believe that this is just a way for Democrats to say "see, the right has anti-Semites so it's OK when our top politicians talk about New York money people and our anti-war base thinks its edgy to carry signs saying Nazi Kikes Out of Lebanon." Except there's something a little more deliberate - and shameless - here. Just like with the fake Rush scandal and the fake O'Reilly scandal, the distance between the first eye rolling declaration of moral offense and the distribution of action alerts calling for Ann to be taken off the air was suspiciously small. We question the timing. No, really - we question the timing.
Still - it's nice to see the left proclaiming that free speech can be balanced by the "exercise [of] freedom to use better judgment." We made a strikingly similar point just over a week ago. Of course, we were talking about how universities aren't really obligated to give a megaphone to genocidal, Holocaust denying leaders of foreign regimes funding the murder of US troops. They're talking about silencing a well-known evangelical Christian citizen of the United States for stating a fairly basic definition of what it means to be an evangelical Christian. So you can see where we were probably over reacting and how they're on the side of the angels. Ironically.
References:
* On CNBC's The Big Idea, Coulter said that "we" Christians "just want Jews to be perfected" [Media Matters]
* Believing Too Little and Believing Too Much (Plus: Surprise! Pope Benedict Doesn't Hate Gays) [MR]
* Yes, the Pope Is Catholic - Confused? We'll Translate: He Believes in God [MR]
* The Pope and I: A Debate With Jesus Is Joined By Benedict XVI [Forward]
* SMEAR 101 [Radio Equalizer]
* Video: Crazed by Rush, Wes Clark calls for political discourse to be rated [Hot Air]
* MR Has A Question For Democratic Jews: Are You Fucking Retarded? [MR]
* The Democratic Party and American Jews: The Divorce Is Going To Be Ugly [MR]
* NJDC CALLS ON MEDIA TO STOP INVITING COULTER AFTER ANTI-JEWISH COMMENTS
Previously:
* OneJerusalem.org Conference Call: Pastor John Hagee, Senior Pastor of Cornerstone Church [FAQ: Debunking Liberal Myths About Evangelical Support For Israel]
* Sunday Quick Hits - Oh Yes, We've Got A Coulter Link
* Early Morning Chuckle - Coulter On the Dem Debate Edition
