First, we juxtapose
There’s this:
I join with most right thinking Canadians in denouncing the latest grits attempts at humour. Apparently murdering HM PM Stephen Harper is something grits gleefully look forward to. (photo of Stevo as Lee Harvey O. being shot by Jack Ruby)
- for which the Liberals apologized, admitting it was offensive.
Then there’s this:
"In contemplating college liberals, you really regret, once again, that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals by making them realize that they could be killed, too. Otherwise they will turn out into outright traitors."
And this:
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at a traditionally black college, joked that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned. [...] “We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee,” Coulter said. Coulter then added, “That’s just a joke, for you in the media.”
There’s this serious, scary death threat (better get the RCMP on that right now!):the poster would like to "dip (Coulter) in gravy and lock her in a room with a wolverine high on angel dust," to which Coulter and the wingnuts cried DEATH THREAT!!!!! WAAAAA!!!!
And there’s this:
I will defend to the death your right to protest Coulter but reserve the right to shoot you dead if you impede my right to hear her speak. (Guess Dave_RoA should go and shoot Coulter’s organizers who canceled the event, then. Hey! That’s just a joke!!!!! )
The problem with the I was joking defense:
It’s the spirit in which a joke is said that makes it more or less objectionable. Lenny Bruce used offensive language and satire to wear away the power of hurtful words. Coulter tries to re-insert it. She slings the word faggot like a barb, and in doing so promotes the hateful belief that being gay is contemptible.
By saying she is using jokes and satire to make a point, she is telling her audience that there is some social or political truth to what she is saying, and her writings leave little doubt of what bastardized version of reality she is preaching.
If Coulter wants to be viewed as a comedian trying to make some political point, then she should be subject to the same constraints as any other political comedian. I am very sure Rick Mercer or John Stewart could not get away with the violence, racism, and hatred she reflects in her stage acts. Comedians have been shut down for far less.
As far as her politically correct argument goes, we covered that ground decades ago which is why her brand of humour is generally not tolerated. Kids get banned from teams, suspended, even kicked out of school for ragging on other kids the way Turkey Neck rags on anyone left of a wingnut. This is because grownups who are not vicious hatemongers realize that mocking anyone or any group over and over for their differences is devastating. It creates a mindset that somehow, having those differences is a negative.
Coulter deserves the same rights as anyone else and it would be patronizing of us not to expect her to be accountable for her actions, just like any other adult. Unless, of course, she is legally insane, in which case she should not be making public appearances which could influence impressionable minds.
Barring the insanity defense, she should be held accountable for her hate talk, presented as it is in a public forum with the intention, as she herself declares, of influencing how others think.
Oh yeah...why aren't the wingnuts screaming Anti-Semite!!!!! at her?
