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June 28, 2006 Ann Coulter sure hates liberals. I suspect she also hates Mexicans, Blacks, homosexuals, single mothers, atheists, any member of the ACLU, PETA or the Sierra Club, and pretty much every other American who doesn't conform to her brand of white bread, Christian conservatism. But that's another article. For now, I'm content to share my amusement with the short blurb on the back of her current "book", Godless: The Church of Liberalism. Presumably, a paragraph that's put on the cover of a book (even if it's the back cover) is held in high regard by the author and her editors and publishers. Those brave enough to take the plunge and wade into the meat of the book will have been (presumably) hooked by the summary blurb because of the crowning insights offered by the words therein. It is the written equivalent of a movie trailer. So imagine my amusement at the sight of these words: Liberals love to boast that they are not 'religious,' which is what one would expect to hear from the state-sanctioned religion. Of course liberalism is a religion. It has its own cosmology, its own miracles, its own beliefs in the supernatural, its own churches, its own high priests, its own saints, its own total worldview, and its own explanation of the existence of the universe. In other words, liberalism contains all the attributes of what is generally known as 'religion.'" Remember, this is the best of what's to be found inside. What's funny is that I really wanted to read this book. Since Ann Coulter is the poster girl for modern conservatism, and since I'm a liberal, I'm really interested in the arguments she presents. But I honestly couldn't get by this blurb. It is such a schizophrenic blend of the puerile and paranoid that I actually burst out laughing when I read it. Forking over twenty bucks, at that point, was out of the question. I'll probably pick up one of the hundreds of copies that ends up in the bargain racks in a few weeks. What made me laugh, besides the sheer inanity of it, was the way in which Ann is basically shooting her own foot and the foot of all Christian conservatives. Now, in Ann's eyes, liberals are the devil. There is nothing worse on planet Earth. If the Rapture came tomorrow and liberals were left to suffer and die, Ann would be demanding a front row observation box from her blissful heavenly perch. But how does Ann choose to mock these minions of Satan in her latest book? By comparing them to religious conservatives!! Yes, this is her argument, her best argument, the one laid out in the center of the back cover, with rays of light shooting out of it as if these were the words of God himself: Liberalism is a RELIGION, just as Christianity or Judaism is a religion. Implication: And since we all know religions are for STUPID people, doesn't that just make liberals STUPID? This woman can't stand liberals, and yet the way in which she chooses to mock them is to label them just as irrational ("liberalism has ... its own beliefs in the supernatural"), just as meek and conforming (" ... its own high priests"), just as religious ("... its own churches ... its own saints"), and just as unscientific ("... its own miracles") as all other religious screwballs. In short, liberals are just like conservatives! Way to go, Ann! Of course, none of it is true: 1. I know of no public official who "loves to boast that they are not religious". Doing so would be political suicide, whether that person was liberal or conservative. 2. There is no state-sanctioned religion in this country. 3. As much as it would tickle me to stamp conservatism with such an irrational label, conservatism is no more a 'religion' than liberalism. 4. Liberalism has no cosmology or explanation for the existence of the universe. Cosmology belongs to science and is available to liberals and conservatives alike. 5. Liberalism has no arms with which to build churches, no mind to conceive miracles or the supernatural, and no voice to appoint saints or high priests. 6. Liberalism worships no supernatural deity. Humans do. Of course, Ann deliberately confuses 'liberals' with 'liberalism' so that she can lump tens of millions of people under the same umbrella of religious irrationality. Still, it's amusing to watch a Christian conservative bash liberals by equating them with ... Christian conservatives. I can't wait to read the rest of the book. ------------ About the author: David Gleeson lives in Colorado with his wife and two children. He is an aerospace engineer and skeptic of all things supernatural. You can find a website of his opinion pieces at http://homepage.mac.com/coskeptic/blog/index.html. Email: coskeptic@mac.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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