October 27, 2012
Ann Coulter
Language policing has nothing to do with the victims it purports to help and is solely about feigning indignation to gain credence. Congress was using “retard” and “retardation” up until two years ago.
If you really want to hear an offensive use of the word “retard,” look up what they said about Sarah Palin’s kid. Revered liberal comedian Louis CK described Palin’s vagina as a “retard-making cunt.” The relentlessly amusing Stephen Colbert called Palin herself a “fucking retard.” Al Gore described Ollie North supporters as “the extra chromosome right wing“ and Obama himself said his bowling was so pathetic, it’s “like the Special Olympics or something.” Shriver’s reaction to this much more obvious insult was that it was “in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics.”
Palin chastised Rush Limbaugh for overusing it. Allowing someone else to figure out what words are permitted is like handing Corky a boom box.
Coulter realizes this is all about power and that any reaction validates their claims, so she refused to give me quotes for this piece. She did however, send me an interview she did with Alan Colmes where he ambushed her with the topic while doing an interview for her new book Mugged. In the interview, Colmes invents absurd scenarios in an attempt to get Coulter to apologize. When “screw them” comes out of her mouth during an absurd demand, it becomes a headline that gets traction.
This is because to speak your mind in today’s scandal-starved media is to live under a microscope. When you tell someone you”re pro-life the response is, “Oh yeah? What if a father rapes his 13-year-old and she gets pregnant?” If you don”t allow an abortion in that scenario, the headline becomes, “Pro Lifers Want Rape Victims to Have Retarded Incest Babies.” Coulter stops Colmes from telling her that Down syndrome is a gift and points out, “I was not making a joke about the Special Olympics like our president did” and reiterates the obvious truth that “Nobody would call someone with Down syndrome “retard”,” seemingly forgetting the liberal abuse Palin endures on behalf of her child. She tells Colmes he cannot “go around saying this and that word is offensive” and when he asks her if she”ll sit down with Stephens she says she”ll consider it when Stephens can update her on the status of other words. “As long as they”re the Word Police,” she says, “I want to know if I can use moron, cretin, idiot, or imbecile.”
You can use any word you want if you”re on the right side. A Nazi is no longer a member of the German National Socialist Party; it’s anyone who wants to cut social programs. Is there a Republican or conservative politician alive who hasn”t had a Hitler mustache drawn on them? Retard literally means “slow,” and just because some hypocritical pundits want to get all niggardly about who can use it and in what context doesn”t mean we have to comply. In fact, the worst thing you can do when fighting the language police is give them the time of day. They”re like the bad guys in Monsters, Inc. They feed on screams. As soon as we ignore them, they die. Shit, I guess I shouldn”t have written this fucking article then.
