Truth is the first casualty of Ann Coulter

Anne Coulter's publisher has dismissed allegations of plagiarism against her as "trivial." While there is really no such thing as a "trivial" plagiarism, it is indeed trivial compared to her utter and flagrant intellectual dishonesty.

Media matters takes her to the woodshed with the hack paddle of fact in Ann Coulter's "Flatulent Raccoon Theory"

It's a wonderful exercise in my favorite technique of debate - drop a library on the idiot and watch them scrabble to get out from under. But, while it's enjoyable in it's own right, and certainly illustrative of the desinction in intellectual rigor between Coulter and those she most favors attacking, I wish to concentrate on one lie, and one lie alone, excerpted from her latest book.

"[L]iberals think evolution disproves God."

Why is this a lie? Well, one could be snarky and suggest that the the bon mot suggests that Liberals think.

I have known a lot of Liberals, and I can tell you that in general they are no more fond of it than Conservatives, or indeed, any of my wondrously well-informed fellow Americans.

The more serious and conscious lie is that Liberals think of evolution in common. Clearly, she has either never listened to a bunch of Liberals, or is choosing to misrepresent what she thought she heard.

There is no required intellectual consensus among intellectual Liberals, save one that is grudgingly accepted among those who are also intellectually honest, and that is that conclusions must be founded in evidence.

Neither liberals nor evolutionists (not the same population by any means) believe that evolution "disproves" God. It merely explains how living creatures evolves - to the extent that the theory is supported by evidence, and so far, there seems no way to prove OR disprove the existence of God.

Science neither confirms nor denies the existence of God. What individual scientists say, in either direction, are statements of faith.

And matters of faith can only be proven or disproven in the realm of faith.

To disprove Ann Coulter's God, one need go no further than The Bible, and the Ten Commandments. "Bearing False witness" is an officially bad thing, and the link above provides overwhelming evidence that she is intentionally lying in order to persuade those still under the sway of her neocon paymasters.

There is a fundamental principle of critical analysis that comes to bear here. "Qui Bono," or "who benefits" (that I believe this.) This is applicable even if an argument is bolstered by fact, but it is particularly applicable to a liar. Why do they wish you to believe something that is provably untrue, and why do they wish to influence you to have such contempt for those who know the truth of the matter that you will never check the facts for yourself?

Instead, Coulter and her ilk wish to reduce everything to emotional triggers. They want you to distrust those who you should trust - and trust those who lie to you.

I'm not gong to tell you why this is so, why it benefits them, for it doesn't matter. What matters is that they think they will benefit at your expense. If this were not the truth of the matter, they would have truths to tell you.

Coulter (and likewise, O'Rielly, Hannedy, Limbaugh and the like) are propagandists, not commentators. They are not interested in informing your opinion, they are interested in getting you to accept their opinion uncrtically.

It's rather insulting that Coulter, in particular, thinks so little of her readers that she cannot be bothered to do a credible job of deception.


tag: creationism, ann coulter, liberals, liberalism, plagerism, lies, propaganda