Brutally Honest Rant - 07/12/06

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: The Coulter Trap
Audio Transcripts
07/12/06

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – "American Idiot Remix" – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening, and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

And I hope you will forgive my voice… as you may tell, I’m sort of under the weather this week, so I hope you’ll understand if my rant comes off a little soft-spoken and shorter than usual.

I don’t know what it is, folks… maybe it’s because I’m a libertarian, maybe it’s because I don’t play by the same rules as the liberals and conservatives do, but I’m just wondering why the hell liberals are falling right into the trap of conservatives.

You see, there’s been a lot of talk about the latest book by conservative columnist Ann Coulter called "Godless: The Church of Liberalism".

Look, you don’t have to get the book to guess what it is about. It’s about trashing liberals. All of her books are that way. They’re all about trashing liberalism.

But there is one section of that book that apparently really pissed people off, and that section had to do with the so-called "Jersey girls"… four women who lost their husbands in the September 11^th terrorist attacks. These four women helped push for the 9/11 Commission and they have been critical of our security measures since then. And they have every right to be critical! The system let them down! But apparently Ann Coulter feels that they don’t have a right to do that because they’re liberal women living under a Republican-monopolized government.

AND… I’m going to stop right there… because THAT is the trap.

There is a REASON why that little passage came out the way that it did, and why Ann Coulter further antagonized the situation in the media afterwards. Actually there are TWO reasons… one is financial, and the other is intellectual. And once you realize what they are, you’ll understand why this issue is a trap.

First, the financial reason. One of the best ways to generate sales is to leak some of the most scandalous elements of that material out early.

Here’s a great example… in 1999, when Columbia Pictures wanted to promote their movie "Cruel Intentions", they let the wager of the two main conniving participants slip out. The wager was for the male character to seduce a prim and proper virgin to demonstrate just how good of a Casanova he really is. If he can’t do it, then he loses his most valued possession, which is an antique roadster. If he can pull it off, then he gets to have sex with the conniving female character… who happens to be his half-sister.

Now if you ever saw the movie "Dangerous Liaisons" or any of the other variations of the original French story, then you’d pretty much know how the story will turn out. And the studio executives KNEW this. So they leaked out the racy incestuous banter early, hoping that people will be drawn in on the hope of seeing actress Sarah Michelle Gellar getting laid.

It was, of course, a trap. Not just the story, but also the movie. If you saw it, then you’d know that it didn’t happen. It was all just a trick to get people to see the movie. And, if memory serves, it was a somewhat successful trick in terms of box office attention.

Well let’s get brutally honest here… that is EXACTLY what this whole "Jersey girls" controversy was about. It was about SALES!

I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret about publishers and authors… they LOVE controversy over a book! They love OUTRAGE! They love SCANDAL! You know why? Because it gets them FREE MEDIA COVERAGE, and that helps to sell even more books!

Leaking out the whole "Jersey Girls" segment complete with her comments in the media that further antagonized the issue was a stroke of pure marketing GENIUS! That guaranteed that every radio station and every talk program would be talking about the book, even IF they don’t ask for her to appear! That certainly beats BEGGING and PLEADING for some time to promote the book. And the more that is discussed about the book, the more people will want to buy it and read it for themselves. Whether or not they agree with what she has to say is irrelevant, of course. It’s the actual SALES that matter, and this kind of tactic is a sure-fire winner.

Which brings us to the second reason why this is a trap. This, my friends, is a logic trap. And it’s a sneaky little logic trap. This is along the same lines as asking someone if they’ve stopped beating their spouse.

Let’s think about this for a minute… the whole "Jersey Girls" attack is really a part of a larger section of Ann Coulter’s book where she argues that liberals (or "progressives" or whatever you want to call them) hold certain people and certain groups and even certain ideas above reproach and above question. What better way to prove that argument than to bring out the most vocal victims of 9/11 and then intentionally question and sullen the connection to their lost loved ones? She KNOWS that the liberals will come out of the woodwork to defend these women and to try to crucify her in the media! And they did just that! And, in doing so, they validated her argument.

Think about it: simply by coming out and speaking out against Ann Coulter, liberals actually PROVED her argument for her! She didn’t have to do a single thing to validate it. They did all the dirty work for her!

That’s the trap, folks! And every liberal and liberal-leaning person who took time and effort and energy AWAY from discussing the real, substantive issues of the time to debate this fell right into that trap!

Ann Coulter is a paid antagonist. She’s a very successful agitator. That’s all that she is and that’s all she’s ever good at doing. That’s why newspapers pick up her columns. That’s why her books sell. She pisses people off and she gets paid quite well to do it. She’s the kind of person that would argue that the Earth is cube-shaped if it would advance the conservative cause, keep Republicans in positions of power, give liberals aneurysms, and give herself a nice hefty royalty check to top it all off.

Now given all of that, why would you want to play HER game under HER rules? It’s like betting in Las Vegas. You’re really not going to win. You’re not even going to break even in the exchange. All you’re going to do is validate her arguments and make yourself look stupid. And it’s just plain foolish, especially since there are plenty of REAL issues to discuss that are getting diverted… which, of course, also works to the benefit of the conservatives.

Besides, hey, we’re talking about 9/11 widows from NEW JERSEY! They can take care of themselves quite well against a bony peroxide hellmouth.

(Computer – something timely)
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The interesting thing about the Coulter trap that I’m surprised so many people fell for was the fact that Ann Coulter was really preaching from a stance of pure hypocrisy. Here is a woman representing a political faction that LOVES to talk about the sanctity of marriage, openly questioning the marital status of other women who lost their husbands. Here is a woman representing a political faction that has profited HEAVILY from 9/11, daring to accuse other women of becoming celebrities off their misery. These should have been serious red flags for people! I mean… the whole thing REEKED of a trap! You couldn’t have a bigger indicator of it than if she changed the title of her book from "Godless" to "BAIT".

Now the smart person doesn’t immediately take the bait and let the trap be sprung. The smart person takes the trap and uses it as his own weapon. If you are offended by Ann Coulter’s use of bait, then you use the information to YOUR advantage and build a case on the overall hypocrisy of the conservative cause. THIS is what Coulter and others like her are selling as conservatism. THIS is what they are selling under the banner of "family values" and "the sanctity of marriage". All of the rhetoric that they spew during election time and when they want certain laws passed means absolutely NOTHING if they can’t even practice what they preach!

And by the way, guess what happens when people don’t respond to the bait of the Coulter Trap? It loses its appeal. Her book sales plummet and the number of newspapers that carry her column will slowly disappear. And then all she has left are a bunch of online fans… and you can’t really make any coin off them at that point.

Remember folks… paid agitators don’t get paid if they can’t agitate anyone.

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production, all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

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