RESPECT (no, not the song)
I’m not going to type her name but I think I can describe her well enough that you’ll know who I’m talking about. She says things that shock us and make us mad. She wrote a book that stated that liberals were godless and she seems to always show up on TV wearing a black cocktail dress. She has long blond hair and what appears to be an Adam’s apple. Yeah, her.
By now you may have heard about her exchange on Hardball Tuesday night with Elizabeth Edwards. When Mrs. Edwards called in to the show she very politely asked this woman to please stop making personal attacks against John. Mrs. Edwards was asking for a little respect from the most disrespectful woman I have ever heard speak.
What did ever happen to respect? I think it might have began to disappear with TV shows like Jerry Springer’s old show. That’s the first place I recall people calling each other mean and dirty names face to face and no one observing this seemed upset.
I remember one time a long time ago, before Jerry Springer’s show was very well known, I turned it on to see what it was about. I heard people in the audience calling the female guest on the show a “bitch” and a “whore”. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was happening on national TV? Yes, it sure was.
I admit to being disrespectful at times but never to anyone’s face. I guess I’m a coward when it comes to something like that. Okay, that and I seldom feel the urge to face someone and hurt them with verbiage. Sure, if you cut me off in traffic I’ll cuss you out and call you every name in the book, but you’ll never hear me. I just get it out, I never take it out.
So I’m wondering, when did being mean and nasty begin to pay off? When did we decide that being disrespectful to someone face to face was acceptable and entertaining?
By now you may have heard about her exchange on Hardball Tuesday night with Elizabeth Edwards. When Mrs. Edwards called in to the show she very politely asked this woman to please stop making personal attacks against John. Mrs. Edwards was asking for a little respect from the most disrespectful woman I have ever heard speak.
What did ever happen to respect? I think it might have began to disappear with TV shows like Jerry Springer’s old show. That’s the first place I recall people calling each other mean and dirty names face to face and no one observing this seemed upset.
I remember one time a long time ago, before Jerry Springer’s show was very well known, I turned it on to see what it was about. I heard people in the audience calling the female guest on the show a “bitch” and a “whore”. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This was happening on national TV? Yes, it sure was.
I admit to being disrespectful at times but never to anyone’s face. I guess I’m a coward when it comes to something like that. Okay, that and I seldom feel the urge to face someone and hurt them with verbiage. Sure, if you cut me off in traffic I’ll cuss you out and call you every name in the book, but you’ll never hear me. I just get it out, I never take it out.
So I’m wondering, when did being mean and nasty begin to pay off? When did we decide that being disrespectful to someone face to face was acceptable and entertaining?
posted by pissed off patricia at 2:59 AM
34 Comments:
When? I'd guess about the same time we decided being notorious and being famous were the same thing (I won't mention by name any recently released blonde jailbirds).
Robert Heinlein wrote that a sure sign that a civilization was in the throes of collapse was when the social graces such please and thank you and politeness began to disappear. These are the lubricants that mediate the normal friction that can develop between people and without them we have bad results.
Another symptom is dirty public restrooms which is indicative of poeples lack of respect for others.
The sad thing is, Ann Coulter fills the cable news airwaves daily with her verbage and hate, and her victims continue to suffer.
Lydia Cornell still receives death threats and stalkers, from Ann Coulter posting her home address and phone number on her website for a year.
All Lydia Cornell did was ask her for an interview to clarify why she says hurtful things.
Is there really justice in America?
Pop, you were very wise not to name her. Back home, my happy hour friends and I have a deal that anybody who utters her vile name gets their arm hairs pulled (which can be quite painful if done correctly!)
With that said, the Coultergeist, purveyor of hate and nastiness, is successful because Americans buy what she is selling. We crave it like addicts. It has become so much a part of the fabric of our culture that it seems normal to us now.
We need rehab.
Disrespectful or just plain nuts?
This woman is sick.....and any one who agrees with anything she says is sick.
Her parents must be mega-embarrassed...or maybe they are sick too.
If you are a Republican, a Neocon, or Conservative, then you can be as mean as mean can be, as long as you dont mess with your own base.
When? Seems to me it was when Old Ronald the "Sunshine in America" Iran-Contra pretzeldent.
And that is to say when the radical right began to exert control.
People of limited intelligence have to bully others by attacking them with name-calling and disrespect.
Other people who do the same love to hear others do the same, and she has found her audience among other would rather attack the messenger, instead of the considering and using her brain for something others than disrespect others who don't share her neo-cons ideals.
She doesn't have the wisdom to debate issues.
Just another who has turned traitor to the constitional wisdom of the founders of this nation.
Let her keep speaking, everytime she does she makes it clear she lacks thinking skills.
When I was in Colorado my B-I-L was defending her to the nines and we had quite a debate about it, but he sure found out my feelings on her. How he could defend her is beyond me.
When did it start?? Humm some prob say it was during the hippie age- NO NO they were all about LOVE! I do believe the Tele has alot to do with it, we as a folk have become anesthetised by it we hardly notice, But I sure do, the lack of humility infuriates me, and being me I don't mind telling people so, and so it goes.A little kindnes never hurts!
pop,
I studiously avoided watching Mathews' show, then got hit with the exchange in the reruns ad nausem. You make a good point about respect - in short, it doesn't sell books. Armstong Williams - certainly no liberal, and just as certainly trying to put distance between the repugs and her may have put it best, essentially saying she is in love with herself and doesn't care what anyone else thinks about her.
That, plus America has indeed become Springerized.
There is a certain subset of the population that walks around full of hate all day every day and Ann Coulter gives them credibility. It is preposterous that the MSM and the Republicans have allowed her to get a voice, but they have, and God save us all from her vitriol. I looked at some of the kids who cheered her on and they did not look like the brightest. The chubby girl behind her shocked me. Ann was slamming chubby Jewish girls, and since this girl was not Jewish, she thought it was funny. Pent up self-loathing and anger is now something one can display freely and Ann taps into that.
"People of limited intelligence have to bully others by attacking them with name-calling and disrespect."
Absolutely true! Nick (memBeth) said it beautifully.
Listen, I'm so old-school, I don't get why Borat is considered funny - to me, he's mean-spirited, and simply shocking.
The old Jerry Springer Show was geared toward the lowest common denominator, the biggest attack on high art; it opened the door for a lot of low-culture.
But Ann Coulter? She's simply a psychopath who has found her way into the spotlight. She's like a bad train-wreck that we keep watching over and over. She's the speaking, blond version of seeing tapes of the Twin Towers collapsing every five minutes for a year after they fell.
We can choose to not watch.
Many years ago (more years than I care to remember) I was reading about the Presidential election between Jefferson and Adams. I was a big fan of Jefferson, so I was surprised to learn just how dirty he got with Adams.
Mr. Jefferson had given untrue information to a couple of newspaper reporters about Mr. Adams. Basically Jefferson claimed that Adams had an adulterous relationship. The words (google up the story) were vile.
I was young at the time I read about this, but remember thinking how little things had changed from the mud slinging I had been hearing during the current Presidential election.
In fact, I thought, it was nice to see that things were a lot cleaner in my time.
Ann Coulter is a foul mouthed pig. Rush is a liar. Cheney is dangerous. Rove must hate America.
But wait!
Lefties compare Bush to Hitler.
Michael Moore once said, "If the hijacked civilians of 9/11 were black, they would have fought back, unlike the stupid and cowardly white men and women."
Quite an insult to those that forced the plane down in Pennsylvania.
My point is, it's unfair to say that one side has cornered the market on hate, or hate speech.
And it is a childish game to debate which side is more hateful than the other.
Sadly, intelligent discourse (concerning anything these days) seems dead in this country.
As for She Who Will Not Be Named, let's face it; she knows what sells, and the rank and file lap it up.
As for Mrs. Edwards, I have nothing but respect for her, but I find it somewhat disheartening that the Edwards campaign has used this incident to raise more funds for their campaign (check out the Edwards web site) ... of course, I guess that can be seen as making lemons from lemonade.
i think it started way back in the "greed is good" days and progressed from there.
yes, springer is a part, but moreso,
shows like "judge judy" where all courtroom decorm was replaced with smart ass answers and completely rude behavior. justice is an bedrock of our society and there are ways to silence a mouthy defendant or complaintant without
the sound bite clever little "steet" quips.
we have been dumbed down and "entertained" in order to be more easily lied to.
just my rant.
as to little ann,on more than one occasion, she has sunk lower than i ever thought possible.
instead of pointing fingers at the right or left in order to make ourselves feel better, maybe we should just note anyone that goes beyond what we think is called for and not buy thier books or see their movies or pay to hear them speak.
money talks in this country.
that's just the way it is.
and in the meantime, we each could try to be nicer.
i try, i fail at times, but i try.
forgive the typos please, have 1 ear to a radio program and i'm the typo queen anyway. ; )
Hey there! Here's a blog meme to take your mind off right-wing lunacy.
http://thetruffle.blogspot.com/2007/06/meme-time-more-fun-than-blogthings.html
great post. I for one have never taken ms. evening dress from press very seriously. Just a girl with a dream.......good thought provoking post.
Those moral Republicans must not have a problem with Coulter's hate and trampyness, since they remain silent, and schedule her at all their events.
Sadly, there's an audience for it. And the networks like to sell fireworks. Shed heat, not light seems to be the motto. I have a post on Coulter from last year on the whole dynamic, but it's really a matter of pressuring the legitimate news outlets (she'll always have Fox News) not to have her. Elizabeth Edwards was classy, is popular and spoke common sense. That also helps.
I have to have faith that Mann Coulter will eventually fall victim to her own hatred.
In other news, Patricia, I think your cat Fred might be my cat Ozzie's twin brother!
P O Pat,
Although it is of extremely poor quality, we have what passes for political debate in the country / world. But it is a debate without critical judges. The debaters play to the peanut gallery. When you play to the peanut gallery and your “assertion to defend” is largely intellectually bankrupt, it is easier to divert attention from the issue, attack the opponent, and offer a lot false choices and irrelevancies that will incite your supporters to cheer. The peanut gallery likes to whoop it up and in the euphoric state of whooped-upedness they tend to buy books and raise radio ratings and put bumper stickers on their cars and truck that promote the simplistic, if not idiotic, ideas that resonate in their empty sonorous skulls.
General bad behavior may be another thing altogether. My own theory is not fully formed but I see two distinct influences: Anonymity and a lost sense of community. The progeny of this marriage are nationwide and unpleasant. One is the It’s-All-About-Me-Syndrome. The sibling is mental illness called Since-You-Don’t-Know-Me-There-Is-No-Behavior-Too-Assholeish-to-Endulge.
I swear if I were to witness someone committing what I once thought of as everyday common courtesy, I would think it was an act of profound kindness and consideration.
I don't watch TV or her, but what ever.
"She wrote a book that stated that liberals were godless"
Isn't almost everyone?
Sure I show disrespect, why should I respect what I see? But, this decline is to be expected and I'm not going to miss America as it is because it is a piece of crap.
Nick is funny, thinks he is smarter than everyone else I guess. But his brain is a bowl of mush that loves dogs more than people.
So I’m wondering, when did being mean and nasty begin to pay off?
When didn't it?
OK...know that was snarky, but my traffic has gone through the roof since Ann let loose--damn! That right-wing, crass, political whore just keeps on giving.
PS. I came across something this week that made me laugh until I cried. Check out Salon.com, click video dog and then Red States Update. These short videos are the funniest thing I've seen in years. Jackie and Dunlap; I might have gone to school with these guys.
I hear Edwards is collecting "Coulter Cash" now, so her nastiness will backfire, in more ways than just that one, I'll bet.
If the Republicans are not fully behind and supportive of Coulter's hate, they why are they silent, and why do they main event her at their major events?
"If the Republicans are not fully behind and supportive of Coulter's hate, they why are they silent, and why do they main event her at their major events?"
They don't care Larry. I have a friend who started a wingnut blog, and one of his writers is an outright racist.(He left a comment on my blog today calling Asians "Chinks"). My friend claims personally he's not racist, but when I ask him about this writer he dismisses it with the old, "Well that's him not me." To which I reply, "He writes for you blog." Back and forth, and so on and so forth.
If he cares he doesn't care enough to say something. These people are so bought in to the Rep nonsense their very identities would crumble if they ever really questioned what is going on.
Piling up a huge pile of karmic debt, that poor sick, twisted woman is . . .
Pop, like you I refuse to type her name and give her any more exposure then her man hands need. She is the kind of person that will hate me because of what I think without even knowing who I am.
Ann Coulter isn't disrespectful. She's psychotic. Haven't you ever noticed? She has that smarmy grin pasted on her face all the time and she never blinks. Ever.
I always feel like I have to go and wash after I have listened to her "speak".
Andrew Coulter...nuff said.
LOL, Sumo. The Coultergeist makes lots of money peddling her hate to the followers of the ideologies that love hate: neocons and theocons.
I don't mention her name. I don't listen to her, I don't watch her, and I don't read her books.
I can't avoid picking up tidbits from the net.
Political campaigns have a long history of ugliness. It's nothing new but t.v., the net, and people like her have taken it to a new level.
As long as she has an audience, she'll keep talking. In the end though, she may be the best friend we have.
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