Ann Coulter is a name you will find everywhere. She wants you to talk about her and her brash opinions. Her last three books (she’s written nine books in the past ten years), are called Demonic, Mugged and Never Trust a Liberal Over Three — Especially a Republican. She wants you to notice her and she wants you to talk about her. She has recently made headlines with a few different social media statements and articles that both outrage and upset people. What comes to mind is the #bringbackourgirls hashtag, a movement that started over Twitter a few months ago. People, including Michelle Obama, posted photos holding signs with the hashtag #bringbackourgirls and Ann Coulter held a sign that said #bringbackourcountry.
The media was outraged for a week or so that Ann Coulter would use this Twitter movement–which was meant to do good for a social and political matter–for personal gain. The truth is that she highlighted that taking a picture and posting it to Twitter won’t do anything. We must do something to change the country. Action isn’t posting to social media–action is calling your congressman, not being passive.
Coulter’s latest social stunt is very pointed. My response to the article Coulter: Any growing interest in soccer a sign of nation’s moral decay is simply, wow. I had never read anything so pointed or mean-spirited. The statements that she makes fall into three categories: her objections to the actual sport, the people who play or support the sport and the culture that supports soccer in the United States.
I live and work in China and my coworkers are from China, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Many of the statements Coulter makes about baseball are common international complaints about baseball. Trying to explain why baseball is fun to watch and why I get excited to see a man hit a ball with a stick astounds some of my coworkers. It’s not a part of their culture and they didn’t grow up playing and loving it. Coulter says that soccer is for wimps and that soccer moms love soccer because it’s safe and there are no individual winners–no MVP. Well, if you have ever watched two homegrown teams play against each other for pride, it’s obvious that there are winners and losers and there are heroes. David Beckham wouldn’t have become the icon he now is if there weren’t star players. I’m sorry, but running around on a field for 90 minutes is exhausting even without doing so among aggressive men wearing spikes. Have you seen any of the gnarly injuries that come from soccer?
Lastly, and the part that probably is the most rude, is Coulter’s statement about an American society that accepts and enjoys soccer. She says,
If more “Americans” are watching soccer today, it’s only because of the demographic switch effected by Teddy Kennedy’s 1965 immigration law. I promise you: No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer. One can only hope that, in addition to learning English, these new Americans will drop their soccer fetish with time.
Apparently, she doesn’t find the people who brought soccer into this country to be real Americans. Americans have always wanted to be the best on the world stage and so soccer leagues came into existence–especially because kiddie football became too expensive. Kids played soccer when they were younger and grew up loving the sport, the same way we learned to love baseball, football, and apple pie. We’re in a new generation of kids who played soccer in school. My father, who is months older than Coulter, played and loved soccer in high school and is rooting for America alongside so many other Americans. I think someone just needs to explain the rules to her.
