Ann Coulter Compares Herself to MLK, and Free Speech Isn’t Cool Anymore

Make no mistake: We are big fans of free speech here at Paste, both because the capacity to express any idea without fear of harm or imprisonment is crucial to a functioning democracy, and because it’s so closely related to a free press—hell, they share the same amendment!

That being said, you know that whole adage about “not agreeing with what you say, but defending to your death the right to say it”? We’re only so-so on that whole deal. I mean, sure, free speech belongs to everybody, but can we agree that it’s way cooler as a concept when it isn’t being applied to a human troll like Ann Coulter?

Yes, Ann Coulter. We’re talking about her again—the racist, xenophobic hatemonger who said all this shit, and whose record is so entrenched in the genre of “evil conservative instigators without a shred of integrity” that we can hopefully skip a more comprehensive review.

Anyway, she was slated to speak at Berkeley at the invitation of conservative groups—presumably to enlighten the next generation about how Latinos are child rapists, or whatever—but that school has been deluged by violence from clashing fringe groups around the Bay Area to such a degree that they couldn’t guarantee her safety, and thus canceled the event. The school emphasized the safety angle in every public statement, trying to hammer home the idea that this was actually not a free speech issue, but a security one.

Still, conservatives like Coulter love to believe they’re bold prophets being victimized by censorship, and so she has seized on the free speech narrative. In an appearance on Fox News last night with fellow troll-person Tucker Max, she even had the audacity to compare herself to—wait for it—Martin Luther King Jr.: