Hysteria from pundits of all political stripes has ensued from Ann Coulter's column criticizing soccer in America. Conservatives and liberals both have claimed this as a sign that Tea Party types are out of touch and conspiratorial.
Let me defend Ann to my vast reading audience.
This column is another classic Coulter style of mixing satire with serious thought. Too bad she didn't really supply any statistics, but one has to wonder how much demography really does have to do with interest in the World Cup.
For instance, I was in Canada a couple of weeks ago. Half of the citizens of Toronto were born outside Canada. There was a much greater zeal for the World Cup in Canada than in America. It's just more popular overseas.
Is that necessarily a character defect? Maybe not. I am very critical of the mob-like escapism that professional sports provides, but I don't see how following soccer is any different than American football or hockey. I will posit that the shift in popularity from baseball to football is likely a symptom of our growing attention deficit.
Regardless of the reasons that soccer may be growing in popularity, the liberal backlash against this column is disgusting. Coulter does not seek legislation to ban soccer. She does not use inappropriate language to criticize them. She doesn't even compare anyone to Hitler!
When schools are banning cupcakes at birthday parties, the wrath over this column is really misplaced.
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