#272: Ilana Mercer

Ilana Mercer is a Canadian citizen currently residing in the US, where she operates as a libertarian columnist for – you guessed it – WorldNetDaily. As opposed to most WorldNetDaily “libertarians”, Mercer has actually criticized paleoconservative viewpoints, but she has also often been a shill for the religious right. She is an ardent follower of Ayn Rand, especially where Rand’s not entirely coherent views coincide with those of the religious right. She doesn’t like homosexuality, and in a review of a book by Sciaberra on Rand and homosexuality, she said the following:

“I fear that what has emerged from Sciabarra's many fascinating personal accounts is a liberal and permissive narrative about sexuality that serves to denude sex of its Randian majesty and meaning.”

Read that again. Yes, she really said that. And with “the Randian majesty of sex”, Ilana Mercer has coined what is possibly the most bizarrely inane, absurdly lunatic neologism in the history of mankind. It qualifies her for inclusion in the Encyclopedia even if she had been the voice of reason in absolutely all other contexts. (A commentary concerning the incident is here). To top it, she has also talked about Glenn Beck’s “incalculable contribution to liberty”. She frequently fails at coherence, as seen here. In short, one kinda wonders whether she really knows what words mean; she actually seems to confirm that her grasp of the meanings of words is a little shaky herself.

Her view of American history is a font of the most ridiculous hagiography imaginable: “The idea that the founders were flawed, sinful men like you and me is current among a hefty majority of Americans, conservative too. It is wrong. Quite the reverse. The founders were nothing like us. Not even close. [… T]he American Founding Fathers were immeasurably better than just about anyone on earth today …”

And her personal brand of “libertarianism” is perhaps best characterized by the fact that she is a “Christian Nation” supporter. But then, we have already provided good evidence that Mercer doesn’t really grasp that “meaning”-thing, so who knows?

Diagnosis: Very deeply confused wingnut, although her tenuous command of concepts in general suggests that for all we know she might really be a hardcore communist who is severely word-processing-challenged.