The Weakness of Karen De Coster

Karen De Coster is a bad ass. She is a libertarian, an accountant, a writer, an activist, and a devotee of the paleo diet and exercise regimen. Plus, she looks hot holding a firearm. She is also very opinionated and does not hesitate to say exactly what she thinks. You can get a taste of that here.

There is much to like and admire about Karen. She is awesome in so many ways. She was on my heroes list. Then, she did something very unheroic. She disgraced herself by being mean to someone weak. This is a no-no with me. I'm cool with people bashing on me. I'm not so cool with people bashing on the defenseless. Karen isn't a proud individualist. She is simply a gun toting bitch with a fragile ego.

This weakness of hers was put on display on Facebook when she started a thread bashing on some fat chick she saw at Walmart wearing Under Armour. Now, I admit this is poor fashion especially if you are overweight. But Karen took some special delight in denigrating this person to hell and back. When I suggested to her that maybe this was being less than magnanimous in the Aristotelian sense, she proceeded to call me a pussy, question my manhood, call me a fat ass, or what have you. Her surrogates joined in as well. Now, I like this kind of thing. I love mean people because I love hurting them. This is because meanness is a form of weakness, but it is the best kind of weakness. You get to hurt them back and feel no guilt.

Karen was bashing on this fat chick because she is a fragile person. Like the bully who eventually gets his ass cut on the playground, Karen preys on weaker people because she is weak herself. This is what one Facebooker said about her, "She is incredibly high-strung. And you're right, she glories in a sort of macho bitchiness, but goes berserk when challenged."

Someone like Karen is a fat ripe target for someone like me. I can't help myself. I often wonder if I'm just like her, but I have a high tolerance for people bashing on me. In fact, I get a little thrill from it, and I like to turn all insults directed at me into self-deprecating humor. I have learned that strength comes from self-acceptance and humility. Karen has not learned this. I tried to tell her about this, but this is when I got called a pussy. Oh, well, so much for diplomacy.

This is the sort of hypocrisy you can expect from KDC:

My style is a direct result of how I think. I make no effort to be of any particular temperament, or otherwise. It just is what it is. My writing is me, my passion, and my desire for the truth, no matter what the consequences. I could easily kiss ass (like many of my libertarian colleagues) and moderate my ideas, and the result would be that I would get more “mainstream” libertarian jobs. And you all know some of these folks who have sold out to soft-peddling in order to make the appropriate friends and alliances. But I can’t sell out like they do.

Karen portrays herself as a shit kicker. She isn't "soft." Yet, she has a meltdown finally on Facebook and defriended me because I wrote, "A non-date date is when a chick does not put out, and they split the check." Granted, there was some lead up to this. I failed to kiss her ass on numerous prior occasions. But I never insulted her though she never failed to insult me. I was merely blunt in the same way that she is. But I think this comment I put on her post sums up my thinking about her:

Truth is a two way street. If you can dish it out, you need to also be willing to take it. Unfortunately, many of the “heavy hitters” are this way because they have a glass jaw. Their aggressive style is camouflage for weakness. They can be merciless to others, but they have a deep well of insecurity. They can give the hits, but they can’t take them. When you can take your own medicine, you are truly fearless.

Karen can't take her own medicine. The fact that she defriended me shows this. My initial impression of her proved accurate. She is brittle and breaks easily. She never understood what I was trying to show her. When you do great things, this makes you a great person. When you shit on other people to make yourself even greater, it only disgraces you. You don't get stronger by being mean to the weak.

The quality we must all strive to attain is what Aristotle called magnanimity or the "greatness of soul." The magnanimous person knows his or her own greatness. The great souled person is neither vain nor self-loathing. The great souled person refrains from pettiness and being mean spirited. The magananimous person bears all insults and criticism with a lightness of being. Or as Aristotle put it, "I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self."

I can be as critical and as mean as Karen is, but I try to have a point with the meanness. I sharpen my arrows for the arrogant and the vicious. This is what I mean when I say these people are "ripe." Christ knows I have been ripe on a few occasions. But I take solace in the proverb that says, "Faithful are the blows of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy." Karen will probably never see it this way, but I am trying to be her friend. I see her as someone who wants to be strong, and I am simply showing her what true strength is. As it stands, she has a glass jaw. It is up to her to fix this.

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