Kurt Schlichter is a columnist for Townhall.com and has a Twitter following approaching the half-million mark.
He’s also, if you’ve ever been online, someone you will see picking fights with anyone he disagrees with.
His bio on the social media platform includes the phrase, “Does not suffer fools gladly,” hinting at this acerbic personality that frequently is on display, replying to what seems like every single slight, diss, or dig on the site.
In one recent example, he dragged Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) for daring to wish people a Happy Kwanzaa. He chided, “Kwanzaa is a made-up holiday for Communists and idiots and only weird wine women like this creature try to push it on people,” before adding, “Reject the stupidity.”
That’s pretty much sums up the Schlichter experience.
Kwanzaa is a made-up holiday for Communists and idiots and only weird wine women like this creature try to push it on people.
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 26, 2023
Reject the stupidity https://t.co/7VTjR4IMgz pic.twitter.com/uy7Zxt5CnF
Who is Kurt Schlichter?
Schlichter first got on social media’s radar via his work for Breitbart, the far-right online media outlet founded in 2007. Breitbart was founded, according to itself, on “the idea that truthful reporting and the free and open exchange of ideas is essential to maintain a robust democracy.”
Schlichter was personally recruited as a writer by the site’s founder Andrew Breitbart in 2009
The New York Times described the site as originally “a curiosity of the fringe right wing” which evolved into “an increasingly powerful voice, and virtual rallying spot, for millions of disaffected conservatives.”
And it helped elevate Schlichter’s voice as a firebreathing take-haver.
He’s currently one of the principal columnists at Townhall, where his bio claims a myriad of disciplines: “a name partner at a growing Los Angeles trial law firm, a retired Army Infantry colonel with a masters in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College, and a former stand-up comic.”
He deals in conservative opinion pieces with titles like “Leftist Idiocy Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving,” a Christmas-themed piece of invective including the observation that “leftists are inadvertently making a better case against leftism than most of our feckless GOP politicians ever could” and “Buy Your Kids Toy Guns This Christmas,” to help them learn “to use violence against enemies in order to defend themselves, their families, their communities, and their Constitution.”
An article from Splice in 2014, which compared Schlichter to the Weekly World News’ pseudonymous columnist Ed Anger (and his “scabrous far-right screeds”), observed that he “feeds fringe conservative acolytes with the nonsense they like to read,” and that his “prose is so vile that any serious journalistic opponent of the Democrats … must wince upon reading the man’s words.”
Schlichter persona online is that of brash, indomitable alpha male, one so strong and self-confident he can’t help but pick the dumbest fights online.
Kurt Schlichter vs. the Auschwitz Museum
One of Schlichter’s most famous online feuds was with a building. Specifically, with the social media representing the Auschwitz Museum, after observing in a 2016 tweet, “If you are Jewish and supporting Barack Obama and John Kerry, well, you would have made a fine helper at Auschwitz.”
If you are Jewish and supporting Barack Obama and John Kerry, well, you would have made a fine helper at Auschwitz.
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 28, 2016
That led the museum account to respond, “The tragedy of prisoners of Auschwitz & their complicated moral dilemmas which today we can hardly comprehend should not be instrumentalized.”
Indy100, writing about the skirmish, noted, “Some thought his message implied that support of Obama and John Kerry was akin to collaborating with the Nazis during the Holocaust. This is probably not the best way to criticize government policy.”
But for Schlichter, any dig is a chance to reply, reply, reply.
Kurt Schlichter vs. the media
There’s nothing more Schlichter appears to like than picking a feud with anyone in the “liberal media.”
He is constantly calling out journalists for their pieces he’s deemed weak and beta, and a search on his page for the phrase liberal media returns a bounty of hits.
Perhaps it’s because the media has so accurately described him.
In 2021, one journalist responded to a Schlichter Twitter thread on forcing liberals to become conservatives by noting that, “Schlichter is mainly an angry loser who failed in Hollywood and now fantasizes about killing liberals. but this rant is a good example of what’s acceptable now in the GOP and among apparatchiks like Hugh Hewitt.”
Schlichter is mainly an angry loser who failed in hollywood and now fantasizes about killing liberals. but this rant is a good example of what’s acceptable now in the GOP and among apparatchiks like @hughhewitt https://t.co/NGFKskFAEZ
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 8, 2021
Kurt Schlichter vs. everyone
But it doesn’t matter just who you are, Schlichter will pick a fight with just about anyone.
Schlichter is not a big fan of climate activist Greta Thunberg, calling her a “manipulated Marxist moppet” in 2019.
You are going to love my Thursday @townhallcom column on this manipulated Marxist moppet.
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) September 10, 2019
Get it early:https://t.co/8otN03FaPy https://t.co/9USpydurkG
He also declared in May 2020 that he wasn’t a fan of the COVID-19 pandemic (who wasn’t?), tweeting, “I’m not doing the pandemic anymore.” While a few respondents pointed out that the virus would keep doing its thing, others noted they were on board with going maskless.
I’m not doing the pandemic anymore.
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) May 16, 2020
Schlichter also called Vice President Kamala Harris to task for tweeting “enjoy the long weekend” ahead of Memorial Day 2021, by showing gravestones of fallen American soldiers with the caption, “I’m sure they would if they could.”
I’m sure they would if they could. https://t.co/ggjHBpOiW7 pic.twitter.com/LGNLf2Ainb
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) May 29, 2021
There seems to be nothing he won’t post about. And at a frankly embarrassing rate.
Schlichter joined the site in 2008, meaning he’s had an account for over 5,000 days. And with over 600,000 tweets posted, he’s averaging an astounding 111 posts a day, for 15 straight years.
Makes you wonder how all those other disciplines are going.
