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Glenn Beck must be insane...
Politics, a topic that can turn even an entire group of friendly people into competing werewolves. For me this isn't really about Left vs. Right or Democrat vs. Conservative. Gleen Beck isn't really talking about issus in a way that is meaningful...he's a hatemonger plain and simple. I've been catching clips of Glenn Beck's specific brand of punditry for awhile on The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Youtube. Lately though I decided to watch his show from start to finish a couple of times and I can only say that I find the man deeply troubling.
His hatred for the President and his cabinet is so viceral that it drips from his every hateful glance. He weaves these ridiculous conspiracy theories that always amount to the same thing- that America is being secretly controlled by Marxists who want nothing more then to annihilate this country from within and someone needs to do something about it!!!
He has gone so far as to call President Obama a "racist who hates white people" (Gleen Beck actually said that on Fox & Friends and even the co-hosts balked at such an absurd claim) and that anyone who disagrees with him isn't really an American at all.
Now- the fringe has always had its fair share of lunatics on both sides, though admittedly I think the conservatives pretty much always corner the market.* But Glenn Beck seems to me to goading the tin-foil heads with his words and I personally have little doubt that should someone try to assassnate the President, it will be someone who loves Glenn Beck. I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed any of this and if prhaps they share my concerns.
*For every Michael Moore that we have, they have Ann Coultier, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and so forth.
His hatred for the President and his cabinet is so viceral that it drips from his every hateful glance. He weaves these ridiculous conspiracy theories that always amount to the same thing- that America is being secretly controlled by Marxists who want nothing more then to annihilate this country from within and someone needs to do something about it!!!
He has gone so far as to call President Obama a "racist who hates white people" (Gleen Beck actually said that on Fox & Friends and even the co-hosts balked at such an absurd claim) and that anyone who disagrees with him isn't really an American at all.
Now- the fringe has always had its fair share of lunatics on both sides, though admittedly I think the conservatives pretty much always corner the market.* But Glenn Beck seems to me to goading the tin-foil heads with his words and I personally have little doubt that should someone try to assassnate the President, it will be someone who loves Glenn Beck. I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed any of this and if prhaps they share my concerns.
*For every Michael Moore that we have, they have Ann Coultier, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and so forth.
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I sincerely hope those aren't the only two shows you get your news from. I've come across many college aged kids (adults too) that list their main source of news from Comedy Central. I always tell them watching Comedy Central for news is like watching Dr. Phil for psychiatric help.
John Stewart on Crossfire.
^John Stewart has a few good points here.
That all being said, I don't really worry much about Glen Beck. He is entitled to his opinion, it is unfortunate that his opinions (because of their severe nature) get extra "playing time" by the media and people making a large fuss over it. I would reckon on average for ever person who agree's with Glen watching his show there is a person watching it just to disagree and get upset with him.
Palzang
Not worth wasting time on then.
I'm not even certain that the British have an equivalent to Glenn Beck. Frankly I don't think either the BBC or ITV would ever tolerate him...but as it was stated earlier, he has a passionate audience (and by passionate I mean "dangerous to the point of needing medication".
@Inji-gyo- I actually get my news from three sources: MSNBC, CNN, and Newsweek magazine. Once in awhile I'll read Time, The Nation, or the local paper. I certainly don't consider Stephen Colbert or John Stuart "news" outlets as such.:winkc:
but I agree with Simon and what I said earlier. Making a fuss over him just gives his words extra playing time.
I don't consider Time, Newsweek, CNN, or MSNBC news organizations. They're entertainment organizations, or worse. Then there's Fox (Faux) News. They're so biased that they're not worth discussing. I trust the NYT somewhat more, but I like to get a broad spectrum of news, like Reuters, BBC, Russian newspapers, Al-Jazeera, that kind of thing. Otherwise you're getting filtered "news" that doesn't tell you anywhere near the whole story.
Palzang
The British had a Glen Beck, back when Britain had a lot of wealth to steal through demagogery and war-mongering. His name was Winston Churchill. To me, the rise of successful manipulators like Limbaugh are a sign of the impending end of US world dominance, just as Churchill was a sign of the impending end of British dominance.
Well...
I don't think I can agree with that statement at all, Fivebells. Churchill was the man who lead the British against the Nazis and even went so far as to put himself at personel risk by staying in London during the Blitz. True, some of his policies were controvertial...no one is perfect. But I can't even begin to compare him to the likes of a lunatic demogogue like Glenn Beck. I think a far more apt comparison might be Oswald Mosley, the one time leader of the British Facist party.
That said I get my news from The Onion.
Just to get a picture of how bad news organizations can actually be, especially Fox, check out the appeals court ruling in New World Communs. of Tampa, Inc. v. Akre. The bottom line? The media can legally lie! From Project Censored:
To be honest, I used to laugh at these people, but not anymore. It's actually quite frightening once you stop to think about it. It's getting to the point where some people turn on the TV or radio and believe whatever they're told.
Thanks to "news" organizations such as FOX News and hosts like Glenn Beck, people on the right honestly think that Obama is some kind of racist Marxist.
Thanks to "news" organizations such as FOX News and guests like Michele Bachmann, people on the right honestly believe that information collected by the Census Bureau might be used to put Americans in concentration camps.
Sadly, a census worker was recently found hanging from a tree with the word "fed" on his chest, and while they haven't said whether the possible murder (suicide hasn't been ruled out yet) was motivated by his census work, I don't think it's hard to make that connection.
This has stopped being funny because now we need to ask ourselves what won't these people believe?
They killed a census worker because he was just doing his job in Kentucky?
There will be more like this before its over...and it gives me no pleasure to say such things.:(
But to say say that he or Rush are 'fascists' or 'wanna-be-Hitlers?' Please. You can disagree with someone like Glenn Beck all day, but the guy is a libertarian and seems to believe that the only legitimate functions of government are defense and road construction. Hardly the characteristics of a crypto-fascist. He wants government to be just powerful enough not to be an anarchy. Again, Hitler would disapprove. 30s Fascists worshiped the State - Beck hates almost everything about the State.
I don't care for him much myself, but he's not a hate-monger either. Cite examples please.
How about the time when he commanded Keith Ellison, a Muslim Congressman from Minnesota, to "prove you're not a terrorist"? Or that he has accused our President of having "a deep-seeded hatred of white people"?
They haven't said whether the possible murder (suicide hasn't been ruled out yet) has anything to do with him being a census worker, but I don't think it's hard to make that connection. (Edited my initial post for clarity).
Well, in just the little I've seen he has slandered President Obama as a Marxist and a racist, he has joked about murdering Nancy Palosi, and he keeps saying things like "when is someone going to do something?" That sounds like code for "when is someone going to shoot Obama" to me. His attacks are not about policy disagreements...he constantly tries to associate anyone who's a democrat with the worst of the worst for the purpose of getting his audience to hate them.
On the recent anniversary of 9/11 Glenn Beck said, "Let me tell you something. I believe that if it were up to you or me, just regular schmoes in America, the Freedom Tower would have been done years ago. And it wouldn't have been the Freedom Tower; it would have been the Freedom Towers - because we would have built both of these towers back the way they were before! Except we would have built them stronger!
We would have built them in a way that they would have resisted attack. And you know what? My guess is that they would have been 25 stories taller, with a big, fat COME AND TRY THAT AGAIN sign on top."
He was instrumental in the abuse of Germany which allowed a jingoistic party like the Nazis to come to power in the first place. He started the war against Germany (Britain was bombing and blockading Germany for six months prior to Germany declaring war.) He administered the blockade which was a prime cause for the holocaust. (It was population pressure and starvation which led to the final solution. Previously, the Nazis had intended to repatriate the Jews elsewhere. Madagascar came up a lot.)
None of this excuses what the Nazis did, or reduces the merit in bringing them down. But celebrating Churchill's role in it is roughly similar to celebrating a fireman who's put out a fire he started himself.
The holocaust was caused for many reasons, but over-population certainly had nothing to do with it, Fivebells.
I thought we were talking about Glenn Beck?
I didn't say over-population, I said population pressure. Part of it was the blockade, which caused starvation throughout Europe (Churchill couldn't effectively blockade Germany without blockading all of Europe) and part of it was the bombing, which destroyed homes throughout Germany and led to the Nazis moving the Jews and others out of urban areas so that "Aryans" could take over their as-yet-unbombed homes.
We were, and as I said above, Churchill was an example of the same phenomenon, from the twilight days of the last international superpower to critically weaken itself through nationalistic exceptionalism and warmongering.
I think the phrase "code-word" is code-word for taking what someone says and making it have nothing to do with what was intended.
And you know what Beck intended with that statement?