Glen Beck-Reconstructing History

[Boozy]

Let me ask this question: If Glenn Back is wrong about most of his theories then why does he have so many followers?

http://www.nizkor.org/features/falla...opularity.html

[AdminAssistant]

Let me ask this question: If Glenn Back is wrong about most of his theories then why does he have so many followers? Surely these aren't just people whose only source of information is Beck's show? We have other new channels, we have the internet, we have libraries. Anything he says can be researched and vetted (or disproved).

Actually people, as a whole, are quite sheepish and will gladly believe something that fits in with their moral agenda or personal beliefs regardless of things like "facts".

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

So if Beck is attempting to forward certain positions he feels strongly about it regardless of how strong the basis for those positions are, does that make him dangerous as well?

[Boozy]

So if Beck is attempting to forward certain positions he feels strongly about it regardless of how strong the basis for those positions are, does that make him dangerous as well?

I don't know about "dangerous", but I will say that if he's using lies, half-truths, misleading "questions", selective editing, and absurd leaps of logic to forward that position, then yes. I'm going to get annoyed with him, to say the least.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I don't know about "dangerous", but I will say that if he's using lies, half-truths, misleading "questions", selective editing, and absurd leaps of logic to forward that position, then yes. I'm going to get annoyed with him, to say the least.

Actually I was referring more to the notion of the fact that he is apparently convincing his followers that Barack Obama is evil and the entire U.S. government is a nazi regime waiting to happen.

If enough people buy into this, they could stage a serious action, regardless how valid the basis for the belief is.

[Skunkle]

Yes, he's a destructive force. No, he's not evil or dangerous. He's one of many pundits who aid people in believing that the Fox News angle is the pure and unadulterated truth.

My litmus test on Fox news in general goes thus:
I think people can generally agree that, picking any politician, even their absolute favorites, has done at least one thing they don't like. Even the staunch George W. Bush supporters can likely agree that their support is not 100% - occasionally, there was something he did or claimed that they did not agree with.

I tend to be on the left-center area. I voted for Obama. But I don't, by any stretch, support everything he does or agree with everything he says. Nor do I for any candidate.

Now, take a good look at Fox. They never, ever say one single bad word about Bush. Not one thing. They also never, ever say one single good thing about Obama. Never.

Seeing now that it's nigh impossible to agree with or disagree with every single thing a politician does, 100%... Fox does exactly that. This is, I think, a good indicator that there's something wrong.

On the same idea, any news channel that never agrees with anything done by "the right" and never, ever disagrees with anything done by "the left" also looks quite suspicious.

Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity etc. just spout. Many do believe them. Look at Rusdh Limbaugh; many of his supporters proudly call thjemselves "dittoheads", meaning "whatever he says, no matter what it is, I agree completely". What's this say about them? No, what's this say about the average joe?

Side note, similar though: A friend of mine used to be an avid listener of Tom Leykis and his "Leykis 101" stuff. For those who don't know, he's a talk show host who has an entire 'curriculum' based around teaching men that most women are conniving, cheating, gold-digging bitches. They'll force you to pay for every date on the chivalry platform. They'll put heavy restrictions on your free-and-easy life. They'll steal sperm from your used condoms and impregnate themselves so they can have your baby, so they can force you to marry them, become lazy, and live easy on your money, so don't forget to put hot sauce in your used condoms. (I'm NOT kidding about that last one, I wish I was) I went to one of this guy's listener parties once, only because it was held at a bar I liked... and y'know what? Over a quarter of the attendees were women. Who agree with his opinions about women.

The public-at-large likes to be entertained. But if you can hook them on entertainment and, through it, convince them not only that you speak the absolute truth and have their ideals at heart but, further, that all others speak only lies with a forked tongue...

[Skunkle]

I don't believe enough people will believe that to cause anything really big. But they try to convince the public that he is a terrorist-supporter, a Muslim, and, yes, as bad as Hitler...which is pretty vitriolic stuff. They should really be ashamed of that one. But by now, we know they've got no shame.

Thing is, those who really pull this stuff are pretty open about wanting him to fail, but they don't seem to have their own plans for what to do instead. Thery've only planned on making him fail.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I don't believe enough people will believe that to cause anything really big. But they try to convince the public that he is a terrorist-supporter, a Muslim, and, yes, as bad as Hitler...which is pretty vitriolic stuff. They should really be ashamed of that one. But by now, we know they've got no shame.

Thing is, those who really pull this stuff are pretty open about wanting him to fail, but they don't seem to have their own plans for what to do instead. Thery've only planned on making him fail.

Well apparently the Anti-Obama tea party movement Beck supports is trying to get Sarah Palin to lead it and run for the presidency in 2012. I'd call that some kind of plan at least.

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Well apparently the Anti-Obama tea party movement Beck supports is trying to get Sarah Palin to lead it and run for the presidency in 2012. I'd call that some kind of plan at least.

Except they have no real reason why Palin would do a good job either. All they have is that they don't like Obama, and, if that wasn't thin enough, many of them much too often resort to really stupid 'reasoning' (Obama = Hitler and etc.)

IMO, the only way you can truly quantify that something as wrong is to have something that's either less-wrong or right... they don't have either (that I've seen)

[Jason]

"dittoheads", don't mean "whatever he says, no matter what it is, I agree completely"
This is a more accurate definition of "dittohead":
Faithful listeners to The Rush Limbaugh Show. As Limbaugh often explains in his books and radio show, these are not necessarily those who agree with his views. Rather, he believes they are people who love the show and what he's doing, and hope he never stops doing it. The term came into use because callers would frequently begin by stating their line-item agreement with the points made by previous callers. One caller simply said "ditto to what those guys said." Thereafter, callers were encouraged to simply say, “Dittos,” and then get right to their point. Thus, long-time listeners would begin their calls with “Dittos, Rush,” leading to the term “dittoheads.”

Dittoheads are faithful fans of Rush, not mind-numbed robots.

[lordlundar]

Dittoheads are faithful fans of Rush, not mind-numbed robots.

Wait, there's a difference?

[Jason]

Can't someone be a fan of Rush and not be a critical thinker? I didn't think those were mutually exclusive.

[Skunkle]

That's probably true, though anyone I've met who really enjoys Rush has been extremely pigheaded. As to the dittohead thing, I stand corrected. Rush doesn't bother me nearly as much as, say, Michael Savage, who isd truly hateful and vitriolic. They, and O'Reilly and Hannity, still give out "truths" and hope the listeners believe them simply because they're convinced that the 'other side' are all bold-faced liars.

Sarah Palin is NOT going to be a good, solid contender, I don't think. And she doesn't toe the party line quite enough to get the nomination. Palin will likely get a number of devoted followers, but she won't get the Repub nom. She plays up the same role W did, that is, "I'm just one of you normal people", and some people love that. Palin is the hockey mom, W was the down-home country Texan. But it doesn't really address issues. Though, again, people who really want an 'ordinary guy/girl' in a position such as President may not really care if they platform on specific issues, as long as they feel the candidate is one of them. I really don't think Palin could get the Republican nomination, as she deviates too far from the party in some areas and refuses to do/say exactly as she's told...

...which, I think, was what happened in the McCain run. She did no real talks, press conferences, etc., and it seemed the idea was to get a woman somewhere on the ticket and hope that voters who wanted Hillary Clinton in office, at least a few of which wanted A woman in office, would vote for McCain just to get that. Hillary actually stepped up and discussed her views, policies and ideals; Palin didn't. She just stood there and looked female. And of course, it didn't work. Even many Republicans could see, it seemed, that this was a bad move, not only for reasons already stated here, but also because many harder-right Conservatives would NOT want a woman in office.

[Gravekeeper]

She did no real talks, press conferences, etc., and it seemed the idea was to get a woman somewhere on the ticket

Yes, and after Obama, the GOP ran out and got its very own black guy too ( Michael Steele ). Gah.

Beck is a lunatic. A destructive lunatic. Every time I catch him on TV the first thought in my mind is "This man needs *help*". Desperately. The boy needs therapy. Not a tv show.

As for popularity. He's popular for the same reason Fox News is: Like it or not, a large portion of Americans are to be bluntly honest, idiots. Ignorant idiots at that with no wish to in any way learn or expand their knowledge in any way. They simply reject absolutely everything that does not fit into their narrow worldview.

Fox News is actually rather brilliant ( if evil ) for realizing this and tapping directly into it. The only inherent danger is backwards nutjobs that normally would be laughed off by their peers suddenly have someone on a mainstream TV network validating the very paranoid delusions they hold dear.

John Stewart had them pegged when he dissected them as a cyclonic perpetual motion machine. They alternate through out the day between news and commentators. The commentators introduce today's manufactured news narrative and talk about them. Then the news reports the narrative as news claiming that "people are talking about it". Then the commentators come back and talk about the narrative that the news just reported them talking about and discuss it claiming it was just on the news.

Repeat. Lather. Repeat.

It's rather ingenious. And Fox is vividly aware of what its doing. Which has nothing to do with Obama, Republicans, Democrats or anything in between. It only has to do with making the moola. To that end they'll foist forward whatever narrative draws the most ratings. It just happens that the Tea Party crowd is the most lucrative at the moment.

Fox would turn on the right in a heartbeat if it ever figured it could make more off the left.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

Yes, and after Obama, the GOP ran out and got its very own black guy too ( Michael Steele ). Gah.

Beck is a lunatic. A destructive lunatic. Every time I catch him on TV the first thought in my mind is "This man needs *help*". Desperately. The boy needs therapy. Not a tv show.

As for popularity. He's popular for the same reason Fox News is: Like it or not, a large portion of Americans are to be bluntly honest, idiots. Ignorant idiots at that with no wish to in any way learn or expand their knowledge in any way. They simply reject absolutely everything that does not fit into their narrow worldview.

Ironically enough, Beck's last book was called "Arguing with idiots". You have to realize that Beck is a performer first and foremost. That's why he uses the theatrics he does on this show. He's primarily an entertainer, with a bit of supposed "news" and "education" thrown in for good measure.