Exposing Glenn Beck as a Dangerous Fraud

[caseagainstfaith]

The Glenn Beck Show might seem like the political equivalent of professional wrestling, but it's not even that sincere. At least with wrestling, we're all most aware that wrestling follows a script even though some of the moves require a high caliber of strength and athleticism (and occasionally resulting in real injuries to the performers). The difference between Beck and wrestling is that with Beck the fakery isn't common knowledge and the consequences of what he talks about on his show are very real.

This week, Beck attacked the president's deceased mother and grandparents as being Marxists. Which other innocent bystanders will turn up on your commie hit list, Glenn? Who will you attack next with McCarthy-style abandon in the name of bilking your audience, Glenn? And do you honestly expect that your audience will remain passive observers of all of this?

And so I intend to expose Beck as the dangerous grifter he really is. He's committing a nationally televised fraud and, given the sorts of people who are the most susceptible to his trickery, it's only a matter of time before Beck's deception takes a tragic turn.

Full article - www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/exposing-glenn-beck-as-a_b_528966.html

[dasfuchs]

In my opinion, lashing out at someone's deceased relatives is one of the lowest steps you can take.

[Tiberius]

De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est, as they say.

[Mlle Antéchrist]

The sad thing is that you don't need to be a Harvard-educated genius to recognize that Beck is a complete moron -- anyone with a basic education and an ounce of common sense can easily see that everything he spews is bullshit, conservative & liberal alike. It takes a very special kind of ignorance to buy into his crap.

[ironbite]

Its not even conservative anymore. It's just insanity.

Ironbite-seriouslly Obama's dead grandparents and mother?

[MaybeNever]

Apr 10, 2010 23:50:50 GMT -5 Mlle Antéchrist said:

The sad thing is that you don't need to be a Harvard-educated genius to recognize that Beck is a complete moron -- anyone with a basic education and an ounce of common sense can easily see that everything he spews is bullshit, conservative & liberal alike. It takes a very special kind of ignorance to buy into his crap.

Quite to the contrary, it takes a very common type of ignorance to buy into his crap. That's really the problem.

[Mlle Antéchrist]

Apr 11, 2010 0:34:40 GMT -5 MaybeNever said:

Apr 10, 2010 23:50:50 GMT -5 Mlle Antéchrist said:

Quite to the contrary, it takes a very common type of ignorance to buy into his crap. That's really the problem.

Perhaps 'extreme' would be a better word than 'special'. I just don't get how anyone could watch him and honestly think to themselves: "Wow, this guy makes sense!"

[tolpuddlemartyr]

Apr 11, 2010 0:57:47 GMT -5 Mlle Antéchrist said:

Perhaps 'extreme' would be a better word than 'special'. I just don't get how anyone could watch him and honestly think to themselves: "Wow, this guy makes sense!"

I think a lot of his listeners like him first and what he says second. The first thing they see is a smug, dumb, white dude who resents intellectuals. Resonates with his fanboys who are probably atypical smug, dumb white dudes who failed high school.

[Armand Tanzarian]

Its a bit more than that. Glenn Beck now represents the anti-authoritarian streak that comes naturally to almost everyone. You're right, they see what they see in him first, and what he actually says second. It's like 12 year old boys listening to whatever emo tripe is on the radio and going "hey, this guy knows how I feel!"

I don't know if Glenn himself really believes himself to be representative of that segment of angry white folk, or knows consciously he's playing their anger all the way to the bank. It could be a bit of both. Either way it works for him, and the millions he earns on a yearly basis.

[Patches]

Beck is pretty much a doomsday cult, getting his followers riled up over increasingly outlandish but altogether fictional threats, and standing at a podium day to day ranting about all the "signs" that this heretofore unseen evil is upon us.

Unfortunately, he's built an unbreakable mythos of liberal tyranny that is impervious to logic and evidence. If Obama is cold to foreign leaders, he's alienating our allies and leaving us open to attack. If he's cordial to foreign leaders, he's apologizing for our awesomeness and selling us out. And anyone who tries to call him on his crap is pointed at as proof that the liberals want to keep their evils under wraps.

His followers are the eternally disgruntled. Mostly because he tells them they're supposed to be. Even if you have a steady job and make enough money to support yourself, Beck will tell you that you should be entitled to more and it's the liberals' fault you're not getting it. And you should be outraged. Or that anything the liberals do will take away your current lifestyle and force you into serfdom. And you should be outraged.

And most of all, be afraid. Be very, very afraid. And if you're not afraid enough, just watch more Beck and he will tell you who's secretly out to get you today.

[SpaceProg]

I actually used to watch Glenn Beck's show, but once he started in full swing on the fear and McCarthyism I lost interest. Blah's a Marxist, Yadda's a Marxist, Doodah's a Marxist... Don't forget Yadda's dog; it's a Marxist too!