Glenn and the crazies

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After Glenn Beck spent hours ranting and raving about Obama's alleged racism against whites, it was recently discovered Glenn added a white supremacist, using the white pride symbol of StormFront as his avatar, to his list of favorite tweets. When learning he had been found out, Glenn removed the whole list from public viewing. But to be sure, it had been there. I have yet to hear of anyone defending this jackhole and his choice of favorite tweets. Anyone else have an opinion about Glenn and the crazies?

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A friend said she heard Beck on the radio and thought he was nuts. I learned Beck was a paid entertainer at some high profile Republican party gatherings (which to me meant Beck was certifiably nuts - however, if the Republican check was good, Beck would do his gig). Beck is just a name to me - I have not listened to more than about 30 seconds of him at all. I have not read any of his best selling books (and don't intend to either).

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Glenn Beck may simply be a political entertainer like Rush Limbaugh and the other crazies.

That's just a guess.

I suspect Glenn Beck is a kind of comedian which some persons like and other persons hate.

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As an author, Beck has had six New York Times-bestselling books, with five debuting at #1...

In a 2010 interview in Forbes, Beck asserted that his business was not political, but is an entertainment company: "I could give a flying crap about the political process," continuing on to say that Mercury Radio Arts, his production company, is "an entertainment company"...

Honors (from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University)

Glenn Beck was honored by Liberty University during their 2010 Commencement exercises with an honorary Doctoral Degree. During his address to the students, he said that he did not have enough money to pay for more than one semester of college.

Satire, spoof and parody

In response to Beck's animated delivery and views, he was parodied in an impersonation by Jason Sudeikis on Saturday Night Live.

Noted novelist Stephen King has referred to Beck as "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother."

(~ excerpts)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck

My guess is that Stephen King's summary of Glenn Beck is likely an accurate picture; the honorary doctorate from Jerry Falwell's Liberty University to Glenn Beck also says a lot about Glenn Beck's style of crazy entertainment.

I would find them amusing if not for the terrifying fact that large numbers of people actually take Beck and his ilk seriously.

Yeah, but plenty of people take these guys seriously. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are liberal entertainers, but their satire does have real impact (and it's often better than the mainstream media).

Glenn can cross into crazy sometimes(particularly whenever he starts talking about religion) but he's right on a lot of the time too.

What kind of sad bastard do you have to be to find Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh entertaining? I mean I appreciate a good bit of bile myself but these guys are just bigots who are bitter that it's not the white old days anymore.

I think that most people on the radio are there to sound edgy or controversial so they can sell something, like a book. This strategy isn't just used by conservative talk show hosts. I remember hearing about Dr. Michio Kaku on the radio years ago, and all I heard along with his name was his new book Hyperspace. Where was he before his book?

It is perfectly normal and healthy to resent seeing ones race face relative demographic decline. The whole point of people like Beck and Limbaugh is to prevent conservative-minded white people from thinking along such lines by getting them worked up about anything and everything else instead (socialism, taxes, foreign wars etc). That is why they are so often so incoherent. It's called controlled opposition.

I’d like now to post a quote by Beck’s boss, Rupert Murdoch. Read this and take comfort in the knowledge that if Beck oversteps the mark, he’ll be out of the door:

“Finally, Australia will be strong only if it is open to immigration. Thank goodness we are beyond where we were a few decades ago. After World War Two, we opened our doors to Southern Europe and other non-Anglo populations. And after the Vietnam War we began welcoming our neighbours in the region. In a relatively short period of time, we have buried ‘White Australia’, and in its place have raised a modern, diverse society.”

I find Limbaugh ENTERTAINING, but that's about it. About the time of the Obama election, NPR was wearing me pretty thin so I switched to an AM radio talk radio format during which I'd catch Limbaugh and Hannity between piano lessons. Eventually the AM station changed formats, and I wasn't pleased about it. But it taught me that listening to people like Limbaugh is just as depressing as their extreme counterparts. Now I listen to religious programming. The main difference between that and Limbaugh is Limbaugh doesn't speak to a strictly Christian audience, nor is Limbaugh constrained by Christian sensibilities. Limbaugh's GOAL is to upset people. He's not much more than a conservative activist bent on eliciting a reaction from his listeners and his opponents. AFR, by contrast, reports on issues relevant to a Christian worldview without resorting to outright sensationalism.

So if you want to be entertained, give Rush a listen. But I recommend switching it off after about half an hour, unless you WANT to be affected by anxiety disorders and die from an early heart attack.

If you think NPR is the liberal equivalent to Limbaugh, you have a severely distorted worldview.

It would take a long time for me to give my full opinion on Glenn Beck.
Short answer: I think he's insane and I think the members of Stormfront are insane too.

Only as far as I've heard. At the time of the election, I felt like the information was definitely skewed and I was looking for an alternate viewpoint. Conservative talk radio broke my dependence on NPR. I have since moved onto media that is actually more encouraging and optimistic. They don't refrain from calls for activism, but at least it is done in such a way that compliments my own interests rather than "sky is falling" kind of tactics employed by Rushbo.

I think if McCain had shown himself to be an actual conservative rather than just a neo-con puppet, he would have gotten more attention and more respect. He went from his values going against Bush in 2000 to just being a lapdog to the party line in '08. McCain went into promising more of the same that Bush had done and Bush had well screwed the country and now Obama is falling right into line with what Bush was doing.

My parents started watching Beck's show in mid-2008. I heard some of his radio show.

Back then he at times made some sense, but at times was still a clown and overacting everything. Then Obama got elected, and he switched from CNN to Fox - now has gone far overboard.

It didn't take long after the election for him to become crazy. Or at least act crazy. Right after Obama won, Beck was saying that the people should get behind him and at least see what he does. Wasn't long before all the Nazi references came along, and the whole "America is a Christian state" commentary. I got turned off, and thankfully my parents did too.