Beck For Fun, Profit, And Fear


No need to fret. Glenn Beck is not crazy, losing his mind, or going off the deep end, except insofar as he wants to. Recently, Beck predicted

In a few hours, millions are expected to be on the street of Egypt and food shortages are spreading rapidly throughout the region. The army, the tanks are roving through the cities, and no one is quite sure whose side to be on.
This isn't about politics. This is about world domination. The world is about to be dominated by maybe a couple of handfuls.

I believe, that I can make a case in the end that there are three powers you will see emerge.

One: a Muslim caliphate that controls the Mideast and parts of Europe.
Two: China, that will control Asia, the southern half of Africa, part of the Middle East, Australia, maybe New Zealand, and God only knows what else.
And, Russia, which will control all of the old former Soviet Union bloc, plus maybe the Netherlands. Not really sure. But their strong arm is coming.

Following the shooting in Tucson, Beck had remarked

I will stand against you and so will millions of others. We believe in something. You in the media and most in Washington don't. The radicals that you and Washington have co-opted and brought in wearing sheep's clothing — change the pose. You will get the ends.

You've been using them? They believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You're going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you.

They are dangerous because they believe. Karl Marx is their George Washington. You will never change their mind. And if they feel you have lied to them — they're revolutionaries. Nancy Pelosi, those are the people you should be worried about.

A year ago January, Beck had explained the conspiracy:

But while that was happening in Europe, the elites in America, the progressives, were studying the European way. And the elites were teaching their philosophies in our universities — the philosophies of Nietzsche and Marx — and the progressives flourished in it.

I get a lot of heat for bringing up fascism but the reason I bring up Hitler is because many of the things that he did had their roots here in America. The biggest example: Eugenics, which led to the extermination camps, was actually a progressive idea. You see, they always thought they were superior and it was the stupid people who were slowing us down.

The progressive tactics haven't changed much since then either: Build a structure; make it so complex that the people don't understand it; avoid debate and most importantly, silence dissent. And, if that doesn't work, bribe them, indoctrinate them. But if that still doesn't work: Destroy them.

Last month, Beck identified the nine "progressives" who have been working to destroy America. Living and dead, they included one Roman Catholic and eight Jews. The previous month, he self-servingly had added the cost of food to his apocalyptic vision, contending that in 2012 the cost of one ear of corn would rise to $11.43; of one loaf of "wheat" bread, $23.05; of 32 ounces of granulated sugar, $62.21; of 11 ounces of Folgers roasted coffee, $77.71; and of one Hershey's chocolate bar5, $15.50.

But there is method, ideological and otherwise, to Beck's madness, even aside from ginning up fear of The Other. His daily program on GOP TV generally pulled in approximately 39% fewer viewers last month than a year earlier and the number of sponsors has declined sharply in the past year and a half (never good to call a president of the United States "a racist"). Beck's syndicated radio program recently was dropped by the station covering it in New York City, and that in Philadelphia.

It's difficult to keep shocking the audience, to ante up the fear and hysteria continually. It is at least slightly similar to an addiction, insofar as once you've given your audience red meat, you must ramp up the hyperbole to elicit the same reaction. But that is the same response one would expect from Glenn Beck. In early 2009, The New York Times noted

Mr. Beck has long been a performer. His roots are in comedy — he spent years as a morning radio disc jockey — and continues to perform comedy on stages across the country.

Some would say that Glenn Beck performs comedy on radio and especially on Fox News, having told The Times "I'm a rodeo clown. It takes great skill" (embedded video code of live performance unfortunately disabled- this one, below, will have to do). And he's the guy who, as Beck biographher Joe Strupp explained, as a disc jockey raised the practice of crying on cue to an art form and once "called a competing deejay's wife live on the air and mocked her for having a miscarriage."

Nonetheless, Strupp has concluded "You can be a crazy actor and businessman with genuinely bizarre politics and a perverse understanding of history. There's no conflict." Ccompletely ignoring him and his ilk," he warns, "is one luxury we can't afford."

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