The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.
I have to say that Katie Couric doesn't come off very well here either, but you see just how little there is to Glenn Beck beyond his roots of a morning radio personality. He isn't terribly intelligent. Smart in how he understands how to be a demagogue, but has no real understanding of the things he is talking about. All he has is some charm and manner of speaking. There is no there, there.
19 comments:
If you're going with a rodeo analogy, Beck is more like the guy who stands by the bronco pen with the cattle prod. He seems to be a linguistic nihilist: words have no meaning (whether inherent or assigned) apart from their function to provoke people.
Point taken. Rodeo clowns actually perform a valuable service. Beck is the bomb thrower--the guy who sets off crowd riots and then laughs.
He isn't terribly intelligent.
Understatement of the week. Even back when I enjoyed conservative talk radio (I find it to be a little too preachy now) I couldn't stand Beck. He just rubs me the wrong way. He isn't as frothing at the mouth as Michael Savage, but he is close.
Glenn Beck? You posted on GLENN BECK? You disappoint me, Streak.
heh. I think that is the most Glenn Beck I have watched all year. But it struck me just how vapid and empty the guy is. But I know people who listen to him.
I think that might be what rubbed you the wrong way, Steve. It isn't the frothing, it is the fact that there is absolutely nothing there.
I think Beck is one of the strangest occurrences in our culture right now. I'm not aware of some others mentioned so he may not be the strangest. The guy is just weird. This interview is a great snippet of his unwillingness (or inability) to actually think on his feet and take responsibility for his statements. Some people will watch/believe anything.
On the other hand, I'm with Tony- I can't believe you made me watch Glenn Beck.
Later
BB
Even though he does come on an AM station out here in western NC, I really don't know anyone who listens to him with any regularity. Even some pretty staunch right wing folks I know find him incorrigible and laughable. (Now, if they would just find the same conclusion about O'Reilly.) I scanned Beck's recent book a day or two ago and it was a coffee table's worst nightmare.
Heh. Coffee table's worst nightmare. Good one, Tony.
Look, I realize the guy is a nihilistic trainwreck. But you can't deny that there are a hell of a lot of people who watch this moral idiot on a regular basis. I believe Joe "you lie" Wilson is one of them. This is, unfortunately for those thoughtful conservatives, one of the faces of the conservative movement.
"But you can't deny that there are a hell of a lot of people who watch this moral idiot on a regular basis." No doubt. Even well educated, intelligent professionals like my boss will take something he says as true until someone else proves it wrong rather than see his history and wing-nut ranting as good reasons to view his claims/commentary with skepticism. I think he says what they hope is true and therefore he gets the benefit of the doubt at worst and whole-hearted belief and support at worst.
Later
BB
But you can't deny that there are a hell of a lot of people who watch this moral idiot on a regular basis.
If you look at the ratings, he does well compared to some of the other cable news pundits, but if you compare him to other cable shows, he isn't even in the top 25. Twice as many people watch Hannah Montana than Beck. Hell, last week, more people watched a rerun of Spongebob.
Tony, I am not a huge fan of Billo, but I would say that he is better than Beck.
Steves has a great poing
Twice as many people watch Hannah Montana than Beck.
The far right is becoming more and more insular and inconsequential to the rest of the culture.
Two weeks ago, I was at a party (vegetarian chili, who knew?)consisting of mostly young Christians here in Tulsa. Had a couple of old toots like myself in attendance.
The family dog was named 'Beck' and one of us older ones asked (Not I) if it was named for Glenn Beck. We were met with quizzical looks and the question "who is he"?
I asked around and almost no one knew. Those who did knew he was some "old crazy white guy on Fox, no one he knew listened to".
Know Hope. :)
Jeez, I hope you guys are right. He seems to get so much news of late with those right wing rallies. I will know hope today, and that is a good way to start.
I would say that Beck is more of an idol to the lunatic fringe of the far right, or at least the people that aren't interested in thinking and want their opinions pre-formulated. I only frequent a few conservative forums these days (limited time for that kind of stuff) and most of the time Glenn is seen as an ass.
old crazy white guy on Fox
Old, he is 45! I thought 40 was the new 30.
On a sort of related note, Teresa Nielsen Hayden writes about anger as a literal addiction (it starts five or six paragraphs in, after the materials on Fred Phelps). This is a quote I like:
I'd seen too many times how the onset of my father's anger lifted him up, knitted him together, and cleared and focused his eyes. Unconscious body language doesn't lie.
Looking back, I can see that my father really didn't like getting angry. Not his kind of thing at all. What he did like was not being exhausted and fuzzy-minded all the time.
This helps me make sense of how the Glenn Beck fans in my family, ten years ago, were the kindest and most even-tempered people I knew, but now I can't talk to them because I'm not angry enough to connect with them. They're getting older and they don't like being tired. I'm not sure it's not a complete explanation, but I think it helps a lot.
There is also anger as a mental illness. Obviously, not every angry person is mentally ill, but there is a certain point where it becomes so incontrollable and detrimental that it would be a mental illness.
Yes 45 is a crazy old white guy on Fox to these guys, they are multicultural post-modern and mostly under age 27. :)
I was one of the token "old folks" there.
Leighton's anger addiction is a fascinating concept, and it makes sense. It is almost like a 'high' that my older brother gets when he goes on a Beck inspired rant. You can see it.
I suppose it isn't nice, but I LOVE telling fundamentalists that Beck is a Mormon, and Mormon theology and worldview permeates his stuff. Freaks them out, most deny it until a simple google search.
I don't know how they work it out in their own minds, but it is fun to watch the Must hate Mormons tension with the Must love Glenn Beck swirl around in their minds.
I try to be good, but it just doesn't seem to work out..... ;)
Holy cow, Monk! I didn't know Beck was a Mormon. Oh boy, I can't WAIT to aggravate my Baptist friends with that info! :-)
Yeah, tony, I think that bit of information kind of seeped out there. It isn't front and center. I heard it somewhere in a blurb about his getting clean, but didn't think much more about it until I read that Salon piece on his favorite writer (I will try and find that) who was a wingnut mormon who alienated even the Mormon church with his ideas.
That guy (and I don't remember his name) did a bit of a trick, however, in bridging conservative evangelicals with their traditional enemies the Mormons by giving them all the deification of the Founders and the Christian America.
Talk about your strange bedfellows.
Streak,
The person you are thinking of is
W. Cleon Skousen
Not a person on my reading list, I am afraid.
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