No, Glenn Beck Is Not Suddenly Different

Over the past year, I’ve seen progressives post numerous articles by or about Glenn Beck, startled or surprised by how “reasonable” he sounds as he criticizes Trump. Has Glenn Beck changed? Vanity Fair certainly suggested as much when they wrote this byline for an article on his criticism of Trump:

The reformed paranoiac apologizes for unleashing forces that aided Trump’s rise.

He’s reformed! He’s nice now—a nice, cuddly, anti-Trump reasonable no-longer-paranoid person. I mean look how awesome he is! He is so concerned about Steve Bannon serving as an advisor to the president that he declared that the country would be “racist” to allow the man to retain his role. “His paranoid style paved the road for Trumpism,” reads the byline of an Atlantic article about Trump. “Now he fears what’s been unleashed.” What an awakening! How brave and bold.

Ya’ll? You’re being played.

And it’s not just this one thing, it’s—well—basically everything. This past Monday, citing concerns that the Republicans are backing off of their promise to repeal Obamacare, Beck said the following on his radio program:

“If we really understood how this is going to enslave our children, we’d be working a lot harder to stop it,” Glenn said Monday on radio.

In December Glenn Beck had Doc Thompson fill in for him on his radio show; the man spent the entire time blasting Obama for stating that there is a problem in our country with tension between the police and minority groups.

His suggestion for Obama?

Stop talking about it. That’s the new way forward. Tell people to sit down and shut up. If you have a problem, address it based on the issue. And move on.

Does racism exist? Yes. And so does a lot of other problems that people have. People just treating at hell at work for all kinds of different things that has nothing to do with their race. We don’t need another conversation. We need a leader to tell people to get back to work.

But you know, Beck is different now! He’s so sorry and enlightened! He’s calling Steve Bannon out for being a racist! And simultaneously letting people spew racist nonsense on his radio show.

Last month Beck spoke out against William Pryor, one of Trump’s potential picks for the Supreme Court, as not conservative enough to replace Scalia. Why? Because Pryor was not sufficiently anti-trans for him.

GLENN: More problematic is the majority opinion in Glenn versus Brumby. Brumby. A case involving a biological male fired after he wanted to dress as a woman and begin medical treatments. Pryor again concurred with the circuit court’s liberal former Judge Rosemary Barkett, ruling that the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution protected the employee from discrimination based on sex, which the court interpreted to include gender identity. So now, he is saying that sex is whatever you decide it to be. Slate — Slate called the opinion absolutely revolutionary for transgendered employment rights.

…

 

GLENN: We cannot afford to have anyone chip away on religious liberty.

Beck has long been posting anti-trans articles on his website, and he hasn’t stopped. One article from last spring, when Beck was already being praised for his views on Trump, described transgender bathroom access as “the new war on women.”

Following hard-fought battles and victories for women’s rights, we’re now being asked to share bathroom space with men? Are you kidding? Hey modern feminists, how about fighting the good fight for real women instead of men pretending to be women? (Note to men who want to be women or men who want to perve on women: Get your own damn bathroom.)

This isn’t a man who is reformed, who has seen the error of his ways. This is an opportunist looking for an hour of fame. Don’t fall for it.

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