Glenn Beck is making a profoundly silly argument in response to President Obama’s executive orders expanding background checks to buy guns. He’s actually arguing that this is going to lead to “back alley medicine” for those seeking psychological help because they’ll be afraid that if they go to a real psychologist, they’ll end up not being able to buy guns anymore.
Glenn Beck has launched yet another initiative to save the country from…well, something. Like his previous announcements of this type, it will almost certainly be forgotten and quietly dropped after a few months of doing absolutely nothing. This time he wants you to “take action.” And by “take action,” he means say prayers that he has conveniently written for you.
Glenn Beck, ever the huckster, is doing a one-night event in Grand Prairie, Texas called Glenn Beck Presents: Christmas Cheer. Beck will be reading his favorite Christmas stories (“Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except that Marxist Muslim Barack Hussein Obama, plotting to bring down America”), you’ll also hear his deepest feelings.
It’s wingnut on wingnut crime time again, kids. In this corner, we have self-declared prophet Glenn Beck, master of the chalkboard and of unintentionally hilarious fits of melodrama. And in the other corner, we have Bradlee Dean, drummer for a shitty Christian rap-rock band, radio show host and the undisputed king of the velour tracksuit who thinks Muslims are more moral than Christians because they kill gay people like the Bible says. Dean isn’t happy with Beck being all gloomy:
Glenn Beck, the Oracle of Wingnuttia, is always telling us how his prophecies are always coming true and if only we would listen to him, we would avoid one calamity after another. But as Right Wing Watch points out, Beck was at maximum screech in declaring the impending doom of the Ebola crisis exactly a year ago. If we didn’t shut off all travel from West Africa, he declared, society would break down and race riots would occur.
If Glenn Beck is good for nothing else, he’s certainly an efficient producer of irony. He’s continually telling us how amazingly accurate every prediction he’s ever made is and how he truly is the oracle of God, if only we would listen to him. But as Right Wing Watch points out, on October 15, 2013, he made a very specific prediction about the coming dystopia that would “definitely” happen within two years:
I love it when Glenn Beck starts ranting and raving into his microphone, building himself up into a frenzy as he careens from topic to topic trying to make sense while frothing at the mouth. His latest is a real doozy. My favorite part is when he goes on about how we’re listening to liars; I assume he was speaking of his own listeners. Gee Glenn, I thought you were turning over a new leaf? This leaf looks and sounds awfully familiar.
One of the endlessly amusing things about Glenn Beck’s constant melodramatic cravings is that every few months he declares to his vast number of followers that he is a changed man, that he has had an epiphany that has caused him to turn over a new leaf and that he hopes they will all follow his lead in doing the same. And so I literally laughed out loud when he did it yet again this week. And now, it’s all about Jesus. You know, like it was before.
Glenn Beck makes a habit out of exploding in righteous rage over things that didn’t actually happen. The latest example is the situation I’m sure you heard about where a high school student saw another student bullying a blind kid and steps in to defend him, throwing the bully to the ground. Glenn Beck is outraged — OUTRAGED! — that this student was suspended from school, which never happened.
In a rather odd turn of events, Glenn Beck is now promoting Seven Mountains theology, a dominionist Christian theology that says Christians must take control of what they consider the seven key institutions of human societies. He invited David Barton on his show, as he so often does, along with George Barna, a Christian right pollster, to discuss the matter.
Glenn Beck really, really doesn’t like Donald Trump. That’s good, no one should like that egomaniacal asshole. But he’s really struggling to understand why the Tea Party folks seem to love him so much. So now he has a shiny new conspiracy theory to explain it all: Donald Trump is a plot by “big business” to destroy the Tea Party. And he’ll explain this all to us as soon as he can find his trusty blackboard.
Last week, Glenn Beck said one of the few sensible and correct things I’ve ever heard him say, that Sarah Palin is a clown and that he was embarrassed that he ever supported her. This was after they both appeared at a Washington, DC rally against the Iran deal. But he apparently thought the better of it, because he has now issued a long and rambling apology on his Facebook page that explains the source of his frustration with her. It’s all about The Donald.
Dispatches From the Culture Wars
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