On Wednesday, Glenn Beck delivered a breathless prediction on his show, telling his listeners that he had a whistleblower who had given him information that could “take down pretty much the whole power structure” of the United States. And he promised this would happen within 24 hours:
Glenn Beck had a powwow with some of the crazier far-right members of Congress recently, including Sen. Ted Cruz. And he says Cruz told him that he could envision him someday becoming a political prisoner to prevent him from speaking out. Seriously, the paranoid persecution complex of the right simply knows no bounds.
Glenn Beck went on one of his typically incoherent tirades in reaction to Michelle Obama not handling a heckler very well during an appearance. And somehow he manages to blame everything on her, Eric Holder’s wife and White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. Yep, Glenn, it’s all the fault of three powerful black women. Do they scare you?
The more I see Glenn Beck, the more I begin to wonder if he isn’t some really elaborate, long-lasting, Andy Kaufman-like piece of performance art. Exhibit A: This bizarre interview with himself from a recent show, where he dons a bad fake mustache and accent and puts on a performance that would embarrass any teenager acting in a school play. Beck’s entire schtick looks more and more every day like a really slickly-produced cable access show starring people who think they’re funny.
Just the other day, Glenn Beck was ranting about the media conspiracy to paint him as a conspiracy theorist. And to prove his point, he’s now claiming that Obama has a secret Blackberry that he used to produce the Innocence of Muslims video that apparently provoked a riot in Egypt (though not in Libya, as initially speculated). Gee Glenn, I can’t imagine why anyone would think that you’re a conspiracy theorist.
For months Glenn Beck has been promoting his upcoming three day 4th of July moon man extravaganza. On a recent show he said that “”your children will never forget the moment the moon spoke” and that he plans to “engrave these things on to your child’s heart so they never forget.” Well as long as you’re being humble about this.
Glenn Beck reacted to Michele Bachmann’s announcement that she won’t run for reelection by painting her as the poor victim of smears that have “destroyed her, destroyed her image, destroyed her honor, [and] destroyed her business.” Say what? She’s going to make a ton of money now, partly by playing on this same absurd false martyrdom.
On a show last week, Glenn Beck went on quite a tirade about the media making a “concentrated effort” to label him a conspiracy theorist. And it’s apparently all Cass Sunstein’s fault. Cass Sunstein? The Harvard law professor? Yep. Hey Glenn, maybe people call you a conspiracy theorist because that’s what you are and it’s what you do.
For some bizarre reason, Glenn Beck is rather upset over Wolf Blitzer’s awkward question to an atheist victim of the Oklahoma tornado about thanking God. On his Wednesday show, he launched into this really weird tirade about the “forces of spiritual darkness” who were supposedly behind the whole thing:
While most wingnuts are claiming that the IRS scandal is a horrible injustice for which Obama should be impeached, Glenn Beck says the opposite — that the administration deliberately sparked the IRS scandal in order to distract attention away from Benghazi. Hey, whatever works — it can be X and ~X at the same time on Planet Wingnuttia.
I remember one of my favorite high school teachers (also my debate coach) talking about out-of-context quotes, using the example of those little three word snippets they use in movie ads, like “a daring thrill ride — Time magazine.” She pointed out that many times, they cut out things like “The director clearly intended to make a daring thrill ride of a movie, but instead it drags along for far too long.” Here’s Glenn Beck doing exactly that to Obama:
You’re gonna LOVE this video of Glenn Beck getting all weepy eyed — again — and saying that God “has got to destroy us; we are becoming an affront to him in every step of the way. We are denying his existence. We are denying his power. We are slapping him in the face.” It’s like wingnut performance art.
Dispatches From the Culture Wars
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