Persecution Politics: Glenn Beck, the Man With the Crazy Plan

[csziggy]

A pretty good deconstruction of the craziness of Glenn Beck and his main theories. Each theory bullet point has a discussion of where Beck got his "ammunition" and how he has spun it out of control.

Persecution Politics: Glenn Beck, the Man With the Crazy Plan

You may have heard about Glenn Beck's recent paranoid accusations, but if you are a drive-by voyeur of right-wing hysterics, you might not appreciate the method behind the madness. Relying on out-of-context quotes, tenuous associations, and giant leaps of speculation, Beck has meticulously pieced together the most elaborate, nefarious government conspiracy in the history of cable news. His argument consists of four primary elements:

Part 1: The Czars

"Czar" is not an official title in the Federal government, and it is not printed on anyone's business card. It is a label that journalists and politicians assign to appointed officials in the executive branch, a common practice of Democratic and Republican presidents since F.D.R. Last February, Democratic Senator Robert Byrd criticized President Obama for appointing too many "czars," whom he believed were not sufficiently accountable to Congress. Glenn Beck took up the issue in early June and added his own sinister spin, stating, "A shadow government is giving the Obama administration unprecedented power with virtually no oversight."

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Part 2: The Secret Army

Malevolent Marxist bureaucrats are disturbing, but they're not quite scary enough for a potent conspiracy theory. The evil czars need some muscle to carry out their sinister plans. That muscle takes the form of the fearsome AmeriCorps. Yes, according to Beck's theory, an army of teachers and community activists will establish martial law and suppress dissent. Beck's ammunition comes from a July 2008 campaign speech in which Obama explained his plans to expand AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, saying, "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." This statement is all the evidence that Beck requires to allege that Obama and his Marxist cohorts intend to use this new "security force" to suppress people like...well...Glenn Beck.

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Part 3: The Gag

To execute their plan quietly and efficiently, the conspirators need to silence those strident voices of dissent. Their mechanism, Beck charges, is a proposal by Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer of the FCC, to promote local, minority, and public broadcasters by tightening FCC regulations and taxing media conglomerates:

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Part 4: The Emergency

Even with the czars and the civilian brownshirts, the Obama administration would need some kind of justification to execute its tyrannical agenda. Beck alleges that the conspirators are planning to manufacture some kind of emergency to provide the catalyst. For instance, discussing Sarah Palin's "death panels," Beck played the history scholar and theorized that economic crisis caused Nazi Germany to institute a eugenics program that murdered tens of thousands. (This theory is known as the Gross Oversimplication Hypothesis.)

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In the conservative echo chamber, paranoid voices have produced a feedback loop where each apocalyptic alarm bell facilitates another shriller peal of artificial terror. We can look forward to even more elaborate manifestations of the paranoid style from Beck and those he inspires in the days to come.

More: http://dagblog.com/persecution-politics/persecution-politics-glenn-beck-man-crazy-plan-878

[bushisanidiot]

1. I"m so glad this nutcase has so much attention right now. He is making

the GOP look like complete conspiracy theorist IDIOTS!

HAHAHAHA! I hope Fox finds room to put Limbaugh on the air so his idiocy can compete with Beck's.

HAHAHAHAHA!

[Carl Skan]

3. Rush won't compete with Beck for the looniness

Say what you want about the guy, he's smart enough to not go completely off the deep end like Beck has the past couple months.

There's just no future to it, that shtick Beck is using right now burns out too quickly. Beck is burning way too hot to keep it up.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Isn't it so very sad and pathetic

that a person can not make a living any other way. beck should quit broadcasting and do the only thing he knows how to do, drink heavily every day. He'd be far less of an embarrassment to his family.

What has anyone who makes a living on right wing radio ever done FOR our country?