For someone who continually broadcasts disclaimers that he is not an expert on anything, Glenn Beck sure pontificates on every subject imaginable as if he were the world’s supreme authority. In today’s episode Beck chose as his topic the actual supreme authority, God!
The message that Beck sought to convey to his jello-brained viewers was that President Obama is some sort of spiritual chameleon whose only prayerful commitment is to a collective holy borg. The presumptuousness of Beck believing that he could analyze the President’s faith reveals a measure of pride that would surely condemn him to eternal damnation were it actually the mortal sin it has been advertised as.
A new poll was released that shows that about one in four Americans are still so stupid and ill-informed that they think Obama is a Muslim. Amongst Republicans (who must be even stupider) it’s one in three. Beck blamed Obama for this mass asshattery that, in truth, was more the result of people like Beck and his talk radio lie brigades.
But Beck went further to construct a tower of trash and innuendo that was designed to leave his flock in a state of uncertainty and panic regarding this alien figure residing in the White House. For Beck is was pretty much routine. He simply trotted out the ghosts of Jeremiah Wright and social justice and wove them into a new fabric of fear. And of course, he employed his patented use of out-of-context quotations and eerie micro-focusing of otherwise mundane citations.
Prominently featured in Beck’s fantasia was a passage from Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, wherein Obama described his spiritual introduction to Christ:
“Kneeling beneath that cross on the south side of Chicago I felt God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.”
To which Beck responded:
“Even that statement is confusing. Submission? That’s Islam.”
Umm…..Glenn may need to brush up on his scripture:
James 4:7 – Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Job 22:21 – Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.
This is typical of the way Beck invents red herrings against which he can rail. He simply makes a declarative statement, like “submission is Islam,” and then castigates his target for violating some principle that Beck just made up. Another of his favorite methods of misinformation is to quote some authority and claim that the quote validates his position. Today Beck did this with a citation that he has used before from Pope Benedict:
“Wherever politics tries to be redemptive, it is promising too much. Where it wishes to do the work of God, it becomes not divine but demonic.”
Beck intended for this to be an indictment of Obama’s belief in “collective salvation.” All that means is that Obama places importance on helping others as a method for enhancing his connection to the holy. But Beck, due to his revulsion of helping others, twists it into some sort of evil plot to suppress individual will. That is an invention of Beck’s making and has nothing to do with Obama’s intention. But even more damning, so to speak, is that the Pope’s remark is more an indictment of people like Beck who insert religion into government works. The Pope is saying that when government and politicians try to do God’s work they are actually doing the work of the devil. So all you congressmen who want to draft legislation to outlaw abortion or gay marriage had better wise up.
Finally, I thought it would be fun to note that Beck took a back-handed swipe at CBS News anchor Bob Scheifer. Scheifer’s sin was to express the shocking opinion that there is false information on the Internet (you don’t say) and that that was where some of the misperception of Obama’s faith came from. That didn’t sit well with Beck who wanted to blame everything on Obama. So Beck said…
“Bob Schiefer. You seem like a nice gentleman. I don’t know you. And I’m sure you are a good journalist. I don’t know, because I don’t watch CBS News and, quite frankly, I don’t know anybody who does.”
Oh boy, that’s funny. Beck slammed Scheiffer for having so few viewers. That’s gotta hurt. Except for this little fact: Scheiffer’s CBS News draws twice as many viewers (5.2 million total/1.6 million 24-54) as Beck’s lame cable show (2.1M total/603K 25-54). So the fact that Beck doesn’t know anybody who watches CBS just reaffirms what a sheltered little world he lives in.
“jello brained viewers”???? talk about “hate speech”…I think Beck provides a valuable service for those of us who don’t like the direction of the country with Barak Obama as president (ie liberal and/or “progressive” direction. I put progressive in quotes because I think the word misrepresents the actual ideology – at least based on my research of the progressive movement. He certainly has made it more difficult for our dear leader . I’m certainly glad for that, but I still think most people can think for themselves… although I can sense your fear that this isn’t the case and loads of people need to be told what to think and GB may have more influence than he or any TV pesonality should, which may also be true.
He swings…and misses the point! Steve, how can Glenn Beck provide a valuable service if what he says is patently untrue most of the time? Or if he takes one point (“submission”) and completely perverts it to form a narrative that is totally misleading (as in the point of this post…in case you didn’t bother to actually read it).
Because Glenn Beck doesn’t matter except to those who allow him to matter – like everyone writing here. Maybe we’re more like him than you realize – that’s why we’re on here writing like this…to feel like we are being heard. The whole lot of TV news is full of garbage – whatever.. no news here.. This is an anti Fox website and people like you feel you’re doing a great service to mankind in pointing out everything that network does wrong or misstates or intentionally misleads. That’s fine – have at it, but most of us don’t need Fox News or this site to tell us what to think or believe so if it makes you feel better to point out anything GB says that wrong or hateful, go ahead. In the end they exist to make money -period! and that’s fine by me. They must be doing something right since that’s the goal of all corporations – even the other networks. I don’t really care – they can make as much money as they want – you’re not really sharing any new information here. They are clearly very conservative in what and how they report – so what – don’t watch them.
Glen Beck can make money however he wants and if he slanders someone while doing that, let them sue him.
MY comment on hate speech was just to point out how everyone here complaining about hate speech takes part in it when it works for them – I’m ok with hate speech in our free society. go for it….
Sammy, I would need to care about the point of this article – I don’t – but I’m facitnated by the devotion to Fox news and/or Glenn Beck here. I liked the star trek TNG reference in the article. I’m not a stock holder nor do I carry a torch for Fox News, I can only imagine watching these shows and trying to find anything that i can attack and/or discredit – I’m sure I could find lots of BS on TV when it comes to politics – all of these articles can be true, but you’re preaching to the choir on this site. If it makes you feel better, go for it, it’s not changing anything. Barak Obama is exactly the same as George W Bush – worse in many ways, which doesn’t surprise me – so keep on trying to discredit what you don’t like, it’s fine and I assume theraputic for you. My general purpose here isn’t to debate this silliness, I just don’t care enough about what people here are trying to do. This is all driven by anger at and hate for this particular tv personality. You can keep telling me that I don’t refute anything, but who really cares. It can all be true for all I care. I, like so many others, am just trying to get through this mess we’re living through and I won’t waste my energy trying to debate these articles it just doesn’t matter and you all seem to have your minds made up anyway. Is what Glenn Beck does – at least according to you – any different than what all the politicians do everyday – lie, twist and misrepresent everything the “other side” says or does. Do you believe them or just the ones with whom you agree on policy?
I also think Beck provides a valuable service – for those who don’t think. As Sammy notes, you didn’t bother to rebut a single point I made. So what was the service Beck provided with the dishonest ravings above?
I’ll admit that my “jello-brained viewers” remark was not particularly diplomatic, but I have never represented myself as a diplomat. Sometimes the lunacy to which I subject myself by monitoring the right-wing media requires that I vent from time to time. I don’t think you are jello-brained, though you aren’t always responsive to the topic. And I appreciate your recognition that Beck may have more influence than he should.
Here’s a question – are the people on this site writing mostly negative items about Glenn Beck because you fear him and what he says and/or stands for? I’m genuinely curious as to peoples thoughts on this – clearly he is not liked at all here. In fact i woudl say he is hated on this site.
Oh please. Stop trying to psychoanalyze people.
It is entirely irrelevant if I or anyone else hates Beck. Can’t you just assess the substance of what we say and make your own judgment? Did you ever ask such a question about the people who are negative about Obama? There is plenty of cause to be critical of Beck for his rampant dishonesty and the damage he does to public discourse, not to mention the damage he does to the poor saps who buy into it. We don’t need to veer off into amateur psychiatry.
If I were to psychoanalyze you I’d say your question is just another attempt to divert the conversation away from the topic because you can’t adequately debate the matter.
So this is a public service – fabulous. You are clearly passionate about this, so I won’t be ignorant. So i’m clearly understood – I think Barak Obama is the worst thing to happen to this country with respect to elected presidents – and I came up with that on my own. Totally out of his league and over his head. We didn’t need a spend-a-holic progressive. He is no different on spending than GW Bush, which was totally awful. It’s my opinion that we – the people – are to blame for the current state of affairs. We spent too much, went into debt too much, were just irresponsible, just like our wonderful congress and president – past and present. Now it’s time to pay up. Barak Obama, in my opinoin, is not the medicine we needed at this point in time.
To answer your original comment – to properly assess the substance of your analysis, I would need to care about what people think about what Beck or Fox News says. I guess if I needed them to think for me, then closely reviewing your critique of these shows may be more important, but I’ve had 43 years to figure out what I think. i’m truly sorry for the people who actually just take what their fed from the media. I laugh when some of these news people pat themelves on the back for “breaking down and explaining complex issues for us” ha ha ha. that came from a recent NBC News ad – what a joke.
Could be many of you were either sleeping or zoned out during your high school history classes. Check it out, it does take some effort and time but our freedeom is worth the inconvenience. Read up on our founding father. Our country, our constitution didn’t just happen. Many have given their loves for our freedoms. It’s serious, be respectful. God Bless us all and God bless America.
Righties have been flinging around that Pope Benedict blurb – without, of course, even the slightest whiff of irony – ever since the first days of their ‘Obama as Neo-Hitler/Anti-Christ’ blogging frenzy. Here’s what may be the primary canonical mention, brought to you by those charming folks over at American Stinker.:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/02/obamas_politics_of_collective.html
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“The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness.” — ‘Annie Savoy’; Bull Durham
Steve, classifying a whole group of people based on skin color, who they sleep with or what god they pray to, and then demonizing said groups is hate speech. Calling a group “jello brained” or “teabaggers” may be mean-spirited, but it’s hardly the same thing.
I’m not here to refute, just can’t understand amount of effort in discrediting things stated on Fox News. I think the left wing stuff is totally nuts, so I stopped watching most TV News and most stuff on the internet repersents one side or another and tends to be really angry, but I do still subject myself to NPR on my way to work each morning – they have soothing voices, no anger. Maybe this site is more for venting and I should stop reading….. It’s good to vent and keep the pressured down before you explode.
As for the service Glenn Beck provides – his constant discussions about what the president is trying to do may be good for keeping some things with which i don’t agree from gaining any traction with whoever he influence I think he does influence a lot of people – turning many against the president’s agenda. Not sure how that happens when so many voted for the guy (not me needless to say), but constant attacks regarding him being a socialist, being racist, etc seem to be having an impact. I think the president’s policies are NOT good for this country or the economy, but I don’t need GB to tell me that. I’ve met and debated self proclaimed liberals, socialists and progressives and their beliefs sounds crazy to me – I work at a University. It certainly has been eye opening for me – in a very scary way. You should try discussing the subject of Black reparations with a true believer – crazy in my view. It’s all very tiring!
I guess it depends on your point of view and if you’re in one of those groups. I thought “jello brained” was kind of funny….but still namecalling can be very silly and wrong. At least that’s what I tell my kids. Unfortunately there are a lot of impressionable people, which i assume is the group he is trying to reach.