Glenn Beck hasn’t even left the building and already Bill O’Reilly is angling to take his place as Senior Scare Monger. In his Talking Points Memo segment last night he advanced the idiotic theory that the left is purposefully trying to destroy America.

O’Reilly: The far left wants the government to control the economy, not private industry. That is what is behind The New York Times, Soros and the other uber-left operations.

Very simply, they want a recast of the American economic system, and the only way that can possibly happen is if the system crashes like it did in 1929. In theory, an economic collapse could allow a new system to rise, a quasi-socialistic system whereby Washington would dole out the jobs and money.

Beck: Find the exit closest to you and prepare for a crash landing, because this plane is coming down, because the pilot is intentionally steering it into the trees.

O’Reilly is appropriating Beck’s favorite fear factors including economic catastrophe, socialism and {gasp} Soros. With Beck being shoved out the door, O’Reilly is pouncing on the “Obama wants America to fail” theme before some poser like Hannity latches onto it.

If recreating 1929 is the only way to invoke a “recast of the American economic system,” then the left is three years too late because George W. Bush already did it in 2008. Where was O’Reilly?

It’s clear that the paranoid dementia and deranged conspiracy theories that formed the basis of Beck’s program will be safely redistributed amongst his successors at Fox. Rest easy Beckoids and FoxPods, the message will endure and nothing will change at your favorite indoctrination station.

[Update:] Beck noticed that O’Reilly has come over to the dark side. On his radio show this morning Beck said…

“For two years I have been talking to Bill O’Reilly and trying to get – I mean how many times have we been on planes with Bill O’Reilly and the whole time ‘Bill, Bill…no, no Bill, you don’t understand. They want to collapse the system. They’re not just misguided.’ And he’s never been down that road. ‘No, no Glenn, they’re just misguided. You’re being too pessimistic.’

“This is a huge, huge turning point for Bill O’Reilly. Huge. And, I think, for the country. Cause now it’s no longer – it’s no longer crazy. Now you’ve got it into the mainstream of Bill O’Reilly. That’s incredible.”

If you think it’s funny that Beck thinks O’Reilly’s concurrence means it’s no longer crazy, you aint heard nothin’ yet. This exchange continued with some banter between Beck and his sidekick Stu wherein Stu admits that Beck has a low standard of proof for his ravings.

Sideshow Stu: [O’Reilly] is not into the whole theorizing thing. He’s not necessarily into trying to call the future, he wants to take a – see the evidence that he sees right now and call it as he sees it. And what this means is that there’s a higher – he has to some degree a higher level of – standard of proof.
Beck: No he doesn’t. No he doesn’t.
Stu: I think he does.
Beck: No he doesn’t!

When your own sidekick argues with you that your standard of proof is weak, or at least weaker than your peers, you may want to reexamine who is the monkey and who is the second banana.