{"id":3987,"date":"2011-03-03T07:40:57","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T15:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3987"},"modified":"2011-03-03T07:40:57","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T15:40:57","slug":"the-paranoid-style-of-glenn-beck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3987","title":{"rendered":"The Paranoid Style Of Glenn Beck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Glenn Beck was born on February 10, 1964. Later that same year a professor from Columbia University authored what now appears to be a prophetic description of what that child would become.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/harpers.org\/archive\/1964\/11\/0014706\" target=\"_blank\">The Paranoid Style in American Politics<\/a> by Richard Hofstadter<br \/>\n<em>[Hover your mouse over the highlighted words for Beck&#8217;s pearls of paranoia]<\/em><\/p>\n<p><center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2779\/4104042788_4e108ee8b1_o.jpg\"\/><\/center><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in <a href=\"#\" title=\"This is about man's freedom. This is it, gang. If we fail here the world is plunged into global darkness.\">apocalyptic terms<\/a>\u2013he traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, <a href=\"#\" title=\"If we do not put God at the center of our own personal lives and at the center of our country, we will not survive. The country will be washed with blood.\">whole systems of human values<\/a>. He is always manning the barricades of civilization. He constantly lives at a turning point. Like religious millennialists he expresses the anxiety of those who are <a href=\"#\" title=\"You're gonna see a black and white world, man, that is nothing but destruction and ugly.\">living through the last days<\/a> and he is sometimes disposed to set a <a href=\"#\" title=\"The time that I told you would come of The Perfect Storm is here.\">date for the apocalypse<\/a>. (\u201dTime is running out,\u201d said Welch in 1951. \u201cEvidence is piling up on many sides and from many sources that October 1952 is the fatal month when Stalin will attack.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>As a member of the avant-garde who is <a href=\"#\" title=\"I don't know why no one else will tell you the truth about these things.\">capable of perceiving<\/a> the conspiracy before it is fully obvious to an as yet unaroused public, the paranoid is a militant leader. He does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is <a href=\"#\" title=\"Please, please America, don't debate, don't compromise on these things. [...] You don't compromise on your destruction.\">not compromise<\/a> but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being <a href=\"#\" title=\"Progressivism is a cancer in America, and it's eating our Constitution.\">totally evil<\/a> and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated\u2013if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention. This demand for total triumph leads to the formulation of hopelessly unrealistic goals, and since these goals are not even remotely attainable, failure constantly heightens the paranoid&#8217;s <a href=\"#\" title=\"I don't want to believe these things, but unfortunately I find them true.\"\">sense of frustration<\/a>. Even partial success leaves him with the same feeling of powerlessness with which he began, and this in turn only strengthens his awareness of the vast and <a href=\"#\" title=\"They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered.\">terrifying quality<\/a> of the enemy he opposes.<\/p>\n<p>The enemy is clearly delineated: he is a <a href=\"#\" title=\"I don\u2019t need to convince you that there are people intentionally destroying our country.\">perfect model of malice<\/a>, a kind of amoral superman\u2013sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving. Unlike the rest of us, the enemy is not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history, himself a victim of his past, his desires, his limitations. He wills, indeed he <a href=\"#\" title=\"The Nazis learned their propaganda from the progressive movement in the United States.\">manufactures the mechanism of history<\/a>, or tries to deflect the normal course of history in an evil way. He <a href=\"#\" title=\"Van Jones\">makes crises<\/a>, starts <a href=\"#\" title=\"George Soros\">runs on banks<\/a>, causes <a href=\"#\" title=\"Franklin Roosevelt\">depressions<\/a>, manufactures disasters, and then <a href=\"#\" title=\"GE\">enjoys and profits<\/a> from the misery he has produced. The paranoid&#8217;s interpretation of history is <a href=\"#\" title=\"Has someone decided that they must destroy my career and silence me because we've stumbled onto something?\">distinctly personal<\/a>: decisive events are not taken as part of the stream of history, but as the consequences of someone&#8217;s will. Very often the enemy is held to possess some especially effective source of power: he <a href=\"#\" title=\"Jews\">controls the press<\/a>; he has <a href=\"#\" title=\"More Jews\">unlimited funds<\/a>; he has a new secret for influencing the mind (<a href=\"#\" title=\"It is getting worse and worse. Spookier and spookier. I mean, we had the hypnotized children singing, mmm, Barack Hussein Obama.\">brainwashing<\/a>); he has a <a href=\"#\" title=\"Our faith is down. Our churches are emptying. Do you know why? Because our churches don't stand for anything anymore.\">special technique<\/a> for seduction (the Catholic confessional).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Scary, isn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Glenn Beck was born on February 10, 1964. Later that same year a professor from Columbia University authored what now appears to be a prophetic description of what that child would become. From The Paranoid Style in American Politics by Richard Hofstadter [Hover your mouse over the highlighted words for Beck&#8217;s pearls of paranoia] The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,873],"class_list":["post-3987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-glenn-beck","tag-richard-hofstadter"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-12j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8372,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8372","url_meta":{"origin":3987,"position":0},"title":"Glenn Beck: If America Votes To Reelect Obama Then &#8220;We Have To Be Destroyed&#8221;","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/6\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This has been an interminably long, divisive, and vitriolic campaign. Romney's camp complains that he was accused of murdering the wife of a former employee of a company that Bain Capital drove into bankruptcy. President Obama has been charged with intentionally allowing an ambassador to be murdered as he watched.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1268,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1268","url_meta":{"origin":3987,"position":1},"title":"Is Glenn Beck Suicidal or Paranoid?","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/14\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, actually, he may be both. On his Fox News program Tuesday, Glenn Beck revealed that he suspects some nefarious, unspecified, malicious entity has it out for him. He beseeched his audience to be vigilant on his behalf, lest some dreaded fate befall him: \"If I'm ever in a weird\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16361,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=16361","url_meta":{"origin":3987,"position":2},"title":"Glenn Beck Feels Oppressed Because He Can&#8217;t Say &#8216;Fag&#8217; And &#8216;Nigger&#8217;","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/11\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the ever paranoid and dystopian world of Glenn Beck, the burdens of tyranny are a constant aggravation for him. Being a persecuted white Christian male in a nation that abhors such creatures must cause him terrible distress. And what is it that he yearns for to bring him some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Glenn Beck","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/beck-fag-nigger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/beck-fag-nigger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/beck-fag-nigger.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4111,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4111","url_meta":{"origin":3987,"position":3},"title":"Who Says Glenn Beck Isn&#8217;t Funny?","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/25\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"On his TV program yesterday, Glenn Beck launched into a hilarious routine that simply has to be shared with the world. It concerned his paranoid perception that an army of George Soros soldiers are advancing on him and his motley crew. Beck: And please, enough, George Soros. He's got 86\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4347,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4347","url_meta":{"origin":3987,"position":4},"title":"Glenn Beck vs Glee\/My Chemical Romance","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/29\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"We already know that Glenn Beck is a delusional paranoid whose analysis of world affairs is on a par with a lobotomized baboon (no offense intended to baboons). And we have already witnessed his hallucinatory ramblings about commie-infested art planted throughout Manhattan. But now Beck has assumed the role of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Art\/Culture&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1592,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1592","url_meta":{"origin":3987,"position":5},"title":"Glenn Beck Forgets To Expose His Latest White House Marxist","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/16\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We can chalk this one down to another broken promise from Fox News' star paranoid, Glenn Beck. On last Thursday's program he teased his audience with news of yet another example of the cancer that was eating away our country from within: Thursday, March 11, 2010: \"And a programming note.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3987"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3997,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3987\/revisions\/3997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}