The Beckian Nine Principles
Glenn Beck is a breathtakingly stupid ex-DJ, who thinks wingnut spree-killers are forced into killing by political correctness. But he is also a thought-leader of the Republican party, so I’m sure there are better versions of post like this around the liberal internet tubes – but I just had to take a look at Beck’s 9 principles to see what the wignuts are all sporting boners over.
Here it goes…
1. America is good.
Check. So far so good. If they are all this insightful I’ll gladly sign up for Hube’s teabagging. (I’ll ignore the fact that they probably mean waving the flag is good, and hope for the best.)
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
I happen to love skydad. But I think this is phrase to be able to exclude people like me who don’t go around sticking in in every-one’s face.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
While I can readily see why this would be something that lying low life Republicans would want to say to themselves – I don’t see them saying it being turned into any honesty.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
The family is sacred? If this read, “My third spouse and I are the ultimate authority, until our offspring figure out how full of shit we are.” it would have been more honest.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
Hmmm… let’s say…Only rich, well-connected people are above the law. But that’s it..and I mean it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
I have a right to look down on poor people. Let’s face it, that’s what he is really saying here. A little honesty please wingnuts…remember #3.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
Translation: I’m not paying no stinking death tax.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
A little of number 8 would have been like a blast of fresh air when Bush was screwing things up – but this item only applies to trashing Democrats.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
Like item number 1, I have no problem with this sentiment.
Bottom line: What a bunch of cry baby sore loser bullshit. The idea that rich people are being abused by the government would be laughable if so many of these retards didn’t believe it.
For anyone who wants a dose of reality just take a look at the numbers. Unlike Beck – they don’t lie.
And last but not least…via kos
Pictured: Logo for ‘We Surround Them’ Day. Also international symbol for radioactive gonorrhea.
OMG! I am actually watching Beck’s show – I figured since I’ve been shooting my mouth off I’d better watch! Beck has almost cried three times.
UPDATE: It is 5:14 pm, and I have yet to be surrounded.
If you are not reading Hunter’s posts at Kos, I will bring them to you:
Beck is crying because he cannot believe that he actually found the right suckers to pay him mad money to be that full of shit all of the time. Only in America, man.
URGENT: I just drove to my house and I am currently unsurrounded. Will update you after my walk this evening.
Still watching. This is unbelievably painful. Sap coating us vs them.
Started off with a 9/11 recap. Beck says this isn’t about politics – Shows Obama, McCain, Lott, Clinton, Rangle…
Wants everyone to meet with friends and talk about country, our principles, and our founding fathers – read 2 books: The Real George Washington and oops! I missed the other one!
BTW, the crowds they keep going to aren’t… um… diverse.
Chris Gardner is on now. He’s thanking Beck and Glenn’s tearing up again.
Classic cut and paste logic, here is the answer that I need, now let me fill in the rest. Beck is a master at it. He`s kind of more dangerous than most wing nuts, number one, I think he really does have mental problems, but more importantly he has a way of appealing to the middle of the road a-political people who dislike all politicians.
Chris proposes giving every legal citizen, over 18, registered voter 1 million dollars. He has set up a group to look into this.
Gena Norris says they are ready to storm Washington.
I just need to know what about America has changed or what rights have they lost. If this is just about stimulus spending, well, we have done that before in America!
70 years ago!
And America survived and prospered. After that evil stimulus spending called the New Deal, we defeated Hitler and the Japanese Empire and then the Soviet Union in the Cold War.
After that evil stimulus spending they call Socialism, we defeated Communism, and became the greatest economy on the planet.
It begs the question: is the America they want the one where everyone is starving and unemployed but the very privileged few?
Or is the America they want the one without a black man as the President?
I think that is what it all comes down to, in the end.
I can’t answer that, DD. My brain is mush, and I’ve got to say… this show is nuts. The only theme/message I can pick up is Us vs Them.
And people about to lose their homes are one of the “thems” compared to Beck’s audience who played by the rules.
2 minutes to go and Glenn’s tearing up again.
i’m at work at a coffee shop in norther wilmington i dont know if i’m surrounded yet.. no one is coming in. maybe they are surrounded!
#7 The 3 Walton children who own three spots in the top 10 riches american billionairs list give a whopping 1% of their wealth to charity. With that kind of largess coming from the top why do we need taxes to help the disadvantage among us.
1. America is good.
Translation: F*** the rest of the world.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
Translation: F** your god.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
Translation: I am a liar
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
Translation: F*** everyone not related to me.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
Translation: This does not apply to me or anyone I support politically, or any law I don’t like.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
Translation: I have the right to deny everyone else these rights.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
Translation: F*** anyone who needs help, and f*** Jesus for suggesting otherwise.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
Translation: Only people who disagree with me are un-American.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
Translation: My congressman should bring home billions in pork, giving me everything I want. F*** every other district and f*** every dollar spent on things I personally am not using.
Indeed, X. #2 and #7 are mutually exclusive, if we are to believe that the God they are talking about had a son named Jesus.
still at work, wondering if surrounding has happened. also thinking that last quintuple latte was a bad call
Glenn Beck, Hannity, Rush, Savage and all the other extreme right wing are picking up on the ignorance of most americans. Who caused this depression? The Democrats! Who is responsible? the minorities and illegals! These people are dangerous from this perspective.
While middle america and the poor are loosing everything, they are grasping for leadership. They want to be told “all is well” not to worry, this thing will turn around. In their guts they no it probably wont for years. If Americans dont change their attitudes and rethink what America can and cant afford if we dont deal realistically with disaster capitalism, we are not coming out of it.
These nuts are pushing for violence, they want angry people in the streets and armed if possible. All it will do if they can manage to stir up the most uneducated, ill informed disenfranchised is bring ON martial law, and then blame it on Obama supporters. Their analogy is, “see what happens when you elect a black man, you get riots”.
The Fema camps exist and we should all be concerned about that. While liberals are not standing on the Consitution meaning believing in the right to bear arms, it adds fury to their side. These guys dont really believe in the Consitution, they believe all these financial problems were brought about by free spending democrats. They deny the financial tsunami occured because of supply side economics, and greedy bankers, white collar gansters.
We have the right to protest, but keep it civil and orderly. Some of these far right white supremacist groups, KKK and Nazi Party groups are well armed. they really are domestic terrorists. But, there are many on the right and left who do believe in the right to bear arms, our founders were brilliant on this issue.
The wingnuts are not the same as Liberaterians and Constitutionalists who believe in the right to bear arms because its a consititional right. We need to be careful liberals (which I resist referring to myself), not to talk down the right to bear arms. You liberals may end up being the only ones who are not armed….therefore sitting ducks. I really believe they want a revolution…with real arms. As opposed to some who want a revolution at the ballot box, and dealing with facts not fiction.
If you are paying any attention to the blogs, there are more extreme hate groups than ever before. There is a difference beteen them, and other americans who believe in the right to protest our government as our personal duty.
liz, under any other circumstances, i might say you are being paranoid, but i think you are on to something
No one here is objecting to civic protest. We are objecting to an entire right-wing mindset that basically tells the uninformed and fearful that it is ok to resort to violence when elections don’t turn out the way you want them to. The “entertainers” that are pushing this BS couch it all in the business of liberty and freedom and the constitution, but that is a smokescreen to tell the fearful that they will be absolved for their violent inclinations. Their targets are, after all, just liberals.
This isn’t about civil liberties or the 2nd Amendment. If it were, then these people would have been in the streets over the Patriot Act or the awful wiretapping business or signing statements or any of the stuff that eroded our civil liberties over the past 8 years. But they didn’t care about that. They cared that GWB was making sure that Terry Schiavo’s husband was interfered with in the business of taking care of his wife. And they don’t care about it now — they just care about being able to act out over the fact that they lost a bunch of elections.
And I came back from walking this evening and am still not surrounded. You’d think that I might be down at the Riverfront and then remembered that the Surrounding types probably won’t be leaving their suburban enclaves to surround anyone in my neighborhood anytime soon.
What I am most worried about is that these Beck kooks are being duped into providing astroturf cover for elements of the military.
What do you mean by that?
Tea Party!
astroturf = “fake grass roots”
I don’t know anything, just musing… most likely FOX is just engaged in a ratings stunt. Let me be clear, I am just engaging in paranoia… long odds, but not as long than they used to be.
If a coup (or something like it) does take place in America it will require the cooperation of the military. And the military is already well stocked with Christianist right wingers.
The public face of the Beckians is all civic responsibility and normal activism… while behind closed doors, some of the attendees are probably ex- or current military who will take the darker message back to their friends or their units. If this spreads into action, we have problems.
The whole rhetoric is aimed at breaking down military obedience to civilian authority.
The Beckians are already invoking the military oath of defending the Constitution… I see this as an effort to draw in disaffected military.
Timothy McVeigh was disaffected ex-military. He himself was bottom of the barrel, but if the disaffection creeps higher up the ranks we have more problems.
Basically, I am concerned about the FOX show giving real military nuts the belief that there is popular support for some kind of coup or violence.
We already have retired military speaking against Obama. Same thing happened during the Clinton Administration; I remember the retired Sec. of Navy (Lehman? ) saying Clinton was not “his” President.
… on the other hand, I think the Christian right will freak out when they discover Glenn Beck is a Mormon.
Thanks for explaining.
I don’t think that the military is really part of this equation except to the extent that there are people in that organization who may sympathize with the idiots on the radio. For the vast majority of these guys and girls, their daily jobs are still bigger than the civic violence that Beck and his ilk are pushing. There are a fair number of Christianists, but there are plenty who aren’t too. It is guys who don’t have much better to do than hang on their radios and stew in their own resentments that I think are the worry.
Jason, did that kid Go Galt, or what?
Pretty quiet here too.
Cassandra, maybe I need to look at it again. I have the show DVR’d. When did he even hint at violence? It is all about being a better person and helping your neighbor.
You are looking for a problem that doesn’t exist. You should spend this energy on WAR (white aryan resistance) not Glenn Beck if violence is your worry. I don’t think it is. I think that you are concerned that a conservative movement outside of the political parties is building utilizing people who normally don’t get involved with politics.
It could overwhelm the left next year in the elections by going under the radar. Admit that is your concern not Glenn and Gena raising an army.
Glenn is building a movement which transcends race, religious divisions, gender, and economic status. That is scary to you.
Sorry, I was finally watching Religulous.
Race? I don’t think so, David. I watched the entire thing, and while violence wasn’t mentioned in this hour, the whole show was about Us (real Americans who work hard, pray, etc.) vs. a yet to be named Them. And given Gena Norris’ – quickly cut away from comment – about storming Washington and Beck’s “understanding” of the Alabama shooter I’ll continue to watch with interest.
You don’t understand that it isn’t against “them”. It is about us v us. Inside each of us is the best of humanity and the worse of humanity. That is why everyone looking for the enemy Beck is fighting seems puzzled. They don’t understand that it isn’t about fighting other Americans. It is about internal growth. That could change, but I doubt it. We shall both stay tuned.
If he goes nutty and wants to rise up against America, I will join you in opposing him. Until then, let him be. He has amazing ratings. They are up ten fold over his last network. He has only one showing and beats most of the prime time shows even entertainment shows. He is speaking to what a lot of other people feel. Considering he has been saying this since at least 2006. It is obvious this is from his heart.
That is why it is resonating. Whether you think the man is a prophet or a nut, he is real.
This is not about helping your neighbor.
This is about excusing people who think that they have no other political voice other than to hurt people. Even O’Reilly (God help me) isn’t interested in helping to excuse violent behavior by just blaming it as a reaction to “political correctness”. (And Beck invokes this Alabama guy as a way to try to justify his theory that a violent reaction is reasonable in the face of “political correctness”. Even though that story — so far — has no political element.)
Beck is doing this crazy war Room thing on TV, where he clumsily pretends to war game out all kinds of apocalyptic bullshit related to the red scare of the day. These segments are all over You Tube and not one of them is about creating a movement or being more neighborly. Beck is gathering up the fearful and ignorant and helping them justify their irrational fear and loathing.
Really, if these guys cared about political outcomes, they would be working at the next election rather than stoking the silly red scare crap.
I love the way Beck channels the Alabama shooting to provide motive.
They don’t understand that it isn’t about fighting other Americans. It is about internal growth.
Earth to David….come in David…Earth to David….the event is called, “WE surround THEM.”
WE…. surround ….THEM
I’m not sure you caught that part.
If he goes nutty and wants to rise up against America, I will join you in opposing him.
IF?
Yes, he is just talking about self help, devotion to the Constitution, loving God, and community involvement. He is talking about us depending upon each other and not the government. Those are the same old time values my parents taught me.
It is hardly radical let alone dangerous.
David,
I don’t have time now but I wan to write a long post about how this Beck thing is a GOP “ghost dance” the sub-text of which is an acknowledgement that everything Republicans believe (from abstinence only education to spreading democracy through belligerence to “tax cuts work”) is complete and utter bullshit.
Thanks for helping with that with your comments.
I think before any of you write any more posts, you should go back and re-examine the bullshit way you set up strawmen to fit your preconceived arguments. When Beck talks about the AL gunman, he’s not “excusing” what that man did. He’s saying that, quite possibly, there are many people who feel stressed, pushed out, ignored and that that is the real danger of our times. If he were a liberal making the argument that a guy went out and killed a bunch of people because he was so frustrated with George Bush or Republicans or Christians, you guys would be AGREEING with that sentiment. Instead, you are trying to argue that declaring the government works for you and that you are going to hold your polticians and political establishment accountable is, somehow violent. There’s nothing violent about saying you want to be more honest than yesterday or you hold your God as the center of your universe or that your family is the most important thing in your life. Yet you guys are arguing that noting these common values makes Glenn Beck a supporter of violence.
I don’t have to agree with Beck’s apocalyptic worldview to agree with him that I have a right to pursue happiness but not to an equal outcome of results. And that doesn’t make ME violent, either.
“If he were a liberal making the argument that a guy went out and killed a bunch of people because he was so frustrated with George Bush or Republicans or Christians, you guys would be AGREEING with that sentiment. ” Screw you sharon. if someone went on a shooting spree we would be calling for tougher gun control and you know it.
Glen’s “ideas” are easy excuses to be closed minded and xenophobic. Take a look at the KKK’s mission statement.. they spew this “patriotic” “family values” bullshit too.
What you arent getting is that Glen Beck isn’t explicitly calling for violence, but he is telling everyone that the new enemy of America is the government and the new American duly elected president. Than reminding everyone that the constitution, which btw the previous administration trampled on, says it is o.k to revolt against an oppressive government. tell me sharon. how many freedoms have you lost in the last 7 weeks?
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about your bullshit strawmen that you set up and then knock down, congratulating yourselves for being so “brave.”
God yes, you’d be calling for more gun control laws, but you guys call for strongers gun laws when Grandma wounds a guy trying to break into her house, too, so don’t even try that. You know for a FACT that you would be agreeing with how screwed up the world is if your guy wasn’t running things. This is why I call bullshit on you.
You make shit up and then say, “Oh, sure, he didn’t *say* he was for violence, but if you look at this totally unrelated group, you’ll see they say the same thing and look at them!”
Beck hasn’t just argued against governmental power grabs since Nov. 4. He’s been arguing against government intrusion for years. That doesn’t make him, somehow, an advocate of violent overthrow.
You spent years screaming about your rights being violated but now you’re good with it because your guy’s in office? Why aren’t you arguing that the *same programs* are terrible and Obama’s shredding your rights? Hypocrite.
make no mistake that i have a problem with it. i’m trying to reconcile it with what i was told by obama the candidate.
I’m wondering where Beck’s outrage was 2 years ago. He lauded and praised bush for “keeping us safe”
And i refute that it is “unrelated” . what beck is doing issnt exactly yelling “fire” in a crowded room, but he is saying “man… it sure is getting hot in here…. anyone smell smoke? GOLLY it is getting hot” He is letting the people who just need a little ush over the edge come to the conclusion that there is a fire. rationale people like you just assume the thermostat is broken, but Beck isn’t talking to you. He is talking to the McVeys of the world… OR like i said before, he is a fraud playing on your fears and is a snakeoil salesman trying to boost his ratings. either way, there are thousands of dangerous, ARMED people who feel like Glen is telling them it is not only o.k to feel like their country has been taken over by evil, but it is patriotic and even GOD’S WILL to overthrow it
By what fashion is Beck suggesting they are held accountable, Sharon? He’s talked about secession. The SCCOR makes an explicit request for members who are handy with firearms. Then there is the semantic difference between “We live among you” and “We surround you”. “Surround” has a threatening connotation. That is the whole point. That’s what demagogues traditionally do with frustrated members of the political minority in times of economic distress, and that includes fascists, communists, and anarchists.
Actually, it makes you agree with me, except that I’m not a f***ing hypocrite about it like you and Beck.
Ron Paul is not with Glen Beck. In fact, the Ron Paul followers think him an idiot! Beck is in my opinion “mentally ill”. His ratings are going through the roof because every race hater, every right wing thug listens to him and they hear different things from his “code words”.
He cant be talking about Ron Paul supporters, when its precisely the y, the right wing of the republican party fear most. Paul like Kucinch want the Federal Reserve nationalized!
Thats the right thing to do. Thats neither right or left…its for the good of the country.
Beck’s code words heard by race baiters, or ex military killers like McVeigh are being given their go ahead. They read into his words what fits their deeply disturbed psyches.
I do not trust the government I don’t care who is President. When the Trilaterial Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and these side shadow government groups are really running things, I question every President.
It is our duty under OUR Consitution to hold them accountable. Sorry, the Patriot act is still in effect, Habeus Corpus still gone. Rendition still occuring, Bagram and 16 bases in Iraq still filled with Iraqis with no trial or charges in site. Ramping up war in Afganistan is not a liberal or progressive view, but we are not calling Obama on it? Why not! If a republican were in power and doing these things wouldnt we be screaming. We cant afford to give anyone a free pass. They all must be questioned and we need specific answers.