GLENN BECK, BIGOT
One of the good things about Glenn Beck is that the numbers of people following him are dropping. To follow Glenn Beck, let alone to believe what he says, puts you in some pretty horrible company. Back before World War II, it was Catholic priest, Father Coughlin, using his national radio audience as a foil as he lauded the works and beliefs of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Henry Ford, in his Dearborn Independent newspaper, supported Hitler and the Nazis. There were others. We had media support for Joe McCarthy, the John Birch Society, evangelical preachers, etc. all supporting right-wing, fascist causes. Now we have FOX and Glenn Beck. It is the sickest of movements when an extreme right-wing philosophy like Nazism and fascism rear their ugly head in support of right-wing wars and right-wing corporations. They love to label social programs as socialism. Corporations are fearful of socialism, and that is why World War II was fought to preserve the right-wing war corporations under Hitler and Mussolini from the growing left-wing march of socialism. Out of the ashes of World War II emerged the compromise social democracies of western Europe, but not the U.S. Right-wing extremism never truly died in the U.S. And from time to time it re-appears. It is re-appearing now. Beck is a puppet/leader.
Is Beck a bigot? What a question. Of course! Is he a Nazi or fascism proponent? In today's version of it, yes he is. Since Nazism and fascism have bad reputations in the U.S., Beck and the extreme right-wingers today use those names to attack others. They love to use fear, bigotry, apocalyptic fortunetelling, etc. to work up a frenzy and blame liberals and left-wingers for everything ...and I mean everything.
Randomly, let's look at some quotes about Glenn Beck...
"[Headline] GLENN BECK PROMOTES VICIOUS ANTI-SEMITE ON RADIO SHOW by Menachem Rosensaft, founding chairman of the International Network of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
"Just when we thought that we had heard all the offensive, Nazi-related comments that could possibly be uttered, we are proven wrong with a vengeance.
"First we had Newt Gingrich's absurd pronouncemnt that the Obama administration's policies represent 'as great a threat to America as Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union once did.' Then Helen Thomas went into her rant about how the Jews should 'get the hell out of Palestine' and 'go home' to Poland and Germany, where Nazi Germany murdered millions of Jews. And now Tea Party movement hero and Fox News host Glenn Beck promotes a vicious anti-Semite and Nazi traveler on his radio show.
"Beck sang the praises of Elizabeth Dilling's 1936 book, 'The Red Network: A Who's Who' and 'Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots,' in which she declared that the 'problem of the large number of revolutionary Russian Jews in Germany doubtless contributed toward making Fascist Germany anti-Semitic.' 'Nazism,' Dilling wrote in the screed Beck is now heralding, 'has directed its attacks more against conspiring, revolutionary Communist Jews, than against nationalist German Jews aided Germany during the war.'
"Dilling's book Beck told his audience, was 'from people who were doing what we're doing now.' OK, at least we now know what Beck proports to be doing.
"Dilling, it should be noted, was an admirer of Adolf Hitler...
"Beck is not alone in praising the works of Elizabeth Dilling. Remember David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who served briefly as a Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, received over 43% in his 1990 race for the U.S. Senate seat from Louisiana and ran for the 1992 Republican presidential nomination? Dilling's book, 'The Plot Against Christianity,' is prominently featured on Duke's website, including assertions that the Bolshevik Revolution was 'heavily financed by outside Jewish financial and banking houses,' and that 'This Jewish control still exists, despite propaganda to the contrary, designed to delude and deceive non-Jews."
From http://seattlepi.com: "Anti-Defamation League: Glenn Beck - 'Bigoted ignorance' " ...
"The Anti-Defamation League is describing as 'bigoted ignorance' a commnetary by Glenn Beck in which he likened Reform Judaism to 'radicalized Islam.'
"Beck, on his radio program Tuesday, was defaming a frequent target --financier George Soros-- when the Mt. Vernon native took after a group of progressive rabbis who signed an anti-Beck newspaper ad.
"When you talk about rabbis, understand that most --most people who are not Jewish don't understand that there are Orthodox rabbis, and then there are the Reformed rabbis.
"Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It's almost like Islam [Beck speaking], radicalized islam in a way, to where it is just that radicalized islam is less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at Reform Judaism, it is more about politics."
"Beck quickly covered himself, adding that Reform Judaism and radicalized Islam are not 'the same,' and 'it's not about terror or anything else, it's about politics..."
"Glenn Beck's comparison of Reform Judaism to radical Islam demonstrates his bigoted ignorance. Despite his feeble attempt to suggest that he was not equating Reform Judaism with Islamic extremist terrorism, the simple fact that he would mention them in the same breadth is highly offensive and outrageous.
"To compare Reform Judaism, which supports democratic institutions, to Islamic extremism, which supports anti-democratic movements and repression of basic rights --including, for example, the denial of women's rights-- is beyond the pale.
From British Member of Parliament, Tom Watson to Glenn Beck...
"If Glenn Beck were here today I would say to him: 'Glenn Beck, you are a bigot. You bring shame to your country, not because you lack balance, but because you are an unthinking buffoon. Rupert Murdoch tolerates you because you are his useful idiot. He uses you to get a foothold in the doors of the powerful. Like his phone-hacking journalists and his pugnacious leader-writers in Australia, you are expendable. Let us hope he disposes of your nasty brand of intolerance sooner rather than later."
Let me close this way: "Prejudice is the reason of fools." -Voltaire
