Most people are familiar with Glenn Beck's wild conspiracy theories, accusations of Marxism and ominous warnings of economic collapse and an oppressive one world government. And it begs an intriguing question - does he really believe what he is saying, or is he just an unscrupulous huckster?
THE YEARS OF BECKSTERMINATION
Beck may have tipped his hand in April 2007 with his comments about The Years of Extermination, a book by Saul Friedländer chronicling the details of Nazi tactics used during the Holocaust. Beck’s comments, which he shared on his radio show, provide a frightening insight into Beck’s interest in, and study of, mass manipulation techniques:
"I go on vacation for three days, and I decide to take my family away. And I'm there at the beach, and we're reading. And I take -- my wife takes some magazines and stuff, and we take the books for the kids, and I take The Years of Extermination. It's a new book. And I just -- 'cause it's, like, 800 billion pages thick. I'm just not going to have the time to read it. And I'm doing some research right now for some other thoughts that I have that are probably six months away from percolating.
And I'm reading this book trying to do some research. And what this book is, is how do you get people to kill people? How do you get -- not just Germany -- all of Europe to kill the Jews. To round them up and kill them. How do you do that? That's what this book is about. And it is a phenomenal..."
These remarks are disturbing. Barack Obama announced his run for the presidency on February 10, 2007. In April of 2007, Glenn Beck is, by his own report, on vacation with his family, trying to do some "research” about tactics the Nazis used to manipulate people. Why? How does this relate to his job as a talk show host, or is the study of Holocaust events just his hobby? Beck describes the book as "phenomenal." By late 2008, even before the inauguration, Beck was making plans to take the country back with his 9-12/tea party movement. The entire timeline is provocative.
Returning to Beck's April 30, 2007 comments on The Years of Extermination:
"... -- what was the first thing they did to get people to exterminate the Jews. Now, I'm not saying that anybody's going to -- you know Al Gore's not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization. The goal is global carbon tax. The goal is the United Nations running the world. That is the goal. Back in the 1930s, the goal was get rid of all of the Jews and have one global government."
"You got to have an enemy to fight. And when you have an enemy to fight, then you can unite the entire world behind you, and you seize power. That was Hitler's plan. His enemy: the Jew. Al Gore's enemy, the U.N.'s enemy: global warming."
So, I read this paragraph -- and I must have read it, like, five times because I just kept going, "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh." And I think I'm in a unique situation because I've heard from so many people, you've heard from so many people calling in and saying these things on the show.
Here's how they did it. First thing they did was they found a group of scientists that believed in eugenics, which basically is, "Breed your way to better people! Eugenics! Get rid of the defects, get rid of the races that aren't so strong. Breed a master race." For as insane, as insidious, and as out-and-out evil as it sounds today, believe it or not, in the 1920s and 1930s, that was cutting-edge science. And they said, "That is the answer. We can breed a master race." That's were the master race comes from: science and scientists. It was called eugenics.
So, Hitler took the master-race idea and eugenics -- an accepted, mainstream scientific belief -- and he got all the biggest scientists to come out and say, "This is it. This is the answer. It's the damn Jews. We get rid of the Jew bloodline, and we're fixed."
Now, how did you convince all of Europe to do it? You needed to have fear. You needed to have the fear of starvation. You needed to have the fear of the whole place going to hell in a handbasket. Which -- do we have that fear now with global warming? I mean, they're telling us things in Al Gore's global warming special that are not true, that the seas will rise 20 feet. Even the U.N. says that's not true. So you got to have the fear, we're all going to die.
Then you get the scientists -- eugenics. You get the scientists -- global warming. Then you have to discredit the scientists that say, "That's not right." And you must silence all dissenting voices. That's what Hitler did. That's what Al Gore, the U.N., and everybody on this global warming bandwagon -- all the way to RFK Junior, who has called me a fascist for doing it -- all the way over to the global warming special that happened over in London a couple of weeks ago that is fantastic.
It is supreme irony that Beck whines about being called a fascist when he is in the process of comparing Al Gore to Nazis.
They are now trying to -- are they suing or have they moved up to the arrest part yet, Stu [executive producer and head writer Steve Burguiere]? Where they are trying to punish the people for putting another view point out there -- on global warming. Then, the last step was to bring it into the schools. But here's the part that I read over and over again -- they didn't bring eugenics into the science classes. They brought it into the science class, but then they also brought it into the math class. They brought it into the literature class. They brought it into the history class. They brought it into P.E. They brought it into every single class. "This dirty Jew is trying to overcharge these Germans. How much of a profit will the Jew make by swindling money out of the Germans?" That -- those were actual problems that were introduced in math class.
In yet another demonstration of Beck’s reprehensible lack of decency, he compares abhorrent Nazi fear-mongering about Jews with climate change awareness advocacy. To call that a stretch would be an understatement. To call it absurd and offensive would be more accurate. It is an ugly, false equivalence. But it makes clear Beck has his theory, his battle plan, and he's doing his damnedest to try to shoehorn his targets into it - no matter how poor the fit. And you have to get him credit. To touch on nearly every point on his nasty little checklist (the evil UN, eugenics, school indoctrination, one global government, etc.) in such a relatively brief attack involving such disparate subjects (the Holocaust and climate change advocacy), it’s quite an achievement in efficiency and creativity. The man has skillz.
Let's examine this a little more. Beck makes the points:
- You need to have an enemy.
- You need to have fear. Fear that the whole place is going the hell in a handbasket.
- Punish other viewpoints.
- Bring it into the schools.
Isn't this exactly what Beck has been doing?
- Enemy: Progressives. Check.
- Fear. Racist President Obama and his revolutionary radical Marxist progressives are set on fundamentally transforming (destroying) America, collapsing the economy, spending us into oblivion, taking away your guns, redistributing your wealth, perverting your religion and instituting a repressive socialist one world government. Revolutionary Holocaust probably right around the corner. Check.
- Punish other viewpoints - especially those who challenge or criticize Beck. Jim Wallis is a Marxist. Anita Dunn is a Mao-lover. Van Jones is a Communist. Anthony Weiner is McCarthy. Hillary Clinton is a stereotypical bitch. Gloria Steinam is also a man-hating socialist bitch. Megan McCain is a useful idiot. Mary Landrieu is hookin' but not cheap. Nick Berg's father is a scumbag. All according to Beck. Punish with ad hominem, bullying attacks to get people to sit down and shut up. Check.
- Bring it to the schools. The schools are indoctrinating your children. Get your children out of public schools. (Beck can't bring it to the schools, so he exhorts his followers to home school their children, where he can have influence over what the parents are teaching them - bring it to the home schools.) Check.
Hell in a handbasket. Beck needs you to believe it.
Glenn Beck, June 28, 2006:
BECK: Everybody always thinks if you're in the press, you just -- you have to believe that the government is evil, don't you think? I think that's the first thing in Journalism 101 they teach you -- the government is evil and you must take them down at all costs. Or, how is it that they all have that attitude?
When are Beck's followers going to realize they are being played?
UPDATE: This diary does not accuse Beck of being a Nazi or of acting like a Nazi or of having Nazi plans - it only points out his shameful manipulative tactics.