While many have been incensed by the latest Coughlin-esque stylings of Glenn Beck in his bid to go after George Soros, the vast majority feel the protections of free speech are sacrosanct and that Beck's broadcasts fall short of the de jure restrictions that have been placed on it.
It is my contention, that Glenn Beck, as a FOX News host, has not only violated tenets of free speech such as defamation through slander of individuals (the President of the United States, George Soros, Jim Wallis, Rachel Maddow, Maurice Strong), he has engaged in speech with the intent to incite violations of the law and fomented an atmosphere in which those violations were both imminent and likely.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The ability of citizens and the press to voice their thoughts, even objections to the government, is one of the hallmarks of freedom enjoyed in America granted to us by the First Amendment of the Constitution.
Speech is allowed in this country that many, many people find distasteful or even outright hateful.
Yet there is a line; a moral, ethical, and, yes, legal line where one's right to speak is abrogated for the good of society.
The Supreme Court has ruled that some forms of speech are not protected at all. Others only enjoy limited protections.
Obscenity, as judged by community standards per the three-prong Miller test, commercial speech such as cigarette ads, defamation by either libel or slander, child pornography, and speech that is harmful to children all face de jure restriction. Even more stringent restrictions are placed on members of the military and other government employees as well as radio and tv broadcasters.
One of the most notable restrictions on speech in this country is speech that incites or produces imminent lawless action.
Everyone is familiar with Justice Homes' opinion in Schenck v. United States.
The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire
in a theater and causing a panic.... The question in every case is whether the words used ...
create a clear and present danger.
Many decades and court decisions down the road have led us from the "clear and present danger" test to one of "imminent lawless action."
This is a harder burden to prove than its predecessor because under the law the speaker must intend to incite a violation of law that is both imminent and likely to occur.
That is as it should be. It should not be easy for a government to take away their right for a particular type of speech nor its subject matter.
That said, when it can be shown that someone's past speech has, in fact, influenced lawless behavior, that someone's speech echoes that which has historically been used to foment pogroms and genocide, encourages violent overthrow of the government, embraces bigots and promotes their works, and knowingly spreads false information with the intent to incite, all bets are off.
On July 18th of this year, Byron Williams opened fire on ten California Highway patrol officers who had pulled him over for erratic driving. He had three guns and plenty of ammunition including armor-piercing bullets for his .308 caliber rifle. He was also wearing ballistic body armor. Williams was forced to surrender but only after two of the officers were injured by flying debris.
A police investigator's affidavit says Williams "stated that his intention was to start a revolution by traveling to San Francisco and killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU."
A sizeable portion of the American people had never even heard of the Tides Foundation. Yet the non profit organization, which promotes "economic justice, robust democratic processes, and the opportunity to live in a healthy and sustainable environment where human rights are preserved and protected" was a frequent object of vilification on The Glenn Beck Program along with ACORN, SEIU, the ACLU, and the Apollo Alliance.
A short video the Tides Foundation made called The Story of Stuff which addresses sustainable production and consumption got him rolling on what he views as a left wing conspiracy to indocrinate our children with the horrors of socialism.
According to Media Matters, Mr. Beck made negative comments about the Tides Foundation 29 times between January 19, 2009 - when his show premiered - to the July 18, 2010 shootout. During that same time frame there was no mention of the foundation by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, or PBS.
The week before Bryan Williams loaded his guns and his rage and got in his car to get his "revolution" on, Mr. Beck once again lodged conspiracy theory laden accusations against Tides.
Beck has made frequent claims about the foundation, alleging it is one of a number of "front groups" through which George Soros funds radical activities designed to destabilize the U.S. economy, steal elections, indoctrinate our children, and destroy capitalism in a bid for a one world Marxist government.
On July 13, Beck said:
Well, they have the education system. They have the media. They have the capitalist system. What do you think the Tides Foundation was? They infiltrate and they saw under Ronald Reagan that capitalists were not for all of this nonsense, so they infiltrated. Now, they are using failing capitalism to destroy it.
On July 14, Beck said:
You believe that America is the last best hope for the free world. Boy, was I a moron for believing that. Nope, there are a lot of people that believe that we are the oppressor. This man (Soros) states it. He states in this book 'The purpose is to create mass organizations to seize power.' Wow! That almost sounds like the Tides Foundation.
Of course, Glenn Beck was not Byron Williams' only influence. Alex Jones and Michael Savage were also high on his preferred listening list. But Glenn Beck had been pushing the Tides Foundation as part of an evil conspiracy of liberal groups fronting for George Soros for months leading up to the shooting. Williams states:
I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn’t for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed, that blew my mind. I said, 'Well, nobody does this.' Beck will never say anything about a conspiracy, will never advocate violence. He’ll never do anything of this nature. But he’ll give you every ounce of evidence that you could possibly need. Go look at all the stuff that you’ll find. I would suggest you go back and see, try to find the videos about—all the June videos. - related by John Hamilton in an interview by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!
You know, I’ll tell you. Beck is going to deny everything about violent approach, deny everything about conspiracies, but he’ll give you every reason to believe in it. He is protecting himself, and you can’t blame him for that. So, I understand what he’s doing. ibid
While one could argue that Mr. Beck never explicitly calls for violence, merely gives a wink and a nod to it's 'inevitability', it seems almost impossible to ignore the imminent likelihood of violence that speech peppered with such violent imagery as, "Drive a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers." from someone who states, “’Til the day I die, I’m going to be a progressive hunter.” [link to Tides Foundation letter to FOX advertisers]
The likelihood is enhanced by the fact that the Williams shooting was neither the first nor the worst violent episode that included influences by Mr. Beck's hate speech, ahistorical analogies, and conspiracy theory sympathies.
On April 4, 2009, Richard Poplawski opened fire with an AK-47 on Pittsburgh police, killing three and seriously wounding two, after his mother had placed a 911 call for assistance in removing him from her home. A white supremacist, his racism and anti-Semitism were exacerbated by the outright lies and innocently couched postulations of doom of Glenn Beck.
Will Bunch, a contributing editor at Media Matters, interviewed Poplawski's best friend while researching a book and relates this:
'Rich, like myself, loved Glenn Beck,' Poplawski's best friend Eddie Perkovic told me during a long interview in his narrow rowhouse on the steep hill running down to the Allegheny ... Perkovic and his mom -- who also had a close relationship with the accused cop-killer, still awaiting trial -- told me that for months Poplawski had been obsessed with an idea -- frequently discussed by Beck, including in ads for his sponsor Food Insurance -- of the need to stockpile food and even toilet paper for a societal breakdown. Poplawski was also convinced that paper money would become worthless -- another claim given credence by the Fox News Channel host, particularly in close connection with his frequent shilling for the now-under-investigation gold-coin peddler Goldline International.
And there was another idea that not only worried Poplawski but which Perkovic and his mom still swore by in January 2010 -- despite widespread debunkings in the mainstream media -- that the government had established a gulag of what Perkovic called 'Guantanamo camps' here in the United States, for the purpose of arresting and detaining law-abiding Americans.
Appearing on Fox & Friends March 3, 2009, Beck had stated,
We are a country that is headed towards socialism, totalitarianism, beyond your wildest dreams. I have to tell you: I’m doing a story tonight that I wanted to debunk – these FEMA camps – I’m tired of hearing about them – you know about them? - I wanted to debunk them. We’ve now for several days done research on them. I can’t debunk them! If you trust our government, it’s fine. If you have any kind of fear that we might be heading towards a totalitarian state: look out. Buckle up. There’s something going on in our country … that ain’t good.
Poplawski, a member of the neo Nazi website, Stormfront, posted a video clip from Mr. Beck's show with guest Ron Paul on their message board.
"He backed out," wrote Poplawski next to the embedded clip, apparently upset that Beck was backing down on the existence of the so-called "FEMA Camps."
Glenn Beck's reaction to the Pittsburgh shootings?
Blaming TV or radio hosts for the nutjob who killed three Pittsburgh police officers over the weekend is like blaming a flight attendant after a terrorist takes down a plane. In other words: Giving passengers a safety talk to prepare them for a worst-case scenario doesn't mean you are responsible should a terrorist make that worst-case scenario happen. One person is providing important information. The other is a nutjob who would've acted no matter what.
One could almost buy that if there wasn't such a clear record that what Glenn Beck is providing is anything but "important information." His show is an olio of delusional conspiracies, distortions of record, and outright lies.
On October 25th of this year, Glenn Beck highlighted Kathy Tate-Bradish from the League of Women Voters for an incident involving the Pledge of Allegiance at a candidates debate in Grayslake, IL. Audience members had become incensed by the omission of the pledge from the schedule (which had been agreed upon by the candidates).
After devoting the bulk of that night's show to Ms. Tate-Bradish, death threats were issued against both her and League of Women Voters Illinois Executive Director Jan Czarnik from various right wing web sites. "Malicious messages" also appeared on Glenn Beck's FaceBook page and his website, The Blaze. The Chicago office of the League had to be closed for several days and complaints were filed with the police and the Evanston FBI. [source 1] [source 2]
Which brings us to the latest round in Glenn Beck's diatribe against George Soros.
Mr. Soros has long been a target of Mr. Beck. Portraying him as a Nazi collaborator and Goldstein-like boogeyman, he weaves a conspiracy theory around him involving every progressive organization the man has ever remotely been involved with. He claims that Soros is the instigator of the economic crisis and that he has used liberal organizations to set his "five-step plan" for overthrowing the U.S. government in motion.
The first one is form a shadow government using humanitarian aid as cover. This is what he just said. It's kind of funny. It's kind of fun. The first step he said is subversive activities. OK?
Step two: control the airwaves. Fund existing radio and TV outlets and take control over them or start your own outlets. Remember: take control of existing or start your own.
Step three: destabilize the state, weaken the government and build an anti-government kind of feeling in this country. You exploit an economic crisis or take advantage of existing crisis — pressure from the top and the bottom. This will allow you to weaken the government and build anti- government public sentiment.
Step four: you provoke an election crisis. You wait for an election. And during the election, you cry voter fraud.
Step five: take power. You stage massive demonstrations, civil disobedience, sit-ins, general strike, you encourage activism. You promote voter fraud and tell followers what to do through your radio and television stations. - Glenn Beck's Ass
He frequently describes him, although in a much more nuanced fashion than either historic or modern day anti-Semitic boilerplate, as the body of the octopus to which all tentacles of everything "anti-American" lead. Mr. Beck's method links conspiracy theories on a chalkboard.
Such imagery has been used by everyone
from the NRA in a pointed attack against Michael Bloomberg to internet hate groups, many of whom openly laud Glenn Beck's delusional rantings.
One such site, 800 Pound Gorilla: It is Finally Time... to deal with the jewish [sic] question proclaimed, "Six Jewish companies own 96% of the world media" with an article from the Pak Alert Press and accompanied by this image.
An anti-Islamic website that feels the "truth" of "SOG" should
replace the too-blatant-to-be-taken-seriously anti-semitism of "ZOG" conspiracists like the
Jeff Rense, David Icke, and Mike Rivero afficianados. The omdurman.org site echos Glenn Beck's Sorosophobia almost verbatim, using this image to illustrate their beliefs.
(They also use the oh-so-clever acronym "TPB" for Typical Palestinian Behavior).
On another site (honestmediatoday.com) echoing almost every trope, whether oblique or direct, on Glenn Beck's show, a lovely image appears with an article called, The Useful Idiots for Big Jewry.
The Useful Idiots For Big Jewry
By Patrick Grimm
The pathologizing of white people and white people’s culture by the alien media and entertainment apparatus continues on a relentless and unstoppable path of degradation. The Jewish controllers of the United States let no opportunity pass to take cheap potshots at anything European or European-American. But this is hardly remarkable.
What is remarkable is the fact that the Jews who make up the boosters of Big Jewry have so many “useful idiots” to do their dirty work for them, while these particular Jews continue on with the greasy business of buying up everything but the kitchen sink in this country, starting with the media. Indeed, the Jews have stolen everything not bolted down. Why should they soil their pristine hands, hands that are much too “chosen” to ever end up with grease under their fingernails? They don’t do the wet work of warfare, whether it is in Iraq or simply the rough-and-tumble of a political squabble.
This is the kind of bigoted, irrational hatred to which Glenn Beck gives succor.
Well, you complete me, George. I'm willing to put my life at stake and so are many people in America. It's what you believe in.
But what is it that he believes in? He has tens of billions of dollars all flowing in, pulling strings. His tentacles are everywhere. - Glenn Beck
Note Mr. Beck's use of a Nasferatu like impersonation of Mr. Soros.
The use of vampire imagery has a long and sordid history in anti-Semitic propaganda.
Much has been written about Bram Stoker's portrayal of Dracula using typical 19th century anti-Semitic themes and the preponderance of vampire stories continued those themes.
Drinking blood, hording gold, aversion to Christian symbols, able to manipulate their victims in mysterious ways, references to them as the "menace from the east", and the use of the sun, deadly to the fictional vampire and feared by them as both a physical and spiritual nemesis, as a metaphor for Christian enlightenment became a ready-made image for agitprop ever since.
Ignorant, lured by gold,
They stand disgraced in Judah’s fold.
Souls poisoned, blood infected,
Disaster broods in their wombs.
Poster for German made film released in France
in conjunction with
The Eternal Jew.
While imitating Soros' Hungarian accent, Mr. Beck speaks words the man has never uttered, painting him as the nefarious, alien, duplicitous, bloodsucking vampire Jew of Nuremberg infamy. A good versus evil Passion Play gets spoonfed to people who have already proven they are willing to martyr themselves for The Cause.™
'They should all work through me, you see. If it all goes through me, then all my spookiness and evilness can come to full throttle.' Did I say that out loud?
In his 3 part "exposé" on Soros, Mr. Beck entitled the
series Der Drahtzieher The Puppet Master?
As alluded in my above cross out, the image of the Jew as the dastardly puppeteer, the wire-puller as depicted by the Nazi's, is another well known anti-Semitic trope.
In Henry Ford's The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem, he refers to "Jew wires directing "Tammany's gentile puppets."
However, the Jews made their cyclically recurrent mistakes: they carried things with too high a
hand, and rebellion broke out. It is this Jewish tendency to boast and overdo that has always given the game away. Superficial observers and writers like John Spargo and Norman Hapgood have observed the recurrent periods of protest against Jewish presumption and bumptiousness and have explained them as being recurrent spasms of a vile poison which is supposed to reside in the blood of the Gentiles -- the vile poison of anti-Semitism. That, of course, is the conventional Jewish propagandist explanation, and Spargo and Hapgood are merely retailing it. They say it always breaks out after wars. Why after wars? Because in wars the world sees more clearly than at other times the real purpose and personality of the Jew. Thus, it is not anti-Semitism that breaks out -- it is Semitism, gross and exaggerated Semitism; and the serum that forms in the social body to encist and control the germ of Semitism comes in the form of public exposure and protest. That serum is working now -- the serum of publicity, and the Jewish program cannot endure it. Study the history of all things whatsoever into which Jews inject themselves, from summer resorts to empires, and you see the same cycle appearing. - Henry Ford, Chapter 54, The International Jew, the World's Foremost Problem and appearing in The Dearborn Independent, October 1, 1921
Using distorted quotations, unsupported conspiracy theories, and outright lies, Mr. Beck paints a disturbing picture of a powerful man- "spooky dude" - who is targeting America in his alleged bid for a "one world government" very similar to Ford's malevolent musings.
He used quotes from Soros' book Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve - published in 1995 - to contend that he set up a "shadow party" to interfere with the 2004 elections.
He claimed Soros is a fan of Marxist ideology and argues for "scrapping the free market," a complete distortion not even remotely connected to anything the man said in Beck's citation which actually included the line, had Mr. Beck quoted further, "private enterprise is better at wealth creation than the state."
(Above examples and more can be found at Media Matters.)
Beck has accused both President Obama and George Soros as staying in the shadows to foment a violent revolution, all based on an anarchist book called The Coming Insurrection, which has received rather mixed reviews from those on the left although its sales have spiked since Glenn Beck started using it as his own little Protocols to warn against the evils of, well, everything that's not like him.
One anarchist reviewer of the book cum manifesto put it thusly (read full review here):
There is something I like to call 'Daily-Mail-Land', in which 'political correctness' has gone mad, an Englishman’s castle has been squatted by gay asylum seekers in burqas claiming benefits from 'our' apparently 'generous' benefits system while, simultaneously, stealing 'our' jobs and all the while New Labour and their caviar quaffing and Champaign guzzling public sector workers have organised legions of dole scroungers to stealth-tax 'middle' England and ban them flying the 'racist' English flag. Suffice to say, any relation to reality is purely co-incidental.
The left has its own version of this: 'Situ-Autonomist-Land.' Here, we are always just moments from social revolution. The masses are not only alienated and exploited, they consciously know it and act on that knowledge. Workers are just dying to go on strike and if they don’t then it’s the union-bureaucrats holding them back. If they cross picket lines, it is because the Labour movement is too moderate and they are simply showing their contempt for safe reforms. Every development, no matter how apparently bad, is really (when looked closely enough) a good sign and an expression of proletarian consciousness. Again, reality is a passing acquaintance.
The Coming Insurrection is firmly part of that world. While I would like to think fellow workers crossing my picket lines was really an expression of their (unconscious) contempt for reformism, a more realistic assessment would suggest 30 years of ruling-class victories (neo-liberalism) have eroded even basic levels of class consciousness. While things are somewhat different in France, reading The Coming Insurrection on my way to work made me wonder at times whether it was an elaborate hoax or satire. One thing is true, it does not describe the world as I know it. While this may be a reflection on me, I doubt it. I’m not sure that many people would recognise the world it describes.
Yet Mr. Beck insists the book is a how-to book that communists, "masquerading as Democratic socialists" are using in their plans to overthrow the United States.
Echoing, again, Henry Ford's The International Jew in the chapter entitled, Jewish Copper Kings Reap Rich War-Profits, Beck describes an elaborate conspiracy wherein George Soros enriches himself through Brazil's Petrobras oil company. As he spins the tale, the Obama administration loaned Petrobras $2 billion for deep water exploration while placing a moratorium on our own. Just to enrich Soros.
This was long after FactCheck had already debunked the story which began in an email circulation.
Then he connects all this, "in an unrelated {wink, nudge} story", to the BP oil spill.
That type of insinuation is Mr. Beck's stock and trade which is bad enough; but he also peppers it with violent rhetoric and imagery, painting himself and/or his fans as victims of powerful forces.
According to Beck, Soros controls our media (does Rupert Murdoch know?), our elections, our financial institutions, and our future as a democracy. All of these are anti-Semitic dog whistles straight out of The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.
Apparently, Mr. Soros is also trying to get Mr. Beck killed.
Gasoline. Brazil.
Now why am I telling you about this? Have you heard of another word? Soros. George Soros.
[aside to camera] I do have a bulletproof car, George. I just want you to know.
George Soros.
I'm going to show you this tonight. I'm going to spend an hour on this. I want you to DVD, write down, take notes, look into this. We're going to be talking a little bit about this in the next few days.
This is... I like to call it the circle of life, as it is now understood in America.
Apparently, if some whackjob listens to George Soros or the Tides Foundation and harms Glenn Beck, the blood will be on his hands but if some whackjob shoots and kills police officers from listening to Beck then he is just the flight attendant.
He then implies the Obama administration wants to kill him. (Warning: This clip includes Beck discussing the hazards of bearing false witness. Put coffee down before viewing.)
ACORN was also trying to kill him and anyone else that might speak out against them because that's what voter registration organizations do, apparently, in Beck's fevered imagination.
But Glenn Beck's paranoid delusions about George Soros have a long and troubled record of anti-Semitism as their foundation.
He promoted the work of Nazi sympathizer Elizabeth Dilling on his radio show.
In The Octopus (there's that pesky cephalopod again), which she penned under the nom de plume, Rev. Frank Woodruff Johnson, she blamed all the world's ills on Jews.
She referred to President Eisenhower as "Ike the Kike" and dubbed President Kennedy's "New Frontier" as the "Jew Frontier."
He has also extolled the virtues of the anti-Semitic Secrets of the Federal Reserve, by 9-11 Truther and white nationalist Eustace Mullins on his FOX tv show.
Mullins also penned, Adolf Hitler: An Appreciation and The Biological Jew.
Beck had this to say about Soros:
Last night, we introduced you to the puppet master, billionaire financier George Soros, notorious for collapsing economies and regimes all around the world. He's known as the man who broke the bank of England. The Prime Minister of Malaysia called Soros an 'unscrupulous profiteer.' In Thailand, he was branded the 'economic war criminal.' They also said that he 'sucks the blood from people.'
Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, faced worldwide condemnation for his comments because he also had this to say:
When a person of Jewish origin does this kind of thing, the effect is the same as when as a Muslim carried out something akin to terrorism.
Remember the horrific events at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. in 2009?
Stephen Tyrone Jones, a guard at the museum, was shot and killed by a Holocaust denying neo-Nazi, James W. von Brunn.
Glenn Beck compared von Brunn to Thomas Jefferson. The fact that Beck had devoted whole shows to anti-Semitic/Fed conspiracy theories didn't mean he was "pot stirring." As Beck might tell it, that pot was already boiling furiously away because Jews in the Fed and Soros, et al were ruining the country.
The fact that Beck won't actually say that out loud doesn't mean he's not purposely dog whistling either.
David Barton (a fundamentalist activist who makes a living attacking separation of church and state), Glenn Beck's favorite (a)historian, has spoken to Christian Identity movement groups appearing alongside such white supremacist folk heros as "Bo" Gritz.
The Christian Identity movement, a racist and anti-Semitic theology adopted by Aryan Nations and various Klan groups is personified by Pastor Pete Peters. In the 1980's members of the white supremacist militia group, The Order, attended Peters' church. Pastor Peters and a parishioner, Colonel Jack Mohr, were grilled during an interview by radio personality, Alan Berg, about their anti-Semitic views and four months later, Berg was gunned down by members of The Order. Four members were indicted on federal charges but only two were convicted.
Referring to the Protocols as a "blue-print for world conquest", Peters states:
The truth concerning the Jewish push for their socialistic, communistic, antichrist, One-World government is difficult to get out since they control the media and use the hysterical smear label (and misnomer) of anti-Semitism when ever someone has the courage to shed light on their evil deeds. Plus, most (particularly ministers) cower for 'Fear of the Jew'.[sic]
Keith Olbermann took Beck to task back in July for this Mel Gibson-ish statement.
“Jesus conquered death. He wasn’t victimized. He chose to give his life. He did have a choice. If he was a victim and this theology was true then Jesus would have come back from the dead and made the Jews pay for what they did, that’s an abomination.”
Beck's attack on Soros in The Puppet Master? dredged up some of the most blatant classical anti-Semitism I have seen outside of StormFront.
Creepy medieval puppets hung from the ceiling on the set of the "Glenn Beck Program" -- a conquistador, a squire, a witch, and a bearded guy who looked like a cross between Santa Claus and the Fiddler on the Roof.
"Make no mistake, we are watching a show," Beck gravely told his audience. That much was obvious enough, but Beck did not mean his own television program. "You have to see who's behind the puppets," he continued, "Who is choosing the puppets and the players? Who's the puppetmaster? George Soros."
Welcome to the "Glenn Beck Program," where Jews are Nazis and those who exploit ancient anti-Semitic conspiracy narratives are friends of the Jews.
Beck himself said it best,
"There are a few working parts to a puppet show. There is the puppet master. Here. There is a stage. There's the audience. There are the strings to each puppet. And then there's the story. There is also why? Why is the story? Why is the show happening? What is the puppet master? What is his motivation? Is it for the money? Is it for entertainment? Is it personal gain? What is it?"/blockquote> - Michael Wolraich, CNN
He paints Soros as the "scary dude" who has "infiltrated churches" (!), brought down governments for financial gain (and America will be next!), pulls the strings on his Obama puppet, is a backstabbing "Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps." He makes allusions to death threats, intricate conspiracies involving "shadowy" organizations bent on destroying our way of life, references to Revolutionary War heroes and resurrecting the Black Robe Regiment who originally fomented revolution from the pulpit, referring to the Obama administration as the "Evil Empire" while depicting Obama as The Joker from Batman, saying things like, "grab a torch", "I fear a Reichstag moment", "armed insurrection" and the list goes on and on and on. [links here]
Mr. Beck's paranoid delusions about the downfall of America:
Progressivism is the cancer in America and it is eating our Constitution, and it was designed to eat the Constitution, to progress past the Constitution. - Glenn Beck at CPAC speech
plus his overwrought melodrama:
You know, we all have our inner demons. I, for one - I can't speak for you, but I'm on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show. - Glenn Beck, The Glenn Beck Program, Nov. 6, 2006
hyper-religiosity:
I'm only writing a few bullet points. And I am doing that so I don't get in the way of the spirit, in case he wants to talk...if you would just pray that I would be able to hear because sometimes -- sometimes he's screaming at me and I still can't hear it.' - Glenn Beck, on speaking at his 'Restoring Honor' rally in Washington, Aug. 26, 2010
'God is giving a plan I think to me that is not really a plan. ... The problem is that I think the plan that the Lord would have us follow is hard for people to understand. ... Because of my track record with you who have been here for a long time. Because of my track record with you, I beg of you to help me get this message out, and I beg of you to pray for clarity on my part. - Glenn Beck, The Glenn Beck Program, April 20, 2010
and outlandish conspiracy theories:
When you see the effects of what they're doing to the economy, remember these words: We will survive. No -- we'll do better than survive, we will thrive. As long as these people are not in control. They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered! - Glenn Beck, on FOX News, Nov. 3, 2009
Nobody is a Nazi at this point... progressives have all the seeds of Nazis... - Glenn Beck, The Glenn Beck Program, October 25, 2010
coupled with the apocolyptic ads he endorses for "survival seeds":
and his pimping of Goldline International (now under investigation):
is a call to arms no matter how many times he tries to deny it.
How is this not incitement? How is this not spoken solely with the very intent to create imminent and likely lawlessness? Does the fact it seems to have been instrumental in doing so in the past not predict the recurrence of such scenarios in the future? Does embracing the rhetoric of anti-Semitism, which has fanned the flames of incalculable tragedy, promoting the works of Nazi sympathizers and making common cause with hate peddlers mean that Mr. Beck and FOX(tensibly)News have actually crossed the free speech threshold?
Maybe Beck's repeated actions don't meet the burden of proof for such extreme action or maybe the Europeans' restrictions on such freedom have a distinct advantage over ours.
I know that after watching reams of tape of this guy and wading through sites that laud him and his ideas, I will never ever again say, "it can't happen here."
If the picture Beck used of Soros for the title shot of The Puppet Master? reminds you of anything...
Maybe it is this...