Glenn Beck plots out our dystopian future, run by militias
By David Neiwert Saturday Feb 28, 2009 6:45amWhile I was on vacation last week, Glenn Beck wrapped up his regularly scheduled apocalyptic fearmongering with a Friday special that laid out the future as he fears it.
It's pretty much a Mel Gibson production, with lots of Road Warriors and other dystopian features.
The program opened with a warning that pretty much told us how crazy it was going to get:
Topics discussed on today's program may be disturbing to some viewers. The views expressed on this program are not predictions of what will happen, but what could happen. The panelists have been asked to think the unthinkable. Viewer discretion is advised.
Here's the future that Glenn foresees:
Our third scenario: Anger and discontent at home. The year is 2014. Many people are feeling disenfranchised. People are isolated from their political leaders -- they've been betrayed over and over and over again.
Internet connects like-minded people. And the 'Bubba Effect' arise in individual militias.
So then he brings on Gerald Celente, who has figured out how to turn what should be a sandwich-board prophecy business into a nice Fox talking-head gig:
Beck: Gerald, what happens to people when you start taxing like ...
Celente: Tax revolts. You heard it on CNBC yesterday.
Beck: But you're not talking about a tea party ...
Celente: Oh no, no. This going to be violent. People can't afford it anymore.
Look, the cities are going to look like Dog City. They're going to be uncontrollable. You're going to have gangs in control, motorcycle marauders. You're not going to have enough police and federales, just like Mexico, to control the situation.
I've been listening to Beck and O'Reilly and Hannity play out all kinds of future disaster scenarios for America under the Obama administration and am wondering if they've considered another scenario:
-- Obama turns out to be right. The stimulus plan works as advertised, America's economy gets rolling again, the global economy stabilizes, and everyone gets back on their feet again.
See, the main problem with this scenario is that gaming it out inevitably leads to the utter and complete repudiation of movement conservatives -- revealed irrevocably as the brain-damaged fools they are -- and the long-term ascension of liberal values. So I guess that's why they never game that one out.
What's especially noteworthy about this vision of America's future is that militias play such a prominent role. This may be due to the likelihood Glenn Beck largely shares their worldview. But it's also noteworthy because Beck is essentially promoting the concept.
Glenn Greenwald wrote a superb piece about this:
But now, only four weeks into the presidency of Barack Obama, they are back -- angrier and more chest-beating than ever. Actually, the mere threat of an Obama presidency was enough to revitalize them from their eight-year slumber, awaken them from their camouflaged, well-armed suburban caves. The disturbingly ugly atmosphere that marked virtually every Sarah Palin rally had its roots in this cultural resentment, which is why her fear-mongering cultural warnings about Obama's exotic, threatening otherness -- he's a Muslim-loving, Terrorist-embracing, Rev.-Wright-following Marxist: who is the real Barack Obama? -- resonated so stingingly with the rabid lynch mobs that cheered her on.
With Obama now actually in the Oval Office -- and a financial crisis in full force that is generating the exact type of widespread, intense anxiety that typically inflames these cultural resentments -- their mask is dropping, has dropped, and they've suddenly re-discovered their righteous "principles." The week-long CNBC Revolt of the Traders led by McCain voter Rick Santelli and the fledgling little Tea Party movement promoted by the Michelle Malkins of the world are obvious outgrowths of this 1990s mentality, now fortified by the most powerful fuel: deep economic fear. But as feisty and fire-breathing as those outbursts are, nothing can match -- for pure, illustrative derangement -- the discussion below from Glenn Beck's new Fox show this week, in which he and an array of ex-military and CIA guests ponder (and plot and plan) "war games" for the coming Civil War against Obama-led tyranny. It really has to be seen to be believed.
These people are not just "predicting" this kind of future. They actually are hoping it comes about. That's both creepy and scary.
Login or Register to post comments.
made up of words you can neither spend nor eat. Does this qualify as a serious disconnect?
i haven't seen a moment of fox news in years, but, damn, beck makes it sound so interesting, in a totally bereft from reality sense, that i may have to tune in to his show. could be he's the philip dick of the new millenium. some sort of dick, anyway.
why are some drugs illegal. They are illegal because they have the capacity to take you briefly outside the envelope of illusion that covers the world.
The envelope of confusion that besets many people. As chrome says I haven't watched faux in years upon years but this sounds like the excruciating pain of waiting for that chopper and those assless chaps to wear and most savory of all the boy to ride on the back of said chopper is the drive for these militia fantasies. Either that or all the free agent children roaming the borders.
on Beck. Maybe he'll dissolve.
.
Tax revolt? Considering the tax increases would be on people making more than a quater mil, that is some revolt I'd have to see. Oh no, the Hamptons are in flames, people are telling their chauffeur to break windows.
fear card, which can be milked to high advantage in today’s cultures. It assists in plugging the attention into the material aspects of this world and that’s good for business.
What's wrong with a tax revolt?
Great nations are formed from them. At least they used to be great nations.
Now they are murderous empires that kill millions.
What is wrong with a tax revolt?
It depends entirely on who is being taxed and thus revolting.
Hedge Fund managers who were paying Capital Gains tax (15%) will now be paying a more appropriate income tax rate (39%). As will the Fat Cats, if the proposals become law.
The Fat Cats will complain.
Fearmongering. Road Warriors.LOL
Yeah, I can just see it now. The Rose parade with grenades instead of roses.
if they could have stolen this election too.
drink to much. They drink to get free but do not consider what it is that they are setting free. Well, when you don’t know who you are to begin with, it can often be a surprise to see who shows up.
to remove the polititions [sic]....lol
The dain bread revolt !!!
how fast these guys can pull a 180. Just a few months ago, democracy was the most important thing ever. Now that it disagrees with them, it must be violently overthrown.
Consider for a minute, their reaction had liberals 'war gamed' a violent overthrow of the Bush regime.
Boy, talk about calling the teapot black. David Niewert, the resident jewish contributor obviously can't shake Mel Gibson's "tell it like it is" interview about Hollywood movie industry's "movers & shakers".
He resorts to saying "Mel Gibson Production"...........David, Mel was just the star in the movie. Get it staight David.
Just like the Holocaust, Mel Gibson has to be brought up, time and time again..........."Lest We Forget" you know.
"Mel Gibson's "tell it like it is" interview about Hollywood movie industry's "movers & shakers"."
Which was such a pack of lies, bigotry and anti-Christian hatred that it's a wonder anyone wants to even be seen in his company anymore.
Dude, I ain't Jewish. I'm a (formerly) blond, blue-eyed Aryan from Idaho.
...........at that cost of the accusation, I wanted to see just how closely you follow the replys to your own comments. Prettu close I'd say to have answered it in 10 minutes at 7:45 a.m. I get out of people like yourself David................you have this ego the size of Idaho....well, Idaho x 2 and go around stirring the same crap as the other guys you criticize (I hate Beck too) and then get a humongous Viagara-like hard=on from following the comments from those who read it. EGO or what? Is that what it's all about. The more sensational it is, the more responses....the bigger the hard-on? You, O'Reilly, Hannity, Mark Ames, Limbaugh, Coulter............are all the same and America loses.
Methinks the lady doth protest TOO much.
Having read Neiwert for years, my sense is this:
He calmly documents anti-American irrational hatred. Ego has nothing to do with it. Someone needs to keep track of the rise of white-supremacists and I am glad David's doing it.
Your post here, is nothing but ego. And what's with your assumption that he's Jewish just because his name is David? Are all women named Sarah jews in your world?
You seem to have a problem with Jews, so it's no wonder you're acting like Gibson did nothing wrong...
And by the way, I think when he said, "Mel Gibson production," he didn't mean it AS "a film produced by Mel Gibson," but more like, "A film in which Mel Gibson is the thing people remember most about the movie."
Anyway, David did a pretty good job of rebutting you himself.
And how can you balme him for wanting to be in on the conversation his post generated? I don't see it as narcisisstic at all.
they cant cope they lost in a democratic election, thus they engaging masturbatory fantasies of how they can control their fear thru force.
I bet they imagine rush limpballs leading the charge and bursting in the oval office, shattering the doors into splinters with his jabba like bulk.
Seriously, this is mental illness... delusions of grandeur, paranoia, narcissism, anti social psychopathic behavior. glen beck would yell fire on an air plane if it meant he was Tv for one more second
What these fear mongers are illustrating is the they are the ones to be feared. They are the fringe wingnuttia who live in a delusional fantasyland.
Fear Glenn Beck. Fear Sean Hannity. Fear Rush Limbaugh. Fear any sicko republican who wishes failure on this country!
if these guys are not kept in check nasty things can happen.
Hitler and his gang are the prime example. At some point they'll just round everyone up and kill em.
They get the attention because they control the media.
If you fear these guys your playing into their game.
DON'T Fear them.
I Glenn Beck's happy future, where the lowest 1/3 IQ rule the day and they get to fulfill their fantasies of mass murdering unarmed women and children, where are they going to get their food from?
Seriously, once these 'Bubbas' start shooting everything in sight, as Rush Limbaugh has enouraged them to do for the last 20 years, the nation's shipping system will stop. Once the Wal-Mart super-store has no more Wonder Bread left, what are the 'Bubbas' going to eat?
These fantasies of mass murder that the Republican Party is trying to bring about never accounts for the lack of food. As if the nation will continue to operate without interruption after they finally go Nazi.
It is wholly indicative of the lack of education in America that they see themselves as patriotic citizens while they dream of a one-party state ruled by heavily armed gangs that gleefully murder children for fun.
Or is part of the Republican Party's fantasy include eating those children?
was genius in that respect, I watched it with my 4 boys and we all laughed until we cried
If there is one nut job who is willing to dance with crap on TV, then you can bet there are a number people out there who feel this way and will do something stupid in the future.
Probably not on the scale Beck is pumping but you can bet well see another mall Rampage or Columbine type scenario. Face it there are some grade a loose screws out there.
It's not too late for President Obama to start uttering these truths so that we can avoid a turn to fascism and get on with the real business of America's next phase of history. Whatever that may be.
Want to experience your lurid, paranoid dream world right now, Glenn? Move to Somalia. There is one condition. Don't move back. We don't need mentally ill hacks like you here that have a death wish on America.
Great response by Glenn Greenwald BTW. These paranoid right wing crazies are toxic waste in our political dialogue.
You know, to beat the Christmas rush.
is going to ban automatics and nasty ammo.
idiot.
you can't buy automatics unless you have a very restrictive license.
perhaps you are suggesting
SEMI AUTOMATICS????
you know, one trigger pull, one bullet.
Some folks ere to the back pit of the rePUG thought when it comes to their stainless sliders!
I cannot for the life of me understand why wingnuts insist that President Obama is a socialist or some Robin Hood when he plainly isn't.
The answer is there.
Choose your field you don't need college to acquire knowledge.
JP, reality and truth have no impact on the Republican Party and their minions in the new media. It makes no one whit of difference that Obama is actually a Right-Of Center Republican and hardly a Democrat, Liberal, Socialist at all.
The SOLE point of Fox News and the rest of the Mainstream Media is to push America further and further to the extreme right. Only when America is a single-party authoritarian dictatorship in which anyone that mildly disagrees with The Leader is shot down in the streets by gangs of deputized 'bubbas' will the Republican leadership be satisfied.
A large number of Republicans don't believe in any kind of future, I'm sure Beck will have a large audience for many years to come.
Most are living on a day to day basis at this point. Happy to just wake up.
I use to hear this stuff from a guy at my regular subway station.
I'm not sure if he actually wore a tin foil hat, but that's how I remember him.
Is it just me or are these guys actually inciting treason?
Isn't it obvious? Wake Up! Your correct!
Rightwinge congolomerate control of the media is a diasaster. Throw in nutjob talk radio, and then Faux News, and you have a propaganda machine intent on destruction by frightening a fringe of the American populace.
It is time to bring back the fairness doctrine and allow opposing viewpoints to be aired.
The Dixie Chicks didn't cower.
Good job Girls!
OMG, Dave.
ROTFLMAO
I knew what was up with Glen Beck when you mentioned *that* name.
The subject of Gerald Celente has come up before in places I frequent, so I looked at one of the his presentations on YouTube. Ye gods. By the time I got about 90 seconds into the thing, the needle on my bullshit meter had already wrapped itself around the right hand end stop. All my "charlatan" indicators went off as one.
Which isn't to say that I'm not scared shitless. But what I worry about is continuation of the current global depression over the next half decade or more. What Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb have outlined as possibilities worries me. The sort of "hollow state" John Robb expects worries me. The coup attempts we can expect if the wrong people decide it's worth trying worry me. We had one of those the last time we had a major depression, as I'm sure you know.
And guys like Glen Beck scare the hell out of me, because he's stoking the nutcases. That's where the next James Adkisson will come from. And the one after that. Etc.
We came awfully close to losing even the trappings of a Republic this last 8 years. I don't think it's healthy enough to survive the climate of fear a low-intensity decentralized insurgency will create.
I'd accidentally heard this simpering postule on radio before. He is definetly bent in some sense. I watched Beck for a few minutes yesterday. I'm an actor, and though I'm not gay, I have pretty food "Gaydar."
Ding, ding ding!!! The alarm sounded. I could easily be wrong.
I ask others out there, do you get that sense, too?
PS: Not that I could give two shit's. Many of my theatre friends are LGBT. But he's also against gay-rights, usually a telltale sign. I hate hypocrites!
my rapidly approaching flabby ass out of this chair and start getting in shape.
Have a pleasant day
if we don't wipe conservatism and the GOP off the map, we may end up in a nightmare worse than he predicts.
-Rachel Maddow
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWw9wYUwdJk ]
Seems to me Glenn has been listening to Alex Jones, allot of Mormons and Evanjellokills do I am sure. I asked a few of the military people from around my area if they would shoot american citizens, yes was the answer. If they have orders to do it, they are sent in a blind murderous raging destruction path to stop all that threatens the mother land.
I try to listen to Alex Jones, but I either get a virus from his stream, or I can't stand the similarity to military propaganda. Alex Jones people are about to rampage, I think.
Glenn seems to take cues from Alex. Glenn your a dick, and you look like that little worm child that was so quiet and sneaky. BAH
Alex Jones has nothing to do with Beck. Has Beck ever been on his show, or Jones on Beck's? In fact, Jones I believe has criticized Beck for his views and his shilling for the state/elite.
Beck is just lifting material from Jones and then hyper-inflating it.
...9/11 was an inside job by Obama and the truth behind Area 51, it was actually the Obama's who landed there.
why do poison the well with Obama crap and area-51 lunacy?
Funny stuff, gump! Pay no mind to the slow ones.
There is nothing wrong with your television.
Do not attempt to adjust the picture.
He is now in control of the transmission. He controls the horizontal and the vertical.
He can deluge you with a thousands channels, or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond.
He can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive.
For the next hour, he will control all that you see and hear.
What if you were to wake up to a different world tomorrow... a world of invaders? Would you raise your voice with the aliens, in a chant of remembrance and regret, bidding farewell to a vanished world? Or would you fight against those who might ultimately help us?"
If Obama's plan DOES work, and the economy gets going again, it's thanks to REPUBLICANS somehow.
After Bush senior was installed as President, the power behind the throne of Acting-President Reagan, and he utterly destroyed the manufacturing base of America, it was Clinton that got the economy going again. The Republicans all claimed that Clinton had nothing to do with it, that he was merely reaping the fruits of Bush's labor.
And in 2000, when Bush Jr was installed as Acting-President, the economy went into recession again, the GOP blamed Clinton, when it was really the market's reaction to facing another disastrous Republican administration.
Today we see Fox and the Far-right extremists on talk radio blaming Obama for the Bush Depression and claiming that they never, ever supported Bush even once...
The is so typical of the left. Get this right, a mojority of censervatives want Obama to suceed. Get it this is our country, if Obama goes down in flames we go with it. The prudent person always hopes and prays for the best while preparing for the worst. Planning is the most important part of surviving. I hope Beck turns out to be totally and completely wrong, but if he is right we will have been better prepared to deal with it because of his rants.
Well, I am glad to hear that!
See, the problem is that the crazies like Glenn Beck get all the attention and everyone makes the assumption that ALL Republican voters are just like him.
Please do not make the same assumptions, saying "so typical of the left" is EXACTLY the same thing as what you are complaining about.
It's the extreme right and their fringe groups that will do this, especially now that they have been marginalized by popular vote.
Haven't had time to read all the comments but tax revolts? For real? By whom? The fat cats on Wall Street? Remember that the only people who will get tax increases are people who make OVER $250,000. I don't think you are going to see many motorcycle gangs roaming around protecting Wall Street fat cats. Although they may be riding around LOOKING for Wall Street fat cats trying to find that people who are responsible for this nightmare. lol
The rich want Beck and others to set the meme of "tax revolt!", simple as that. Come on... most of America isn't even getting the message that 95% of them will get a tax DECREASE due to RW media controlling the message... with dumb-asses like Joe Wurtzelbacker and of course Beck leading the way.
These a-holes' talk about possible revolt, militias, gangs, civil war but what they don't seem to realize is during these types of conflict people die on both sides. They don't seem to understand that some people from the other side will be after their asses. Be careful what you wish for idiots.
Does this mean the hate militia will go after Steele and Jindal too?
Conservatives are stupid; and arrogant; and short-sighted. But...we have to remember, they are almost always cowards as well.
If there is a "tax revolt," who will be doing the revolting? Not the conservatives. They still have it good. Not as good as they would like, but they still have it good. The people leading the charge would be the poor who are fed up with their situation, in my opinion. So...who would the "revolters" go after? Are they going to go after the President? I doubt it because it's too risky. The President has the military and Secret Service at his disposal.
Nope, the front line of the revolt would be gated communities for the rich. They are an easier target to take frustrations out upon. And once that happens, the conservatives will come around and support the govt. quick, fast and in a hurry. I believe they would find a newfound sense of charity and beging throwing money at job programs, medical programs and assistance for the needy because it's the lesser of two evils, from their perspective.
This might create a couple of nervous years, but, I believe the ship would right itself.
Beck has never been right. Why now is he in tune? The dude is too hooked up to his comic books, booze and bad dope...Besides, doesn't he have the schedule for Jesus to appear too? What kind of idiot listens to this crap? Any revolt will be young against old. It is called the "minority wars", based on age not social groups. And the young win....there's more of em and their all nuts...join the band.
Country Joe
They have GOT to fire the guy - he's insane. And I am not using the word lightly.
I can't imagine the viewers - stupid as they are for Faux Noise -- will put up with that kind of garbage for long.
*
His ratings for that time slot are up 100%, thanks to the whack jobs that think he's Mr Right!
Mr. Beck could have 2 fans, which under a 100% growth spree turn into 4 viewers.
That number is hardly impressive, even after the 100% rating increase.
What are his actual audience numbers?
I can't find the original write-up I saw last week at Huff Post, that said specifically he was up 100% for his time slot, but I'm going to keep looking.
In the meantime, according to the Nielsen Ratings for Cable News for the time period 1/2/09-2/26/09, he was in 3rd place (behind O'Reilly and Hannity respectively) with the following numbers:
GLENN BECK
P2+ 2,173
A25-54 512
A18-34 130
A18-49 411
A35-64 894
(FYI: I have no idea what "P2+" means)
It's at the NY Times website, via Huff Post:
http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/26...
C'mon, he's just getting started on Faux News!
"Our third scenario: Anger and discontent at home. The year is" 2010. "Many people are feeling" resentful of the sky-is-falling scenarios that Glenn, Rush, Bill And Sean have been espousing for over a year, while the rest of the (sane) people in our country are trying to pull themselves up by their boot straps.. "People " that listen to the four yokels "are isolated from" reality and "their political leaders" who are working their hearts out to get us back on the road to prosperity.
But then, suddenly, one day the ditto-heads, etc, awaken to see that the country is indeed, getting better! They quickly come to the realization that "they've been betrayed over and over and over again" by the rants of their conservative pundits! "Internet connects like-minded people, and the 'Bubba Effect' arise in individual militias", who grab each other's hands, and head to the EIB and Fox Studios. Throwing down their gauntlets, one by one, they duck tape the mouths of their former gurus, throw open the windows and proudly proclaim: We're sick to death of hearing your voices and were not going to take it anymore!
We haven't seen nothing yet. In the next few weeks we will see the revolt in Congress too awful to imagine.
And when the bejesus is Franken going to be officially sworn in?
Look what I found.
A patriot, no shit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bggXQxhyo4s&vi...
is leaving the repuglyKKKans in control of the budget.
Everything they come up with has already been done. Like this:
"You're going to have gangs in control, motorcycle marauders."
This is from one of the Back to the Future movies. Gangs and motorcycle marauders.
Why can they NEVER think on their own? They just watch movies and steal what they need.
taverns, airports and public places across the country.. spreading this incitment.. yelling 'Fire' in a crowded theater is less dangerous.. we've just had the Floridian 'patriot' kill a couple of students from Chile..
At a minimum, I think it's up to each of us to use our influence to object broadcasting this poison in our public spaces..
WTF is wrong with ur country?
WTF is wrong with ur country?
Democracy, my friend. When everyone gets freedom of speech, eventually you're going to have all the insane idiots yelling at the same time. That's just how it works. With a little luck, the sane will take over again, and this will be history.
Until the next time.
at 3:35 Glenn wet his pants a little.
And we COULD be in imminent danger of being eaten by a giant mutant Star Goat.
So what's your fucking point already?
Now who's wearing the tin-foil hat?
Beck et al are usually so f*cking wrong on every assessment or prediction that they make. That it is my experience, that whatever they claim that is going to happen... the opposite becomes true.
This means, that instead of Beck's right wing dystopia... happy times are going to come here again!
If anything it is a cause to rejoice people!
Indeed. So, when Obama's leadership and foresight lead this beleaguered country out of its current sad shape I want the wingnuts to GET THE FUCK OUT of here!
Let's do a Little Terrorist Prevention!
I Vote we Lock up these Two Fucking Morons.
how is this any different from ultra left wingers who called for a revoultion when Bush was in power?
Both sides painted a future dominated by the opposing party as being on the path to fascism.
Both extreme fringes can only engage in fear mongering, rather than engage in rational dialogue.
This seems further proof to me that the extreme right and extreme left are two sides of the same deranged coin.
wasn't this all laid out before (and to the same purpose)
in "the turner diaries"?
that of course lead to the oklahoma city bombing by mcveigh and nichols.
the question is what will beck's broadcasts lead us to?
*
*
This is some of the most ridiculous stuff I have ever seen on FOX.
Beck is getting more delusional all the time.
FOX should change their tag line from "Fair & Balanced" to "completely unhinged". I mean really, this is not even funny any more. Lunatic Beck is telling all the disturbed bubbas out there to go to ground and lock and load. Wow!
army guy is totally impossible to follow.
The only thing disturbing to me is that some idiot thinks this is news and not more total Reslug insanity and stupidity.
and more fear. And from Fox News no less. Tyrants don't offer hope, ideas and solutions. They offer Fear.
Militias people by asshole who hang off his every waord and thinks the sun shines out his backside.
Our Dystopia = Beck's Utopia.
Login or Register to post comments.