Glenn Beck, Your Summer of Rage is Here
To dismiss Whitestock as "more religious than political" is to forget that for Glenn Beck's audience, politics are never separate from religion. Interviews with his audience members confirm what I've said for a long time now: conservative orthodoxy has become a cult, and Glenn Beck is a cult leader. And no, I am not exaggerating. As marketing guru Patrick Hanlon puts it,
One of the things that helps great companies endure—aside from innovation and product—is culture. Companies that survive their founders have a community and a culture uniquely their own. If that culture is attractive, consumers are drawn to them like iron filings to a magneto. The act of creating such enduring culture is one of the key responsibilities of leadership. (Emphasis mine)
Beck is not merely self-promoting, but rebranding right wing Judeo-Christian identity politics. In his book Primal Branding, Hanlon identifies seven elements of the successful brand: (1) a creation story, (2) a creed, (3) rituals, (4) icons, (5) sacred words, (6) non-believers, and (7) a leader who overcomes opposition. All seven elements were present last Saturday, and they were all aimed squarely at the demographic for which Beck and Goldline aim: willfully ignorant white evangelicals. Sarah Palin drew the charismatics, the rabbi and the Indian chief invoked the Book of Mormon, and Alveda King was a sop to African-American prosperity gopel. The substitution of faith for fact was complete when the Reverend C.L. Jackson called Beck "a son of God." This was Beck's attempt at covering his racism with religion; but it only works on the kind of suckers who buy bus tickets to a revivial.
Moreover, Whitestock came amid a new "silly season" of right-wing Islamophobia afflicting the country like a bad flu. There was no imam among the token interfaith chaplaincy praising Beck; this was deliberate, as Islam has been turned into the new monolith of evil for the right to invoke McCarthy-style. Understanding this structure of the new right is the first step to unmaking it.
And remember, aim right.
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Diabolus est Deus Inversus
but the light switch is hilarious.
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Diabolus est Deus Inversus
While the other stations are reporting on the hostage story being over, seems fox didn't want to interupt Beck's show as Beck was talking about buying gold as insurance.
Beck is trying, with his shindig, to stablize his base and give all of them a little assurance that what he talks about is real. To me, it's real scary.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
it just tells you what to think ABOUT.
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Next on Discover:
The Hostage Taker's Autopsy
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Were there representatives of any non judeo-christian faiths at Whitestock?
I'm not sure you can describe Glenn Beck as a Christian in any sense of the word.
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I'm not sure you can describe Beck as any sort of nice person. I'm sure not religious but I did attend Sunday school as a little kid and none of the things Beck teaches sounds like anything I learned back then about Jesus. Beck's theory is you are on your own and don't expect anything from anyone else. I don't remember Jesus teaching such things.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
that his theology is a bizarre, half-baked amalgam of Ayn Rand, prosperity gospel, and Cleon Skousen.
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You know, I've tried to watch a lot of Beck's shows just to see what he talks about. I consider myself a fairly smart person but most of the time I cannot follow him through a string of thoughts. How his followers do it is beyond me. Sure there is one dog whistle after another but there is no logic. I'm not sure his folks are smart enough to connect any dots or whisltes. Because he basically uses the same words every day it appears he does more brainwashing than anything else.
I'm pretty sure if he told his audience to drink a powdery drink because it was best for them, they just might do it
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
His audience is clueless, but they pick up the cues he wants them to get: black president evil, new black panthers everywhere, be afraid!
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Be afraid of the black anyone and turn to me because I will tell you how to defend yourself from the evil changes that are coming that only I can see.
He is telling them they are helpless without him to show the way. How many other crazy people have gotten followers in nearly the same way.
When people feel alone, down and out and helpless they will turn to anyone who offers them acknowledgment, acceptance and relief. That's how cults snare their members. That's how gang's snare their members too.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Goldline shipping labels Beck will send you a magic decoder ring. If you really feel you need one.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
the messages would all amount to "be sure to drink your Kool-Aid"
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(87,000---he said HALF A MILLION!)--people that dim in one place last weekend was the more frightening aspect. Good thing he had it in the daytime--I'll bet there wasn't enough brain wattage there to power a large flashlight.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
I've been saying they have become a cult since at least '04, maybe '03. Saw the problem they were having with Iraq doing terrible, but 'conservative orthodoxy' was that only evil liburuls would say anything bad about the war. Their cult was getting away from them. What does a cult leader do when the followers are determined to run straight off a cliff, and any suggestion to do otherwise is heracy?
Just like today they are nurturing the Tea Baggers for political gain, but what happens when these semi-organized nutcases turn on them?
We've got reports coming in from all over about GOP and tea party candidates not supporting each other after the primary. Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe have framed their abomination as a hostile takeover of the party. The paradigm for all this was set when Hoffman won the nomination for NY-23 and the establishment Republican endorsed his Democratic opponent.
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But wasn't Armey the backbone of the tea party crowd? How is he going to turn on them when he doesn't need them any more? This should be interesting and it could be ugly.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
He won't turn on the tea party unless it proves unsuccessful in which case you'll see it rebranded as something else almost immediately.
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that the tea party organism is a chordate. It's more amoebic I think, with a touch of dysentery.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
to convince enough of the sheeple to vote come November for the republican candidate vs. fill-in your own slippery-slope doomsday scenario.
The repubs. also are counting on low voter turnout, which is more the fault of Obamination than it is the repubs. lies and obstructionism. You see, us liberals, knew all the time that the repubs. would lie, obstruct and deliberately worsen the lives of the people (after all the wealthy in this country own the corporations that run this nation and enslave the people), but we didn't count on Obama perpetuating every Bush policy, and a few that even Bush couldn't get past the American people.
Please don't make me defend my statement, as it is a fact that Obama kept most--I'd like to say all, but that would be unfair, given that I'm sure one of Bush's people refused to serve or was so smeared by slime had to leave public office--of Bush's foreign policy officials, who had any connection to war (Gates, Mullen, Petreaus, Eikenberry, Patterson, fer crissakes, Bush's FBI director is still in place, et al., and, btw, Leon was a patsy).
This is really a special time here in America...
Not just grainy old black & white film of the thirties or fifties...with crazies like huey long, or father coughlin...
our grandkids will be watching grainy colored presentations of when America almost went under...again..but pulled out, again, at the last minute.....at school.
This is mean......( Lord, I apologize....)
I turned on the t.v. last saturday hoping to catch what condition beck was in at the hospital....
Beck inspires my worst impulses, too. But I don't want him dead; I just want him to GO AWAY.
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Dead would be fine with me.
Beck the CON-servative has only a dream to continue getting paid to successfully deliver propaganda to the right over the cliff minds who are willing to drink his koolaid.
What does the fact that a commentator, for a decidedly biased cable station that sells propaganda in news format, can steal the attention of people who don't want truth,they just want to believe the racism and divisiveness that Beck markets -- in order to maintain his celebrity status -- because it justifies who they are, say about where this country is when it comes to race and white privilege. Do not get it twisted, Beck is absolutely achieving the effect he intended: an "in your face" message, brought to us by his cohort Palin and folks will show up to be a part of it. I saw a video with interviews of some of the participants and it was stunning how they could not clearly articulate why they were there. When asked about Beck's "the President is a racist" comment, they refused to believe he said it...when he clearly said it.
E. Joyce
therefore he isn't racist. See how that works?
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That's because the night that Beck said it, they couldn't hear it on their TV because Jethro and Elly Mae weren't holding the rabbit ears in the right position.
and I like the way you say it. I'm just going to have to get used to turning down the volume before I hit the play button on your video links.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
but I am a metalhead.
\nn/_ (> <) _\nn/
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but now I'm forced to conserve such hearing spectrum as I have left. Heil Zeppelin!
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Though not as original as Pink Floyd, Zeppelin rocks. My fiancée just had the symbols tattooed on her shoulder; she wasn't even alive when they were recording. That's rock-god stuff right there.
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I prefer the term "voluntarily retarded".
Beck told three lies (at least) last Saturday in his "restoring honor" speech.
One came from one of his books where he changed Jefferson's words (to ones Beck could understand).
One came from his tall tale about the Wash. Monument. It could have been an honest mistake, but Beck never admits his mistakes.
The last one was the whopper. Beck said, "Our sacred honor. It means that you tell the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth," and then claimed to have held Washington's address in his hands.
Do he think his critics are that stupid? He knows his followers will believe anything he says, but how can he be so stupid in a speech about honor and truth to tell such a bald-faced lie?
The post outlining these claims can be seen by clicking on my name, above.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
For more on Beck, see:
http://www.sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/201...
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
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