I know he's widely reviled around here, but I really enjoy his show for a couple of reasons.

Of course there's the entertainment factor. He can go from zero to crazy in a matter of milliseconds. But if he was just all lunacy all the time, he'd be boring... he'd be Stephen Colbert. What I really love is he makes perfectly good sense so much of the time. And his reasonable discourse is what makes the crazy so great. Watching his show is like riding a rollercoaster; long, sane gradual climbs until all of a sudden the ground drops from under you and you're in crazy territory. And the sane bits provide good food for thought, and the crazy bits provide the entertainment.

The other facet that I really enjoy is his earnest good intentions. He recognizes that people are easily herded and manipulated, and so he spends a lot of effort trying to get his viewers to think for themselves. I don't think he's very effective at it... no matter how many times he says not to trust him, not to take his word for anything, most of his viewers probably swallow his ideology whole, or maybe temper it with the homogenized propaganda of the Fox News network. But regardless of the outcome in reality, I completely respect his intentions.

Anyone else on the Nexus who enjoys Glenn Beck?

for real?

The right wing does have satire too...

I never heard of him... just youtubed him, watch a few clips.

Well lets just say I'm not laughing WITH him.

Entropy...are you serious???

I used to watch Fox News Channel for entertainment purposes but it soon overwhelmed me and now I live in perpetual fear of their almighty power

Yeah thats crazy. Are you saying Colbert is a Lunatic or boring? As far as good intentions the only intentions Beck has is to herd and manipulate people into watching his show.

All nazi's should be shot in the head. Period.

Even though I find many of his comments laughable I definitely don't think he is funny. People take him seriously, he is irresponsible and dangerous. If he didn't have the following he does maybe I could just laugh him off..

This guy scares me..

I second that

I believe the man to be the greatest transgressive memetic artist* of our time.

* alt: Troll.

Actually, yeah. In the last couple of years libertarian ideology has been getting to him. He has become one of the few conservatives in favor of drug reform. Most people just give him a hard time because he is a right winger, but he is genuine and believes in the more practical aspects of conservatism, especially lately, now that he's questioning the war in the Middle East and the drug war, two issues that historically go against the values of the Republican party.

Glen Beck is not an evil man and has many level-headed things to say. However, I really hate how dismissive he is of others' opinions sometimes, rather than engaging in a rational debate.

There is no lesser of two evils. The idealists favor the Democrats, but the fact is that the Democrats will find a way to screw things up just as bad as the Republicans. Intentions don't make America a better place, results do.

This being a hardcore psychedelic drugs forum, I'd expect at least an intuitive grasp of basic dialectics.

Think of it this way: yes, Beck is undoubtedly a despicable, hate-mongering, beady-eyed malefactor dragging America ever further into the gutter... wait no, O'Reilly dragged it into the gutter... into the drain of cultural rot. But we must suffer his presence all the same, and love him for it.

It's the old time-travelling-Hitler-assassin's dilemma: a well-placed bullet into the fuhrer's brainpan circa 1939 would certainly have saved a few lives in our grandparent's generation, but it would have deprived us of the lessons of the war and we'd still have to hash through all that horror at some point later on. This is what is meant by "love thine enemy". The thing you hate is the thing that shows you where your mind is stuck, where you still have some work to do on the road to enlightenment.

You could say that America is an object lesson in this principle. Perhaps it has been storing up bad karma from it's founding. It was after all populated by people who, perhaps understandably, got the hell out of Europe rather than stick around and face down the ugly, violent, often deadly process of mass social reform. And so today we see a culture in America very similar to the Europe the immigrants left behind: angry, decadent, vastly inequitable, more and more averse to compromise, to cooperation, to acceptance of disagreement and fundamental social responsibility. The nations of the old world have worked their way through this karmic process, but America went ever west, outrunning it, and today the harsh lesson catches up in the form of Beck and all his cohorts in idiocy: manifest proof that American society is doing it wrong. Heed his lesson and thank him for it, America, lest you persist even longer in folly.

Beck started out as a 'Morning Zoo' guy. Later, he developed an alcohol and 'drug' problem. I think he could be sympathetic toward entheogen users. What scares me about him is his membership in the Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Those folks are probably nice people, but their fundamental beliefs are based on some laughable foundations. (just watch the South Park episode and see for yourself).

...breaking...
Edited on Fri Jan-21-11 10:34 PM by alp227
Source: Broadcasting & Cable

"MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract," said the network in a statement late Friday. "The last broadcast of Countdown with Keith Olbermann will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors." ---from democraticunderground.com

If I want to be entertained by lunacy, I just see what Gary Busey is up to lately.

When media pundits like Beck have more influence on people than the actual politicians themselves only bad things can happen.

I am so grateful that I have no idea who this person is.

He's one of the people stoking the fire of violence and polarization. He often advocates violence towards those he doesn't agree with, and he is in the business of manipulating people, just look at the photo-shoots of him applying fake tears to appear as though he is crying on the air, it's all fake. His 'concern' for the viewer, it's not there, he is actively manipulating older folks who have relaxed their guard and are oblivious to his actual intentions of bringing harm to people he disagrees with and trivializing complex issues to the point where you pick a side and blindly hate your opposite. I hope normal becomes more attractive to the average tv viewer so that someday maybe we can have legitimate discourse on television without sacrificing the complexity of issues and degrading it all down to a childish witch hunt.

Well, sort of... I do enjoy watching his show. I don't deny that he's got some serious delusions, largely stemming from his conversion to Christianity. And his preferential view of the republican party is pretty limiting... republicans and democrats are hardly different from one another aside from a few talking points, so most of his grievances against the progressives and democrats could more correctly be applied to the bicameral system in general (and considering his love of the founding fathers, you'd think he would be severely opposed to bicameralism).

What allows me to be entertained is that he's a loon with his heart in the right place. The people who swallow his delusions right alongside the facts (no matter how often he says not to) are the really dangerous ones. But if you allow yourself to be entertained by the oscillation between reason and delusion, he does provide some good food for thought. For example, the last episode I saw he was talking a lot about Edward Bernays (the father of "public relations" aka propaganda)... and Bernays is certainly a figure worth thinking about; he had a tremendous impact on the shape of contemporary culture. Recognizing how easily people's ideas can be swayed and molded by subtle appeals to basic animal drives, Bernays thought that this could be used to keep people from getting into senseless wars (specifically by distracting them with materialistic goods and services... probably not the best idea). Of course, the same principles came to be used by warmongers, probably most famously by Goering, in swaying a whole nation to endorse a genocide.

But it got me thinking... why couldn't the same principles be applied to ending prohibition? The legalization movement's biggest setback is that it has a serious public relations problem. People hear "legalize entheogens" and either think "wtf are entheogens?" or imagine hippies jumping out of windows high on drugs. Most people's opinions on the legal status of drugs are not thoughtfully considered, they're more-or-less blindly adopted from the general zeitgeist. Some clever public relations work on entheogens could do a lot to get people to feel that entheogen users ought to be left to practice as they please rather than get thrown in jail.



That he's boring. He's not a lunatic, since his bombastic rhetoric is deliberately intended as satire. But it's just too over-the-top all the time... boring.

Yes, indeed. Glen Beck is a reminder to me of what it means to be American. Love him or hate him, he tells it like it IS in America.

Most Americans who dislike him, dislike him because of the fact that he stands for the END OF THE FREE RIDE.

His message is clear-



Many illegal immigrants living in America and American citizens today dont want opportunity, they prefer the life of a parasite. These greedy parasites want the greatest Host of all to give them free health care, free housing, and welfare. They want to be exempt from paying tax and they want the top 20% of wage earners to pay for it. All the while contributing to the DE-AMERICANIZATION of our communities.

Glen Beck represents me. I am a proud libertarian who wants opportunity. I can take care of myself and my family. I have an American Dream. I dont want anything for free. I can work hard and provide for my family. I just want opportunity.

I dont want the US Government fucking around with and regulating my life, telling me what I can and cant do, taking my hard earned money and giving it to a bunch of parasites that dont give a shit.

Almost 50% of Americans DO NOT PAY TAXES. Yet that same 50% suck up the bulk of the social welfare benefits that come from the tax revenue.

Lazy parasites dont want opportunity.

Glen Beck is the voice of honest, hard working, responsible Americans who are sick and tired of footing the bill for the parasites.

I like Glen Beck.

America for Americans

You made this statement.

Proof



I would like you to please provide some PROOF to back up this statement.

This an extremely serious allegation to make against any individual. If your going to make charges like that against another please state your claim clearly. What is your proof.

Glen Beck does not advocate violence. That goes to show how uninformed most people are to what Glen becks message is. Ignorance is no excuse to make that sort of allegation about another person.