The real reason Glenn Beck got "fired" from Fox (he ain't gone yet, and probably never will go) was because his conspiracy-crazed lunacy caused him to hobnob in public with some notorious anti-Semites. If you're a right-wing conspiracy buff, you'll inevitably make such alliances.
By way of atonement, Beck has made a naked appeal to Jewish paranoia. On the same day that Obama called for Israel to return to its 1967 borders, Beck claimed on the air that a second Holocaust is coming. He wants to know if you are willing to hide a Jew behind a wall in your house.
Well, it depends. My Jewish stepfather? Forget it. Remember the asshole that Jerry Lewis turns into in The Nutty Professor? My stepfather was, and presumably still is, like that. Only worse. Treated my mom like crap, he did. But his mother was very nice. So she would be welcome, if she were still alive and needed a place to stay, and I wouldn't even make her hide behind a wall. And if maybe she wanted to whip up some potato pancakes, I wouldn't complain.
4 comments:
Heh. Just acknowledging your nutty title! :)
Jew or non-Jew, there's always that fine line between hiding someone behind your wall and wanting to brick them up inside of it.
Who were the "notorious anti-Semites" that Beck hobnobbed with? Beck has always been extremely pro-Israel.
Anonymous, please don't be Anonymous. You don't have to sign in and you don't have to use your real name. Just offer some sort of signature.
Beck may lay on the pro-Israel stuff rather thick to divert attention that his big hero, Cleon Skousen, was a Jew-hating nut. Also, a lot of people think that Beck's attacks on Soros have veered into anti-Semitism. I can't judge that.
He definitely crossed all sorts of lines when he promoted a work by Elizabeth Dilling, whose entirely life was devoted to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. She had absolutely nothing else to say.
He has also promoted Eustace Mullins, the author of "The Curse of Canaan" and "Adolf Hitler: An Appreciation."
The camel-back-breaking straw was probably Beck's interaction with G. Edward Griffin, who has denied being an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist. It was one of those denials that just dug a deeper hole: http://www.activistpost.com/2011/04/is-griffin-anti-semitic-g-edward.html
Basically, Beck is one of those guys who, as I sometimes say, gives you every slice of the salami until the bit at the end. That is: He'll regurgitate every piece of an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist's work right up until the point where Jews get mentioned. That's the point where he stops himself, and burbles on about how much he loves Israel. He also makes sure to mention how much he hates Nazis.
This is an old John Birch trick. The Birchers perfected the "every slice of the salami until the bit at the end" routine in order to deflect attention from the fact that the group was founded by Bundists and that their conspiracy theories were simply lifted from people like Dilling and Nesta Webster.
In order to understand a guy like Beck, you have to be familiar with all the tricks used by right-wing conspiracy theorists. You have to know the history. If you aren't familiar with names like des Mousseaux, Drumont, Dilling, Gerald L.K. Smith, Nesta Webster, Goff, Goughlin, Pelley, Revilo Oliver and -- well, one can go on, but you get the point. Most Americans don't know these names, and they don't know what Beck represents.
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