printI’ve followed Glenn Beck closely and have concluded that overall, flaws and all, he is a force for liberty. One such example was when “Beck Broke From The Pack” to denounce perpetual war as the health of the state. Let us not forget how polluted are the waters in which conservatives swim. Glenn has changed that somewhat. Not for nothing does Sean Hannity keep his distance from Beck.
“Beck, Wilders, and His Boosters’ Blind Spot” discusses some mindless Beck missteps, such as mistaking “Geert Wilders, an influential Dutch parliamentarian working against the spread of Islam in his country, as a man of the fascist, far-right.” Unforgivable.
IMMIGRATION IGNORANCE:
Glenn also vastly overestimates the virtues of the “American People,” and underestimates the forces (state-managed mass immigration) that are dissolving what remains of that people and busily electing another. (Glenn: Once the country is 50 percent Third World, you might as well be talking to the hand.)
Nevertheless, I revised the “blithering idiot” verdict I passed some years back.
Richard Spencer has not. Glenn “going-to-school-with-each-new-show” has earned the contempt of the editor of AltRight.com.
The funny thing is that I second Richard’s analysis, as I have made the same points myself about Beck’s ridiculous fetishes (stop waxing fat about “Faith, Hope, and Charity”; build on life, liberty, and property, I wrote).
Beck’s (Harry) Jaffarsonian civil rights preoccupation and racial revisionism—sad to say, there were no black Founding Fathers!—are contemptible. But, what do you know?, I have been more forgiving of Glenn than Richard Spencer. Having been characterized as someone who eats nails for breakfast, I’m pleased when along comes a young man who is more uncompromising than myself, even if this guarantees he will not be playing footsie with this conservative tootsie (“intellectual windsock”) on Sean Hannity’s Great American Panel, a forum of and for the Idiocracy.
Read Richard’s superb analysis, “The Glenn Beck Deception: Inside the PC Lunatic Fringe.”
UPDATED I (June 22): I have been extremely careful to separate Beck from James Huggins’ Republican “freedom fighters” (see comment hereunder). Without much success. If you are convinced by Huggins’ GOP loyalism—and Mr. H has stuck to his guns, insisting these hacks stand for liberty—your learning curve is, well, wobbly.
UPDATE II: Here’s the “‘Mercer Eats Nails For Breakfast’ (Not)” accusation:
I’ve been called THE WORD WARRIOR…but I would run for my life if I saw Ilana Mercer coming my way! Does she eat nails for breakfast?— Anthony St. John
UPDATE III: Who Eat Nails for Breakfast, Spencer Or Mercer? Probably both, but Spencer wins out this time, I’m pleased to say. In case you think (sorry Huggs) that every tough-talking toots on Hannity’s “Great American Panel” can eat nails or swallow flames: tough, here, implies an ability to reason, and an uncompromising fealty to first principles. These must draw on fact and on history. To reason in the arid arena of pure thought is not what Richard (or myself, for that matter) does. Most libertarians, however, do so err.
I agree with your analysis, Miss Ilana. While I find Glenn’s continued love of mass immigration, belief in the divine inspiration of the country, and inclusion of Lincoln among the pantheon of American demigods, he has increasingly awakened over the years and has been willing to shake the foundations of the “conservative” narrative. Tearing down old icons and overcoming blind spots can be difficult and take some time. Unlike many others, he’s done so already on so many fronts; let’s be patient and perhaps he’ll awaken even more. After all, this can only be for the good.
Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh,Ann Coulter, Michael Savage et al. None of them are right all of the time. But they are out there fighting the fight and getting the message out to the world. Instead of splitting hairs and criticising their shoe shines we need to be fighting the real enemy which is the ever present left.
The trouble with an anti-Obama coalition is that it includes a hodgepodge of interests including: (1) “country club” Republicans such as Romney, (2) Warmongers such as Bennett salivating over warring on Drugs and Talibans bloating the Drug Enforcement Agency and Defense Department, (3) professional hacks like McConnell who sell anything for special interest money / political control, (4) Religious warriors who obsess about homosexuals etc. like Huckabee and (5) Libertarians such as Paul who want to shrink the Leviathan Welfare-Warfare state. Admittedly, some like Coulter, Hannity, Bachmann, and Beck can cross over several types. Nevertheless, fundamental contradictions make such a coalition very shaky.
America has evolved from tens of Billion $$ deficits (1970’s) to hundreds of Billions (1980’s), to 2 Terabuck deficits (2010). We are approaching (financially and demographically thanks to aging and low-level immigration) a Governmental Bubble. Postulating that fighting BAD Afghan Warlords while aiding GOOD Afghan Warlords enhances our FREEDOM is more delusional than the Vietnam debacle which bore some relationship to a Soviet “empire” as opposed to local tribal Neanderthals. Nevertheless, most “conservatives” (like Palin and Huggins) think that all these Wars enhance our Freedom when, in reality, this is enslaving us faster.
Ok, Let’s look at this eating nails for breakfast from an economic perspective. First of all I assume from your economic views you are pretty sensible about your money. Eating nails for breakfast would result in some rather large repeated dental bills (insurance or no insurance). Secondly I have seen pictures of Ilana smiling. Assuming a modicum of integrity her teeth have not been photo-shopped into the pictures. On an image note: I doubt that the Von Mises Institute would have much to do with someone who ate nails for breakfast!
There are two types of ‘anti’- that which says something doesn’t exist and that which says ‘yes it exists but…’ Mr. Beck is in my opinion of the latter category, and therefore untrustworthy. Just as you think he’s on your side, out comes the knife. A lot like Mr. St. John, I think.
Does Mercer bite nails in two for breakfast? You bet she does. I want to be just like her when I grow up. Myron, you’re not even a close second to Mercer. Keep plugging away at it and you might get there.