Beck Off!

I'll puncture my own theorem by stating the following:

Unless we make a real effort to detach ourselves from the throbbing data-teat, the one that oozes garish, incendiary, pseudofacts from every beeping, blipping electronic device in our homes, cars and pockets 24 hours a day, grade-A schmucks like Glenn Beck will thrive.

Which I cannot seem to do myself, hence my punctured theorem.

But since my screeds have about as much of a readership as the fine print on a sleeve of Saltines, I'll risk contributing to the flow of blood to Beck's particular brand of tumor.

He's ascended the summit of our pop consciousness, his mewling pus on the cover of Time, caricatured in the New York Times, quoted and referenced, on his way to becoming a pop idiom: "So and so's pulled a Beck!" "That guy upped and Becked himself!" "I've been royally Becked!"

Once the low-rent producer of handheld, fish-eyed vlogs from his hospital bed in which he bemoaned the sorry state of the very health care which he now defends as the greatest on Earth (He's got a buttload of cash now. Of course the world's a beautiful place!), now he struts and quivers amidst an impressive array of digital effects and gripping chyrons, his delivery a sarcastic, tonal roller coaster with as much potential to make the rider throw up as scream "wheeee!"

Like the proverbial light in the refrigerator (I can't quite cite the proverb itself, not a problem really where volume passes for veracity) he only exists if he's seen (or, unavoidably in his case, heard). The sum of his instantly disposable parts, he himself would have no shelf life were it not for the steady stream of invective-laced paranoid pap which is gulped down by his truth-parched viewers, who seemingly can never get enough.

And judging by some of the actions spurred on by Beck's (and his equally seditious confederates) these viewers must have tapeworms in their brains, gorging on Beck's nutrition-free output without gaining a single IQ point.

Beck is only the latest exploiter of TV's power to persuade. A combination of Budd Schulberg's tragi-manic Lonesome Rhodes and the early '70s appliance huckster Crazy Eddie, whose comically exuberant rants were a staple of local New York television, Beck captures the audience's attention with amped up carny techniques, hawking a rotating inventory of cheaply constructed -- and utterly refutable -- paranoid polemics.

Talk about people out to getcha. Wanna do something about boogie men and Big Brother? Wanna improve your world? Wanna go back to the way things were? Hell -- wanna do something patriotic?

Turn him off.

 

 

Comments

[SeesBeyond]

Oh, Steven, in my enthusiasm for commenting on Wings, I forgot my main reason for commenting at all. Have you been taking vocabulary lessons from Dennis Miller or Keith Olbermann, or otherwise attempting to compete with these guys? You guys should have a speak-off to see who can string together the longest, most colorful description of - whatever. Pretty awesome!

[SeesBeyond]

Wings was one of the best sitcoms EVAH! A few years ago I had occasion to take a float plane from Lake Union, Washington to Orcas Island, about an hour's flying time north from Seatte. The Seattle-Lake Union airport (LKE) was a very small facility, with local equivalents of many of the Wings characters - as close Tom Nevers Field in atmosphere as I've ever seen. It was great! I was sad to leave when it came to actually board the Beaver.

[TomR]

----
…sleeve of Saltines, I'll risk contributing to the flow of blood to Beck's particular brand of tumor.
----

Who doesn’t love crackers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbg604XqPY

Blumenthal believes Beck confirms his thesis that behind the right’s politics of resentment is a culture of personal crisis.
http://firedoglake.com/2009/09/19/republican-gomorrah-inside-the-movement-that-shattered-the-party/

At age 13, Beck’s mother and brother committed suicide. Then Glenn used drugs and alcohol to cope.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20061125/ai_n16876746/

Most right-wingers had a personal crisis they couldn't deal with and became vulnerable for exploitation by authoritarian leaders.

Cults use “coercive persuasion which suppresses the ability of people to reason, think critically, and make choices in their own best interest. Studies of religious, political, and other cults have identified a number of key steps:

1. People are put in physically or emotionally distressing situations. (or had a personal crisis perhaps?)
2. Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized.
3. They receive unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic leader.
4. They get a new identity based on the group.
5. They are subject to entrapment…and their access to information is severely controlled.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult

- Tom

[trusgift]

OMG - it IS Crazy Eddie! I could never quite put my finger on it.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

where is the fine print on the sleeve of saltines. I need some help getting to sleep. Seriously - good comment. I wrote a similar post you may want to look at...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-the-nerd-ferraro/the-damage-that-itimei-ha_b_292874.html, if i am not violating some protocol here. (i am still figuring out which end is the hole in the ground...)

[GreatTruthsSeeker]

Robert Record invented the equal sign in either 1554 or 1552, depending on who you want to believe.

To a great degree logic involves mathematics in that things have to equal out to prove the reality of a set of premises, without the appearance of fallacies.

If logic were a ball game, Beck could not find the parking lot to park and get to watch the game. He also struggles with the concepts of both reality and equality.

He does not participate in the science and art of argument (which is logic) because he does not think he is equal to those that have opposing viewpoints.

He adds fuel to the fire of hatred for his personal gain.

For me, this is enough of my time spent on keystrokes about Beck this morning. I will take them elsewhere.

[SirReal1]

I turned off the entire "idiot box" several years ago. I can still watch "Wings" whenever I want, thank goodness for DVD and NetFlix.

If I want to watch "Live Sports" it turns into a good excuse to go have a beer.

EVERYTHING ELSE I can live without.

[Patrician]

The most important thing you can do if you are really interested in the advancement of America as a nation in consonance with its constitutional ideals, is turn Glenn Beck off.

[RepugsOut08]

Well done, Steven. It's very difficult for us regular posters to say anything critical of Beck or Limbaugh, as the Huffpo monitors delete the slightest negative remark. Especially Limbaugh. They're VERY touchy about criticizing him.
I've pretty much quit taking the bait when I see a "you won't believe what Rush and/or Beck said today!" blog. I know they say these things for the instant attention it gets them, and, like a spoiled child, they know negative attention is still attention.
You're right, though. Try as I may, I cannot always tune the noise out, but it is always worth the effort to try.

[SantaFeConservative]

Gee Steven, isn't television where you made your mark? Now it's a bad thing for someone else to do it? Beck is not a newsperson ... he is a commentator, an entertainer (like you). If Beck hadn't made an issue about Van Jones, who would have? ABC, CBS, NBC? Nope. MSNBC, CNN? Nope. Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert? Nope.

[trishinpitt]

the only reason Beck even gave a tinker's dam about Van Jones was because Van Jones was the founder of Color of Change and they are the folks who managed to strip away 60+ sponsors from his show.

It's like the whole "Czar" frenzy he's trying to whip up. There's nothing there... Bush had more Czars than Obama... and they aren't "Czars" anyway... they all have real titles with real responsibilities... many of them have already been confirmed when required... but Beck's followers will swallow anything Beck spoon feeds them... and then they walk around like zombies in a monotone voice repeating whatever he tells them too.... CZARS... CZARS.... Van Jones... Van Jones.... brains... brains...

THINK FOR YOURSELVES!!!!

[savvydad]

Beck's motives are irrelevant. Jones was exposed. Deal with it.

[jsgaetano]

The "if we bury our head deep enough in the sand, they will just go away" attitude doesn't work. It's allowed people like Limbaugh and Dobson and Buchannan etc to acqire fame and positions of power.

We have to expose Beck, and those like him... and KEEP DOING IT.

Now realize, Fox will NEVER drop Beck. He could lose ALL his sponsors, and they'll end up running commericals from the American Enterprise Institute and the CCC. I say let them, but keep writing in to his sponsors every time he says something terrorist loving, or racist loving, or whatever... because he's never going to stop, and he's not going away.

The solution is to get back to the roots of what formed the "conservative movement" in the first place, and deprive them of the one thing they are desperate for- mainstream acceptance. They want everyone to call them brilliant, and tell them how great they are. When they can't get that, their tiny egos will shrivel on the vine for all to see, like the little, petty, self righteous pseudointellectuals they are.

[centerdweller]

Glenn Beck is real and tells the truth. Thats why people listen. Are you seriously "blaming" Beck's success on technology? Thats weak. I will ask again, CAN ANYONE SHOW A FACT THAT BECK HAS GOTTEN WRONG???????????? I ask this question a lot on the Fluffington Post and never seem to get a response. I suggest if you want to get rid of Beck, do it the way he got rid of Van Jones, WITH THE TRUTH.

[dessertsfirst]

Glenn Beck tells the truth... the truth according to whom?

the truth as he sees it?

and where does he get his "facts"?

[vjlawn66]

1.7 million! yea right

[RepugsOut08]

How about Beck saying Obama's a racist who hates white people, sonny? To believe that, he must believe Obama hated his white mother, and all of his white relatives and friends that were a part of his life, both growing up, and today.
Glenn Beck never meet a truth he didn't relish turning into a falsehood. It's making him a multi-millionaire, preying on the ignorance of far too many Americans.

[vjlawn66]

centerdweller falls into that latter catagory

[centerdweller]

First of all that is Beck's OPINION. I asked for a FACT that he has gotten wrong. Everyone wants to attack him for everything EXCEPT the facts that he brings to America. You know, the ones that got Van Jones fired, Yosi Sergent demoted, ACORN cut off from taxpayer money, Jeremiah Wright exposed, and the best ones are still to come! Get ready:)

[shanghaislim]

I will disseminate your "scribes" to my Chinese friends to pass on to their friends and family and so on and so on.......until we get your readership up to 10 million? How about 20 million Steven?

That will show them! We will make you bigger than all of them combined Beck-Limba­ugh-Hannit­y-O'Reilly­-Coulter-L­evin etc.

Now if I can only get the Chinese to carry silly imbecilic signs on May 21st for the 5-12 Project?

(The day we all felt as one......sad but unified when Wings finally ended 5-21-97)

[shanghaislim]

That would be the 5-21 Project (Sorry for the typo)

[shanghaislim]

Damn Beck Feckers!

[FinePrint]

I agree.

Fox News, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, etc. - these people found their gravy train.

They are the same as the televangelists who preach/scream at their flock and then offer all those different gifts or offerings to support their church/lifestyle.

They are making a ton of money off these believers.