Quotes of the day
posted at 10:36 pm on November 12, 2009 by Allahpundit
“In theory, a charismatic paranoiac like Beck is the poster boy for this dystopian future. He’s got a very loud megaphone. His communication skills are world-class. He’s ideologically driven (even if no one can quite figure out what that ideology is). And he’s willing to entertain some pretty dubious notions. But look at his track record so far. He couldn’t sell FEMA death camps because the facts weren’t there to back the story up. His exposé of communist art at Rockefeller Plaza went nowhere because even Beck’s viewers realize an old relief of a naked farmer holding some wheat isn’t much of a threat. The Van Jones story had legs, by contrast, because most of its facts were solid. With a change in background music and a few minor edits, in fact, Beck’s first long piece on Jones could have served as an advertisement for the activist’s achievements—in part because its script closely followed a 2005 newspaper article that was written as a positive portrait of Jones.
“Context, meanwhile, is Beck’s forte. He is constantly urging his viewers to connect the dots and look at the big picture, even when the picture exists only in his head. He is forever advising them to consider stories not as transient, random, isolated phenomena, as most newscasts do, but as parts of a larger, ongoing narrative that grows more and more meaningful (and menacing) the longer you study it. In a fractured, distracting mediascape, where thousands of outlets vie for our attention, it’s a smart approach that others are sure to copy. Legally barred from re-enacting Orson Welles, Beck may have to settle for being the 21st century’s answer to Edward R. Murrow.”
***
STU: They use the logo. They go through, you’ll hear kind of the music that sounds like the Glenn Beck TV open in which they show the same imagery, they have the same logo except it says EC instead of GB. You know, and these guys, again, these guys skewer everybody and they are always very good at it.
GLENN: You know what’s amazing to me is I’m a libertarian.
STU: And they are, too.
GLENN: And they are, too.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: And when you’re a libertarian, there ain’t anybody coming to your defense…
GLENN: [Penn Jillette] has gotten so much flack from his friends because, you know, they buy into, “Oh, he’s a fascist.” I don’t care what you do with your life. Honor the Constitution. Limited government. Maximum amount of freedom. Throw them all out. Get people who understand the founding fathers. Libertarians are eating each other alive. And it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense. But see, there’s no, there’s no structure to it. And I’m fine with that. But that’s why libertarians lose is because there’s no, there’s no system. There’s no system. And so there’s no one to defend. And so the, both parties, when they start to grind down on you, you have the entire system against you, and it’s quite amazing. It’s quite amazing.
***
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South Park is not “liberal.”
Good Lt on November 13, 2009 at 7:49 AM
Glenn said this with a tone in his voice, kind of admiringly. He knows they make fun of everyone, and Stu says so…he thought it was hilarious.
bikermailman on November 13, 2009 at 7:53 AM
ROTFLMAO No they are not, to quote Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the only thing they hate more than conservatives…. Are Liberals…
doriangrey on November 13, 2009 at 8:02 AM
yo mama is a liberal
blatantblue on November 13, 2009 at 8:03 AM
I just don’t know what to make of you, Allah. I suggest you watch Beck consistently before you mock him. There were rumors of the death camps, he mentioned it, said he would be researching it, and did. He then told his audience he and his staff could find no evidence of planned death camps. As far as the symbols go, he has a right to his interpretation of those and why they’re there. He is connecting dots and with facts to back them up. If you can’t figure out his ideology, maybe there is no ideology there, other than the effort to expose your liberal friends who are doing their best to destroy this country.
texanpride on November 13, 2009 at 8:21 AM
Why are so many lefties and atheists jealous of the Pillsbury dough boy?
apoole on November 13, 2009 at 8:31 AM
John the Libertarian: thanks for demonstrating my point. Libertarians have never been good at anything but losing. DD
Darvin Dowdy on November 13, 2009 at 8:32 AM
And once again, someone thinks the QOTD is actively reflecting AP’s opinion rather than providing a collection of related quotations from the day for the purposes of discussion.
Did you note he included the Glenn Beck transcript? That wasn’t “mocking.”
darii on November 13, 2009 at 8:36 AM
…Matt Damon…
Darksean on November 13, 2009 at 8:37 AM
It took a few years before we figured out Red State Update was two liberals jerkin’ the chains of conservatives. Allahpundit has finally exposed himself to me. With all that’s going on…this is were he chooses to focus?
birdhurd on November 13, 2009 at 8:37 AM
South Park is “punk rock,” whatever that means.
darii on November 13, 2009 at 8:37 AM
Seriously? I read the article over at Reason after watching the South Park and wondered how Beck would respond. This isn’t chain jerking by some liberal. If you can’t handle people criticizing Beck, I’m sorry, but it’s relevant and interesting to conservatives and libertarians.
darii on November 13, 2009 at 8:40 AM
Totally hilarious. And it is rather Beckish. Good one.
AnninCA on November 13, 2009 at 8:43 AM
Not true. They do a great job as inadvertant stalking horses for democrat campaigns too.
Akzed on November 13, 2009 at 8:43 AM
Dude,
I’m not sure you should say that out loud.
Really.
Blacksmith8 on November 13, 2009 at 8:45 AM
I like Glenn Beck, but I watched that SP episode last night, and thought it was hilarious. SP skewers both sides of the ideological spectrum, I kind of like the show.
mbs on November 13, 2009 at 8:54 AM
Again, consistency is important. If you look at Allah’s posts on Beck consistently, yes, he mocks. I don’t have a problem with criticism; I have a problem with posers.
texanpride on November 13, 2009 at 8:55 AM
South Park is nothing but a damn cartoon. I quit watching cartoons when I was twelve years old. Quit watching cartoons, Allah. You’ve just turned 17.
Percy_Peabody on November 13, 2009 at 8:58 AM
John the libertarian:
Thanks for the link that was worth every minute.
I was surprised at the responses too.
I didn’t have time to read all 700, but the first several were eye opening.
If you can’t find his link here it is:
http://hillbuzz.org/2009/11/10/thank-you-former-president-george-w-bush-and-former-first-lady-laura-bush/
Beck is amazing and I love to watch him – all 60 minutes.
Bambi on November 13, 2009 at 8:59 AM
Beck is cartoonish. You surely have to admit that one. He’s the adult version of cartoons. Like Rush, he doesn’t mind being utterly ridiculous.
I bet I don’t agree with about 50%, maybe more, of Rush’s analysis. But I never fail to laugh. He is the King of Egotism and Hyperbole.
Beck is using the same techniques. He’s less polished, but he’s definitely found the formula.
AnninCA on November 13, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Anyone who thinks South Park is liberal is ignorant.
Esthier on November 13, 2009 at 9:08 AM
Who doesn’t like a show that mocks the people with whom you have a problem? But the truth is punning is not the lowest form of humor, sarcasm is the lowest form of humor. Any child can be a sarcastic brat. South Park does sarcasm, parody, mean spirited better than anyone and I give them props for being even handed. But SP’s weapon of choice is pretty blunt and it does miss the mark, like all humor, when it strays too far from the truth. Beck is bombastic but he is not a demagogue because he does a pretty good job of presenting the facts. That is what the SP parody of GB missed.
Bill C on November 13, 2009 at 9:22 AM
Beck thought the South Park parody was hilarious. He played several of the clips on his radio show and talked about it for about 10 minutes.
And for what it’s worth, I think Beck’s biggest problem is his lack of an education. He’s a smart guy, but I think that having a formal education would have helped to “round the edges” and give him better instincts about stories presented to him. The FEMA death camp thing was a great example. To his credit, he brought Popular Mechanics on 2 days later to debunk the rumor, then apologized to his audience for talking about it in the first place. But the claim was so obviously outlandish that he should have had the “spidey sense” to stay away from it. That he didn’t hurt his credibility and, unfortunately, detracts from the truly excellent reporting and analysis he’s provided on the radicalism in the Obama administration.
Outlander on November 13, 2009 at 9:31 AM
texanpride on November 13
____________________________
Thank You! His envy of Beck is becoming more and more obvious. Even Huffpo cannot do a hit piece on him. I read the comments there and 75% stand up for Glenn!
Bottom line in, people whith a soul who watch him regularly can tell shit from shinola and can feel in their heart that Glenn is for real and speaking from the heart, and truly believes he is doing his patriotic duty to this country.
People who cannot see that either do not watch enough, or have no soul as I said.
patriotparty1 on November 13, 2009 at 9:39 AM
Reagan was an Goldwater libertarian.
John the Libertarian on November 13, 2009 at 9:54 AM
Please, Michelle, replace Allah. He is a disgusting worm.
mobydutch on November 13, 2009 at 9:55 AM
Your perspective is very limiting.
Count to 10 on November 13, 2009 at 10:09 AM
Education? Okay but if Beck had been educated say like O’Reilly, he would just be another guy like O’Reilly. And he would always be checking himself…
I like the way Beck has been educated. Life has taught him things you can’t learn from books and profs! I’ve had book learning. But, I’ve never been an alcoholic who persevered and overcame!
I don’t want that education for myself ever! But I see the value Beck has taken from it and I admire him for it. I think Beck has some WISDOM.
Yeah, it’s weird to use WISDOM and Glenn Beck in the same sentence but I see it.
Now, I too think he gets a bit out there. But Beck’s approach is to theories and explore them and discard ideas that don’t work… step back see if there is a pattern. I find Beck’s intelligence so much more interesting than the restraint that education puts on intellect!
Although. One Beck is enough. We all can’t start going off on all these tangled paths.
And I sometimes think Beck could explode at some point… I hope he can hold it all together. He is doing important analysis! And he doesn’t seem to mind being thought crazy.
petunia on November 13, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Receipt of a degree is no guarantee that the recipient is educated. I know I’ve learned more from self-directed inquiry than I ever learned in college. There’s nothing wrong with Beck’s “spidey sense.” He can recognize a ratings draw when he sees one. He played the FEMA camp angle for as long as it worked.
entropent on November 13, 2009 at 10:41 AM
Yeah… and Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ is just a kid’s story about some critters on a farm. Uh huh.
Congratulations on your two dimensional world view.
Alalazoo on November 13, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Libertarians eating each other.
What else is new. Seriously, I’ve been to a couple of Libertarian conventions at times when my faith in the Republicans waned (which is pretty much every four year cycle with the exception of Bush 2 1st term when it was simply a “DEFEAT AL GORE AT ALL COSTS” moment for me).
“I went to a Libertarian conference and a fight broke out” is not a joke, it’s normal.
The problem with Libertarian’s is that their tent is simply too big. Too many people have confused Libertarianism and equated it with Libertinism, and the real Libertarian’s let them get away with it because of a fatal flaw in current Libertarian thought.
Sure, a Libertarian does not care what you do, and that’s why the potheads flock to it. Yet the potheads don’t understand it, nor do they really want it. Yet, when a Libertarian tries to explain to the pothead why healthcare is bad, the pothead doesn’t get it but still wants to cling to the Libertarian banner because it’s the only one who will advocate for his drug of choice. That’s being Libertine, not Libertarian.
The Libertarian though has no way to police the gates because he really doesn’t want to. He’ll DEFEND the gates, but he’s reluctant to police them. There is a difference.
The Libertarians won’t ever coalesce around a viable candidate because they can’t get through the party organization phase of it. The make a few steps and then break down because not enough people understand Libertarianism, are there for Libertine reasons, or are there because it’s an unclaimed constituency that a person or group may try to organize for their own ends.
This final reason is why you’ll see Sarah stay in the Republican party, and the first reason is why Beck would never rise to the top of the Libertarian party for any length of time (He does understand it, but the Libertine’s don’t and they won’t accept him).
The second reason is why Ron Paul does so well with the Libertarian establishment. The Libertine’s love him because they think he’ll support their pet causes and the Libertarian’s think he’s pretty close to them.
Problem with Ron Paul though is that I’m just not convinced that he’s not an anti-semitic crazyman.
Libertarians will always eat their own, because Libertarianism rejects the party system, the no-party party can form a coherent enough organization to stay on message let alone overcome the mass-media and then convert the masses, it just can’t be done.
If there ever is a third major party/player, it won’t be the Libertarians.
Jason Coleman on November 13, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Vote for what AP is against.
Not that he has the balls to be against anything, but……
frizzbee on November 13, 2009 at 11:08 AM
So, two guys, write on paper and say with their own voices (in albeit bad impersonations) what they see/think/interpret and that’s bad.
But let’s have someone in a back room write some copy, never put their name to it, then show it on a teleprompter to a talking head who in the end doesn’t really have to take credit for it because they can always go back and blame the invisible editor. And that’s cool.
South Park says more about topical events and what’s really happening out there than the broadcast networks combined.
And if you have a problem with South Park, you know that you have a problem with the statements of Parker and Stone. That’s pretty honest and straightforward. If you have a problem with what NBC says, well. . . who knows who you have a problem with them. Ooooh, evil corporations acting corporation-y i know, sorry.
LEAVE SOUTH PARK ALONE!!!!
Watch more cartoons Percy, just stay away from the big 3′s Saturday morning types. Or of course, you could just stay ignorant and make silly statements.
Jason Coleman on November 13, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Not true. They are good at bleeding off conservative vote so that democrats win close elections.
docdave on November 13, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Beck has a bug up Liberal/Democrats’ asses,
He must be doing something right.
franksalterego on November 13, 2009 at 12:57 PM
Well put!
Libertarians have their pockets of dogmatism, including the Thoreau quote “The government that governs best governs least” (and usually wrongly attributed to Jefferson, as well.) You stick that in the mouth of a founder, and well, that’s just true. As much as they believe in “freedom”, they don’t want you to decide to ignore this advice passed down from something like God (if they believe), and everybody needs to choose to strip down their society as long as a libertarian can argue that someone is not “free” in it.
I don’t think they understand that freedom has paradoxes.
Axeman on November 13, 2009 at 1:30 PM
I would put Glenn’s intellect and intelligence side by side with the “book learning adjunct professor” and I would rather be around Glenn than that idiot “O”. There is something about being street wise as well. Even though the “O” was also on drugs and whatever else, he never became as bright and knowledgable as Glenn.
I would love to see the reading list of the 2 and I can bet you Glenn’s will be 100′s, maybe 1000′s ahead of the “O”.
Bambi on November 13, 2009 at 1:31 PM
…eating each other alive… snacking defeat.
I see what you did there.
VekTor on November 13, 2009 at 1:38 PM
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