A couple of months ago I was actually in Glennbeckistan. A friend's uncle was having a party for him, and we were invited. It took me a second to realize what was going on. Like any good Twilight Zone episode, there has to be build-up to the madness.
It started with a library/sun room. I was chasing the boy around and ended up there. A bunch of books on a table. First one was from Mark Levin.
Like many other good people, Levin wrote in 2009 a best seller about the Obama Presidency. These guys are basically entrepreneurs. They saw an opening (fear of a black President) and used it (wrote a book about Obama the Marxist radical who wants to eat the Constitution). This is America at its best, Baby. Don't blame them, right? They just write what the people want to read!
So this one was autographed, "Keep fighting," or something like that. Then I looked below this book and found the same one, only this time without the autograph. Which means these people bought the book, and then bought another copy when they saw the guy was signing.
There were other books. Glenn Beck, Bernard Goldberg... All written in 2009, the 48th year of Obama's masterplan to destroy America.
In the living room, in front of the couch, there was a little stand with a tiny book on top. This arrangement reminded me of my grandfather's tall swivel ashtray, by the way. Man, these things were cool. Were you alive when smoking was cool?
I think I can talk about politics with people I disagree with. I talk to my parents about politics and we don't really argue. It makes me sad to think a human being with a beating heart can think like them, but at least I can talk to them about it; understand where they come from and all.
So for a second I thought about striking a conversation. I wasn't going to call them racist teabaggers or anything like that. I do stupid shit like that on the Internet, but in real life I can be semi-civil. I just really wished I knew how these people thought.
How come people who are so afraid of Obama destroying the Constitution, people who keep a copy of the Constitution on a stand in the living room, are so trigger-happy when it comes to abolishing the 14th Amendment because they fear immigration? How can they stand at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial one day and call for secession the next? How can anyone not see Beck and Palin for the frauds they are?
I would have been civil, really. We would have had a discussion. I don't think people should fear the P-word. Politics is divisive, that's true, but politics also represents our values and world views, so if we can't talk about the way we see the world, what should we talk about?
But it wasn't the place or the time. I was a guest, and a B-List one at that, and my assigned role was to thank the people who said my kids were cute, remark that the cake was amazing, and bite my tongue when it came to everything else. The cake was amazing.
11 comments:
I have to say, that as a conservative....Im so tried of being associated with Beck or Palin.
They are frauds.
It is scary that people follow both of these two like lemmings and dont challenge anything they say.
I saw a video of Beck when he was on the cover of Newsweek (or Time-cant remember) where he put Visine under his eyes so he could appear crying....Ya cant trust someone like that.
No one on FNC remembers when he was on 'that other network' basically saying the exact opposite of what he says there.
And my most recent blog explains why I have an issue with the quitter Palin.
(btw, my twitter handle is @Sfaulstich and the blog is linked there in case it doesnt show up here)
I think the Antichrist misidentified early on as Obama has arrived for real in the form of Glen Beck.
Think Jim Jones.
Sheila, thanks for the comment. I've followed you on Twitter for a while, actually! And I saw your argument yesterday. Between the #p2 and #tcot, I know it's not easy for people to accept nuance at 140 characters. One of the limitations of Twitter.
Cooper, I mean... I look at these old Jim Jones videos and at least I see charisma. I can see what they saw in the man. But Beck has nothing but being the current winner of the loudest-voice-against-the-President contest. I can't imagine any of the people in the rally didn't feel cheated.
I've given up trying to figure out how a person like Beck makes it so big.
It makes me more afraid of the people who like him than it makes me fear the man himself.
Being originally from the Utahiest location in Utah, I come upon a lot of Beck-o-philes. It's all mixed up with religion and then eventual glory for all the eternities.
You can't tell them that the stuff they are spewing has been proven untrue (the birth certificate, Obama didn't legislate the bank bailouts, Bush did...) All they care about is that they feel something strongely so that must make it right and logical and true. And because it's all tied up in this overwhelming identity tied into God you can't reason or their psyches fail.
Now, I've been known to call Dubya a twat. I won't apologized for that. But that isn't a reflection on his party or any of the logical reasons they stand on the issues. It's a reflection of the man himself. I don't support Obama because I hated Bush and McCain wasn't much better. I support Obama because the man can reason. He can think. He decides from all angles. That ability is what I voted for.
I listen to Levin's show as a podcast sometimes because I'm morbidly fascinated with how these people think. Levin's vile. Couching hatred and fear in pseudo-intellectual nonsense. Beck's just a buffoon. I'm glad I don't live in the U.S. anymore.
Obama is a Marxist/atheist Muslim and hence a paradox. Also don't forget taxes are the most important issue facing MANKIND - every % increase kills approximately 100000000000 kittens.
Beck scares the hell out of me. He's not only a nut, he's a dangerous nut.
Shakespeare, a few people are afraid of him. I'm not sure. I think he's one Mormon-is-the-only-true-religion comment away from being deserted. It's a matter of time before the idiots cling onto the next hypocrite.
Becky, isn't that crazy? We all forgot how dumb Bush was. Luckily, Palin reminds us what it was like to listen to an idiot who is being praised as a sophisticated politicians by the media who are afraid to offend the fools.
Freeman, I'm not sure which one is worse. They have different ways of saying these things, but they're saying the same because that's what's making the money right now. They're all vile in different ways.
SJ, I can understand taxing people, but taxing them and hand over the money to terrorists? That's UNACCEPTABLE!
Mama Zen, see, what I said to Shakespeare (above, not the original one) is that I think Beck will fall eventually. He's milking it as much as he can, but in the end these people can't wait to move on to the next guy, who will hopefully share their religion. These people are united by hate, not by ideas. As soon as another hater shows up, Beck is gone. I think. I just wonder if the next guy is going to be even worse.
I get daily emails from people who assumably assume that I want negative emails about Obama. But I've recently began hitting the "reply to all" button and responding with "Unsubscrible". For some reason though, it's not working and I continue to receive them. Is it possible they just don't get it?
I sometimes go to this website: My Right Wing Dad. The concept is funny--just putting out those crazy forwarded emails we all get. But behind that you can see the insanity and the hatred, and it's just a little too sad that these people are out there.
Post a Comment