Glenn Beck Betrays Himself

Glenn Beck is an ugly, nasty human being who personifies the intersection of right wing extremism, hypocrisy, ignorance, and hatefulness.  He is not so much ugly on the outside, although I find his smug, overemotional and pugnacious demeanor repellent; he is hideously ugly, on the inside, in his soul and in his character.

Glenn Beck has a Michele Bachmann-esque disregard for facts which is so severe as to be comical, if it were not for the venom that he spews.  It would be funny, if it were not for those on the right, the low-information non-fact-checkers who give him credence.  Thankfully, like Sarah Palin, Beck's popularity appears to have peaked and is on the decline, while his influence is diminished with his departure in disgrace from Fox News.  That disgrace is evidenced by the steady decline in viewership, and the mass exodus of advertisers.

Beck betrays his hideous flaws in thinking, and his hatefulness most recently in his comments that mentioned Nazi youth camps, while he ranted about the killings of children in Norway.

Beck knew nothing whatsoever about the activities or programs of the camp in Norway, when mentioning Nazi youth camps.  He still knows nothing about them despite claiming to be the victim for receiving criticism for his original comments.  He appears to be blissfully unaware, or utterly disinterested in the fact that it was the Labor Party in Norway which fought a brutal opposition to the Nazis.

Beck seems blissfully ignorant of the history of that opposition to the Nazis, and the opposition to the collaborators with them in Norway, the Nasjonal Samling, and of course, the 'Quislings'.  Or perhaps this is just one more instance where Beck conveniently ignores any fact which interferes with his position; Beck is a master at avoiding facts altogether.  The Nasjonal Samling promoted the same aggressively theocratic Christianity, factually false national history, and corporatism before and during WWII that Beck does now.  Like Beck and the Tea Party, the NS was rife with internal political dissension between factions of the movement, and was similarly polarizing. 


An identifying component of fascism is to promote an idealized rather than factual view of history with which he hopes his followers identify; Beck tries to portray our founding fathers and their era of history in cherry-picked and inaccurate ways to promote things those historic figures never endorsed.  The NS, and the Quislings, likewise promoted a glamorized view of Norwegian identity using Nordic symbolism, Vikings and Viking runes, to create a populist, but not terribly historic sense of national identity that centers around jingoistic nationalism.  And the NSJ were right wing, conservative, in their rabid opposition to socialism (or perceived socialism), communism, liberals and unions, while advocating for unbridled capitalism, and Christian government,

I was surprised in discussing the ideas for this post at how few of the people - well-educated, well-informed people - did not know the term Quisling, and how few really had a clear understanding of the concept of jingoism beyond a passing familiarity with the term.  So let me provide a brief background, to clarify the similarities between Glenn Beck and the NSJ / Quislings.

Quisling is a word synomyous with traitor in Norway; it dates to WW II, and is derived from the name of Vidkun Quisling.  The Times in the UK first used the word in the 1940's, writing:

"To writers, the word Quisling is a gift from the gods. If they had been ordered to invent a new word for traitor...they could hardly have hit upon a more brilliant combination of letters. Actually it contrives to suggest something at once slippery and tortuous."

Jingoism is a key component of Beck, and of the manifesto of Breivik, the Norwegian Mass Murderer. Every time I hear the right, including Beck, insisting on our exceptionalism, which appears to posit disproportionate importance on national and individual accomplishments, while unfairly minimizing the accomplishments of other groups of people or countries, in order to create a sense both of inherent superiority and separateness, jingoism comes to mind.  It is the antithesis of a balanced and objective view of history and current events which recognizes both virtues and accomplishments, and faults and failures, in our politics.  Jingoism is an extreme form of nationalism, of pseudo-patriotism, "an excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others – an extreme type of nationalism."

Beck's ignorance of history apparently posits that any camp which focuses on politics, the process of democratic government, and history, was somehow exclusive to the Nazis and the Hitler Youth camps, or is emulating them.  In fact, there is a very LONG history of camps in this country that are formed around an interest in government.  The YMCA, for example, has promoted Youth in Government camps for some 70 years; we have it here in Minnesota.

Here is what their website says about their activities, activities which are similar to those of the youth camp in Norway where the shootings took place:

Minnesota YMCA Youth in Government is a youth-led, experiential learning opportunity that involves 1,800 middle-school and high school students each year. It is a nation-wide program, active in nearly 40 states. Across the country almost 25,000 students attend state Youth in Government conferences each year, with 3,300 adult volunteers and YMCA staff serving as advisors.

Join youth leaders from around the state to debate issues that are important to you.
Listen to delegates with different experiences.
Research public issues and become aware of local, state, national and international concerns.
Accept your civic responsibilities and your leadership role.
Let your voice be heard and get involved in the decision-making process!

Minnesota is among the top programs, nationally, in terms of quality and number of students. 60% of participants and 55% of youth program leaders are girls. Additionally, nearly two-thirds of all eligible students return the next year.

Minnesota YMCA Youth in Government builds a sense of responsibility and passion for issues, the desire to make a difference, citizenship skills, and values in the lives of teens. Ultimately, Youth in Government programs help mold character in students with a strong focus on leadership development and citizenship-building.

The John Birch Society, who I regard as an intolerant, inaccurate, anti-semitic, racist bunch of hate mongers, have had far less worthwhile youth camps, dating back to circa 1970's.  You can read about what THEY do promoting a very different agenda at their camps, in contrast to the excellent program provided by the YMCA, here.  Their agenda sounds a lot more like the hateful indoctrination of the Nazi Youth Camps than the YMCA programs.

But to add massive hypocrisy to the inaccuracies of Glenn Beck's rant that included the reference to Hitler Youth indoctrination, is this pile of steaming dung - Glenn Beck's own 912 project is hosting camps around the country this month, promoting an equally repugnant political philosophy, and once again, in the Beck tradition, ignoring or avoiding any accurate factual content whatsoever.  You can read about THOSE youth camps here.

Beck as usual, when criticized for his heinous comments, tries to defend the indefensible.  He misrepresents himself a victim when he is in fact the perpetrator of something terrible.  I can think of nothing more insensitive, more hurtful, more disrespectful to the terrible loss to the people in Norway, than a reference to Hitler while talking about the murder of innocent, unarmed children enjoying a camp experience.  Apparently Beck is all to ill-informed of the terrrible price that country paid in fighting the Nazis, of the extraordinary courage and perseverance they demonstrated in World War II.  For those unaware of it in detail, I would encourage you to read up on their use of the humble paper clip, invented in Norway, as a symbol of that resistance.

It is not surprising to me that Glenn Beck would look to make a link that would provide some justification to the horrendous actions of Anders Breivik.  Breivik espoused many of the same extreme right wing positions as Glenn Beck.  To Glenn Beck, and the people who admire and follow him, to his fellow right wing nuts, these children were guilty of something terrible, even criminal in their minds; they were guilty of having a different, more liberal set of beliefs.  Beck clearly doesn't have a problem with kids attending camps about government, or even camps that conduct indoctrination into the most extreme right wing hate-mongering politics.  Glenn Beck has a problem with what he perceives as kids having fun at a liberal camp for kids, enough so that he has to dredge up an association with Nazis.  Never mind that he is factually wrong; Beck doesn't let facts get in the way of his hatred, his prejudice, or his intolerance.  Most of all, he doesn't let facts get in the way of his fundamental inhumanity.  He even denies the content of his own statements, that are recorded, including the one where he makes a comparison that the Norway camp "is a little like" the Hitler Youth camps.  Stating that one thing is 'like' another thing IS making a comparison.

Beck should have the grace to retract his comments, and to apologize - to his fellow Americans for being such an embarrassment to us, to the citizens of Norway for his appalling statements, and to the world for being such an ignorant, intolerant hypocrite.

If you have the stomach for it, here are the videos of Beck, his first statement, and then his cry-baby whine about being a victim.  Beck is a disgrace to this country, and to everything good for which it stands.  Beck is the enemy of history, of fact-based politics, and of genuinely representative government.   Most of all, Beck is the enemy of truth, of what is best about America, of basic human dignity and decency, and so are those who follow him.  His statements about the tragedy in Norway expose the reality beneath his facade.

What Beck did not anticipate, is this - that his rants, and the actions of kind differing only in degree from Breivik have had the opposite results intended.  In Norway, this anti-Muslim response resulted in exactly the kind of rising to the occasion that Norway has so often demonstrated before to attack, one we in the U.S. should all emulate, one that is the opposite of Glenn Beck's hateful hypocrisy and ignorance  (from the AP and Boston Herald):

Tens of thousands of Norwegians have rejected the suspect’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, laying thousands of flowers around the capital in mourning. Entire streets were awash in flowers, and Oslo’s florists ran out of roses.

Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere attended a packed memorial Tuesday in the World Islamic Mission mosque in Oslo. After the ceremony, Pakistani-born Imam Najeeb ur Rehman Naz said the massacre had brought Norwegian residents of all backgrounds closer together.

"Everyone realizes that terrorism and this kind of activity doesn’t have anything to do with any religion," he told the AP. "They are individuals who can be found in any community who don’t represent the majority at all."

Let this tragedy and the thinking, or what passes for thinking, by Beck and the rest of the political right be the catalyst for real thinking, for questioning Islamophobia, and for repudiating it.  Their comments betray them for who they really are, hateful, fearful, ignorant hypocrites.  Emulating Norway's response is the best way to find some value in the terrible tragedy in Norway, and to honor their dead.  Breivik's actions produced the opposite response in Norway to what he intended; let the same be true of Glenn Beck's words, here.