Glenn Beck (7/25/11, via Mediaite, 7/25/11) explains on his radio show why the right-wing Norway terror suspect is what we call left-wing here in America:
This was one of the episodes where I showed the railroad tracks that were different than America. In America, the left railroad track is gigantic government—it could be Communist or Fascist, it doesn’t matter, it’s giant government. The other side of the track is anarchy or very, very small government. So that’s the left and right here in America. The Left and Right in Europe, because, once they got rid of the kings, they didn’t get “We the People,” they had to replace it with another strong government. And that’s where Fascism and Communism came from. That’s your left and right. Fascism on the right; Nazis. And Communism on the left. And there are variations on both of those theories, Fascism and Communism, left and right. This guy, the shooter, is from the right-wing, different than our right-wing. It is still big government.
Just to give an example of how Anders Behring Breivik’s politics are not completely different from right-wing politics in the United States, in the same radio broadcast, Beck shared his feelings about the victims of the Norwegian shooting spree:
As the thing started to unfold and there was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth. Who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing.
So the kids who were massacred in Norway were kind of like Hitler Youth. Which is to say they were kind of going to grow up, take over the world, impose a totalitarian dictatorship and commit genocide. What’s the rational thing to do with people like that, if no one else is going to stop them?
This is a fairly standard argument for Beck, with the steps one should take to stop the Nazi-like menace usually left unspecified. For example, he repeatedly portrayed the Tides Foundation, a fairly obscure funding group, as the secret organization “behind it all…involved in the nasty of the nastiest” (9/29/09). On his July 13, 2010, show, he presented Tides as being behind a plot to “kill white babies”—suggesting that it might soon be too late to stop it.
And a few days later, on July 17, Glenn Beck fan Byron Williams set out with his arsenal to try to wipe out the Tides Foundation staff, much as Breivik went to exterminate the “Hitler Youth” summer campers. Unlike Breivik, Williams didn’t make it to his target; he was arrested after a shoot-out with police instead.
No doubt Williams, in Beck’s mind, isn’t a real right-winger either.
Interesting (there are other words I could use) how Beck’s apocalyptic rantings aren’t viewed as connected to Williams’ attempted terrorist act in the eyes of the National Security State ™, yet comments and actions by those who are unalterably opposed to such acts in reaction to actual oppression have become grounds for prosecution or other legal sanction on that basis, isn’t it?
I’m not sure what to say about whether there’s legal culpability at some level in this instance, as there’s often tension between free speech rights and the right of society to discourage reckless behavior which can encourage harm to others, but there’s no question that the legal system is perniciously perverted when those who simply demand justice are labeled “terrorist allies” and subjected to the draconion laws of the land, is there?
Even if I buy into the weeper’s binary, fascists vs commies, view of Europeans (which I don’t)…He gets his labeling wrong…The shooter was into white identity politics, worrying about the “mongrelization” of his own country…He’s the Nazi in this metaphor….Apologies for going Godwin here, but Beck started it….
‘LL -Beck is in some alternate reality at the news corp, where the make the news they like!- If only they had reporters to field- Or at least read the wire stories.
Seems to be part of a concerted push on the right to reconfigure the traditional political spectrum into a sort of mobius strip. We’re starting to see phrases like “reactionary leftists” and “fascist socialists.” I guess the ultimate aim is to reduce the scope of discourse to the most simple of binaries: Them and Us.
In all of this, there seems to be one word missing that any Norwegian would understand, even if we have forgotten. Breivik is a Quizling. The kids in the Labor Party camp are the ideological, if not genealogical, descendents of the bulk of the Norwegian underground that carried on the fight against Hitler during the occupation. The corporate media has obscured this by omission in their reporting.
The problem with the Breivik-as-Nazi theory is that Breivik is pro-Jewish and pro-Israeli. And everyone who discusses politics with correspondents across the “pond” understands that the terms “right” and “left” and “conservative” and “liberal” have different meanings on different continents. In fact, the people we call “neo-conservatives” in North America are known as “neo-liberals” elsewhere.
AEthelred, the purpose of the “traditional political spectrum” WAS to reduce discourse to us-vs-them. If you self-identify as leftist, your opponents must be right-wing, and vice-versa. In fact, political ideologies are multi-dimensional, and the parameters of what-is-which change with each new generation.
If I remember correctly, Jarod Loughner was misidentified as a right wing extremist by the media hypsters, and they clamed up when the truth came out, that he was more left than right.
I was reading on Bridgot Bardot recently, and she is a “well known” left wing activist, and she has been arrested 3 times in France for hate crimes against Muslims, and she was fined and could get jail time. Her crime was hate speech, thank God we are still allowed free speech here.
Beck at one point identifies Fascism and Communism as left-wing (left-wing here is a synonym for “big government”); then he offers a more mainstream analysis (Fascism is right-wing, Communism is left-wing); then he seems to identify Fascism as a left-wing project and Communism as right-wing (“fascism and communism. left and right”). There is such fluidity in these terms with Beck – their meanings change over the course of one paragraph!
@vanhellslinger: Jarod Loughner was NOT “more left than right.” He was anti-abortion, an atheist, anti-Democratic party, a nihilist, a misogynist, hated George W. Bush, a conspiracy theorist, a Truther, a 2012er, etc. But not “more left than right.”
This is what happens when an ignorant simpleton is given huge amounts of money and air-time because he’s got a talent for self-promotion. Beck’s animus regarding “The Left” in general and “Progressives” in particular seems to arise from his belief (quite accurate on this point at least) that progressives would like to tax his huge fortune in a more, uh, progressive way. This is driving him nuts, literally, and when this is coupled with his fantastic ignorance about both American and world history and culture, well, we get his racist, lunatic ravings. I’ve encountered more than a few jackasses like him before (in bars, of course), and the world-view of the ignorant is depressingly the same.
If there is one thing that has come out of the massacre of youth politicians in
Norway it is the need for a more sober and cautious language of respect, love and
inclusion and which does not increase alienation and feed and encourage sick
extremists or incite violence. The political mass murder was a product of our
militarized culture of weapons and violence – to build a culture of peace,
disarmament and non-violence is the only realistic road to human survival.
Fredrik S. Heffermehl, Oslo
Lawyer, author of “The Nobel Peace Prize. What Nobel really wanted.”
Beck espouses nothing except himself. This is a man who is not in touch with reality; who prefers to squander his mind in biased, prejudicial, and fact-less musings. He’s scary because of the people who listen to his diatribes. I am 61 years old; just old enough to hear and listen to the radio–and then to television–during the McCarthy hearings. Glenn Beck is as bad as it gets. Someone needs to shut this man up, take away his funds, force him to work for minimum wage, all the while looking into the eyes of people who are needing him. He couldn’t do it. He would fold up and whither like the blowhard he is. We need consensus, not an attitude of “my way or the highway.” That just doesn’t work anymore.
Alas, Mr. Hefffermehl- Beck could could NEVER pretend to understand or speak the “sober and cautious language” of inclusion…. and maintain an income in inverse proportion to his IQ.
This, from a (corporate) fascist, who would sell anything for the right price (soul be damned). He has no allegiance to this country, 95% of its people, or this world. In summary: Cranick Fire Fund Bedevils Glenn Beck http://wp.me/phRi4-y5
Good for you, Shirley Turner. You are right on all points. When I wondered aloud why so many ordinary, working people voted against their own natural instincts and values. I was told that they hoped to become very, very wealthy so they didn’t want to vote against their chances to become so. I think this is complete nonsense. If a working person invents something or starts a business and becomes successful, great for him (generally unlikely these days) – but does he really need to become obscenely rich to the detriment of the rest of our country? And then avoid paying his proper taxes and harm the very country that educated and encouraged him in his success.
When you make the logical inference that Glenn Beck, and his ardent fans, are Nazis at heart, all the oddly shaped pieces in his dialectical jigsaw puzzle start to form a discernible picture.
The Nazi Party was part of the Weimar government. It was anything but a loyal opposition: it did everything it could, little of it legal, to bring the government down. The Nazis were eager to destroy the government, iincluding creating an atmosphere of perpetual crisis and spouting outrageous lies.
A loyal opposition party would never use a routine financial maneuver (raising the debt ceiling) as a pretext to destroy the full faith and credit of the government.
In office from 2001 to 2009, the Republicans went after every New Deal institution with a vengeance. Dick Cheney argued vigorously for a “unitary presidency” that concentrated all power in the Executive, leaving the legislative and judicial branches as mere window trimmings. The Bush Justice Dept., the nation’s top legal agency, went after every state’s attorney who didn’t do its POLITICAL bidding. Now Rep. govts. across the land are going after teachers and public employees because they are unionized–to destroy the unions and the union movement is the goal. Nazis fought the unions before they took power. Then, they finished the job fast.
I’ll sum it up with a Q and A:
“What’s the difference between the Rep.Party and the Nazi party before it captured Gemany?” Answer: the names.
Caught you again FAIR……Well first this article starts out calling this madman” right wing”.As if that explains his madness.He was not right wing by any stretch of the imagination.He was an insane zealot with a crooked ax to grind against Islam.FAIR and the lib press is quick to use the term but loath to use it when describing Muslim terrorists who are in fact terrorists (for their warped version) of the Muslim faith.That said…
This is a misrepresentation of Glens show that day.He rightly pointed out that due to this story he found out that this camp exists…..And it gave him the “willies”.A socialist camp set up for Norway’s elite. For the children of the richest and most connected families. Something troubling there if true. Imagine if we had such a camp.Call it tea party campgrounds. Only the wealthiest families need apply. Only the children of the most powerful may attend.It costs a fortune.The children of all our presidents sit among the other uber -children.Nah ……FAIR and its bloggers would not say anything along that same bent that GLEN did on his show.Im laughing here.Because you know and i know…..
Glen ?????Love him or hate him he hits the mark more than most.
In response to Michael e, you’re assuming that Glen Beck has a grasp of the facts he does not, he makes it up as he goes along, whatever will fit his ideology, that protects his status and the status of his class. In short, he is the mouth piece of the rich who suppress us the rest. Until you realise that we have no chance of escaping their grip. Wake up
Simon Im as we speak- matching Glens predictions against the presidents a year ago today. Want to know who is right?I ask you to do the same then call Glen a dumb ass.
The rich are not a class,and they are not suppressing anyone or anything. That is liberal nonsense.
Lets talk about the political class though for a moment.Obama just gave his top 20 staffers raises this year that average 48%!Just let that sink in.Rich people make their own way Simon.All those i know work 14 hour days ,sometimes 6 days a week.The tax payer is not paying their way.You are being led by the village idiot who is a monumental hypocrite.
I hope someday you Simon become wealthy.You are probably a good person.When that day comes tell me if you get any memos to join the evil rich club.You wont.It is a fable
Glen Beck never had an original thought in his life. He is a puppet. Get rid of him and they’ll find someone else to spout the same lies. It’s the rank and file learning the goose step that concerns me. People who believe him and defend him, against all evidence.