I’m far from a fan of the moronic “Glenn Beck,” but look at what this Huffington Post lefty, “Joseph Palermo,” has to say about him:
Yesterday afternoon Glenn Beck and two of his guests argued that Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party were “leftwing”; that “political correctness” led the committed white supremacist, James Von Brunn, to shoot a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC; and that ultimately President Barack Obama is the one responsible for the violence because his “bailouts” and “Socialistic” policies are engendering widespread anger. Beck denounced those who claim he is “churning the pot” because, he says, “the pot is already boiling.”
Seeing this spectacle with subtitles at the gym led me to wonder if there are any laws on the books against using the public airwaves to incite violence. Because that is clearly what Beck is doing. I only caught about ten minutes of the show (about all I can stand) and it was a white reactionary tour de force — incendiary, stupid, and racist.”
Look at the bolded text. This supposed lefty advocate of tolerance is obviously calling for the use of state force–criminal punishment, etc.–against people like Beck who dare to publicly decry the leftist orthodoxy. Despite the fact that Beck’s comments simply sound like the conservative mirror-image of comments of lefties. These guys are out of control.
While it’s still technically legal to voice our opinions, let’s see: what’s wrong with arguing Hitler and the Nazis were leftwing? Of course fascism and naziism are just variants of socialism–institutionalized control of private property rights. What’s wrong with arguing Obama is “socialist”? He is. (So was Bush.) Why is it crazy to suggest that the state’s policies are fomenting anger? They are–in any number of ways. Beck is mistaken to single out Bush II, aka Obama, but it is obvious that the state and its policies: impoverishes us; exacerbates racial strife and bigotry; via its military and conquests and state-worship desensitizes people to violence; via its government schools turns citizens into neurotic, helpless, ignorant drones. Yes, this can lead to acts of violence.
[cross-posted at LRC]
