Glenn Beck, Art Historian
I don't watch the FoxNews pundit Glenn Beck on TV...I get most of my exposure to him from snippets that other people post or when Jon Stewart is poking fun at him, which means that I have a view that's already been filtered and, as such, isn't a fair or balanced means for judging the man. But when I got word [h/t Ondine] that he was taking a turn as an art historian, well, I had to see that for myself:
Now I'll confess to not truly knowing whether Mr. Beck's show is presented as entertainment or serious commentary. I've never watched the show (and I have a low tolerance for the chronic disingenuousness that defines the FoxNews channel in general). As entertainment, it's hysterical. As commentary, it's more or less on an intellectual par with sites like this.
Indeed, if Mr. Beck were truly interested in alerting Americans to the fascism- and communism-flavored art and architecture "hiding in plain sight" across this land, he needn't lurk around the offices of his employer's competition, he need send his cameramen no further than to see the WPA murals in just about any small town Post Office or the sculpture and architecture all around the Nation's Capital.
I do wish the right wing could decide whether the Democrats are Communists, Socialists, or Fascists. It's hard to make sense of their arguments when they insist on conflating the three.
UPDATE: Tyler is already all over it...and apparently Jerry Saltz is encouraging Beck to run with this new-found impulse to give Robert Hughes a run for his money.
Now I'll confess to not truly knowing whether Mr. Beck's show is presented as entertainment or serious commentary. I've never watched the show (and I have a low tolerance for the chronic disingenuousness that defines the FoxNews channel in general). As entertainment, it's hysterical. As commentary, it's more or less on an intellectual par with sites like this.
Indeed, if Mr. Beck were truly interested in alerting Americans to the fascism- and communism-flavored art and architecture "hiding in plain sight" across this land, he needn't lurk around the offices of his employer's competition, he need send his cameramen no further than to see the WPA murals in just about any small town Post Office or the sculpture and architecture all around the Nation's Capital.
I do wish the right wing could decide whether the Democrats are Communists, Socialists, or Fascists. It's hard to make sense of their arguments when they insist on conflating the three.
UPDATE: Tyler is already all over it...and apparently Jerry Saltz is encouraging Beck to run with this new-found impulse to give Robert Hughes a run for his money.
Labels: art history, politics
posted by Edward_ at
8:20 AM
15 Comments:
Edward,
I couldn't go further than minute and half. C.Beck is just another TV clown, I'm sorry to see news in such a bad shape. Comedians become serious people and get the best scoop in some factoid created by the factory of cookie news. But all in the name of the distraction.
Anyway, I receive last night an email about National Endowment for the Arts, disguise as a news about Obamanoids using public money to financial propose in propaganda for his administration. I get suspicious when I realize the source: Fox News...
This will be a long journey into the night and is just the beginning.
Why thing need to be like that?
I'm always asking this,
and I remember having discussions with my dad, for him everything that come out of the box is kind truth. Mostly of people will be seduced but the box anyway.
Carlos
Here are a few connections he missed:
Home Depot: It has hammers.
Agway: It has sickles.
Communist collusion between the construction industry and agriculture?
Peter Paul and Mary: "If I had a Hammer"
Blood disease: Sickle cell anemia
Communist collusion beteween the music industry and medicine?
Baking soda: What's the frequency, Nikita? Weed Wackers: A contemporary sickle? Hammer toes? Stay tuned for Part 2 of "Communism: Hidden in Plain Sight."
P.S. My word verification is "logic."
That guy is a hoot. Let's see - Rockefeller, Mussolini, hammer & sickle - can the Trilateral Commission be far behind?
Oh, and see this part of the picture over here? It looks like a little hill? That, my friends, is the Grassy Knoll.
Progressives, Facist, Communists...you can't figure out what they have in common other than Glen Beck on a evening stroll through his one track mind?
I get it; the conservatives are the voice of Reason, not prone to knee jerk reactions, no heart on sleeve emotionalism, just cold rational (but compassionate and cajoling) Reason.
The best way to appreciate Glen Beck is that he is a motivational speaker, a release valve for white entitled rage. News for people who envy quiche eating pablum puking liberals.
The conservatives (US) are well known for baiting the humorless liberals (THEM). This demonstrates the liberal lack of emotional distance from the adult world (US) of hard headed choices - triage in on the battlefield. Superfund sites so that children in Somalia may have AIDS drugs. Tactical nukes in Rwanda (THEM) so that the machette wielding children of King Leopold will calm their shit down. Firewalls against genocide.
These are the choices that real men make.
"Progressives" (THEM) are emotional, childlike, prone to irrational tantrums and absolutism.
A culture of entitlement and free lunches. They want to take what you have away from you and give it to your enemy. The list goes on.
Glen Beck is definitely disingenuous it oozes from every pore and projects from his demeanor - part of his appeal I suppose to those who think every politician is a crook and every citizen is out to screw the other guy(look up the video of him crying on cue). A liar on your side (have you talked to a fan of Glen Beck? They probably run the gammut from cretinous to slightly above average).
Glen Beck is professionally blind to his straw house (did I just call him a pig?), but he does represent psychological insight into the mindset of the "conservative" - his audience of millions. How tyrannical must their fathers have been? Or rather too liberal? How disenfranchised must their cognitive dissonance make them feel? Inadequate? Downtrodden? It bears discussion.
Or am I too liberal? To progressive? Perhaps Glen Beck is a dangerous subversive, a real heavy hitter, a man of the people with the toungue of a snake and the mind of a monkey. His followers sheep, his mission, the apocalypse. Never misunderestimate a demagogue.
That's so weird since it was Gov. Rockefeller that tore down the mural that was commissioned by Diego Rivera b/c he thought it was too 'communist.'
Jerry Saltz reaction: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/09/new_york_senior_art_critic_jer.html
FOX
FUX
Joanne - your material is brilliant - u should write for the Daily Show!
Damn that commy Sickle Cell Anemia! It's a conspiracy!
That's pretty funny, all right. I particularly like the oh-so-effective propaganda that 'no-one ever notices'.
David,
Thanks for the kind words. Rumor has it that Beck has begun an in-depth investigative report on M.C. Hammer, Armand Hammer, hammer sharks, and just to be safe, hams and Hummers. No word yet on whether he's going to go after the Grim Reaper.
New facebook group 'Art Historians Against Glenn Beck' http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=139939019328
I know this clown is nowhere representative of Americans nonetheless, as a European, having watched & listened to him for 3 minutes, I got a cold shiver down the spine. How is it possible that such an evident semi-illiterate can be given air-space & even worse, that presumably there exists an audience for his particular sort of garbage ? Whilst most of the world was pleased to see Obama take the Presidency there still persists the awareness that America remains the greatest threat to harmony in the world. Not only does your society seem to produce dangerous people it even offers them the chance to gain a sort of perverted credibility. America scares me.
I'm a loser baby
so why don't you kill me?
"Im a loser baby
so why don't you kill me?"
It's taken me a moment to know whether to reply to this remark or not but in the end it comes down to a moral obligation to make a response.
Firstly, the life of another is perhaps taken a little differently in Europe. In spite of a groundswell of support for the death penalty after certain heinous acts are publicised we do not kill criminals, using the law as a shelter.
I'm English but I've lived in France for some years now and yet I still find it offensive to see firearms carried by the police as an extension of their everyday uniform.
To speak out against Beck's diatribe is an absolute obligation. European history has been littered with Commisars & Gauleiters and it takes no genius to recognise a would-be aspirant to their ranks. The style of delivery; disinformation; the warping of facts to promote a particular political view-point
were all there.
I apologise to everyone for the above but silence can sometimes be construed as collusion.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. so tired of all politicians they care only about one thing, themselves, they create divisiveness.... I toe no political line they are all snakes!
we need a third party, don't be a dupe and play in the these politicians hands, you are only a puppet to them.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home