First Time Watching Glenn Beck

Posted December 17th, 2009 at 7:04 pm by Matt Chepeleff

I’ve been watching Glenn Beck for the the first time for about ten minutes now and I’m speechless.  Knowing millions of people watch this seriously concerns me for a couple of reasons.  I just don’t understand the disconnect from reality and the massive generalizations they get away with.  Worse, they overlook such key components of issues in an effort to serve the points they’re trying to make that they actually distort reality.

Now I suppose from a pure entertainment point of view anything goes – but this program has the words Fox News spinning in the bottom left corner at all times – and I just don’t believe most people can separate what one part of the screen says from what the talking head in the center is preaching.  I say preaching very intentionally.  I think this is very intentional and calculated though.

Back to Beck though: So far he’s said that health care reform is unconstitutional.  He’s arguing that the government shouldn’t force anyone to purchase something from private companies.  Instead of discussing how this would be unconstitutional, shouldn’t we be discussing why the right to health care hasn’t already been added to the constitution.  How is this show and/or network getting away with arguing any individual in this country doesn’t deserve such a basic right.  I just don’t get it.  It makes me so angry.

Then he went on to complain that all the progressives (“communists”) want to import European ideals and how that’s such a bad idea.  But he’s generalizing so grossly when he says we’re creating a European socialist utopia by reforming health care or working on climate bills.  He went on to discuss the lack of stability in Europe over the last century and asked why we want that.  What in the world does stability have to do with health care or climate improvement measures?  No one is asking to bring that instability across the pond.  Some of us can accept that Europeans can develop better ideas once in a while.

I think it’s ironic that the instability he rails against is exactly what his show is creating by introducing so much fantasy and misinformation to millions everyday.  And back to by question about what stability has to do with health/climate reform….I think I can answer that, because if we do what these right wing nut-jobs want, health care costs will consume our federal spending.  Just don’t tell the right these rising costs might cut into defense spending one day.  That’ll be entertainment!

The most amusing part of the right wing and health care reform is that they’re being played by the insurance lobbies because interests are, for now, aligned.  The lobbies are truly only loyal to their revenue streams – and right now they’ve accomplished all their goals by stripping out any chance of a public option.  As this (non) reform bill stands now, the insurance companies stand to make a ton more money.  So much of this agenda has been driven through the right.

Now back to health care: I’d rather see a single payer system personally.  This current crap is really only good for one thing – and it’s not reform – it’s investment returns.  If this all goes through as it stands now I’d like to invest heavily in health insurance so I get something out of this.  I guess you could say it’d be joining the dark side, but at least I’d get a piece of the billions being raped out of consumers pockets…all for health care.  Thinking this way makes me want to correct a previous sentence and say that Wall Street is controlling the health care debate – because it’s their profit expectations and greed that is driving the insurance companies to lobby so hard.  They’re probably, even if indirectly, pulling the strings.

But since I’m on the other side of the fence from Beck and the right on health care, he’d call me a communist or socialist.

Alright, that’s the end of my ranting for now, I have work to get back to.  I just get so angry that this debate about reforming health care has developed into a situation where the Democrats are on the defensive from such illogical, politically self-serving, and often fantasy-based attacks.  I guess there’s another irony here now that I think of it:  I do think the far-right has good intentions at heart, but these tactics are more damaging to our beloved country than I think they’re aware of.

P.s. What’s with all the buy gold ads – that’s all I’ve seen for commercials!