Got it.

I swear when I feel it’s appropriate. Sorry if certain words in this language offend you or make you convinced the person who employs them has ‘lost it’.

Whatever.

And your summary is full of shit too. I haven’t bothered to tear down Beck, but that’s because so many sideline conversations were much more interesting.

He has a laundry list of much more nasty and moronic things than ridiculing a woman for the death of her baby.

I have not employed a double standard here (I’m begining to think you’re a moron too).

I disagreed with WFB, but I never thought he was a moron. He was in all likelihood much smarter than I’ll ever be.

Same with Chomsky. Though on most points I agree with Noam. He’s also smarter than I and probably smarter than WFB was. None of which has to do with the degree to which I agree with either of them on a given point.

I’m smarter than Glen Beck. Of that I’m quite convinced. He may be smarter than you are, but I don’t for a second believe he’s even in the same class as WFB or Chomsky.

I would even hazard a guess that you are a bit stupid and/or naive to assume Beck fights in the same weight class.

Usually, in my experience, once someone starts dropping F-bombs they’ve lost it and are no longer worth the trouble. But here goes one more try.

From what, may I ask, does your hatred of Beck spring? Have you listened to his radio show, watched him on TV? I strongly suspect not, as we have one, exactly one specific incident after, what? How many paragraphs?

`He mocked a woman who had a miscarriage.’ I’d never heard of this, so I Googled it. It was decades ago. And there’s apparently no audio or a transcript, it’s hearsay.

That’s pathetic Man. Absolutely pathetic. This is IT, really? He’s been on the air how many hours a day on radio and TV, and this what you come up with??

Why not just admit the obvious? You hate Beck for his views, and admire Chomsky for his. (In case you missed it, my `attack’ on Chomsky was an attempt to show your double standard). And, of course, to justify to yourself the righteousness of your cause, you label Beck’s/Limbaugh’s/Palin’s fans `morons’ because — you must. Or your entire emotional investment in Leftism is called in to question.

Beck’s no more a moron than Chomsky or Al Franken or Michael Moore or Ed Shultz, and their respective fans — each of them — aren’t morons either. Depending on your point of view, they’re right, or they’re wrong. And that’s all.

Especially his apparent defense of holocaust deniers. Look a bit further and you’ll see that he defended the rights of free speech of those who published such sentiments. Chomsky himself is of Jewish descent and did not share the belief of those whose rights he (in)famously defended.

And really? You think it’s a fair comparison to put Chomsky in the same class as Beck? That’s just laughable.

——–

The other fallacy you seem so ready to employ here is that if you’re a fan of Glen Beck, you are a rational conservative who believes in small government.

The relationship cannot be supported. Most, if not all of Beck’s fans probably say they want small government, but not all supporters of small government are Beck fans.

You have made a leap of sorts by insinuating that I have called those in favor of small government “morons”. I have made no such statement.

———

However, to take that tangent very briefly I will say that these social conservatives hit the pause button on that small gov thing when it comes time to suggest the government should interfere with the freedom of religion.

Should the government step in to protect the ‘rights’ of parents to delude their children into believing the christian creation myth? “Sure” say these same ‘small government’ conservatives…

Should the government promote prayer in schools and restrict the rights of homosexuals or other groups the religious majority feel should be ostricised?

“Sure, even if it takes more police and more police powers. Let’s start enforcing some of those other 10 commandments while we’re at it. Start with adultery!”…

———

To sum up here, if you’re not prepared to even look into Beck and claim you know nothing about him, then you have no business telling me I’m wrong about him being a moron.

I suggest you do some research and reply to the subject at hand.

Perhaps you could provide a counter-example to Beck being a moron.

I mean, I could give you one: he’s certainly media savvy. He garnered over 35million dollars last year. So he’s good at fleecing people and getting them to watch him.

I argue that doesn’t make him smart, just able to manipulate a bunch of morons even duller than he is.

So give me something to work with here. Let’s take the time, for example when Beck called up the wife of a rival on the air just days after she had a miscarriage and mocked her, saying her husband couldn’t even have a baby right.

To me that is a wicked combination of being both moronic and cruel. Only a fucking moron would do something like that… and only an equally moronic person would follow or defend this shit-stain of a human being.

Let’s try an abridged version. )

I’m not buying your assertion that WFB wouldn’t like Beck. Obviously we’ll never know, but he liked Rush, and no, that doesn’t mean Rush has WFBs IQ. They were friends, and WFB was a fan of his.

You mentioned Chomsky, so let’s do a little thought experiment.

One of Chomsky’s best known quotes is: “In comparison to the conditions imposed by US tyranny and violence, East Europe under Russian rule was practically a paradise” (To say nothing of his truly epic “I see no antisemitic implications in denial of the existence of gas chambers, or even denial of the holocaust.’)

Now Drew, is this (first) quote a lie, an exaggeration, fear-mongering? Does this quote attempt to elicit an emotional response?

Are Chomsky’s fans morons?

Does Chomsky solicit arguments against his thesis in his books?

My overall point is you’re welcome to criticize Beck all you want, as I said I’m not that familiar with him, though I’ve never seen anything from him, from afar, that’s well outside the mainstream. But you dismiss his fans at your own risk. At some point you’re going to have to deal with the arguments of the small-government Right, and belittling them won’t help you.

I don’t, nor will I, post lengthy justifications for every opinion I have (even if I weren’t so opinionated).

Yes, I believe Buckley would distance himself from Beck. Even if I fail to prove the man is a moron, that is a leading hypothesis and is supported by his constant pandering to the LCD.

Buckley would also likely have bristled at Beck’s unethical behavior, particularly his shady involvement with Goldline

Buckley provides contrast to Beck’s technique of hyperbole, exaggeration, and outright lies- instead choosing to construct soundly reasoned arguments.

A lot can be learned by looking at the way Buckley’s opponents addressed his position…

–another contrast is WFB invited his opposition on his show where they were respectfully given a chance to present their side- Beck just gushes in monologue with the occasional maudlin crying–

… The counter argument against WFB, from the likes of say, Noam Chomsky, would focus on the points of the argument, refinement of one or more of his premises, attempting to invalidate his conclusion, etc.

Opponents of Beck have no such structure to attack. The valid response to his statements is to point out that he (Beck) is fear-mongering, exaggerating and VERY often, outright lying.

Again, I’m not (yet) saying he does these things, I’m pointing out that this is what Beck’s opponents call out over and over.

Not because they’re being underhanded or playing dirty. Some are the same folks who matched wits with WFB.

The fact is, Beck presents very few, if any reasoned arguments; choosing instead to attempt to provoke an emotional response and sell more soap for Fox News and find more rubes to fuel his own gold scam.

I can’t say I know a lot about Beck, and I’m not sure I’m in a position to defend his fans as I don’t think I know any. But let me ask. You said you read WFB, do you think Buckley would find anything Beck has said or done beyond the pale? That he’d find Beck’s fans moronic?
What rankled me was the very dismissive smear of thousands (surely it’s more). I see that a lot. It’s lazy.

Absolutely love their pie chart of “things I’d rather have than a bouquet of sharpened pencils…”

People in search of the “best diet” are doomed from the start.

Diets do NOT work. What does work is making lifestyle changes that you can live with.

The only thing that works is eating a healthy, balanced and varied diet (limiting processed foods and foods that are very dense in calories and fats), getting plenty of liquids and exercising regularly.

THAT works and is really the only thing that works. Going on a restrictive calorie diet for a short period of time, only to return to bad eating habits later will INCREASE your ability to gain and retain excess body fat.

It’s a bit more complex than that, but that is the heart of the solution– the rest is just detail.