Glenn Beck: Fake Libertarian!

I think it's pretty amazing how Glenn Beck is being catapulted on this idea that he is somehow a Libertarian. In two days, once here on the forum and once again at work, I've had two people claim that "well he's a Libertarian" during a discussion over politics. To both, I was forced to hold back and calmly state, No, Glenn Beck is a Neocon posing as a Libertarian. Ron Paul is a Libertarian, which is why I support Ron Paul, and detest Glenn Beck.

It's a trend that even seems to be catching on to some fellow Ron Paul supporters, who are gullibly buying into Glenn Beck's manufactured Libertarianism. It's easy to understand why though. During the Bush era, there was no misconception on where Beck stood on the issues. Sure, he may have disagreed with Bush on some things, but for the most part he was "with 'em" more than "against 'em." He may have claimed to have libertarian views but it was easy to spot the underlying Neocon influence. The terrorist are out to get you slant. The let's bomb Iran rhetoric.

Fast foward two years. Beck is no longer with the moderate/liberal CNN and is now emloyed by highly conservative FOX. We have a new president, who happens to be highly liberal. And, lo and behold, Glenn Beck is now pushing this let's start a revolution a la Ron Paul,I'm not a conservative I'm a libertarianist consitutionalist who sees that all of a sudden, the government is corrupt. Excuse me!? Where where you five years ago!? Ah, I remember. Pushing the Neocon agenda, which happens to be the same as the Obama agenda, but that's besides the point.
It's obvious both parties have one goal in mind, to make us hate each other at the expense of our liberties.

According to Glenn Beck:
Ron Paul supporters are terrorist.
The Patriot act was good.
Ron Paul is crazy cook
Ahmadinejad is the next Hitler - which now would be Obama I suppose.
And this is coming from somone who is a "Libertarian!?"



[edit on 10-9-2009 by xEphon]

I'm baffled as to why so many allegedly informed people are taken in by hacks like Beck. It's not a matter of right or left, but of integrity and credibilty.
People say, "yeah but his message is good". His message is whatever he and FOX think is what you want to hear and what gets rating and advertising revenue. Why anyone takes anything he does seriously is beyond me.

reply to post by OldDragger


Agreed.

What gets me is that I was even called a sheep by the person at work I was having this debate with. Needless to say I just about exploded.

Glenn Beck is exactly what Rupert Murdoch wants him to be. A sensationalist who has the ability to drive in ratings by luring in disenfranchised democrats, while stirring up conservatives. He saw the success that Ron Paul had with his grassroots movement and how the universal idea of libertarianism goes beyong party lines and hes trying to capitalize on it.


But I'm sure the rabbit hole goes much deeper than that.

[edit on 10-9-2009 by xEphon]

I'm not going to bother getting into another pointless back and forth about Beck.

All I'll say is the TV Beck that so many people are obsessed with over the past couple of years is largely unknown to his TV fans and his TV critics. It's just a small and recent snapshot of a long period of self examination and personal reflection. If you know the mans personality at all you would realize that the Beck people know now is still very immature and growing as he has been for the past decade or so. His show is his journal. It's very interesting to watch it and him develop.

His radio show is where he's at. If you had been following for the past decade or so you'd have a better understanding of his personality and his character.

The comments and opinions formed from his television shows or clips here and there have no real value. They're petty, fly-by-night, tidbits designed to make those who dislike him on principle feel justified in their shallowly based opinions.

I like him when he's being funny. I cant stand him when he's trying to be 'serious.' I have no vested interest in the man or his show one way or the other and if he disappeard tomorrow my life wouldnt be any different than it is now. I dont even watch his television show and havent been able to listen to the radio show for several months now due to lack of a 3 hour period of having nothing to do.

It's like deciding whether or not to purchase a property on a view from a window. Sure, there's a pile of trash out that window but unless you see the rest of the acreage you cant honestly have an informed opinion.

Since, nobody can travel back in time and listen from the beginning, since none of his critics will bother to start listening, even if they did their opinion has already been formed I dont know why I bother. Guess I'm just bored at work. And he's not a libertarian. He would like to be but he gets hung up on his religious crap. He admits it. He talks about it a lot. Or at least he did when I was still able to listen. It was an interesting conflict and in the long run knowing his conflict, the basic conflict at the root of just about all of our political problems trying to balance liberty with ones own compulsion to shape the world around them as they see fit, will help guide more people to true libertarian ideals.

Good Gawd! Thank you!

I'm so sick of this Glenn Beck hysteria. It really disappoints and perplexes me that people cannot see right through this SOB.

I heard him go on and on about these "tolerance camps" for about 15 minutes. He was flipping out and basically saying they were communist brainwashing camps. I can't remember everything that he said but it just got to be so incredibly outlandish after awhile. How he got to some of the conclusions he did only given the fact that it's a camp designed to teach kids how to treat those that are different with equal respect was just so flabbergasting to me. He was basically saying we shouldn't teach our kids this and it was just another Obama ploy or something. It was so ridiculous.

It bugs me that people are starting get their "news" from pundits, not journalists and then formulating an opinion that mirrors what the pundit says, not on what they think about the matter.

It's like, if an issue comes up, they don't try to get the black and white details and then decide what they think of it themselves. They go straight for the tv/radio dial to see what their favorite pundit thinks about it and then have an opinion about it, not even realizing that the pundit could very well be spinning it his/her own way in order to make it seem one way or another.

I mean seriously...I would be willing to bet that if you asked Jo Schmo on the street to elaborate his feeling on any certain issue, then ask him who his favorite tv/radio political personality is, you could match them up almost 100%.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Honestly, I'm not interested in a back and forth either. This thread is meant to enlighten those who claim that beck is a libertarian; namely, misinformed Ron Paul supporters who are falling victim to his "libertarian" stance.

It is unfortunate though, if as you say, his radio personality is different from his tv program as I would expect someone to be consistent in their message, unless of course, it's all catered for demographics...

Has Glenn Beck ever run for public office? I don't think so.

The last time Ron Paul ran for office, he called himself a Republican...NOT a Libertarian.

So ask yourself again.....Who is the fake Libertarian?

Beck is no different than Hannity, Limbaugh, or O'Reilly. They should all be brought on charges of treason for using there positions of trust to lie and subvert the Constitution and the populi. I'd just be happy if they were run out of town or sent to a dictatorship like they worked so hard to create in this country.

Pretty dumb thread.

Why don't you put some energy into dining the corruption in our Govt and our Banking, oh, kind of like Beck does.

What are you mad that Van Jones quit?

If you are your just a Commie too......................

He is making a difference, just like you can at ATS by bringing light to someone that actually will hurt you. Last time I checked, if you don't like Beck, change the channel.
I guess it might hurt if you have carpal tunnel or something....

reply to post by damwel


That is even a dumber statement than the OP..........

Dumb and Dumber..............

Originally posted by damwel
subvert the Constitution

What are you kidding me

Do you happen to have any evidence of this?

How about a statement or a link?

Nothing? Gee to bad........

Originally posted by damwel
Beck is no different than Hannity, Limbaugh, or O'Reilly. They should all be brought on charges of treason for using there positions of trust to lie and subvert the Constitution and the populi.

Don't like the First Amendment much...do you?

Keep bashing Rush, Beck, Hannity, and I don't know why O'Reilly was included with them, he's about as moderate as you can get. But anyway keep bashing because the more attention they get the better!

reply to post by damwel


If it weren't for those guys, people like me would not know the truth about Van Jones. We would only have the MSM that picks and chooses what they want to cover - which is not the truth. You need to put aside your skewed views and just listen. Just give it a few more years, you'll see differently.

Originally posted by j2000
Pretty dumb thread.

Why don't you put some energy into dining the corruption in our Govt and our Banking, oh, kind of like Beck does.

What are you mad that Van Jones quit?

If you are your just a Commie too......................

He is making a difference, just like you can at ATS by bringing light to someone that actually will hurt you. Last time I checked, if you don't like Beck, change the channel.
I guess it might hurt if you have carpal tunnel or something....

And for all this post dumbness you still found the time to respond to it when you could have just as easily turned the channel as you hypocritically advised me to do.

I'm upset that Van Jones quit? Van Jones? What? I'm still trying to comprehend the logic that would even make that assumption. Oh, I get it. You're implying that I'm an Obama fan even though it's pretty obvious who I support if you actually read my thread.

I'm actually all for ending government corruption, hence my support for Ron Paul.

Originally posted by RRconservative
Has Glenn Beck ever run for public office? I don't think so.

The last time Ron Paul ran for office, he called himself a Republican...NOT a Libertarian.

So ask yourself again.....Who is the fake Libertarian?

He's been a Republican since the 1970's but that didn't stop him from running for president as a Libertarian in 1988. Conservative Libertarianism. Being a republican and being a libertarian are not mutually exclusive unless your a neocon.

[edit on 10-9-2009 by xEphon]

Originally posted by damwel
Beck is no different than Hannity, Limbaugh, or O'Reilly. They should all be brought on charges of treason for using there positions of trust to lie and subvert the Constitution and the populi. I'd just be happy if they were run out of town or sent to a dictatorship like they worked so hard to create in this country.

Interesting. Isn't silencing speech one does not agree with tactics of a dictatorship?


Regardless, it seems his haters are his biggest supporters. I don't see many G. Back fanboy threads, yet there is a veritable cornucopia of, "I hate G. Beck," - yet know everything about him and never miss his show- threads.

Originally posted by xEphon

Originally posted by RRconservative
Has Glenn Beck ever run for public office? I don't think so.

The last time Ron Paul ran for office, he called himself a Republican...NOT a Libertarian.

So ask yourself again.....Who is the fake Libertarian?

He's been a Republican since the 1970's but that didn't stop him from running for president as a Libertarian in 1988. Conservative Libertarianism. Being a republican and being a libertarian are not mutually exclusive unless your a neocon.

[edit on 10-9-2009 by xEphon]

What part of "the last time" didn't you understand?

BTW what happened to all the money Ron Paul Fantasy raised for his Presidential run in 2008?

reply to post by RRconservative

The last time Ron Paul ran for office, he called himself a Republican...NOT a Libertarian.

That's BS. You know damn well that a third party candidate has ZERO chance of winning the President...he ran Republican because it was the only legitimate chance he has. He claims to be for ideals Republicans USED TO ABIDE BY....but now the whole party is ruled by Neo-Cons.

The reason Beck is not a Libertarian...as stated above...he was for the Iraq war...and still is. He was for the Patriot act. NO LIBERTARIAN would EVER be for these things...at least not a real one.

YOu can't decide to abide by the Constitution ONLY WHEN YOU SEE FIT.

That is Beck's failure. He always cries about following the Constitiution...but when he mentions Ron Paul..the one guy who actually tries to abide by it...he calls him a loon.

Beck is a hypocritical Libertarian at best.

reply to post by xEphon


Ron Paul is a Republican. Glenn Beck is a Libertarian.
Ron Paul acts more like a Libertarian.
Glenn Beck - depending on the day - either acts like a fruit loop or a brilliant investigative journalist. It's rather hit or miss with him ...

reply to post by RRconservative

BTW what happened to all the money Ron Paul Fantasy raised for his Presidential run in 2008?

The banks ran out of money after giving it all to McCain and Obama. But that's fine and ok to you....as long as a Neo-con is back in office...life is great.

Oh...and RP also received the most individual donations as a whole from our Military..more than any other REpublican candidate.

Amazing...

[edit on 10-9-2009 by David9176]