Glenn Beck: Totally Crazy or Just Batsh*t Insane?

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 1:02 PM on March 13, 2009.

On Wednesday, I mentioned that there had been two terrible mass shootings, one in Germany and one in Alabama, and noted I didn't feel inclined to try to make a political point about either one, especially knowing only the briefest outlines of each incident.

Suffice it to say, professional asshole Glenn Beck doesn't have the same reserve, and, during a conversation with professional douchebag Bill O'Reilly yesterday, he took the opportunity to advance his theory about the murderer in Alabama:

[Transcript below.]
So, according to Glenn Beck, murderous rampages are the inevitable consequence of conservatives not getting what they want. Never mind that we've no idea whether the man in question was a conservative; it's easy enough to presume a white man from Alabama is a conservative just to make the point that his killing spree is all liberals' fault.

Pretty dim view of his fellow conservatives Beck's advancing there (which is to say nothing of his opinion of liberals, but that's hardly news). He's unapologetically suggesting they're borderline nuts and on a hair-trigger, pushed beyond the edge of sanity in less than 100 days of a presidential administration that doesn't pander to their every whim—and yet his contention is that liberals treat conservatives like shit. Interesting. Anyone remember Beck being concerned that liberals would go on a death bender during the eight years of Bush rule when liberals weren't just "disenfranchised" and not being listened to or heard, but called traitorous? Yeah, me neither. But he'll cast conservatives as unstable fuckos without hesitation to score a dubious political point. (With whom? The unstable fuckos. Great plan.)

You know you're engaging in full-tilt fuckery when Bill freaking O'Reilly is the voice of reason.

(And, by the way, I just love hearing the man who stuck a picture of my face in a sniper's crosshairs while he told demonstrable lies about me and demanded I be fired from my job talking about fighting the good fight without hurting other people in the process. Fucking hilarious. Asshole.)

BECK: So, the shooting in Alabama.

O'REILLY: Yeah.

BECK: Did you hear how they described this guy? I mean, it was a typical, you know, "he was a loner. He was quiet. I didn't know." I mean, it was really— But what they really described, when they really got down into it, what they said was, "here's a guy who felt that he had been wronged. He didn't feel comfortable talking to anybody. He was disgruntled and everything else." And then he went out and shot a bunch of people. As they were describing him—and they said, you've got to go, now more than ever, you've got to start talking to people. You have to start connecting with people because we're going into hard times yadda yadda yadda. As I'm listening to the description— First of all, this guy's a psycho. Clearly, he's a psycho.

O'REILLY: Right.

BECK: But as I'm listening to him, I'm thinking about the American people that feel disenfranchised right now. That feel like nobody's hearing their voice. The government isn't hearing their voice. Even if you call, they don't listen to you on both sides. If you're a conservative, you're called a racist. You want to starve children. Yadda yadda yadda.

O’REILLY: Sure.

BECK: And every time they do speak out, they're shut down by political correctness. How do you not have those people turn into that guy?

O'REILLY: Well, look, nobody, even if they're frustrated, is going to hurt another human being unless they're mentally ill, I think.

BECK: I think pushed to the wall; you don't think people get pushed to the wall?

O'REILLY: Nah, I don't believe in this snap thing. I think that that kind of violence is inside you and it's a personality disorder. But I do understand the frustration of people. But it's called fighting the good fight. That's what it's called, fighting the good fight. You stand up for your belief system, you tell people what you believe, you take the slings and arrows—both you do, I do, we have to take it. But you fight. You fight for your country. You fight for your family. You fight for your dignity. And that's it. And you don't hurt other people in the process. You just fight the good fight.

Tagged as: glenn beck, shooting, alabama, crazy, asshat, ignorant, stupid, not smart

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.