video at link above
Glenn Beck 6/9/10:
The transcript:
Tea parties believe in small government. We believe in returning to the principles of our Founding Fathers. We respect them. We revere them. Shoot me in the head before I stop talking about the Founders. Shoot me in the head if you try to change our government.
I will stand against you and so will millions of others. We believe in something. You in the media and most in Washington don't. The radicals that you and Washington have co-opted and brought in wearing sheep's clothing — change the pose. You will get the ends.
You've been using them? They believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You're going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you.
Of course, Beck has a history of this. See KingOneEye's "Glenn Beck's Top 10 Reasons to Kill Your Congressman." It's no wonder that several of Beck's listeners have already been driven to violence.
Richard Poplawski killed two cops in Pittsburgh. The ADL looked into his background:
Poplawski bought into the SHTF/TEOTWAKI ["the shit hits the fan" and "the end of the world as we know it"] conspiracy theories hook, line and sinker, even posting a link to Stormfront of a YouTube video featuring talk show host Glenn Beck talking about FEMA camps with Congressman Ron Paul.
In August of 2009, a woman was busted casing an Air National Guard base on Long Island, her car a veritable armory of rifles and ammo. Her MySpace page featured several references to Glenn Beck, including a video of Beck saying:
We are coming. We will be heard. We will be represented. You think that we are so busy with our lives that we will never come for you. And we were. But now you've gone and done it. We are the formally silent majority, all of us. Quietly work, pay our taxes, obey the laws, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone – now looking up at you. You have awakened us, and a patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful. It had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far.
The woman responded on her MySpace page:
...we the people. I just saw GlennBeck tell it like it is!
Yes, he was firm and he is talking to congress, for all of us.
...we the people. I just saw Glenn Becks show, now on the 2 am show, missed it at 5 PM today.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Please do re post this video.
He is mad as hell and so are we. He is right and so are we.
He says a copy of the letter he is speaking of, from a grandmother, is on his site
Then there's the Idaho bomb builder back in December.
A self-described militia leader pleaded guilty this week to federal gun charges connected to a grenade manufacturing operation at his trailer in Spirit Lake, Idaho.
Kenneth B. Kimbley Jr., 58, discussed bombing local bridges with an undercover federal agent and made threatening statements toward President Barack Obama, leading investigators last July to seize 20,000 ammunition rounds and several firearms from Kimbley's property, where he and other suspected militia members gathered to construct grenades, according to court documents [...]
Kimbely reportedly described extensive booby traps he'd built and said his militia's purpose "was to resist in the event the government started rounding up the patriots" and to resist foreign invasions or societal breakdowns.
His public defender, Kim Deater, did not return a phone call seeking comment. In court documents, she described Kimbley as a nonthreatening man who has passionate political views.
Though prosecutors have emphasized his militia ties and his dislike for Obama, Kimbley "made absolutely no threats to harm anyone at anytime," Deater wrote in court documents.
"In fact, everything said by Mr. Kimbley is no different than what his idol, TV commentator Glenn Beck, typically states on the air and is protected free speech."
And how about Byron Williams, the would-be Tides Foundation assassin?
"I'm not gonna say anyone is worthwhile," he replies. "I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind. I said, well, nobody does this."
Throughout the interview -- and in a letter I would receive later -- Byron tells me I need to watch Beck's programs from June if I want to learn about the Soros-Obama-Petrobras conspiracy he heatedly described in our earlier conversation [...]
"Think like a conspiracy theorist," Byron tells me during the interview. "Except don't use the word 'theory.' Because the conspiracies are not theories. The official report is the lie; the conspiracy is the truth."
Byron says he thinks Beck has improved in recent months. "I don't think he's a natural newscaster, you know what I mean?" he says. "I look at it more like a schoolteacher on TV, you know? He's got that big chalkboard and those little stickers, the decals. I like the way he does it."
So yeah, don't be surprised when your fans start taking violent action. There's no direct link between the Arizona shooter and Glenn Beck (not yet, anyway), but that doesn't meant that his climate of paranoia doesn't extend beyond his active audience, and to that of their social circles on- and offline. People repeat what they hear -- that's the whole point of "water cooler conversations" and behind "influencer marketing".
Beck has helped create the current climate, and his influence extends far beyond those watching his shows at any given moment in time. The amount of violence he's inspiring is growing, as loathe as people and the media may be in acknowledging it.
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