Saturday, March 13, 2010

Glenn Beck and Conspiracy Theories

Contrairimairi sent me this link on the Grand Delusion blog concerning Glenn Beck. The writer makes several good points. He should have stopped at his discussion of the Fed. Claiming that 9/11 was a US government conspiracy is a path which angels ought fear to tread. The freedom movement fails to serve itself by advocating conspiracy theories. The writer states that a few people resigned from the 9/11 commission but that is insufficient to claim a conspiracy.

There have been true conspiracies in American history, such as the one involving the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. There is still debate whether the Kennedy assassination involved a conspiracy. Such debates are fine but ought not be the basis of a political platform. Any movement or group that makes such a debate part of its fundamental belief system or platform consigns itself to the margin. So Beck is right.

Which does not change the Grand Delusion writer's key point. By making himself seem a "mainstream" leader of the freedom movement Beck can do considerable damage to it.

As I have previously blogged, I do not watch television or listen to radio news. The clips I have seen of Beck do not seem to indicate that he has taken a forthright stand on the Fed. I would also be interested in knowing his position on the United Nations. The video below opens questions, unlike any other media source, but Beck himself does not take a position. There is no one on any major media outlet who questions US involvement with the UN, so Beck's position is unbalanced. Balanced does not mean balancing 100% with 0%. Taking a 50-50 position where coverage is 100-0 means that you are advocating 99.5 To 0.5.

The importance of the Federal Reserve Bank issue cannot be overstated. It is the chief issue of interest to the "military industrial complex" and to anyone who favors socialism. Without the Fed and its wealth redistribution mechanism neither big government nor Wall Street's current form of organization would be possible. There is no need for a conspiracy theory. Bald economic interest and straightforward, mechanical economic relationships are all that are required to identify why George Soros favors the Fed and opposes the Second Amendment. Any advocate of the closed society and for a privileged elite would find considerable virtue in Soros's positions.

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