Glenn Beck is an Idiot

If you are a fan of Glenn Beck you are stupid, as in ignorant, unintelligent and possibly as insane as him. If you think you have anything to learn from him, you have a severe brain deficit.

I have on many occasions listened to his radio show and watched his TV show to try and understand his popularity and commercial success. Absolutely every time I come to the same conclusion: This man is sick, mentally deficient and ill. His facts are wrong; his logic is wacky; his conclusions twisted. What upsets me most is not just that this loser has achieved media success but that his success reflects so badly on American culture and on the right-wing conservative movement.

How wonderful to learn that Beck's ratings at Fox News continued their steady decline, falling to an all-time low in January. He has lost 39 percent of his viewers in a year and 48 percent of the prime 25-to-54 age demographic.

Bizarre paranoia seems to his hallmark. Consider his strenuous recent efforts to portray the Egyptian revolution as an apocalyptic leftist-jihadist conspiracy. To not see the Egyptian grassroots rebellion as a genuine, noble and courageous attack on the Mubarak dictatorship was yet another piece of powerful evidence that Beck is about as nuts as any celebrity in America, and probably a lot nuttier than others. Indeed, his views on the Egyptian revolution have inspired more laughs than adherents.

So this development and his lagging ratings and viewers may be a good sign that more Americans have come to their senses and hope that more might also free themselves from the tyranny of stupidity. But it is still disheartening that even in January Beck attracted 1.762 million viewers, handily beating MSNBC's Hardball show with Chris Mathews with 750,000 viewers. Mathews is often irritating and obnoxious and clearly leftist, but at least he is rational, intelligent and sane.

It is also encouraging that as of September 2010, 296 advertisers had asked not to be on his show, up from 26 in August 2009. Companies are clearly becoming aware that Beck may be pissing off millions more Americans than he is appealing to.

In trying to find information on the nature of Beck's audience I found data on those who go to this website. Nor surprisingly, 94 percent of his audience is white and doing fairly well economically with 60 percent over $60,000 income. This is generally consistent with far right wing people. Beck attracts racists and not those suffering financially.

Beck sells fear and paranoia and apparently there are a lot of Americans that buy into his craziness and have a hero and model in him. There have always been stupid people, but that so many have their worst characteristics supported, encouraged and sustained by Beck is sickening. Just as Beck totally succeeds in psychologically blocking out correct information and insights, so do many of his loyal fans. Beck lost his mind a long time ago and now he may still be attracting new losers even as some have managed to see the truth about their false idol and stopped watching and listening to him.

Yes, free speech gives Beck every right to spout his insane and inane views. Many of us are politically alienated and there are fine conservatives and libertarians that would be wise to condemn the ludicrous views of Beck. We who are reasonably intelligent and informed need to stay concerned that so many Americans buy into his junk mind droppings. If what I have said has greatly disturbed you because you take every opportunity to appreciate Beck's rhetoric, I urge you to seek help from a good mental health professional. Try six months of boycotting all his venues and open your mind to the many smarter and wiser people who are critical of our political and government system, economy and culture.

Beck has said explicitly that he and his audience have a right to be stupid. That is certainly true and correct, and more than a little pathetic for our nation. What Beck fears is an audience that does research, think independently and discover the truth about his wacky and insane ideas. Try it.