History profs: Beck's documentary smearing progressives is a "complete lie"; Beck's living in "alternative universe"
January 25, 2010 7:25 pm ET by Media Matters staff
In a Politico article headlined "History according to Glenn Beck," reporter Michael Calderone asked history professors what they thought of Beck's documentary on "the atrocities of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara - 'the true unseen history of Marxism, progressivism and communism; as Beck described it."
In the article, Clemson professor Steven Marks called Beck's assertions "a complete lie":
Clemson University professor Steven Marks, author of "How Russia Shaped the Modern World," said that while Beck doesn't explicitly tie the left-wing totalitarian regimes of the past to contemporary liberals, that's what "he's hinting at here."
"No one in their right mind is going to defend Stalin or Mao or Che Guevara," Marks said. "The implication is that this is what's going to happen if Democrats get their way. This is just a complete lie."
Boston College professor Alan Wolfe said Beck "lives in a complete alternative universe":
Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Life at Boston College, said that the film not only isn't accurate, but that Beck "lives in a complete alternative universe."
As an example, he said, Beck mentions how the Nazis supported programs like universal health care as evidence that their ideology may have more to do with the left than the totalitarian right.
Nazi Germany was "not evil because of their economic program," said Wolfe, which he noted included a few programs designed to promote public health.
"It was evil," he said, " because it aimed at the extermination of European Jewry."
What the bloody hell is Marxism anyway?
The fact that Beck (and the trolls who come here to defend him) don't get this is proof that conservatism has moved on to the next level: "Screw thirteen million innocent people, I got mine."
And now you want to take away from the person who can say "I got mine" and give it to the dropouts who think that health care is a right and they are the chosen ones.
It is people like you who will either destroy America by emulating the Nazis or hopefully you will end up in the trash can where you belong.
Nobody pretty much in the history of this great country has even gotten close to doing such a thing, and due to our checks and balances, it should never happen.
The guy above didn't say anything about being mad that someone else succeeded.
Who are the dropouts that you're talking about? Did you know, probably not, that most folks who don't have health insurance don't have it, because they can't afford it. They work hard, but the places they work don't offer a plan. I'm sure you pay for yours 100% right? Yeah, probably not. Because like me, you probably have a company pay for MOST of your health insurace as part of your benefits package, and if you're self employed, you write it off at the end of the year as a business expense.
By using the government to punish success and reward failure there is no possible outcome other than total disaster, just like the Nazis.
Do you make more than $250k/year? Because if you don't, they you got a tax CUT.
The Nazis were not MAD at the Jews for being successful, that's a bad reading of history. And even if they were, how does a slightly higher tax rate (rate rise of 2%) equate to sending millions of people to extermination camps? It's not even close, not even remotely close. Punishing success? You mean, going back to the tax rates of the Clinton years, you know, when the rich got richer, and we had a booming economy? Yeah, those were ROUGH times for the richer folks amongst us.
What's wrong with our country trying to provide for the least of us? Nothing, nothing at all.
But of course, you addressed nothing that I wrote before, so I'm sure you won't now.
There is something wrong with using the government to be the great equalizer that takes away incentive to exert the extra effort required to achieve success.
Government's job is to provide for a secure environment where you can work hard and reap the fruits of your labor.
In America, if you cannot pay your debts you do not end up in debtors' prison. If someone has $300,000 in medical expenses they can declare bankruptcy.
The only thing to address in your writing is the presumption that the successful are not responsible for the dropouts.
There are churches and charities that can help with the human element. If you want to be an atheist it does limit the type of charity you can receive but I'm sure that if you seek you will find.
A democratic government's job is to do what the people want.
Let's tell them universal health-care is what we want. And if jose2 doesn't like it, he can get the hell out.
In addition to reading the bills maybe Congress should be forced to read the Constitution.
Maybe people who repeat pundits about reading bills should read the constitution...how long did Republicans give for the Dems to read the Patriot Act?
So bankruptcy is a great way out of owning someone tons of money? Yeah, not so much, since it destroys the rest of your life for another 10 years, at least, and then maybe, just maybe, your credit score can rebound enough so that ineed, you might be able to get credit back again. It takes, well, quite some time.
Again, you didn't really address anything I wrote. The Nazis, not MAD at the Jewsish for being successful, they were "mad" at them for being, well, Jewish, and not of pure Aryan blood. And you were also comparing progressivism with Nazism, which, the 2 ideologies coulnd't be further from each other. Not even close in thought process. Oh, I know though, Nazi is short for National Socialist Party, and OOH, they said socialist, so that must mean they're a progressive liberal ideology.
Now, are you trying to tell me, because the Government might (they haven't done it) impose an additional tax on couples earning more than $300k / year ($250k for an individual), that this is somehow going to STOP being from being successful, or that people aren't going to want to get paid that much money because they'll have to pay slightly higher taxes (to run our country, not just for entitlement programs remember)? That's just a silly idea.
I never said I was an atheist either.
If the secret to a booming economy is raising the tax rate on the rich, then what have Obama and the Dem congress been waiting for??
Revisionist history-- not just for the forties and fifties anymore!
Keep up. [A hint: you'd probably know more about what is going on around you if you'd turn off Fox and READ.]
wrong. do a little research
And folks like jose compare Obama's Democrats to Hitler's Nazis...even though the closest we've come to being like the Nazis was under the Bush administration when we invaded other nations on false ideological pretenses.
There I said it. And I meant it.
First I took America from you, now if you don't mind, I'm off to destroy it!
I will destroy America by demanding universal health-care !
No, what really upsets me is that people like you think the Holocaust is less egregious than an economic policy you don't agree with. What upsets me is that you are quite literally saying human lives mean less than your money.
I only wish that were true. It must be truly blissful to live in such a warm, protective bubble of ignorance and naivete.
The "theories" he is using at the moment come from the off-the-wall rantings of a man named Cleon Skousen. Skousen, before he died, was considered a dangerous nutjob by the FBI AND by the Mormon Church. He was fired from at least one job for "acting like a dictator." This guy is Beck's "hero."
I'd suggest that you turn off Fox and research the CRAP that Beck said "isn't taught in our schools." Beck doesn't know about it because he is an uneducated Zoo Radio DJ trolling for ratings. Looks like he fooled you.
Later you would be screaming public outcry when you found out it wasn't true.
I I heard Beck say something like that I would laugh.
And where does this right-wing talking point of media appointing Obama the Anointed One even come from? The only people I've ever heard say that are Fox clones.
I hope MSNBC does for the next Republican president what Fox has done for this one: "The Republicans' MESSIAH has promised to bomb the mid-east into conformity...didn't they read 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'? This fascist, totalitarian, neo-Nazi, bomb-crazed, death-camp-building, anti-Christ-ian so-and-so..."
A lot of these people "succeeded" in the same sense as did the guy who broke into your house and stole your TV without being caught.
I always thought that went:
"I got mine, now keep your hands off of it!"
"From those, to whom much has been given, much is expected."
That is how they buy votes and what got us into this mess.
There is a big difference.
And it's still better than they way Republicans are bought and sold.
Gee, I seem to remember a poster in an Obama campaign headquarters somewhere that had a picture of Che on it, like he was a hero or something. So, Beck may be telling the truth, because either Mr. Marks is lying, or Obama's supporters are crazy.
NOT a Obama campaign headquarters...
Don't let the truth get in the way though.
;)
Loosely defined:
Because someone had a poster of Che on the wall, this PROVES that they support terrorists and a Socialist/Communist/Facist agenda.
Based on the above:
Anyone who wears a "Che" t-shirts supports the above.
The truth is nearly all the facts about the evils of communism in his documentary were correct. I know it often hurts progressives to admit to the evils of communism but it should never lead them to deny the truth.
Communism has never been good for a single nation that has attempted it. The communist regime in the Soviet Union collapsed. I like to give Reagan alot of credit for that but most liberals prefer the theory that it was the communist government itself that was at fault. Cuba is backward and an economic wreck. North Korea is a frozen isolated hell when compared to its capitilist neighbor to the south. China is becoming a capatilist mecca.
Any true liberal should rail against communism, a philosophy that promotes the good of the many over the rights of the few. (Though in all actual situations the many ends up being a few party members at the top of the food chain). This conservative is liberal on that point, the rights of the individual are paramount.
Forget who made the documentary concentrate on its content. Communism is simply wrong and leads to a mentality that excuses the murder of some for the greater good of others. An evil mindset worthy of contempt and certainly worthy of revisiting in a time (20+ years from the fall of the berlin wall) when many seem to have forgotten its core concepts and the evils it visited upon this world.
Obama's famous charicature is based on the one of Che.
To say no one in their right mind is going to defend Che is one of the dumbest comments I have ever read.
Bizarre, unsourced assertion win! Have a cookie.
See, there is this thing called Pop Culture... maybe you've heard of it... and young people latch onto certain iconic images. The Che photograph was one of those. Wearing a Che T-shirt makes some people feel "cool" and rebellious. 99% of them don't even know who Che was or what he did. Che has no more political meaning for these people than Spider Man or Britney Spears. They just like the image.
In other words, you're full of crap.
Yes, uncovering my ignorance, but it proves my point. The kids don't know.
The bigger point to me, is that I've only seen maybe two of those t-shirts worn in my entire life, so I'm wondering why this is such a big deal in the first place.
No one in any position to shape policy.
When I "defend" someone, I normally don't put rouge on them. Might, uh, might wanna research somewhere other than Big Andy Blartblart's vanity sites, there, troll.
Because every kid who went to Catholic school is a priest. And maybe, MAYBE you should read up on his civil rights work before resorting to the same lazy, borderline-racist red-baiting. If Barack Obama was a communist, he wouldn't be making EVERY DECISION with special care not to defy the corporate overlords.
Fact is, the German people were "mad" at the Jews because they were bombarded with propaganda demonizing the Jews. It was a Propaganda campaign remarkably similar to the one Glenda is feeding the Troglodytes right now.
That's what makes this whole thing so bizarre.
An unbiased look at Fox News and their propaganda shows direct similarities to what the Nazi's did to gain prominence. Demonize them and then blame what you just did to them...on THEM. Hold them to some higher standard (than you've ever been held) and demonize them more when they can't sustain that level.
Baffles my mind how people just blindly believe Fox News' crap. How do you just make up news? That channel is like the Twilight Zone on speed.