Glenn Beck will certainly not go quietly into his last days on Fox News. For those that awaited a chastised and subdued Beck to grimly confirm that his show is indeed ending “later this year,” and perhaps avail himself of an opportunity to pivot from the bizarre and apocalyptic theories he's been spewing for years and settle into more mainstream conservative fare -- well, that sure didn't happen. Beck warned tonight of a “coming insurrection,” something he also called “the summer of insurrection, or the ”summer of rage."
As the countdown to his last broadcast commenced -- it has been pegged at “sometime this summer,” though no exact date has been given -- Beck is still thumbing his noses at Fox management who deemed it “important” that “no matter how dire he thinks things are or what horrible direction things may be going from his perspective that the show maintain a sense of hope.” Well, as far as Beck is concerned, events leading to “the perfect storm” are “happening” and "[y]ou have to stop convincing yourself or your friends, too, that oh, it can't happen."
Explained Beck:
BECK: For several years, I talked about the perfect storm. And I have been saying for all those years to look for certain things to happen. I have in my research, in my reading of crazy, evil books like this one, The Coming Insurrection, I could pinpoint the signs and look because I take these people at their words -- I can see the road signs. They're happening. And they are stories that if taken by themselves aren't the most incredibly earth-shattering news and things that may even have happened before. But when you put them into context of everything going on around it, then it can be the Archduke Ferdinand moment.
It's why when I said about Tunisia -- what, January 31th -- when I saw Tunisia fall I said I think this is the Archduke Ferdinand moment. A moment that goes largely unnoticed but ends up triggering something huge. Archduke Ferdinand, the guy who was shot that ended up being World War I. There are a lot of things going on that have happened before: Energy prices going up; food inflation; spontaneous riots; troubles with the unions; violence; political unrest. All of these things have happened before. And all of these things have been happening for a while. But now they're starting to snowball, cascade.
Beck went on to list “signals” that herald “something very, very ugly,” which included the shooting of the son of a poet in Mexico, a meeting that George Soros is attending, the situation in Ivory Coast, Hamas, “something very important happen[ing] in France that you need to know about” (he later alluded to protests against bans on religious attire in that country), the crisis in Japan, and the earthquake in New Zealand.
Beck then stated:
BECK: If you look at all of these stories just as one isolated incident, you will of course say it's nuts. Why are you making such a big deal out of it? But if you learn to look at the world like this, what you will see coming is going to sweep the world here, then here, and here. And it's gonna get faster and faster.
I told you about this book I think it was two summers ago -- The Coming Insurrection. ... 2009 -- almost two years ago. Over the next couple of days, you will understand that this book, which I told you to read because it was coming, what is described in here, maybe by September you will say this is a history book. It is happening. We may have to rename this summer, the summer of insurrection or the summer of rage.
If you brush off that possibility, that's cool. It's -- turn the channel. I don't really care.
[...]
BECK: You have to stop convincing yourself or your friends do, that oh, it can't happen. Tonight, I want you to look at the facts on the ground. Tonight, I will begin, tonight and tomorrow, to tie things together and things that are happening that I believe are signs of things to come.
This of course is vintage Beck. In July 2010, Beck similarly warned that the “summer of rage is about to begin,” outlining a theory that “the politicians [had] joined with the revolutionaries so they could gain power,” and that now was the “time to break apart” that conspiracy. He has also repeatedly alluded to a “perfect storm,” saying over and over that it is “finally here.” And if it's not the “perfect storm” that's coming, it's an "Archduke Ferdinand Moment" -- or something even more dire like a “Reichstag Moment,” or “The Weimar Republic.” But whatever Beck claims it is, it doesn't evoke even one tiny bit of hope.
At the end of the broadcast, Beck again warned of the “deep and treacherous waters” ahead. Bringing up Paul Revere, Beck stated:
BECK: Paul Revere did not get up on the horse and say, “I'm going to do this for the rest of my life.” He didn't do it. He got off the horse at some point and fought in the revolution. And then he went back to silversmithing. If you have watched this program, and you really -- I ask you at times hear me: You know what I believe is coming.
[...]
BECK: I'm developing other content for Fox, through specials and other things, on television and beyond. I will continue to tell the story. And I'm going to be showing you other ways for us to connect. But I have other things to do. And not because it's good or bad for business, but I think you out of all the people will truly get this. Our only business is the business of freedom and country at this time.