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Glen Beck Warns Viewers Not To Use Google
An anonymous reader writes "Glenn Beck has told his viewers to do research, but to not use Google, because 'Google is pretty deeply in bed with the government.' He points to the fact that Google is having some problems overseas, as well as Jared Cohen. Cohen is Director of Google Ideas, has worked with the State Department, and has played a role in the 2009 unrest in Iran. He also mentions social networking in sinister undertones, asking if it's government propaganda."
Seriously, this guy is about one step away from saving his urine in jars and going all David Koresh on a compound somewhere. Anyone who still takes that clown seriously is either already a paranoid schizophrenic or too stupid to be reasoned with anyway. You would have more luck arguing with a religious fanatic.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
If nobody uses Google Search, how will Bing! ever improve?
is the best way to guarantee future Republicans.
I think it's safe to say that /. has a left-leaning bias. Why give him the time of day? I wonder how many followers that loud-mouthed ignoramus would have if the "liberal" media didn't get all flustered every time he says something like this.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
he doesn't want to you read about what he might have done back in 1990
Jesus saves souls and redeems them for valuable cash prizes
If someone does a Google search, they may, just possibly, find out the truth about something.
And that possibility is what people like Glenn Beck find the most frightening.
Oh geeze, he's not going to cry on television again, is he?
I would look into all the people the State Department are working with; MSNBC, CBS, gosh, MTV.
Just say it, every news outlet but Fox, right? It's the only thing stopping you from busting out the "trust no one" hyperbole, right?
Maybe we should start watching those networks a little bit and seeing what their news coverage is like.
Why don't we watch all of them and judge them fairly against each other? Or do you just want scrutiny only on the networks you're not on?
Who are these groups? Who are they? Are they right, are they left, are they clean, are they dirty, are they front groups? I don't know.
Wait, wait, wait, so what are you accusing them of? Absolutely nothing? And if you don't know then why are you telling us to investigate them? Maybe because you know nobody will do it and instead they'll just continue listening to you? "Is Glenn Beck, good, bad, is he left, is he right, is he clean, is he dirty? I don't know. Maybe you should keep your eye on him?"
May I recommend, if you're doing your own homework, don't do a Google search. Seems to me that Google is pretty deeply in bed with the government. Maybe this is explaining why Google is being kicked out of all the other countries?
My god, would you please just make a statement instead of repeated leading questions?! How is Google any more "in bed" with the government than Microsoft or Yahoo?
Are they just a shill now for the United States government? Who is Jared Cohen? Is he private citizen or government operative? And isn't this the second Google guy we've found? This is the second Google executive now being exposed as an instigator of a revolution.
Your little pointer stick and board didn't do much to lead to conclusive evidence that Cohen has "instigated a revolution."
I couldn't get the MM site to load but the Youtube version worked for me and holy crap what a load of horseshit. I saw Glenn Beck on TV in a waiting room once and thought it was a joke. The amount of faulty, leading, incomplete logic here is just staggering, even in this video. Instead of wasting my time itemizing everything wrong about what he's saying and pointing out the obvious, I should have just taken Salon's advice and done something more constructive.
My work here is dung.
Well, it is kindof true. Google is very big brother in the way they gather data about their users.
For that matter, just about any large internet company is going to be in bed with whatever governments whose jurisdiction they operate within. It's called "compliance with law enforcement". It's very patriotic for corporations to work with governments. Of course, if you have nothing to hide, it's fine, right?
The other reason Beck might hate the internet, of course, is that the internet is just an outgrowth of yet another giant government project. We all remember ARPA and DARPA, right?
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
You can't explain that.
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Let's see: Glenn Beck.
Hmmm, yes he has reasons to be afraid of Google. However that's just because he refuses to deny it. Why? Why doesn't he come forth and deny it?
Maybe this is explaining why Google is being kicked out of all the other countries?
Man, you just gotta love how backwards Glenn Beck's thinking is, CONSISTENTLY.
What countries would those be? China is the only one I remember, but perhaps I've forgotten some.
In my mind, getting kicked out of China is pretty much a badge of honor, not something to be suspicious of them for. I'd be more suspicious of the companies NOT getting kicked out of repressive foreign countries - but apparently Beck thinks you should only trust the companies who are trusted by autocrats. So, I guess, Fox News.
Yea just watching him... it seems too over the top. He's probably having a blast.
Do other countries have conspiracy theorists with such depth and wide-reaching audiences that have radio or television programs?
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
anyone who actually believes anything Beck says can't do a google search anyway, since the drool keeps shorting out the keyboard.
On one hand, this is freaking hilarious. Glenn Beck makes me laugh more than most comedians.
On the other hand, people will believe him. When Fox *does* start telling us to store our urine and wear special hats to block evil government rays, my dad will believe them. And half the people I know from high school on Facebook will believe them. Ugh.
Most people don't know Beck started his career as a stand-up comedian. Watching him, his approach/delivery style, etc. makes more sense when you consider his foundation. I don't mean that he's talking about funny things anymore, but he's got the build-up and the "punchline" delivery style on his show. It works for him. More power to him for filling a market.
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Either he's right, and Google is also actively trying to discredit him, or he's an idiot.
From the sages of Monty Python . . .
"Well I feel very keenly that the idiot is a part of the old village system, and as such has a vital role to play in a modern rural society, because you see ... There is this very real need in society for someone whom almost anyone can look down on and ridicule. And this is the role that ... this is the role that I and members of my family have fulfilled in this village for the past four hundred years... "
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
1. Glenn Beck works for Fox News
2. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns a 7 percent stake in News Corp
3. Saudia Arabia is deeply unnerved by the revolutions sweeping aside the old crusty strongmen in the Middle East
So Prince bin Talal gets on the phone with Glenn Beck's bosses. Next day, Glenn Beck starts spouting off against internet tools that Middle Eastern revolutionaries use.
Yes, the same Glenn Beck who wears a Revolutionary War era Tricorner Hat and wraps himself in the American flag.
The tragedy is the people who reject, for example, Barack Obama as a "communist" and "secret muslim" and "antiamerican who wants to destroy the USA" and doubt he was born here. Incredibly low IQ lies and smears. Low IQ lies and smears spread by people who wrap themselves in the American flag, but who are of course working for corporate and foreign interests, corporate interests squarely pointed against what is good for Americans and American interests. And millions of Americans beleive this nonsense! Why? Because the "information" is presented to them, not by appealing to their sense of reason, but by appealing to their emotions: fear, hysteria, panic. Classic propaganda psychology.
The tragedy is people who view Fox News as "American" and don't know they are basically being propagandized and programmed against, for example, their own self-intererests, like higher quality, more affordable health care. Because the insurance industry might make less money. Better that Grandma die 10 years earlier than we succumb to evil SOCIALISM. Seriously?!
Sheep, whose Real American (tm) opinions are bought and paid for by Saudi Oil money, fat cat corporate dollars, and yes, the Chinese Communist Party.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/world/asia/26murdoch.html
So to summarize: Obama is a Communist and a Muslim Terrorist and anti-American... propaganda deeply believed by millions of Americans whose brains are basically programmed via a regular dose of fear and hysteria by smearmongers like Glenn Beck, whose ideological whoring... drum roll please... is paid for by actual Saudi Wahhabists and Chinese Communist controlled corporations!
If it wasn't so tragic, it would be hilarious.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Why is the Republican party imploding into insanity?
I can not believe you people allow idiots like Beck and Palin even open their mouths. They make all republicans look insane just by association.
Somewhere along the line, the Republican party stopped being the Republican party.
It used to be all about small government and fiscal responsibility.
Now it's all about fundamentalism.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
It's not facts that are the problem. It's the illogical leaps from facts into craziness that are the problem, and stating opinion as fact. If you do that, you need a good reputation.
I pretty much *guarantee* that Google has to do whatever the federal enforcement says. It's called the law. To make the leap from that to "use another search engine" is an irrelevant and illogical conclusion unless you can provide facts that other search engines aren't similar affected by any government whose jurisdiction they operate in. And in terms of things this guy has said, it's nothing.
The only thing you can take away from someone else's opinion is reliant on their reputation. This guy believes and has said a lot of crap, quite publicly, and not denounced it until months after it's caused him a lot of trouble - including having to backtrack on quite clearly calling someone (the US president) a racist.
He has a self-confessed history of severe, long-term alcohol and drug abuse, suicide attempts, he's used miscarriage as a joke to play off the mother, he's had several high profile firings, several arrests, several cities, organisations, churches and advertisers have rushed to disassociate themselves with him and he has more conspiracy theories of his own than an X-Files fan club.
And, personally, he claims to have been saved from professional obscurity (and several other things) by God, and belongs to the church of latter-day-saints, which kinda rules him out of my personal "might have an brain in there somewhere" list.
Nobody really cares if the facts are wrong or right. It's his interpretation of them that leads him into ridicule. I *know* that if I drop my laptop, it will hit the floor. I don't explain it away as a government conspiracy that all laptops are subject to gravity in order that the US can drill holes in the Earth's crust and steal my laptop. The *fact* I stated is true, the opinion / explanation is almost certainly 100% bullshit and as "unproveable" as any other.
Seriously, from not knowing anything of the guy, within about 20 minutes of independent research, I've put him on my personal "Ignore anything he says" blacklist.
I keep trying to think up a helpful, constructive, neutral comment- but every way I think of it, it comes out as really, aggressively anti-Republican. Maybe there's a reason for that. It might just be my choice of news outlets, but I keep hearing a lot less stupid stuff from Democrats than I do from Republicans. As someone who likes to think of themselves as unaffiliated and neutral, I can't really think of many good things coming from the right- all we're seeing is baseless accusations and attempts to stifle legitimate progress, social and otherwise.
(Actually, I use FoxNews for news a lot- their site gets information sooner than CNN, and MSNBC's site is a jumbled mess. I take everything I read there with a grain of salt or five, though.)
Sent from my CR-48
How on earth can this tripe be paraded on a news channel, giving it a faux sense of authority over the facts.
I have no problem with political opinion pieces on tv but don't try masquerade it as news as that simply insults my intelligence.
Most people don't know how to think for themselves properly. They don't know how to weigh data, determine a good observation from a bad, don't know what confirmation bias is and could tell a good study from a bad study if their life depended on it.
So they go to people they choose to trust, and use their ';gut' feeling w; which are almost always wrong for everybody.
However, a large part of his base thinks the Bible is a literal document that is inerrant.
Even thought hat is provable incorrect they wont' change their views. why? because in their 'gut' they feel it's a literal document regardless of the contradictions.
So 'Thinking for yourself' is a good idea, but people need to learn how to do that.
"don't try to tell anyone how to think."
no, I will continue to try and teach people how to think, thank you very much. I won't tell them what to think.
Foremost is that they can have their own opinion, but they can't have their own facts.
Right after that people need to know that a belief can, in fact, be wrong and that they don't have a right to a wrong belief.
If they put forth a claim that can be falsified, and it is, then the belief in that claim is wrong.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Pot, meet kettle. Have you not listened to Democrats? The extreme left is just as crazy as the extreme right, and each side underestimates just how far to the extreme the other one goes, while painting themselves as moderates.
Citation needed. And I mean a major media newsperson or politico, someone with the power and intent to sway the masses, spouting their views day in day out like Beck or Palin. Not some off-the-cuff quote from a Hollywood celebrity, blogger, or International ANSWER.
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
This is what Glenn does constantly. One of the things you will hear him say on his show repeatedly is, "Don't believe it just because I said it. Go look it up for yourselves." He actively encourages people to do their own research, which is something I very rarely see other radio/television hosts do.
Love sees no species.
Christians are monotheists, but Mormons are polytheistic
Although Christians claim loudly they are monotheists, they are still unsatisfied with just worshiping God (as Jews do), and have added in a dead Jew who they worship instead, attributing to this man-god-hybrid all the powers of the original God. This is not really monotheism.
Reply to That ||
This is a pretty common fallacy Christians like to use when they're embarrassed by other Christians. Given all the variations of "monotheistic" Christianity, especially given most of them accept the Trinity and many accept Saints as well, why should it be impossible for there to be a polytheistic brand of Christianity, and why would it matter to you?
It certainly doesn't seem to matter to his fans!
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
So why do we make such a big deal about one thing Glenn Beck says about google? We should take his opinion with a grain of salt, just like anyone else. Im currently in Afghsnistan, so I dont have the opportunity (not that I would take the opportunity) to watch Hlenn Beck. I almost hate Glenn Beck. Im a Republican Conservative leaning very far towards being libertarian, lately. I think the libertarian party could make a huge headway if it was not for most people knowing only Glenn Beck as a libertarian. He is kind of a maniac.
Why would you think I only rely on Glenn Beck for one source of information when i just said it looks goot to me for someone like him to say "dont just go to google for everything." (or dont go to google for anything, whatever. You have to make bold statements to be heard.)
That is not about fear, it is about anger and outrage at the actions of certain wealthy, rich people in America destroying the things we hold most dear as a country, and have since the days of our founding.
Government funding for media has been something we hold dear since our founding? Really? Shows like Sesame Street make millions of dollars in merchandise and licensing alone, but cutting off the small portion of their budget that comes from tax dollars is stabbing George Washington in the back?
NPR states on one hand how government funding makes up such a small portion of their budget... combined government support is 5.8% of their budget... yet when someone suggests cutting off taxpayer support, their listeners act as if Hitler were back banning newspapers. That isn't hypocritical fearmongering?
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Well it depends on how you look at it. And what you consider a conspiracy theorist/nutter. The BBC has a clear agenda of promoting a multicultural society while being run by the oxford elite and including very little of the multicultural society and villifying anyone who dares question this.
Does that count? Probably not to someone who agrees with this point of view. Moron is such a subjective label after all. It always seems to apply to people you disagree with.
Media tends to be owned by someone and that someone doesn't always have to be a single person. But overtime any company or group tends to hire like-minded individuals turning it more and more into a singular voice because you don't hire someone who disagrees with you.
An example? In holland the Labour party PvDA (Partij van de Arbeid) is being called the (Partij van de Allochtonen/Immigrants) because of its soft stance. BUT this is a left leaning WORKER party, didn't they use to be dead against immigrants being used to take jobs away from local people and drive minimum wages down? Wasn't it in fact right wing parties that wanted immigrant labour from Turkey in europes to do jobs the companies didn't want to pay local workers for?
Ah yes! So how can a party AGAINST immigration become labelled as PRO-immigration?
Because over the years the leadership changed. From worker background/union to highly educated bleeding hearts. Some people think union and bleeding hearts are both left wing but that just goes to show the sillyness of trying to represent the whole political spectrum on a single axis. You wouldn't call Stalin a bleeding heart would you?
But at the same time, how comes the dutch VVD (Right wing by dutch standards, commies by US standards) is now leading a government with a so-called strong anti-immigration agenda and even spawned Geert Wilders whose whole agenda is anti-immigration? Did they forget who championed the whole immigration move from Turkey in the first place?
Yes, we got our nutters, but it depends on who you ask as to who is pointed out as the nutter. Geert Wilders and Job Cohen (leader of the PvDA) are BOTH considered insane by their opposition.
Really, we had the queens speech a while ago, a person with her own far reaching audience and a guaranteed tv spot and half the nation hailed her speech and half condemned it.
Glen Beck is a conspiracy theorists in your eyes, not in the eyes of his followers. Conspiracy is in the eye of the beholder. So it makes no sense to ask this question if you want an honest answer.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The most juvenile aspect of this is the utter predictability with which /. responds. All one has to do to work posters into a lather is mention the name of Glenn Beck. Just post "Glenn Beck said X"... if "X" is a Good Thing (tm), then we'll get flooded with comments of how "a broken clock is right twice a day". If "X" is a Bad Thing (tm), we get this thread.
And the funny thing is that this is absolutely no different than what was happening 3-4 years ago under Bush. /.ers want to pretend that rabid anti-"other side"-ism is the sole purview of the "right wing" fanatics.
If I've noticed one thing in my years of reading /. it is that everyone here likes to claim higher intelligence, but are just as susceptible to buying into propaganda, fear-mongering, and group-think as any other demographic.
Do you honestly believe you are less fear driven than the "right-wing"? Less dogmatic than the "religious"? Less deluded by your own sense of superior knowledge than 19th-century men? The fear, dogma, and delusions are about different things, but they are equally as strong.
For every redneck idiot out there, there is a white lab coat idiot out there. For every right-wing nutcase, there is a left-wing nutcase. Every rabid Republican has a counterpart rabid Democrat. The destruction caused by ignorance is only matched by the destruction caused by hubris.
Destruction is destruction and death is death. Does it matter whether it's caused by the religious zealotry of the Inquisition or by the scientific hubris of the A-bomb? Do we measure human suffering by the numbers killed or by the quality of life lost?
Just because we have more information, doesn't make us smarter and it CERTAINLY doesn't change human nature. We think we are "civilized", but we are still subject to the same desires, motivations, strengths, and weaknesses that ruled our ancestors 100/200/500 years ago. We see our nifty gadgets and think that we are SOOO much more advanced. I would rather see rioting in the streets, than to see the millions of
Our hubris would be humorous if it weren't so destructive.
From what I've seen other posters mention, as a work around, you can use the tag for italics.
I wish he'd finally have his Lonesome Rhodes moment, and get it over with.
Obviously Bing is the freedom-loving choice, right Glenn?
> I suspect the real reason for his upping his ante of crazy in his shows is that his ratings are in freefall.
Eh? Always be suspicious when someone is presenting bad news about someone they obviously don't like. So lets look at Friday's numbers since I didn't see Monday instantly: Beck's numbers along with the highest number from the competing news channels are reproduced below. Man I'd hate to suck that hard. ;) Seriously, if that is failure I'd like to be one.
Beck: 2.064
O’Reilly: 2.687
Maddow: 989
Blitzer: 750
Grace: 457
No he isn't beating the other three networks' best numbers.... combined. Quite. But he is carrying his 5pm timeslot with numbers greater than the combined 1612 ratings of CNN, CNNH and MSNBC. So lets stay in the reality based world in our discussions, m'kay?
Democrat delenda est
"What did we used to call that? Propaganda." Spoken as if Propaganda is a bad thing, and he's not pushing his own very distinct flavor of Propaganda? It's okay because he's not the government? Wow, I'm just lost as to imagining who would listen to him and nod along, but since he's got a major network slot, I'll bet there's a major slice of the population out there who eats his stuff up.
I know a lot of kooks, but none his flavor so far.
Google is watching you for the government. So's Twitter, Facebook, Bing, Yahoo and every other site on the Internet. Tell your followers that the only safe thing to do is disconnect their computers, head into their basements and live off of canned foods until the Rapture arrives.
*waits as all the Glen Beck followers abandon the Internet*
*pops a champagne bottle's cork*
PARTY TIME, EVERYONE!!!!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.