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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."

24 of 1,276 comments (clear)

  1. I think Beck has started to believe his own con by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    1. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by Lose · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nobody took a hint when he moved to FOX news?

    2. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by dunezone · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well its all an act / business to him. He did his stint on CNN but exploiting fear in liberals is difficult compared to exploiting fear in conservatives. The current liberal market is younger and college level educated. The conservative market are older and although contains college level educated individuals its not as high as the liberal market.

      Which market is better to exploit / market fear? A young, highly educated market or a older less-educated market?

      As for the act, The Daily Show showed 2 clips, one from his CNN show and one from his FOX NEWS show, they were separated by about 18 months. On CNN he was saying the USA had the worst health care system in the world, but 18 months later he is on FOX NEWS saying its the best health care system in the world. So somehow the USA went from the worst to the best in 18 months with no legislation, reform, or any anything.

    3. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by Ephemeriis · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No, he's selling books and getting ratings and a lot of money. Folks who think Beck is crazy are just as bamboozled as any of his fans. It's really hilarious.

      I don't know if he's clinically diagnosed or if he's just putting on an act to make money. And it really doesn't matter. Regardless of the cause of his actions, the guy is spewing flaming ignorance all over the place.

      Yes, but by saying that, *you* have taken him seriously!

      As opposed to what, ignoring the loony? Just letting him spew his ignorance without any kind of rebuttal?

      The fact of the matter is that he's on national TV, publishing books, and presenting some truly deranged stuff as "truth".

      If he was just some kind of comedian and everybody laughed and went on with their lives, that'd be one thing. But people believe him. Folks base their world view on what he says. They cast their votes based on his insane rantings.

      You can't just ignore him, because he affects American politics whether you like it or not.

      The attacks on him just make his supporters circle the wagons, and maybe even gain him followers from the stupid "Well, if he's pissing people off he must be doing something right!" crowd.

      So, what... Plug your ears, hum real loud, and hope the crazy isn't there when you open your eyes?

      I'm thinking of writing a crazy book, and shopping it to one of these neo-con publishers, all to get me some early retirement on the backs of the ideological loons. I'm not sure yet if I should invent a new angle, or tie together multiple existing memes in a new way.

      There are a lot of crazy ideas out there. And most of them are just languishing in obscurity. I have absolutely no doubt that you could throw together some really insane horseshit and make money off of it. There are plenty of paranoid/gullible/curious folks out there who'd gobble it up.

      But that isn't going to put you on par with Glen Beck.

      There are tons of raving loonies out there that get absolutely no attention.

      What differentiates Glen Beck from some homeless idiot claiming that the world is flat is that he has an audience. He has thousands (millions?) of viewers. They actually listen to him. If he claims that Google is in league with the devil, they'll believe it. They'll go use Bing instead.

      And while it might not matter to me what search engine a bunch of paranoid neocons use... It does matter to me how they vote in elections, because I live in the same country that they do. And when he gets them all riled up to vote against some random bill that would actually be quite beneficial, I suffer for it.

      Don't get me wrong... I'm not arrogant enough to think that my way is the only right way to do things. I have no problem being wrong or being out-voted or whatever. But I'd prefer to be out-voted based on reality. Not the ravings of some lunatic - regardless of whether it's a genuine clinical problem or simply an act to make money.

      --
      "Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
    4. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Which market is better to exploit / market fear? A young, highly educated market or a older less-educated market?

      I think /. regularly shows the young, "highly educated" market is plenty susceptible to fear & paranoia.

    5. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by NotAGoodNickname · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is a very insightful post. You guys need to understand that Beck/Limbaugh/Maddows/whomever are all alike. They are exploiting your fear of people you see as "opposite" to you in order to make millions of dollars off of their show, books, speaking fees, etc. None of these commentators believe what they are saying no matter what "side" they are on. The truth is that none of them are on "your side". They are interested in their ego and the big bucks. I find it amazing that people spend so much time raging against them. Ignore them and they will go away.

    6. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by paiute · · Score: 5, Insightful

      CNN said one thing....
      time passed
      Fox New said the opposite.

      No, Glen Beck said one thing.
      18 months passed.
      Glen Beck said the opposite.

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    7. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by The+Hatchet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

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    8. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by tompaulco · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The current liberal market is younger and college level educated. The conservative market are older and although contains college level educated individuals its not as high as the liberal market.
      Statistics show that there are percentage wise more college educated republicans than democrats. Statistics also show that there are percentage-wise for more high school dropouts among democrats than among republicans. The only statistic which shows higher education among democrats is the slightly higher percentage of post graduate among democrats
      I hate to point this out, but those same fearful old conservatives 40 years ago were probably young educated liberals, and 40 years from now, today's young educated liberals will be fearful old conservatives. That's just the way it works. When we are young and essentially have not much money money and little responsibility and are getting supported more or less by the government through the education system, we selfishly want the government to continue those social and educational benefit programs which benefit us, then when we get older, get a job, get responsibilities, get taxed, we tend to selfishly want to keep the money which we have been working so hard to get. Looking out for number one is the name of the game in both cases, but don't feel bad, because if it weren't for looking out for number one, then we wouldn't be here today.

      --
      If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
    9. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by rbrander · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't watch a lot of Goodman, either, basically a segment here and there recommended by other sites and linked to the middle of one of her broadcasts. Generally because the link notes she has hard information, an interview, that nobody else dug up.

      Still, it seems a little harsh to mention in the same sentence (which tends to imply equivalence), somebody who runs a tiny operation with web-only access and a shoestring budget, and has won several really major awards for journalism, stories that got her beaten up in Indonesia, arrested (charges all dropped), and so forth....with a TV guy who makes $30+ million per year promoting theories like the ones under discussion...and never has to risk a thing to get his "stories".

      Or, to put it another way, if that's the best "equivalent" to Glenn Beck you can come up with, you just gave the "liberal media" vs "conservative media" comparison a gigantic boost for liberalism.

    10. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by gtbritishskull · · Score: 5, Informative

      Since when did Mexico, Haiti, or Cuba become the apex of socialized health care? What point are you trying to make?

      Also, I have not traveled the world, but I know of many Europeans who were pissed off at how their healthcare systems were vilified in the US when they HAVE lived in the US and seen the advantages that their healthcare systems have over ours. I have also gone onto the internet and looked at the statistics that say that the US (with its supposed amazing healthcare) has one of the highest infant mortality rates and one of the lowest life expectancy's of any industrialized nation. I guess the US believes in the Darwin approach to healthcare. If you are rich, then you have the best healthcare in the world. If you are not rich, then we don't want you to survive anyway.

    11. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by darkpixel2k · · Score: 5, Funny

      He is saying that Mormons are polytheistic because they believe each Planet in the universe has it's own God and that there is nothing particularly special about the God that runs things here on Earth.

      Weird--I'd never heard that. I should open up Google and do some resear...oh--right. Damn.

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    12. Re:I think Beck has started to believe his own con by uniquename72 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm more of a Ron Paul fan. The only real threat from the government is they may tax us to death.

      Yes, they "might." But here I am paying less taxes then at any other period during my lifetime, and the Ron Paul fans won't shut up about how I'm being taxed to death.

      As a right-leaning person, there is no party for me. Republicans can't stop spending and starting pointless wars, Libertarians can't stop being misrepresenting themselves (either you're a "Constitutional originalist" or you support the Civil Rights Act, pick one) and fear-mongering, and Democrats don't have enough backbone to actually DO anything (Health Care is a perfect example. It's a gift to insurance companies that does little more than fleece the rest of us.)

  2. But... by terminalhype · · Score: 5, Funny

    If nobody uses Google Search, how will Bing! ever improve?

  3. Well, obviously . . . by Attack+DAWWG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  4. Re:you might find something in his past by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Funny

    "he doesn't want to you read about what he might have done back in 1990"

    I googled this... it was a sex change operation. He used to be a man.

  5. Not Just Google, Suspect All Other TV Networks! by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From his rant:

    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.

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  6. Re:We worship the blowhard by gman003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In other words, Glenn Beck is a professional troll?

  7. Words go in, results come out. by RevWaldo · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can't explain that.

    .

  8. it's not ideology, it's ideological whoring by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    --
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    1. Re:it's not ideology, it's ideological whoring by Evtim · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You know, I was expecting your post to be modded up, but no. Alas, I spent my mod points yesterday.

      Anyway, here is a funny thing. My country (Bulgaria) was building for many years a second nuclear power plant. The first one was almost completely closed because EU would not accept us with it (the reactors were dangerous bla bla..). So, since few years a massive debate about the second one rages across the media. Over time the two major opinions settled as such:

      The so-called progressive, right wing, pro-western people are against it, because, they say it will need the Russians for the fuel and processing the waste. So we will INCRESE our energy dependence from Russia.

      The left-leaning, pro-Russian crowd is for it. As you can guess their motives are exactly like the one above, only in their book this is a good thing.

      There was of course the infinitely small minority of realists and nerds who were always for it, because of reality (let’s not go deeper into this – why nuclear power is back in the world and why did it take 50 years to realize the obvious)

      And then Wikileaks came around. And one of the cables was dealing exactly with this power station. Now, pay attention:

      According to the American diplomats in Bulgaria building the station DECREASES our energy dependence from Russia and Russian oil and gas tycoons intentionally crafted the anti- power station propaganda. The cable explains the logic behind this statement at length; I won’t reproduce it here.

      I almost fell from the chair reading this cable. Why, oh why I don’t have the possibility to high jack all the media in BG and just shout, “Go read the cable, you idiots!”
      The people still argue like crazy about the issue and none has read the wikileaks. What a bunch of idiots we humans are, no?

  9. Re:We worship the blowhard by MachineShedFred · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm glad that no centrists or left-leaning individuals ever make sweeping generalities about people that have views which differ from their own.

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  10. Re:you might find something in his past by OzPeter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "he doesn't want to you read about what he might have done back in 1990"

    I googled this... it was a sex change operation. He used to be a man.

    No No No .. you aren't doing this right. You can't come out and make a statement of absolute fact that can be checked. You need to allude to it and let your audience ASSUME that it was a fact. This is simple Beckism 101. What you should have said is:

    I googled Beck looking to see if he had a sex change. Did he lose his balls in the past? I don't know. But you have to admit he acts pretty strange all the time, and I haven't seen him deny not losing his balls. But don't believe anything I say .. you have to make up your own mind over this.

    And while you are pondering that let me tell you about [Fear mongering sponsor de jour] whose products I have been buying for years. If you don't have this [end of the world survival product] then you don't [love your family] ...

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  11. Re:We worship the blowhard by paiute · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The majority of atheists are left-leaning because the right doesn't really play nice with atheism.

    The majority of atheists are progressive/liberal because that is where the evidence takes you.

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