These erruptions can be good things or bad things.

The Muslim Brotherhood was around for most of last century. Considering that most middle eastern countries are feudalm with great disparity between rich and poor, it only makes sense that there would be strong opposition. What would YOU do? I believe you are viewing it through American eyes rather than through the eyes of a middle easterner. They are also a charitable organization. They are just the largest and the most visible of the Islamic organizations. I am sure there is good and bad involved, like many other organizations.

He was the only one in PUBLIC to state that the Egyptian revolution might not be a good thing, before everyone else.

He stated, before it happened, that the Middle East was going to erupt. No one expected this. This was on the same level as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

His inside track is simple. He watches what the left and the jihadists say and he took them at their word. He listens to them. They’re not hiding anything. It’s just that most of the media refuse to a) report it b) take them seriously, unless it advances THEIR agenda.

In the middle east, everything is relative.

Why do you think Beck has this inside track? He is one of those people who says…you heard it here first…there will be unrest in the middle east and there will be great change. He is never that specific. Well on any given day…..

Beck is just one big conspiracy theory but he had no inside channel to the middle east.
Did you think it was prozaic that made him stop ranting and raving on every show and that silly crying? He sure got his emotions under control real fast.
Sorry, I don’t fall for charlatans and he is a first class b rated actor if I ever saw one. He reminds me of that old SNL skit with Chris Farley about a van down by the river and the motivational speaker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYBsFOZn9cg

No one else was talking about that until it happened. He predicted riots and unrest throughout the MidEast and Europe weeks in advance. As for the food….he advocated both. However, most people can’t store bulky food so he also advocated food insurance. I already have two cases of MRE’s. I don’t need emergency food.

“Do you seriously think Beck’s objective was to get people to read or do you think it might have involved a little more insidious motive?”

Yes. It was his objective to a)read, b)get motivated to be politically active, primarily following what he advocated c) make money.

I didn’t find him boring. And I never saw him “spew hate.” But your mileage may vary.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day. He didn’t predict much of anything. Most people have expected the middle east to explode for years. Do you seriously think some rube like Beck out-guessed the state dept?

Oprah has quite a following also. I think her charisma is more broad-based and doesn’t promote a political agenda. Her books were broad based and were both fiction and non-fiction. They were on a variety of topics. There really is no comparison. Oprah’s objective was to get America reading. Do you seriously think Beck’s objective was to get people to read or do you think it might have involved a little more insidious motive?

I would have appauded him if he recommended different articles/books with differing positions. However, that isn’t one he did. He was the great educator.

But…in the final analysis he was just another dude doing another 12 step program. He has gotten wealthy. He appeals to many. He moved on. I hope he takes his cult followers with him. As I said, once he stopped spewing the hate, screaming manically, and crying, he just got boring. I don’t do preacher mode too well.

As for his recommendations…sure. That’s all they are. Why did people follow Oprah’s recommendations? Because she had a history of being right on those things.

I think his recommendation to read the early biographies, or the Federalist Papers, or even his books, are a good idea. Nothing forces the reader to take it as accurate. I’ve read many a book that I did not agree with. And he was the first to say that it was only his opinion.

He was convincing. That was his job. But no one is or was forced to believe anything he said, thus, it wasn’t brain washing. Delusional…maybe.

Would it be a good idea to buy food in bulk right now? Probably. Commodity prices are rising.
Would it have been a good idea to buy gold last year? ABSOLUTELY.
Is the Mid East acting the way he predicted? The unions? Yep.

And if you figure inflation the way the gov’t did in the past, taking in food and energy prices, that too is rising. Is there hyper-inflation? Not yet. Maybe never. We may even have deflation.

So, his track record is pretty good.

What possibly makes him more of an authority on what is ‘better’ or ‘best?’ Obviously it was someone who supported his views. That doesn’t make something accurate. I could find something to support any ridiculous notion. If that’s all I read, I would be brainwashing myself.

Seriously Cargo, have you ever listened to him…really listened? He talks to his audience like they are children, feeds them full of crap, praises them, tells them how smart they are, feeds them more crap, brags.

I will admit, he is very good at persuassion. That is what makes him dangerous.
It didn’t upset me that his agenda and outlook resonated with so many. I have studied this phenomena for 25 years. I think it it sad. It was a cult following.
This woman I know was buying up all this food from this place. It became an obsession. If Glenn had told her to scrub the floor with her tooth brush she probably would have done it.

Don’t you see that as sad? Fortunately this woman could afford to buy up storage food. Many of those people couldn’t. Brainwashing occurs in many forms. Think of Hitler and other powerful leaders.

Yep. Brain washing.

He used alternative sources because he thought they were better. Some “mainstream” sources, line Zinn, are horribly biased and subversive.

Beck didn’t hide that he was seeking sources that presented information not normally found in history or that he had his own agenda. I think what disturbs some people is that his agenda and outlook resonated with so many.

Getting people to read the Federalist Papers or biographies…..oh my.

People who actually want to teach others to think give them two or more sources and ask them to compare, contrast, evaluate, analyze etc. and then draw one’s own conclusions. What he did was not teaching people to think for themselves. It was actually a form of brainwashing.