Glenn Beck - Community Organizer, or Cult Leader?

[Stephanie]

Is it safe to ignore Glenn Beck? After all, he's just a self-described "rodeo clown," spouting nonsense on a fictional "news" channel, and anybody who takes what he says as gospel is "an idiot," as per Beck himself.

But in fact, he's much more than that.

Glenn Beck is a community organizer of the worst kind. He's a corporate-sponsored cult leader. We ignore him at our peril. His 9-12 Project is a clever tool for indoctrinating his ridiculous, Randian nonsense into the heads of gullible people across the land. Case in point, Katy Abram. Remember her? The simple housewife who tearfully told Sen. Specter at his town hall, "“We don’t want this country to turn into Russia?” Katy Abram who claimed she had "never been political before," but Obama's health care "socialism" had "awakened the sleeping giant?"

Not so much.

Video of Katy's interview with Lawrence O'Donnell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBLdXyAPp7g

As we soon learned, Katy had been hosting 9-12 meetings in her home in Lebanon, PA, where she led the group in discussions of Beck's books, and the "principles" of 9-12, a phony doctrine designed to dupe just such low information voters as herself. And there are thousands like her.

The link below is to Glenn Beck launching the 9-12 Project on March 13, 2009. On Fox "News" of course. Followers were encouraged to hold viewing parties to watch this corporate-sponsored "grass roots" project launch together. Katy obligingly did so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-60QOF62GVw

Here are Beck's 9-12 "Principles" - this is what Katy and her pals were sitting around the living room drilling into their heads. Followers are advised: At the origin of America, our Founding Fathers built this country on 28 powerful principles. These principles were culled from all over the world and from centuries of great thinkers. We have distilled the original 28 down to the 9 basic principles. Say what?

The 9/12 Project

The 9 Principles

1. America Is Good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

God “The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.” from George Washington’s first Inaugural address.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

Honesty “I hope that I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider to be the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.” George Washington

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

Marriage/Family “It is in the love of one’s family only that heartfelt happiness is known. By a law of our nature, we cannot be happy without the endearing connections of a family.” Thomas Jefferson

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

Justice “I deem one of the essential principles of our government… equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political.” Thomas Jefferson

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

Life, Liberty, & The Pursuit of Happiness “Everyone has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence.” Thomas Jefferson

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

Charity “It is not everyone who asketh that deserveth charity; all however, are worth of the inquiry or the deserving may suffer.” George Washington

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

On your right to disagree “In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude; every man will speak as he thinks, or more properly without thinking.” George Washington

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

Who works for whom? “I consider the people who constitute a society or a nation as the source of all authority in that nation.” Thomas Jefferson

This is not a grass roots movement. This is a top-down organization in which the corporate-sponsored "leader" issues directives to the followers, tells them what to believe and what to read, http://www.the912project.com/organize-this/"">organizes thier protests and incites them to insurrection, as we witnessed at the town halls.

They are asked to pledge thier obeisance to the coal and nuclear energy industry. To organize meetings in their homes.

Of course it is also a cash cow.

Followers are told how to instruct each other in Beckian wisdom:

We suggest that you start in your own homes. Talk to your family about the Values and Principles. Discuss the importance of what the Founders designed for America.

Hold or attend a weekly meeting in your neighborhood or town. Communication with your neighbors is vital to the process of protecting our country. Gather in living rooms, coffee houses or restaurants. Share your thoughts and ideas.

There's an appeal to the sad and lonely:

Ask yourself these questions:

* Do you watch the direction that America is being taken in and feel powerless to stop it?

* Do you believe that your voice isn’t loud enough to be heard above the noise anymore?

* Do you read the headlines everyday and feel an empty pit in your stomach…as if you’re completely alone?

How many Gullibles have fallen for this clap-trap? It's impossible to tell from the 9-12 site, although there are nearly 8000 comments on the tea party page. (I finally found the link to register - it's here.)

The site is owned by Beck's company, "Mercury Radio Arts, Inc." I'd love to know who's funding it. By the way, did you know Beck gets $18M a year?

The 9-12 Project Meet-Up page, however, has 19,152 members. There the Beckerheads are free to spout their racist rhetoric and repeat their "socialist" memes unfettered.

So Glenn Beck is more than a simple lying liar spouting nonsense on his fictional "news" show. Is he a community organizer, of the worst kind imaginable? Or is he a cult leader, of the most dangerous sort? Whichever it is, he's a fraud. His followers are being hoodwinked into opposing policies that are in their own best interest. We cannot let him carry on unchallenged.

[Stephanie]

1. Do I need to add a poll?

[Jack Rabbit]

2. I guess one could suggest "corporate whore" except . . .

. . . very few corporations want anything to do with the asshole any more.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Is Glen Beck a piece of shit or is he a piece of shit......?

Hummmmm....I just can't decide.

[Mojorabbit]

4. I will admit I

would answer yes to some of these questions on many a day lately esp after years of fruitlessly emailing and calling my reps.
mojo

Ask yourself these questions:

* Do you watch the direction that America is being taken in and feel powerless to stop it?

* Do you believe that your voice isn’t loud enough to be heard above the noise anymore?

* Do you read the headlines everyday and feel an empty pit in your stomach…as if you’re completely alone? (DU saves me from answering yes to this one)

[BlueIdaho]

5. I especially like #9

I can't wait til the secret service really does show up at his door and he wets himself.

What a little man.

[bridgit]

6. More like a goblin or a ghoul maybe even both

[windoe]

7. #7 is especially insidious. Un-christian if you ask me.

Here is where it gets weird(er) --Jesus taught charity as a way of life, it was a given. Do unto others as you would do to yourself.

This twisted disguise of greed, that the commons, resources, national health, and education are being forced on the individual instead of being PROVIDED FOR the individual is a trick that cannot go unchallenged.

This is a sly trick that demonizes government programs, claiming people and companies' discretion to provide or deny care to others based on personal preference, is superior to national policy.

At first glance these principles look fairy innocuous, but they are profoundly treasonous.

Glenn Beck you bastard we are going to take you down.

[Stephanie]

8. That's the one

It's like a sickness.

[Quantess]

9. Interesting.