Think Progress

Beck: ‘If you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’

beckf.jpg Today, the New York Times has a front-page article on the success of Glenn Beck’s Fox News show. According to the Times, Beck has become “one of the most powerful media voices for the nation’s conservative populist anger.” Although he says he believes every word he says, he doesn’t think smart people should actually listen to him:

Mr. Beck says he believes every word he says on his TV show, and the radio show that he still hosts from 9 a.m. to noon each weekday. [...]

At the same time, though, he says he is an entertainer. “I’m a rodeo clown,” he said in an interview, adding with a coy smile, “It takes great skill.” [...]

He added later: “I say on the air all time, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’



89 Responses to “Beck: ‘If you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’”

  1. Rich H says:

    No Beck, your the idiot.


  2. avshanbh says:

    Never underestimate idiots in numbers.


  3. spencers butterfly mom says:

    Rodeo clown sans rodeo. But I agree with Beck that anyone who listens to him is an idiot.

    PEACE


  4. help.me.jebus says:

    I think anyone who seriously listens to, or watches Glen Beck is an idiot


  5. SP Biloxi says:

    “Beck: ‘If you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’”

    Spoken from a true moron from Planet Wingnuttia. Pass the popcorn please…


  6. Badmoodman says:

    Beck: ‘If you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’

    – - Way to diss your audience, Glenn.


  7. had enough says:

    It appears Beck, too, understands his audience as a whole are idiots.


  8. speshuled67 (locust in training) says:

    hahahaha, win. gbeck must be a schizo


  9. PatrioticLiberalChristianMantisReligiosa says:

    I have met some famous clowns, Mr. Beck. You aren’t even close to having their talent or personality. You are just a loud mouth who gets paid to be a loud speaker.


  10. Krazny says:

    LOL one of my facebook contacts is an old friend from High School. He has turned into a right wing clown. He added Glenn Beck as one of his favorite shows.


  11. ralph the wonder locust says:

    “I say on the air all time, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’“

    I’d say anyone who takes what Beck says seriously is an idiot.


  12. hmorehead says:

    Soooooo Beck takes himself VEEEERRRRRRY seriously.


  13. speshuled67 (locust in training) says:

    sad thing is, itll be just a few more posts before a troll says something along the lines of “oh he’s just being modest”

    i know that ’cause i actually had a right-wing friend of mine say that too me


  14. joe cantwell says:

  15. ralph the wonder locust says:

    Krazny Says:
    LOL one of my facebook contacts is an old friend from High School. He has turned into a right wing clown. He added Glenn Beck as one of his favorite shows.

    Hey, me too! I have a friend like that.


  16. spearNmagicHelmet says:

    clowns are a good thing.

    beck is the opposite of good.


  17. ralph the wonder locust says:

    I gotta give Beck miniscule props for this, though. At least he’s sort of upfront about being full of shit. Not like Limbaugh or Bildo, who seem to believe that they know WTF they’re talking about.


  18. liberalinaredstate says:

    So he enjoys being an idiot and deliberately misleading his followers? NICE.


  19. spencers butterfly mom says:

    OT, but here are the latest favorable/unfavorables for the congressional Dems and GNOP:

    Democrats: 43% fav, 49% unfav
    GNOP: 18% fav, 71% unfav

    Meanwhile, President Obama enjoys 64% approval, 20% disapproval.

    PEACE


  20. penalcolony says:

    Just what the world needed: a Mormon with a wet brain.


  21. Danny Noonan says:

    “It takes great skill?” I’ve always been bothered by this excuse. It’s typically used to explain away the ramblings of Limbaugh or Hannity by people who say liberals underestimate their intelligence. I don’t think skill or intelligence has much to do with it, though I’ll readily argue that Hannity is a moron. The issue is the dishonesty.

    People like Beck should be broadcasting from a shack in Montana while taking pulls from Wild Turkey, wearing a tinfoil hat and gripping a shotgun. They shouldn’t be broadcasting from a studio in NYC.

    http://www.pufferfishblog.com/


  22. paleolib says:

    Time to put rodeo clown Beck into the ring and release the bull.


  23. pastcaring ceratopogonidae says:

    Oh!! Snap!!

    Twice in one day, trolls get the smackdown!!

    Ouchy wouchy.

    That must hurt huh fatlap, Silence is John Kerry, Beefeater, anyone with dog in their name?


  24. 5th Estate says:

    Mr. Beck says he believes every word he says on his TV show, and the radio show that he still hosts from 9 a.m. to noon each weekday. […] “I say on the air all time, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’“

    So anyone who believes anything he professes to believe in, or anything he says, even if he doesn’t actually believe in what he said, is an idiot. .

    And that’s entertainment!? Sounds like lunacy to me.


  25. pastcaring ceratopogonidae says:

    Is beck still playing with his fish Larry?


  26. PissedOffVeteran says:

    So didn’t gb just call all his wingnut fans diots?


  27. spencers butterfly mom says:

    paleolib Says:

    Time to put rodeo clown Beck into the ring and release the bull.

    That’s the thing about Beck and his ilk. They bring their own bull.

    PEACE


  28. Perry logan says:

    It’s going to take me a while to deal with this…


  29. PissedOffVeteran says:

    doh thats idiots


  30. joe cantwell says:

    ralph the wonder locust Says:
    I gotta give Beck miniscule props for this, though. At least he’s sort of upfront about being full of shit. Not like Limbaugh or Bildo, who seem to believe that they know WTF they’re talking about.

    **

    you’re right ralph.

    some whores do admit

    they fake their orgasms

    and it is honest of them.

    but they’re still whores.

    :|


  31. 5th Estate says:

    Glen Beck is an idiot–like a hydro-encephalic fox!!!


  32. krystalviews says:

    Talk about
    L O W
    hanging fruit……..


  33. stateofthedivision says:

    Smart people don’t listen to GB…


  34. Hoodathunktick says:

    Sounds like Glenn might be a tad smarter than his fellow ravers. Rodeo riders tend to have shorter careers, get pounded much harder and only have a belt buckle to show for their efforts.

    Clowns last longer and still get paid.


  35. Game of Life says:

    Tell the 20%ers that worship your lying ass that you are full of bullshyte.

    The progressives/dems/liberals never ever believed your lies.


  36. DRxJapanese Beetle says:

    “I say on the air all time, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’“

    So why SAY anything, then?


  37. speshuled67 (locust in training) says:

    dear mr beck

    PLEASE GO GALT, WE’RE BEGGING YOU!!!!

    ps
    take that crazy bachmann with you too.


  38. hanshiro the antlion says:

    Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the highest level of talent and integrity necessary to attract and engross a large conservative audience.

    Conservatives: Always aiming for the bold heights of ‘meh’…


  39. DRxJapanese Beetle says:

    So, does this mean that when a troll uses what Benn Gleck says as an argument, I can call him/her an idiot?
    And follow with:

    “Hey, just repeating what your master called you!”?


  40. MrBrown says:

    Well there you go right wingers. The man himself just called you idiots. But will you make his ratings go down because of it….nope. You will still tune into him and Fox simply because you know they have your point of view in priority.

    Its just like conservative women with Rush. the man constantly insults them, yet they still listen. They obviously think he’s right?


  41. Carol A says:

    Glenn Beck may characterize himself a rodeo clown, but it isn’t funny when, day after day, the blubbering fool incites armed revolt. Add Beck and Bachmann to the list of right wingnuts who need a checkup from the neck up. Perhaps each of Glenn Beck’s shows should include a warning to his viewers.
    Warning:
    “Smart people shouldn’t listen to me. I’m a rodeo clown. It takes great skill. If you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.”


  42. joe cantwell says:

    does the article mention

    whether or not he was

    crying what he said this?

    :|


  43. Doodlebug Shayne says:

    Carol A Says:

    Glenn Beck may characterize himself a rodeo clown, but it isn’t funny when, day after day, the blubbering fool incites armed revolt.

    Absolutely Carol, and he’s probably just using this “don’t listen to me” for a future defense when some nutjob takes up arms on what he says. It’s time to start holding those that incite violence responsible.


  44. mary lacewing says:

    Carol A and Doodlebug Shayne – I think you’re both onto something there.

    It sounds like this is his way of trying to avoid accountability in advance. If anyone does anything violent, and it turns out that they’re a fan of Beck, it sounds like he’s already planning on saying, “What? I wasn’t serious!”


  45. tombaker says:

    well, i knew he was some kind of clown…

    (but i bet he’s afraid of horses and cattle, like Dubbie)


  46. laworder says:

    All Beck did was confirm something most of us who read already know, his audiences are idiots.


  47. mary lacewing says:

    Carol A said:

    Perhaps each of Glenn Beck’s shows should include a warning to his viewers.
    Warning:
    “Smart people shouldn’t listen to me. I’m a rodeo clown. It takes great skill. If you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.”

    or:
    Do not regurgitate my lunatic spoutings around children or any other impressionable people at the risk of permanent mental fugue.


  48. fire _ant_chavis says:

    Ohhhhh no you don’t Beck. ROTFL! I think Beck is scared leftwing/progressive/democratic/liberals are going to come after him and his proud sponsors. Now he wants to pretend that he’s a clown and we can’t take what he says as gospel. Yeah right! The sad thing is rightwingnutcrazies DO take what this fool says as gospel and he should be ashamed of his yellow journalism! He’s a clown and a dingbat.


  49. laworder says:

    Good point about hateful speech, Beck doesn’t want to be taken seriously in case someone with a screw loose decides to kill someone important due to Beck’s ranting.


  50. dixie blood says:

    Beck,

    You got it backwards. You’re an idiot and that’s the gospel truth.


  51. StratRat says:

    Is there any reason Beck is on the air at all? What did he do (or rather, who did he do) to get his own show? Is he a political scientist? Is he an educator? Has he ever worked on capital hill or with a congresscritter?

    Why is he on the air? Inquiring minds want to know – mine anyway.


  52. Libellula saturata Annie says:

    Becky sez “… ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’“

    Say, there, sparky, why don’t you tell us something we DON’T know, eh?


  53. tombaker says:

    That’s also a HUGE insult to rodeo clowns, who are some pretty tough and courageous characters – quite the opposite of everything someone like Glen stands for.


  54. tombaker says:

    “…for the nation’s conservative populist anger.”

    um, NYT……

    WTF?

    There is not now, nor has there ever been, “conservative populism”

    Retraction, please.


  55. slappy magoo says:

    Glenn Beck – he believes his bulls**t, so you don’t have to!

    A guy who wholeheartedly believes what he knows is not true – AND thinks you’re an idiot for beleiving what he believes, because he knows it’s unbelieveable – is a textbook definition of a sociopath.


  56. pbeeg says:

    This is strictly for the sake of the agents of ZOG.
    “No, I’m just a funny guy! Don’t take anything I say seriously! It’s all in good fun!”
    So he can continue to advocate violence and defend the militias:
    http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2009/03/ron-paul-glenn-beck-and-militias.html

    His faithful know he’s just doing that so Obama’s ACORN shock troops don’t chloroform him and send him to a FEMA concentration camp.


  57. Teowens says:

    Mr. Beck says he believes every word he says on his TV show, and the radio show that he still hosts from 9 a.m. to noon each weekday. […]

    At the same time, though, he says he is an entertainer.

    Well that explains a lot. Feel sorry for his viewers who are blindly following him. At times this guy is so crazy he actually makes Billo the Clown and the Mannity look somewhat sane and that’s EXTREMELY HARD to do.


  58. Inferno Silver says:

    also just into the newsdesk: rain is wet…


  59. Keith H. says:

    I knew a real rodeo clown where they had real rodeos.
    Beck wouldn’t make a pimple on his ass.


  60. joe cantwell says:

    ***

    a couple of glenn’s

    idiots carrying signs

    in stamford, conn.

    **

    if they ever learn to spell

    we’ll all be in trouble.

    **

    h/t c&l

    :)


  61. wiley says:

    IOW— “suckers”.


  62. joe cantwell says:

    ***

    btw, it’s the second photograph.

    ***


  63. bebop says:

    Beck compares himself to Howard Beale, I think Lonesome Rhodes would be more appropriate


  64. youtube says:

    mpst and idiot person on media is BECK.


  65. curious says:

    He is an idiot. And his listeners are too. No matter how insane, how radical and how ill informed the host, there will always be followers. The listeners that follow Fox are sheep with no real common sense.

    The one thing they have in common is they want someone else to do their thinking for them. They have these talking heads that speak to their fears and prejudices. When they speak to that lowest common denominator, Beck and his ilk legitimize those people. Beck and others tell them in effect, that they have a right to their feelings, and he shares them. In a world that has changed so very much, these ditto heads have found a way to respond to fear and rapid change.

    Instead of helping them perhaps to cope better, Beck and others tell them to hold onto the very fears and prejudices that are familiar. Beck is what they are. Empty of ideas and afraid of common sense. They are pathetic and their voices are so loud. They hope to persuade by noise what they lack in substance.


  66. pete says:

    Sometimes I get too concerned with definitions but, IMO, anyone who watches his show is either a sociopath, a masochist, or a dedicated hero who risks their emotional well-being by keeping up with whatever paranoid delusions he happens to be selling.

    But, when we’re talking about idiots, Becky makes the word irrelevant when applied to anyone but him.


  67. a0d7fzz says:

    I love it. Beck insults himself!


  68. Cappy says:

    That’s logical.
    Believe Beck=you’re an idiot
    Beck believes what he says.
    Therefore, Beck is an idiot.

    Sounds about right.


  69. Pennsylvanianne says:

    Never thought I would agree with Glenn Beck about anything, but there’s a first time for anything, I guess. Whodathunk?


  70. Buckie Boy says:

    Yeah, Nutjob Clown Boy, anyone who listens to you is AN IDIOT…

    …not just the ones who believe you. but all of them…

    …Beck’s show is like watching WWE and listening to your brain cells disappear.


  71. jerseyboyblue says:

    The sad part about this is that he’s right when he says that people who believe him are idiots. There are millions who do so.


  72. Tachinidae Leporello says:

    Once more the old saying, Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American People, is proven only too right.


  73. dasm says:

    Mr. Beck says he believes every word he says on his TV show…
    He added later: “ ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’“

    That’s hilarious, but true– he called himself an idiot! What an idiot!


  74. misscoleopteramolly says:

    Does Beck mean to say that he’s an entertainer, or a rodeo clown? Does he know that rodeo clowns aren’t there to entertain the audience, but to distract bulls to keep them from trampling on the cowboys they toss? Or perhaps he does know, and being a rodeo clown IS his role. But who or what is he trying to draw our attention away from? The current administration?

    If his program is intended to be parody or satire, a la The Daily Show, he needs to present it like that. Jon Stewart doesn’t keep it a secret that his show is “fake news”.

    But I suspect Beck is just trying to cover up that he, himself is an idiot.


  75. Xisithrus, Hemiptera says:

    First O’Reilly calls his enemies insects and now Beck calls his allies idiots.

    Way to go!


  76. Xisithrus, Hemiptera says:

    In other words Becks tears for his country are the result of pulling nose hairs


  77. Badger says:

    misscoleopteramolly Says:

    But who or what is he trying to draw our attention away from?</em

    The fact that we are the only developed country without national health insurance,…..

    The fact that our CEOs make about 400 times what their average workers do…..

    The fact that higher education is practically Free for qualified students in Europe…..

    The fact that most poor people in America can’t see a dentist…

    The fact that We have troops in about 170 other countries…

    The fact that we spend more on Defense than the rest of the World Combined…

    I could go on…but you get my drift….


  78. nobillary says:

    “He added later: “I say on the air all time, ‘if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.’“”

    Glenn Beck has finally said something I can agree with!


  79. labman57 says:

    Let’s take it a step farther. If you believe any of the crap that Beck spews on his show, you’re an idiot.

    You can create an entire stand-up routine loosely based on Jeff Foxworthy’s material: “If you think Rush Limbaugh isn’t a self-serving gas bag, you’re an idiot”

    And so forth…


  80. leneeg says:

    Thankfully I don’t watch Beck and therefore by his own definition, I must be a genius.


  81. nickrhoward says:

    I can’t believe I’m saying this but, on this one issue, I agree with Beck.


  82. flight says:

    Beck may be an idiot, but I think his bank account says different. More like selling your soul to the devil. The interesting thing is this Murdoch wack job is adding a disclaimer to his show. And who says the O’Reilly factor isn’t making the Murdoch crowd a little bit nervous?
    Life can be sweet!!


  83. tombaker says:

    hey

    where are all of those

    “we surround them” people that glen unleashed?

    or is that one of those “operation chaos”’s too?


  84. OutstandingInAPlagueOfLocusts says:

    My friend will be so disappointed if Glenn is not serious. He’s already stockpiled 50 pounds of rice.


  85. Max Anax junius -1 says:

    .

    Q U E S T I O N:

    Did Glen Beck just call himself an idiot…
    … Or just his viewers?

    .


  86. MikeD2 says:

    Yes he did but he is obviously the lead idiot. The corollary to his statement would be: If you say what I say on the air, then you must be an idiot.


  87. thomas mc says:

    Only an idiot would even listen to his show.


  88. RichBixby says:

    So, if someone who believes that everything Beck which says is true is an idiot, and Beck believes that everything that he says is true, then Beck is either an idiot, a liar, or both.


  89. fireman says:

    I listened to him over the past week.he seems to be pretty interesting.Big gov.is starting to scare me.I have relatives in Canada.they say there health care system really sucks.they say friends come here all the time for care.



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