Glenn Beck Program, January 20, 2011

Propaganda - Whose

Glenn showed a video clip of Representative Steve Cohen on the floor of the House of Representatives calling Republicans Nazis.  He made this claim because he thought they were using the “Big Lie” tactic of the Nazi propaganda machine.  In reality, Edward Béarnaise, an early American progressive, first pioneered this and many other propaganda techniques.

Glenn asked, “What is the American experiment?  To be answered later in the show.

Progressive History

You have to understand the early progressives to understand what is going on today.

Modern day propaganda is now called “public relations”.

Clips and Quotes

Glenn then showed

• A clip of Béarnaise’s daughter recalling her father’s concept of democracy as “enlightened despotism”.

• A quote of Cass Sunsteen was shown about how people have some Homer Simpson in them and that they can be manipulated. 

• Early on, the progressives liked Mussolini.   Glenn showed a quote from the New York Times dated 1923 where it stated “Mussolini has been a great service to Italy and compares with Teddy Roosevelt.”

Glenn then further discussed Representative Cohen’s comment and how that exposed Cohen’s view that people can be swayed by a lie repeated often enough times.  Glenn responds that you don’t prevent people from hearing all this rhetoric, you educate them to think on their own to be able to evaluate it.

Glenn held up Béarnaise’s book “Propaganda”.  Read it.

Changing America

Glenn believes the people in his audience will change America because they will explore for the truth and move beyond the rhetoric.  We can have a dialog with Representative Cohen about does he think he is an elite guiding the people because they are too stupid to think on their own?  Fundamentally, this is a debate between “enlightened despotism” and freedom.

People as Cows to be Herded

There was more discussion of people as cows that need to be herded together by the progressives as ranchers.  The government regulatory agencies act as fence builders to help keep the herd contained.  If one of the cows starts to act differently, you don’t kill it in America, you discredit it so that the rest of the herd will move away from that cow.  In other countries, they shoot the deviant cow as in Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union, etc.

The views that people are cows to be herded or free people to be educated cannot coexist.  That is the great debate we must have.  Each person will need to decide for him or her self what to believe and must question with boldness to achieve that understanding.  Question everything.

Rhetoric from the Early Days

During the early days of the country, debates were not civil.  A sitting Vice President,
Aaron Burr shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.  Name-calling was commonplace. 

• John Adams was called a “repulsive pedant”, “mentally deranged” “blind, bald, crippled and toothless”.
• Alexander Hamilton was a “monster”, “adulterer” “haunted by whores”.
• Abraham Lincoln was called a “despot”, “scoundrel”, “liar”, “thief”, and “perjurer”.

Monday’s show will be about American assassins and their ideologies.

What was the American Experiment?  Can man rule himself? 

The answer to the debate issue is more speech.

Poster

Glenn held up an old AIDS poster.  It was a pink triangle on a black background with the words SILENCE = DEATH along the bottom.  He went onto explain that the pink triangle was the way the Nazis identified homosexuals.  Jews wore yellow Stars of David.  We must discuss the issues, not be cowed into submission.