Glenn Beck hasn't been known for sticking within the bounds of credibility with his conspiracy theories, but he has now accused anarchists and other radicals of wanting to eliminate 10% of the US population, or 25 million people, on the flimsiest of evidence. by Dan Clore
(libertarian)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Glenn Beck hasn't been known for sticking within the bounds of credibility with his conspiracy theories, but he has now accused anarchists and other radicals of wanting to eliminate 10% of the US population, or 25 million people, on the flimsiest of evidence, in order to take control. On a recent show Beck pointed to an alleged quotation from former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, given by Larry Grathwohl, an FBI agent provocateur who infiltrated the organization:
"The immediate responsibility would be to protect against what they call against the counter-revolution.
"And they felt that this counter-revolution could best be guarded against by creating and establishing reeducation centers in the Southwest, where we would take all the people who needed to be reeducated into the new way of thinking and teach them how things were going to be.
"I asked, well, what is going to happen to those people that we can't reeducate, that are die-hard capitalists? And the reply was they would have to be eliminated. And when I pursued this further, they estimated that they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers. And when I say 'eliminate,' I mean kill 25 million people."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bill Ayers, when confronted with this, denied it: "Never said it. Never thought it. And again, Larry Grathwohl, I don't know him today, but certainly the FBI was an organization built on lies," said Ayers.
So, we have the unverifiable claim of an ancient quotation, denied by the alleged speaker. The evidence could not be weaker. Particularly considering that even when engaging in the dubious tactic of bombing buildings for peace, Ayers always gave advanced warning so that no one would be harmed, only property. Ayers is also, incidentally, a signer of the petition "Crimes Are Crimes, No Matter Who Commits Them", against the Obama administration's continuation of George W. Bush's war crimes.
Nonetheless, Beck goes on to magnify the claim: "This is an FBI agent who infiltrated the Weather Underground. And Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn — they are still saying the same thing." Beck then really starts pumping out the conspiracy Kool-Aid: "If you just joined us, we were talking about a group in the United States — we had a group here whose goal it was to eliminate 10 percent of the U.S. population.
"Why? Because that's what anarchists, Marxists, communists, revolutionaries, Maoists do. They have to do it to be able to gain control. But when they first came up with these ideas, it was just a small group, incapable of pulling off the overthrow of the United States government, right?"
That's a pretty weird accusation against anarchists, who just don't want others to gain control over their own lives. But then Beck has demonstrated a rather faulty understanding of anarchism before, claiming that anarchists are in favor of total government, so maybe this shouldn't come as such a big surprise.
Beck has repeatedly demonized anarchists on his shows. One of the groups he has attacked, the AK Press Collective, has published a response to his claims, but Beck has ignored this reply and continued with his false claims. It remains to be seen whether Beck will ever acknowledge such responses, or simply continue acting as a human Kool-Aid fountain.
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Posted By: Mike Blevins
Date: June 14, 2010 09:48:19 PM
Eventually, people are going to wake up to what flake Glenn Beck is. Face it. He's got millions of dollars riding on his ability to keep people riled up and watching. Our fears, suspicions, anger, and hopes are merely fodder for his warped media canon.
Posted By: Bentree
Date: June 16, 2010 01:06:10 PM
So he throws in anarchists, who are really the pawns of the " ism's", well that sure disqualifies him, the nerve. If you are not riled already about whats going on, next time you see Alice say hi for me.
Posted By: Amy Kelly
Date: June 18, 2010 10:30:33 AM
So let me get this straight: Your proof that Glenn Beck was wrong was based on the denial of the person who supposedly said them? Well, if Bill Ayres said he didn't say that or think that, then I guess the case is closed. I mean, I've never heard of someone accused of something actually denying that they did the thing they were accused of. If Bill Ayres said he didn't say it then I guess we can just take him at his word. Whew! Glad that's over. Maybe we should ask every person accused of anything if they did it, and if they say no, we should just let them go because, well, why would they lie? A criminal lie!! NEVER!!! I mean, there is no one more trustworthy than a person who places bombs but says he's nice enough to call first so the people can get out because that's just the kind of guy he is. I may ask Bill Ayres to babysit my kids.
I can't believe someone as gullible as you is able to use a computer. If you want to argue about Glenn Beck, watch his show, listen to him connect the dots, and if you can find some evidence that discounts the one million and 5 things he's put together to prove that Obama, Ayres, and the entire lot of them are greedy, corrupt, scoundrels bring that evidence here and show us how he's wrong. But please, don't ask me to take the words of a person who admits he places bombs in the name of "peace", uses his daddy's money to get off on a technicality, and lives the high life in Chicago while anyone else would've gone to jail for the things he did. Come back when you have something more credible to say.
