COMMENTARY | Will Glenn Beck ever get over his Nazi Tourette's Syndrome? If you're a fan of the radio talk show (and former Fox News television talk show) host, or a fan of those who live to ridicule him (like Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert), you are more than likely aware of Beck's predilection for Nazi comparisons to people and things and institutions with which he does not agree.
Comedian Lewis Black called it "Nazi Tourette's" on one episode of "The Daily Show," and it appears that Beck had a sudden attack Monday morning on his radio show with regard to the recent terrorist attack carried out in Norway, comparing the attacked political camp of Norwegian teens to the Hitler Youth.
"As the thing started to unfold and there was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth. Who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing."
Mediaite's Jon Bershad questioned whether it was too soon to attempt political gain from the atrocity, regardless of the politics. He contended that a tragedy, especially one involving young people, could wait for exploitation (because, as he astutely pointed out, it will be -- eventually). Or at least those who would exploit should allow a buffer of time to insert itself between a tragedy and the need for the callously opportunistic to use it for their own agendas.
But Beck's fecklessness and unerring ability to be drawn to and root out anything resembling a rise of the Fourth Reich, even if all the rooting out results from the Nazi manifestations that exist only in his own mind, apparently does not allow him an empathic filter. But, then, why should he be empathic to a political camp of neo-Nazi Hitlerjugend?
Perhaps because his ability to discern the buds of Nazism isn't as accurate as it could be.
Torbjorn Eriksen, a former press secretary to Jens Stoltenberg, Norway's prime minister, told The Daily Telegraph that Beck had hit a "new low."
"Young political activists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about," he said. "Glenn Beck's comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful."
Beck's unsolicited comments came in the wake of the Friday's tragic bombing in Oslo, Norway, and the shooting that occurred at a political youth camp on Utoya island. According to CNN, seven people were killed as a result of the bombing. But the suspect, admitted anti-multiculturalist Christian fundamentalist Anders Behring Breivik, then made his way to political camp on Utoya island run by Stoltenberg's own Labor Party. Dressed as a law enforcement officer, he gathered the camp, then suddenly started shooting at his audience, a rampage that would last a reported one-and-a-half hours. By the time he was done, 85 more people would be dead, most of them teenagers.
Still, it is not the first time Beck has made comments so scandalous as to demand nearly universal reproach. He infamously called President Obama a racist, saying that he had a "deep-seated hatred for white people." He apologized in February for calling Reform Judaism another form of "radicalized Islam."
But Beck is most comfortable comparing things to anything and all things Nazi, such as back in 2009, when former vice president Al Gore made a comment about succeeding generations knowing things that their predecessors do not (and perhaps altering things when they feel the need), and Beck likened his words putting America's young people on "the way to the Hitler Youth." His famous blackboard Venn diagrams were not complete without a Nazi reference, inclusion, or an extraneous influence or derivative arrow.
Lewis Black was correct. Glenn Beck suffers from Nazi Tourette's Syndrome.
Torbjorn Eriksen was also correct. Beck's comments were (and apparently continue to be) ignorant, incorrect, and hurtful. But that is the problem uncorrected ignorance. Sometimes it manifests itself into hurtful language, assumptions, and insinuations, the unfortunate symptoms of maladies like Nazi Tourette's.
3 comments