Glenn Beck Wants to Build CrazyTown!

Too bad you're crazy. Too bad you're loony as hell. Image from RawStory

I'll be honest, I never saw the appeal of Glenn Beck. I caught a few of his early HNN shows, back in the day. I braved the insanity/inanity of his FOX "News" program. I have never listened to his radio show, or partaken in his online "television" program, but I've seen enough clips and excerpts to form a generally informed opinion: he's a loon. Batshit crazy. The butter has dripped off of his noodle.

Or, he's just a craven (albeit weird) manipulator, adept at wrangling money and attention from other crazy people. Beck's organized events have been grandiose, overblown and oddly vague. He reminds me of a faith healer or charlatan psychic, making vague predictions, and finding conspiracies in mundane things. He's certainly not averse to leaps of logic, extreme supposition, and strawman arguments. And he's good at taking any news story of the day, and bending and shaping it to fit his preformed narrative. Or, alternatively, shapes the narrative around the facts, making it up as he goes along.

It is scarier to me that Beck gathers such a fervent audience. Because Beck himself is--as Keith Olbermann used to say--Lonesome Rhodes. He's schtick. He may or may not believe what he himself is selling, but he's in it for the fame and fortune. So his latest scheme is just--oddly enough--the next logical step. But it isn't really original. Las Vegas has been attempting this sort of thing for years, a sort of self-contained living center, complete with amusement rides, shopping, movies, leisure. Beck has just married that idea to a 60s commune crossed with a heavy dose of Waco's Branch Davidians. And apparently, the key to freedom and liberty is to lock yourself in self-contained, walled off compound.

[Excerpt]

Glenn Beck hopes to build utopian city-theme park hybrid

Conservative personality Glenn Beck last week announced grandiose plans to construct a self-sustaining “city-theme park hybrid” that would reflect traditional American values. The city, to be called “Independence,” draws heavily from ideas espoused by Walt Disney and libertarian novelist Ayn Rand. The project is expected to cost more than $2 billion. . .

Read more at: Raw Story