BLOWHARD NEW YORK TIMES CONTRIBUTOR A PARANOID LOON
His name is Charles Blow - no really, it is. I don’t know exactly what he does for a living because this op-ed that appears in the New York Times today doesn’t give us a clue. Perhaps he is the official liberal hand wringer. Or maybe he is the designated hysteria monger for the left.
Whatever he does, it is apparent he needs a change of underpants after trying to scare the crap out of the left with visions of bloody revolution, right wing terrorism, and conservative mobs running amuck:
Lately I’ve been consuming as much conservative media as possible (interspersed with shots of Pepto-Bismol) to get a better sense of the mind and mood of the right. My read: They’re apocalyptic. They feel isolated, angry, betrayed and besieged. And some of their “leaders” seem to be trying to mold them into militias.
At first, it was entertaining - just harmless, hotheaded expostulation. Of course, there were the garbled facts, twisted logic and veiled hate speech. But what did I expect, fair and balanced? It was like walking through an ideological house of mirrors. The distortions can be mildly amusing at first, but if I stay too long it makes me sick.
But, it’s not all just harmless talk. For some, their disaffection has hardened into something more dark and dangerous. They’re talking about a revolution.
What sparkling analysis! What scintillating observations! What wit! What insightful reasoning!
What a crock.
Mr. Blowhard is a liar. If he read more conservative commentary than what he has linked above, I will eat my William F. Buckley Memorial Skimmer. If he had, he would not have had a column to write. No one at NRO has called for a “revolution.” No one at The Weekly Standard has written anything remotely resembling a tract that pronouces conservatives “isolated, betrayed, and besieged. I haven’t even heard Rush Limbaugh urging conservatives to pick up a pitchfork and head to Washington. Nor has Mr. Blow read American Thinker, Pajamas Media, Powerline, Hot Air, Instapundit, Hugh Hewitt, Townhall, Outside the Beltway, or most of the other top 50 conservative blogs that, if not always objective in tone and substance, certainly fall far short of advocating or promoting “revolution” or “garbled facts” or “twisted logic” and most especially “veiled” hate speech.
That last, of course, is construed by liberals as any speech they happen to disagree with. In the case of Mr. Blow’s op-ed, I might point out that there is nothing “veiled” at all about his hate; his entire screed is one long, lying, misrepresentation of the current state of conservative thought that descends to the depths of hysterical paranoia, gross and deliberate exaggeration, and a jaw dropping ignorance of who conservatives believe their “leaders” to be (or a coldly calculated attempt to deliberately mis-identify those leaders to make his idiotic thesis ring true).
Calling Michelle Bachman a conservative “leader” tells you right away this fellow has as much business writing an op-ed about conservatives as my pet cat Snowball. And at least Snowy would have enough character and honesty to actually peruse top conservative websites and writings instead of cherry picking blog posts from Think Progress or Crooks and Liars. It may come as a shock to Blow but not everything that appears on those shrines to liberal truth is “fair and balanced” either. Nor can I think of a single liberal site that has even a smidgen of balance when it comes to reporting on conservatives. The rank partisanship of the lefty blogosphere is as pronounced and dominant as it is on the right. That’s showbiz on the internet.
But wait! Before you think Mr. Blowhard is just your typical liberal purveyor of false, misleading, and outright dishonest analysis of conservative opinion, get a load of this:
For example, Chuck Norris, the preeminent black belt and prospective Red Shirt, wrote earlier this month on the conservative blog WorldNetDaily: “How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution?”
Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, imagining herself as some sort of Delacroixian Liberty from the Land of the Lakes, urged her fellow Minnesotans to be “armed and dangerous,” ready to bust caps over cap-and-trade, I presume.
And between his tears, Glenn Beck, the self-professed “rodeo clown,” keeps warning of an impending insurrection by saying that he believes that we are heading for “depression” and “revolution” and then gaming out that revolution on his show last month. “Think the unthinkable” he said. Indeed.
Where’s Rush Limbaugh? Isn’t he the liberal-identified “conservative leader?” Why no scary quotes from him? Evidently, Rush failed to cooperate with Mr. Blowhard and supply the requisite rant calling for “revolution.” Limbaugh, for the most part, has been a rational conservative voice calling for better organizing, sharper messaging, and holding GOP lawmaker’s feet to the fire to stand up for conservative principles. Not calling for violence on his show meant that Rush didn’t make Mr. Blow’s cut of conservative “leaders.”
Instead, we are told that Chuck Norris is da man, a leading light of conservative thought. Norris is popular with some conservatives but I can’t recall anything he ever said being taken seriously by anyone. It would be like saying Jeananne Garofolo is a liberal leader. People know who she is and she is quoted by liberals on occassion but does anyone believe that she is an important spokesperson for the left?
And how important is Glen Beck? There are tens of millions of conservatives in America and Beck has a show on Fox watched by a little more than a million people. If that makes him a “conservative leader” then it makes Al Franken a liberal leader - both clowns who I would be surprised if either were taken seriously by anyone with an IQ higher than 50.
How paranoid is Mr. Blow? The idea that any responsible conservative anywhere is trying to “mold” conservatives into militias is so far beyond the pale of rational discourse as to make the author a true leftist nutcase, a lost cause to reason and logic, and a quaking, shaking, quivering example of lefty delusional thinking.
Both sides have their nutcases - something Mr. Blow either forgot or failed to acknowledge. If he wants some examples, I invite him to visit my blog and pick any post at random. There he will find liberal idiocy in all its glory - paranoia, nauseating condenscension, and a hate so intense as to make the commenter unintelligable.
I might have expected a piece like this on Huffington Post or perhaps Firedoglake - that other liberal bastion of rank partisan hatred, skewed facts, and contextual dishonesty. The fact that it appears in the New York Times shouldn’t surprise us, I guess, except that the Times is still billing itself as a newspaper. Maybe they should simply give in to their impulses and proclaim their switch to being just another liberal blog that traffics in lies, deciet, and towering hypocrisy.
This blog post originally appeared in The American Thinker
UPDATE
Alright already. If you like Glenn Beck you have an IQ above 50. But agreeing with Mr. Blowhard that the talk show host is a “conservative leader” puts those of you waxing eloquent for Mr. Beck in sort of a strange position, no? It validates his thesis.
Why do conservatives insist on self-immolating behavior such as granting imbeciles like Beck any legitimacy? This is neither the time or the place (I want to enjoy my Saturday afternoon off thank you) to go into Beck’s shortcomings but you might want to ask yourself why simply because you agree with his rants that this makes him a leading light of conservatism? My neighbor is a better ranter than Beck but I don’t ascribe any special qualities to his ability to appeal to emotion. To my mind, there is little difference between Beck and Blow - neither ventures to argue using a logical framework for discussion nor do either of those two gentlemen grant their political opponents any legitimacy whatsoever. There is no rational basis for debate or discussion without both of those givens present.
Sorry for referring to Beckites as having the IQ of a coffee table.
Rick - What do you gain by calling Glen Beck a “clown?” What do you gain by mocking his listeners and watchers?
I’m betting about 100% of Beck’s audience has an IQ over 50.
PS - You mocked his small “watched by a little more than a million” TV show. FYI - Those 1.5 million watching his nightly FOX show aren’t the same 1.5 every night. So do the math. In addition, he also has this little (Top 5 National) radio show with a weekly audience topping 10 million.
Nice try.
Comment by Jeff — 4/4/2009 @ 10:28 am
I was thinking that blow would be able to make a convincing case some time after the point when conservatives start mobbing up in the streets in masses of hundreds of thousands or more to burn effigies and earnestly preach that now is the time to overthrow the government. You know,while openly supporting the cause of foreign enemies in hot combat with the military, selling books about the means of guerilla warfare and promising to “shut down the city” with their protest as they clash with police.
What would that look like?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G9SMnVNBUM
Comment by ArchieReggie — 4/4/2009 @ 10:29 am
“Calling Michelle Bachman a conservative “leader” tells you right away this fellow has as much business writing an op-ed about conservatives as my pet cat Snowball. And at least Snowy would have enough character and honesty to actually peruse top conservative websites and writings instead of cherry picking blog posts from Think Progress or Crooks and Liars.”
From Powerline: Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is one of Minnesota’s most effective spokesmen for conservatism, so our local media have collaborated with Democrats in trying to defeat her. The most recent attack on Michele arose out of my radio show last Saturday.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/03/023152.php
All of 5 seconds on Google.
Five seconds off your life for no reason.
What the hell does that prove? That she’s a popular conservative in Minnesota. MINNESOTA!! Are you shitting me? And I’ve got news for ya. The only notice given Bachman is when she makes some off the wall statement and its picked up by lefty media. Anything reasonable or rational she ever says never makes it beyond the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.
Some “conserative leader.”
ed.
Comment by IanY77 — 4/4/2009 @ 11:36 am
“Both sides have their nutcases - something Mr. Blow either forgot or failed to acknowledge. If he wants some examples, I invite him to visit my blog and pick any post at random. There he will find liberal idiocy in all its glory - paranoia, nauseating condenscension, and a hate so intense as to make the commenter unintelligable.”
Now there’s a backhanded compliment!
Comment by bobwire — 4/4/2009 @ 11:58 am
Okay Rick, the conservative blogs you picked don’t call for revolution, but read the comment section of Hot Air, lots of folks talk about armed revolution. Ed and Allah don’t encourage them, but, they don’t get warned or banned either. Mr. Blow was wrong with his assumptions that conservative LEADERS are pushing revolution, but readers of conservative blogs, regular readers and commenters are calling for pitchforks and torches.
Comment by Joe — 4/4/2009 @ 12:06 pm
I now remember why I quit reading your columns. You’re a class A jerk.
I doubt many people around the country have ever heard of you, but I’m pretty sure Glenn Beck is well known. BTW- my IQ is slightly over 50. I’m able to peel bananas with my feet, so put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Let me get this straight- Glenn Beck is a clown and is now on the same footing as Al Franken?! Seriously. Why would that be? Is it because he is trying to rally Americans to learn about the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution and our founding fathers?! What a loon!
Before you belittle and denigrate Glenn Beck, perhaps you should listen to his message instead of attacking the messenger. During the campaigns you came across as a schizophrenic conservative. Total turnoff. I’ve read my last Rick Moran (Rick who?) column.
As usual, I will assist those of you who swear off reading me any longer by banning your IP.
ed.
Comment by Flyingright — 4/4/2009 @ 12:11 pm
I hear lots of people on television and radio claiming to be “conservatives” saying outrageous and stupid things everyday. Indeed we hear these things on the other side too. I say not as much though. Some, like the “rodeo clown”, even have their own shows.
I sense a real shift in the Republican party tactics because so much of what Republicans stand for has been discredited in the eyes of the public.
Many Americans no longer believe a capital gains tax cut will make them better off personally.
Many Americans no longer believe we need to eliminate the death tax in an effort to stop private property theft.
Many Americans want better stewardship of their environment and its natural resources.
Many Americans want access to affordable health care more than they are afraid of Socialism, Communism, Fascism, France,the British health care boondoggle, One world government, being forced to use a foreign currency, spreading the wealth, illegal immigrants, Mexican death squads, terrorism, ACORN, Bill Ayers (Timothy McVeigh?), state mandated suicide and cannibalism.
The times they are a changin…
Comment by bsjones — 4/4/2009 @ 12:36 pm
Didn’t take long for the defenders of Glenn Beck to arrive, did it? You want to argue that he isn’t apocalyptic? He is.
He is also very popular on the most popular conservative outlet available, Fox News. He was perfectly appropriate for Charles Blow to point to in making his argument.
What argument? That Beck is a conservative “leader?” That he espouses violent revolution? Get a grip kid, your gray matter is dripping out your ears.
ed.
Comment by Pug — 4/4/2009 @ 12:37 pm
Oh yeah,
No need to fear McVeigh. He is dead.
Comment by bsjones — 4/4/2009 @ 12:38 pm
onservatives with any degree of maturity have no leader. That’s what makes them conservatives.
Most of us who had the privilege of working to elect Barry Goldwater thought of him as our candidate and point man. Obviously he had a national audience and enunciated conservative concepts with which we mostly agreed. We honored Barry and esteemed him greatly but we knew that he would resent being called the leader of anything.
Many today who call themselves conservatives have never fought any political battles and only fantasize about political conquests.
They look to “celebrity” conservatives for their ideas, and have a fan mentality about them.This is not necessarily wrong but it is conducive to idol worship and attributing infallibility to their idol.
Comment by Edward Cropper — 4/4/2009 @ 1:47 pm
As one of your liberal idiots whose posts are filled with paranoia, nauseating condescension, and hate… I agree with you, Charles Blow is a bozo.
Comment by Postagoras — 4/4/2009 @ 1:50 pm
Flyingright must not be paying attention. If he were, he would most certainly know what those of us with any intellect realized many months ago.
RICK MORAN IS THE LEADING VOICE OF CONSERVATISM IN AMERICA TODAY!
Well, maybe I’m exaggerating just a little. Actually there are many voices promoting conservative ideas. Mostly, though, conservatism is found amongst the quieter folk who live its constructs daily through their moral values, hard work, family allegiance, and fierce independence.
There are many voices of the left as well. And many quiet ones who, though well meaning, are simply misguided in their understanding of how best to help their fellow man. They haven’t yet realized that by giving more and more control to a central power that is further and further away, they are actually commiting their fellow man, as well as themselves, to a life of misery under totalitarian enslavement. From the family to the city to the county to the state to the federal government and, finally, to the U.N. or some other world government, the power, the laws, the control comes from elite voices eminating from afar.
Some peoples personalities lead them to become hysterical when describing this erosion of liberty and deconstruction of human vitality and indivdualism. Others can discuss these events with calm intellectualism. It is left to us to preserve conservative ideals in whatever way we can until there arises a man or woman who can galvanize our emotions and intellect and lead a conservative resurgence. Critical ankle biting just seems a bit counterproductive.
Comment by cdor — 4/4/2009 @ 2:57 pm
Edward Cropper, you are correct about conservatives. Independent people don’t rely on leaders, they are their own leader. Perhaps that is exactly why mounting a conservative movement is so difficult. But in this day and age, without a face and personality it is very difficult to influence the electorate.
Comment by cdor — 4/4/2009 @ 3:07 pm
I don’t think you have really watched Beck, just like the libs who rant about Limbaugh don’t listen to him. Watch Beck with the Connecticut Attorney General and tell me what Beck got wrong. Beck is not a conservative leader, but he is a right-wing counterpoint to someone like John Stewart. Also, “rodeo clown” was Beck’s own description of himself.
Comment by walt — 4/4/2009 @ 4:15 pm
Come on now, the man is just making fun of the clowns that inhabit the fringes of the right wing movement. (It’s not serious writing at all, shooting fish in a barrel is closer to it.) What is surprising is that the NYT would even bother with having Mr. Blow waste ink on this subject, when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert do a perfectly wonderful job mocking these same fools 5 times a week!
Comment by Surabaya Stew — 4/4/2009 @ 5:16 pm
What a tool you are. Blow defines you and you don’t get it.
You are absolutely correct. I am sharpening my pitchfork, cleaning my gun, and joining the Michigan Militia in preparation of the revolution to come. Of course, if you can find anywhere in my 3,000 posts on this site where I advocate any of that, agree with it, or even reflect that mindset, I will write a public apology to Blow and quit blogging.
Please don’t embarrass yourself by posting comments that make you look ignorant.
ed.
Comment by Berinie Schwartz — 4/4/2009 @ 5:31 pm
“It would be like saying Jeananne Garofolo is a liberal leader. People know who she is and she is quoted by liberals on occassion but does anyone believe that she is an important spokesperson for the left?”
Didn’t Bill O’Rilley and whatshisname list her in the Top 5 Liberal Conspiracy Politburo? Can’t find a link (the FoxNEWS and MSNBC websites are a mess), but it was her, DailyKos, MSNBC, and I forget the two others — about 2-3 weeks ago.
I suppose this all depends on what you’re defining the term “Conservative Leader” as. Popularity? then you’ve got Rush, O’rilley, Coulter, etc. Political Power? I suppose technically its Boener and Cantor. Officially elected to a “leadership” position? Then I suppose it’s Steele.
The term is nebulous enough that anybody who gets labeled as a “conservative leader” can simply be denied.
Mr. M: Why do YOU consider to be the “leaders” of Conservatives today?
Comment by busboy33 — 4/4/2009 @ 5:59 pm
No, I haven’t heard anyone calling for revolution, but sometimes it does seem that the end result to such radical actions by the Obama administration could be revolution. In fact I did do a recent fictional post on that issue titled “Obama’s Road”. Its simply a short cause and effect article.
Comment by Ron Russell — 4/4/2009 @ 7:27 pm
I listen to Beck’s radio show whenever I can, and while it’s true that he’s “wargamed” revolution, he has been explicit with his callers who seem to advocate one that it’s a very bad idea. He says that if we were to have another revolution in this country, it wouldn’t be like our first revolution, it would be like the French Revolution, only on a larger scale.
He has consistently told his audience that an actual revolution (as opposed to the electoral variety) would be a VERY BAD THING.
Comment by The Monster — 4/4/2009 @ 8:02 pm
[...] course, some on the Right dismissed Blow as a paranoid loon. No, I think not. Spotlight Obama Derangement Syndrome, [...]
Pingback by The Mahablog » Right-Wing Paranoia? — 4/4/2009 @ 9:28 pm
Charles Blow is Jayson Blair’s replacement at the NYT. He does the same job, and was hired for the same reasons.
Comment by Leftists are Parasites — 4/4/2009 @ 10:14 pm
“Why do conservatives insist on self-immolating behavior such as granting imbeciles like Beck any legitimacy?”
- - - - -
Dunno. Why do conservatives insist on self-immolating behavior such as arbitrarily splitting up the conservative movement into many arbitrary factions, and then attacking and denigrating all of the other factions for their differences with their own One True Faction?
How long until we have no actual party or movement, but instead have 80,000,000 self-proclaimed leaders of 80,000,000 One True Factions?
Lastly, how long until liberals stop laughing at us over this?
I am factionless - unless you want to include the idea that I think I relfect the beliefs of the vast number of conservatives beyond the internet cocoon.
ed.
Comment by bobby b — 4/4/2009 @ 11:10 pm
Rick you make it sound like an absolute consensus, on who the leaders of the Conservative motion are, actually exists. Have them step forward to get elected please.
Comment by the Fly-Man — 4/5/2009 @ 7:22 am
[...] WIZBANG WUZZADEM ZERO POINT BLOG PITTSBURG SHOOTER WAS ‘ENCOURAGED’ BY CONSERVATIVES? BLOWHARD NEW YORK TIMES CONTRIBUTOR A PARANOID LOON WHAT SLIPPERY SLOPE? FIRST, THEY CAME FOR THE SMOKERS THE ILLUSION OF OPPORTUNITY THE RICK MORAN [...]
Pingback by Right Wing Nut House » PITTSBURG SHOOTER WAS ‘ENCOURAGED’ BY CONSERVATIVES? — 4/5/2009 @ 9:29 am
[...] Obama Talk…something to worry about? No, unless you’re a RINO. Rick Moran isn’t hearing the revolution talk either…I hear it everyday from ordinary average people, not from the so called party leaders. [...]
Pingback by And Rightly So » Blog Archive » A Few Sunday Midday Links — 4/5/2009 @ 10:42 am
Really?
When people talk of “refreshing the Tree of Liberty,” just what are they talking about?
And just where HAVE all the bullets gone?
They’ve been squirrelled away by militia men waiting for Glenn Beck to start the revolution, dummy.
ed.
Comment by rascalfair — 4/5/2009 @ 11:04 am
“They’ve been squirrelled away by militia men waiting for Glenn Beck to start the revolution, dummy.”
My, my…there must be millions of them…sitting there, just waiting for Beck to tell them to “fire.”…but I guess he can’t until Limbaugh signs off on it…so we have a few days left to find our tinfoil helmets.
Comment by rascalfair — 4/5/2009 @ 4:04 pm
[...] Revolution Talk April, 5, 2009 — nicedeb It turns out the far right aren’t the only ones prone to such talk. The far left is too, (listen at [...]
Pingback by Video: Revolution Talk « Nice Deb — 4/5/2009 @ 5:11 pm
Monday afternoon links…
Went for a family visit and Palm Sunday Mass in MA at the family church yesterday. Still cold up there: rain, wind and snow today. Spring feels very far away, due to Climate Change.
More Tea Parties. It’s a Protest Movement! Power…
Trackback by Maggie's Farm — 4/6/2009 @ 1:57 pm
We have this double standard thing going:
Conservatives, regardless of their outrage at any issue or defamation of their character must…at all times(?) act or react with calm and provide a thoughtful answer (that usually gets shouted over or edited out from most broadcasts)or else the unflattering footage may be televised as the definition of a conservative? Thus, dragging the whole party down into an irreparable abyss. Yeah, right. That’s blackmail!
The lefties ned to feel pain for the harm they cause. Words seem to be largely ineffective against them when they can edit it all out. When confronted by a bully…you should push, or hit back-HARDTrying to make one’s case in their arena is akin to crying to the teacher about the bully.
Meanwhile the Huff-Po, Kos Kids, the G-20 protesters, the Bill Ayers’, the Reverend Wrights, the Al Sharptons, the Harry Reid’s, the Bill Maher’s, the Nancy Pelosi’s, the Obama’s…the REAL representatives of liberal thought can hang out and continue to be as destructive as always because they have many of the broadcast outlets tied up?
This is war! We will not start winning until the left backs off. Being PC in their world is a losing proposition. Being thoughtful in their illogical world ain’t workin’ out so hot either.
Comment by P. Aaron — 4/6/2009 @ 8:22 pm