Now this is an example of inciting right-wing hatred
Read the New York Times on Glenn Beck’s bizarre obsession with Frances Piven:
On his daily radio and television shows, Glenn Beck has elevated once-obscure conservative thinkers onto best-seller lists. Recently, he has elevated a 78-year-old liberal academic to celebrity of a different sort, in a way that some say is endangering her life.
Frances Fox Piven, a City University of New York professor, has been a primary character in Mr. Beck’s warnings about a progressive take-down of America. Ms. Piven, Mr. Beck says, is responsible for a plan to “intentionally collapse our economic system.”
Her name has become a kind of shorthand for “enemy” on Mr. Beck’s Fox News Channel program, which is watched by more than 2 million people, and on one of his Web sites, The Blaze. This week, Mr. Beck suggested on television that she was an enemy of the Constitution.
Never mind that Ms. Piven’s radical plan to help poor people was published 45 years ago, when Mr. Beck was a toddler. Anonymous visitors to his Web site have called for her death, and some, she said, have contacted her directly via e-mail.
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Ms. Piven said in an interview that she had informed local law enforcement authorities of the anonymous electronic threats. But she added, “I don’t want to give anybody the satisfaction of thinking they’ve got me trembling.”
The interest in Ms. Piven is rooted in an article she wrote with her husband, Richard Cloward, in 1966. The article, “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty,” proposed that if people overwhelmed the welfare rolls, fiscal and political stress on the system could force reform and give rise to changes like a guaranteed income. By drawing attention to the topic, the proposal “had a big impact” even though it was not enacted, Ms. Piven said. “A lot of people got the money that they desperately needed to survive,” she said.
In Mr. Beck’s telling on a Fox broadcast on Jan. 5, 2010, Ms. Piven and Mr. Cloward (who died in 2001) planned “to overwhelm the system and bring about the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with impossible demands and bring on economic collapse.” Mr. Beck observed that the number of welfare recipients soared in the years after the article, and said the article was like “economic sabotage.”
He linked what he termed the Cloward-Piven Strategy to President Obama’s statement late in the 2008 presidential campaign that “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
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The Nation, which has featured Ms. Piven’s columns for decades, quoted some of the threats against her in an editorial this week that condemned the “concerted campaign” against her.
One such threat, published as an anonymous comment on The Blaze, read, “Somebody tell Frances I have 5000 rounds ready and I’ll give My life to take Our freedom back.” (The spelling and capitalizing have not been changed.)
That comment and others that were direct threats were later deleted, but other comments remain that charge her with treasonous behavior.
That’s the kind of focused, hysterical targeting that might drive unbalanced people to violence. It’s reminiscent of Bill O’Reilly’s years-long campaign against Dr. Tiller.
Here’s what it’s not reminiscent of: Sarah Palin’s utterly routine election map and a psychotic shooter who wasn’t even tuned into right-wing politics.
This is one reason why it’s kind of important not to blow your credibility with specious accusations that don’t even make sense. Wolves, tears, all that.
14 Responses to “Now this is an example of inciting right-wing hatred”
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alwaysfiredup says:
What drove this guy? (And this happened in my hometown, not a fake.)
Don’t think it was Beck…
January 22nd, 2011 at 5:49 pm EST -
Ciccina says:
What drove this guy?
Dunno. What characteristic have all the spree attackers had in common?
Call it Toxic Male Syndrome.
(not that I’m a gender essentialist. I’m a constructionist all the way).
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Violet Socks says:
Please do not post links to garbage like “American Thinker” at my blog. I’ve removed the link.
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Grace says:
The sense of anonymity in the virtual world may be another factor that encourages some individuals to post threats of this sort, something that perhaps only the mentally insane would do in a real, face-to-face encounter. Self-restraint usually doesn’t prevail when there are not immediate consequences for the perpetrator.
In my view, Glenn Beck is smart enough not to directly incite criminal or unlawful acts, or using words that could be interpreted as a direct threat. But he hopes that some people would become “inspired” by his hateful speech and act-out on it. He is what it used to be described as an “agitator,” but only operating at a subliminal level.
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Sameol says:
That’s incredibly disturbing, and I’m also amazed at the number of bloggers and columnists who have never heard of Piven and Cloward and are using words like “obscure” to describe her. What poly sci classes are they taking?
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Violet Socks says:
Here’s a more in-depth article at Huffington Post, well worth reading: Glenn Beck’s Attacks on Frances Fox Piven Trigger Death Threats
Glenn Beck is dangerous because his followers are so spectacularly gullible and uneducated. To the rest of us it’s clear he’s a Morning Zoo bobblehead who’s just making shit up, but his followers actually think he’s telling the truth.
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tinfoil hattie says:
Sameol, she’s just a woman. Therefore, “obscure.”
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Sameol says:
Word, Tinfoil Hattie. I can’t help thinking this “We’ve never heard of her–and we wouldn’t listen to her anyway!” stuff is unecessary. They could, instead, show some embarassment at never having heard of her and use the opportunity to educate themselves about her. But it’s more fun to be dismissive, I guess.
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tinfoil hattie says:
Yes … “why isn’t Glenn Beck targeting someone WHO IS NEWSWORTHY? Who is this OLD LADY, anyway? She’s not even HAWT!”
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simplywondered says:
vi – i apologise in advance for putting the link in – do delete it if you require – and i know it’s not strictly on topic. i just can’t believe that even here in england we have given up the merest whiff of a shadow of a pretence of listening to anything any woman says.
for anyone who doesn’t want to waste the time(and who would?) it is a uk conservative mp saying feminists are the real sexist bigots blah blah … what about the menz … blah blah … we are the ones really discriminated against. etc.
ow ow ow…
it’s just so depressing. I mean i know they think it but when did they start being allowed to say it again? (for those lucky enough not to know much about the uk, it really has been one of those things people have had to codify if they want to say it in a kind of ‘i’m not against feminism but…’ piece. but now, it seems it is ok just to say it)
like i said … ow ow ow….
rounding up the jews and the fags any minute now. -
simplywondered says:
oops – must have been so traumatised i forgot the link:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/.....aw-deal.doactually the header says it all. save your clicks.
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Teresainpa says:
I quoted you and linked to this post when I was over at huffpo. Hope you don’t mind.
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Single Woman says:
You’re right about the no connection between Beck and Palin. But, I still don’t like her. And, I whole-heartedly agree with Grace. In my opinion, as a result of personal experience, this has been the tactic of he religious right from the get-go. I.E. get others to do your dirty-work.
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Lexia says:
Shorter media:
The perp’s a man, the victim’s a woman.
Nothing to see here folks but first amendment rights.
(Unless the most attenuated reach can find some woman to blame for the perp’s actions: see e.g. Palin, Sarah; also Cho, Sun-Kyung)
