Glenn Beck’s victim complex

April 3, 2007

There’s just something amazing to me about hearing a wealthy, Christian, white guy Republican whine incessantly about his place in American society.

On the April 2 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck claimed that “[c]onservatives get no respect” and asserted that he “can’t win” because he is “American[],” “white,” “Christian,” and “conservative.” He said: “[I]f you are a white human that loves America and happens to be a Christian, forget about it, Jack. You are the only one that doesn’t have a political action committee for you.” He also said: “I mean, I was talking about it with my family yesterday. I said, ‘I’m tired of being the least popular person in the world,’ ” adding, “We’re Americans. Nobody likes Americans. We’re Americans, so the world hates us. But then inside of America, we love America — and that’s becoming more and more unpopular.”

Beck also said that being “Christian[]” is “not popular anymore” and went on to say, “I’ve got to find one thing that I agree with the rest of the world on, I guess. I’m tired of being in that group.”

Yes, by all means, let’s all feel sorry for Glenn Beck, who is paid handsomely to share right-wing nonsense on his own CNN Headline News show, Good Morning America, and a nationally-syndicated radio program. Obviously, if anyone needs a political action committee looking out for his interests, it’s Beck. My heart bleeds for him.

Please. Beck “can’t win”? It’s probably easier to wallow in self-pity than deal with reality, but here’s a newsflash: he already has won.

I’ll never really understand how and why the guys at the top of American society manage to feel sorry for themselves.

* Bill O’Reilly is a victim if a store clerk wishes him a “happy holidays” in early December.

* Tom DeLay is a victim because of the “whole syndicate” he sees trying to “destroy everything” he believes in.

* James Dobson is a victim because, as he explains it, “Homosexual activists, radical feminists, abortion zealots and haters of Christianity have banded together to bring down the old order and substitute their own version of the Brave New World.”

* The religious right in general uses a persecution complex to stay relevant and keep the money coming in from donors.

At some point over the last few years, self-pity became part and parcel of conservative ideology. Even as wealthy, Christian, white guy Republicans dominated the White House, Congress, the courts, and corporate board rooms, these guys continued to believe (or at least, claim to believe) that The Man is trying to keep them down.

It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad.

I thought the political action committee for white, Christian, conservative men was named the Republican National Committee.

This “help me, I’m bein’ oppressed’ bit is a pretty common feature of authoritarian belief systems.

  • The whole of the modern conservative movement is bound together by this victim-hood. Persecution real or imagined is what holds the whole thing together. Everywhere they look there is someone trying to destroy them and their beliefs. The whole of the “GWOT” spurred on by administration’s rhetoric is a giant manifestation of this: “They hate us for our freedom”, etc etc. I’m sure this is not lost on the practical politicos in the administration.

  • This is how fascist propaganda works, is all. You have to create a victim complex so the cannonfodder get worked up and can shout “I”m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more!” and that’s how they build their movement. Truth has nothing to do with it. Go re-read “The Big Lie”.

  • “We’re Americans, so the world hates us.”

    No, the world hates YOU, dude.

    And for good reason.

  • I’m reminded of an anecdote told to me by my friend ‘T’. A conservative acquaintance ‘D’ was complaining to ‘T’ about the existence of days celebrating hispanic and black heritage, and felt that it was quite unfair. “I mean,” said ‘D’, “Why don’t we have a White Guy Day? How would people react to that?”

    Replied ‘T’, “‘D’, it’s White Guy Day EVERY DAY.”

  • First of all, we should hit bullies like Beck where it hurts: in their masculinity. “Geez, you are such a wimp. Quite your whining; you sound like a 6-year old girly-girl. Buck up before you start crying. Sheesh.”

    Second, it may be that “no one likes Americans” because, well, we use all the resources, have all the money, impose all the culture, blah blah blah – in other words, it is the price of being the “overdog.” If Beck would rather we become the underdog (rooting against America! he’s un-patriotic!) in exchange for being better liked, I’m sure that can be arranged.

    Third, the notion that it is becoming less popular to be a Christian is so wholly nonsensical in light of the poll just in the past week showing staggering percentages of Americans claiming to be. . . Christians!

    Finally, Beck shouldn’t feel so unrepresented. I’m quite certain that there is already a PAC for people with cognitive disabilities.

  • P.S. CNN marketers take note: I used to leave on Headline News pretty much all evening, but thanks to the inclusion of Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck in the lineup, the news is now switched off at 5 pm sharp, at the latest.

  • I’ll echo Tom Cleaver (#3).

    I believe Orcinus has quite a bit to say about this tactic, i.e., “play the victim.”

  • ask those loser conservatives if they would be willing to trade spots with some poor inner city person or an illegal immigrant.
    I’m sure the answer would be ‘No”.

  • “[I]f you are a white human that loves America and happens to be a Christian, forget about it, Jack….”

    White human? As opposed to non-whites,
    or,…non-humans?

    Huh?

    I guess when we our country gets taken over by atheist orangutans from Borneo, Beck can scream “SEE??? I WAS RIGHT!!!”

  • Tom @ 3 is right. Do some research into standard propaganda techniques (use wikipedia if you have to) and you’ll be astounded how many you recognize as being employed on a daily basis, not only by republican loudmouths in media, but by the administration itself — echoed by your neighbors and quite possibly, members of your family.

  • Why you gotta dump on athiest orangutans from Borneo? What they ever do to you? Besides try to take away Glenn Beck’s freedoms?

  • A question one might ask Beck is who he would like to be, a cross-eyed black woman, a one-legged Mexican immigrant, a 7 foot Transvestite, or maybe he wants to be a super popular middle eastern Muslim or gay Atheist ??

    That’s what I thought. STFU !!

  • My thought was that these guys, if they TRULY feel persecuted, don’t have much self esteem. They have to play the victim and put down their “enemies” in order to bolster themselves.

    In reality they’re probably just stirring up trouble like a bunch of petulant kids. I continue to be reminded of the Star Trek episode with the swirling entity that feeds on hate. The best antidote to this swirling entity is laughter. And that’s just what Beck, Dobson, Malkin, Coulter, O’Reilly, etc., etc., etc. deserve, they are so ridiculous.

  • They’re upset because we don’t genuflect as we lessors should. That’s why they’re victims. These assholes collectively believe that being a White, “Christian”, Republican’t and also well connected makes them the “chosen” few unlike the rest of us folks who wallow in the gutter. They want us to “acknowledge” their superiority and any day we don’t bend to their “wills” is a dark day for society (at least in their minds.)

    I once read an interesting article about the effect of self esteem on criminals. The problem, the psychologists found wasn’t the fact that they had too little self esteem, but rather they had TOO much self esteem which combined with other factors (environment, drugs, abuse, ignorance etc) made them do the stupid things that landed them in jail. Sad to say, but these guys are no different except the factors are a little different (drugs, un critical environment created by being surrounded by psychophants, willful ignorance, abuse of others, etc).

  • Hey!

    We’re just trying to live the American Dream and get ahead like everybody else.

    I thought President’s Day, Saint Patricks Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Saint Swithins Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving and certainly Mother’s Day (you honky mothers) were all christian white guys days . . .

  • C’mon, he’s trying to tap into the “angry white male” demographic.

    “I’m like you guys, I lost my good factory job & feel like a wimp ’cause my wife makes more morey than I do. And it’s the LIBERALS fault (not the outsourcing corporations)!! And the Gays, and the Non-Christians! How dare they have a good life when I don’t!”

    Part of propaganda is not to appear smarter than your target audience. Beck is good at this, ’cause his target audience is composed of idiots. They can’t see the absurdity of what he’s saying, they just know how he feels.

  • Poor Beck—never in his worst nightmares did he ever imagine that the ghosts of his hate would rise from the mists, and haunt his every waking moment as they do now. For him—and all others like him—the whispered hissings for revenge must be a terrible sound. It is a sound that will only get louder will the passage of time, as “the era of the Beck” passes into the forgetful fogs of history.

    As for me? I hear the sounds of a symphony—and it is a refreshing sound, after the knuckledragging din of Beck’s reign.

  • America isn’t all white, all Christian, and still unwilling to let the poor and disenfranchised drown in helplessness. And that concerns him deeply.

  • I agree with 17 above. This narrative is specifically for the bottom half of the wage scale. Your problems, such has increasing health care costs (if you have health care), increasing gasoline and heating costs, increasing credit card debt, etc., can be attributed to the super rich liberal god haters on the coasts. Focus your anger at them instead of the real causes of your stagnating income. Everytime a homosexual gets married in Massachusetts, your credit card debt increases just a little bit.

  • Glenn Beck has a new book on the way according to Publishers Marketplace:

    CNN Headline News talk-radio host and now Good Morning America contributor Glenn Beck’s AN INCONVENIENT BOOK: Real Solutions to the World’s Biggest Problems, presenting his fusion of entertainment and enlightenment as he seeks to offer common sense solutions to everything from agreeing on what movie to see with your wife to solving the illegal immigration problem, to Louise Burke for Threshold, again with Mitchell Ivers editing, for publication in fall 2007, by George Hiltzik (world).

  • Respect is supposed to be a two-way street. Since when have conservatives – especially the Glenn Beck kind – shown “respect” for anyone else that he feels entitled to deserve some in return?

    When’s the next Swan commerical?

  • Hell, Beck definitely has “won”–he has some absolutely abysmal ratings (I think only tucker carlson is lower) yet CNN keeps him propped up and paid handsomely as if he were a top notch performer/producer.

    And we all know wingnut welfare is so much more rewarding and generous than some PAC for his type.

  • To quote Dean Vernon Wormer, ” Glenn, fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

    You’re right Glenn, “You are the only one that doesn’t have a political action committee for you.” Instead you have the entire f-ing Congress going to bat for your whitebread interests.

    “I’m tired of being the least popular person in the world.” That’s your own damn fault Glenn.

  • I can just hear the violins playing now. Could he whine a little louder or would he just like some cheese to go with the whine.

  • ““American[],” “white,” “Christian,” and “conservative.””

    Isn’t that the KKK?

  • I would like to apologize, and also be the first to welcome our atheist orangutan overlords.
    I hope the flight from Borneo wasn’t too bad.

  • “First of all, we should hit bullies like Beck where it hurts: in their masculinity. “Geez, you are such a wimp. Quite your whining; you sound like a 6-year old girly-girl. Buck up before you start crying. Sheesh.”

    I agree with this completely. Republicans are so immature, that Jr. High type insults really work well on them. It’s difficult for most liberals to ‘resort’ to such, but it’s the way they play the game it’s how their stunted minds operate and that’s why it’s so effective.

    “Whassamatta? Afraid of a little Bin Laden, hiding in a cave, with no army, navy, air force or any way of getting to our country? Awwww, the wittle republican is a big fat fraidy cat. We were firm and brave when we had nukes pointed at us, but now we’re shaking in fear at an unorganized band of nobodys with no weapons, no military, no way in hell of really taking us on…short of hijacking a plane, and that ain’t gonna happen again. Why are you hawks suck pussies?”

    I’ve used this tactic and it works like a charm on right wing mental midgets (which is to say, all right wingers).

  • I’ve had a recent opportunity to meet Glenn and spend a considerable amount of time with him. I was very impressed with Glenn Beck. He was very kind to everyone and without a doubt loves his country and those who serve our country. I gained a new level of respect for Glenn after having spent most of the day with him. He really is a great person and fun to talk to and be around. I was very very impressed. As I watch the Glenn Beck show I enjoy it more and more. Keep up the good work Glenn! We love your show!

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