Last week, he was responding to criticism that he is stirring up hate in an attempt to (1) maintain his ratings and income and (2) well, there really isn't a second reason.
For his defense, he claimed "I am like a doctor telling America it is sick. Don't you think that a doctor should tell you when you are sick?"
Thank God for Doctor Glenn Beck.
Wait a minute, is he really a doctor? Certainly someone that has his own television show must have some credentials. He appears to feel he has a better plan than the top economists, military leaders and educators in the world. This got me to wondering, "How many degrees does he actually have?"
Well, if you count all of the honorary degrees, undergraduate degrees, post graduate degrees and post doctoral degrees, the sum total is zero. Well, one, if you count a high school diploma.
What this means is that he is fully qualified to be what he is, an entertainer.
He is not qualified to teach kindergarten - seriously. And yet millions turn to him for guidance on what to believe.
Okay, so maybe he is an outlier data point. Not the norm.
I continued my in-depth investigation (aka checked Wikipedia) to see if there were any other posers - someone pretending to know what they are talking about. I found a couple more examples.
Rush Limbaugh left high school and immediately sought out higher education. He flunked out of Junior College never to return to the deep end of the educational pool again.
Sean Hannity attended not one, but two universities. He dropped out of both; no degree in hand.
This is a disturbing trend. I am not referring to the fact that these men make tons of money with resumes that peak with them making it to the second round of their 9th grade Spelling Bee. I am not referring to the fact that they gave up on their own education, or in Glenn's case, never even tried. I am referring to the fact that we listen to them. By "we" I mean the societal "we" - the "we" that does not include "me."
I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about all of this. I am glad to see these guys are so unqualified to talk about anything that I can now understand how they say what they say. They are just making stuff up (kind of like me). On the other hand, they have an impact, albeit a negative one. Glenn Beck tears up and says "I just love America." We respond with a "there, there now Glenn," not realizing that doing so simply pulls us into his Fantasy-land.
These guys are not patriots. They are entrepreneurs. They are out to make a buck. Not so different from all of us. They are good at what they do, not what they pretend to do. They are entertainers; actors seeking to make the pretend seem real. As such, I applaud their success.
And then change the channel.
I am a big fan of voting with my wallet and my remote control.
http://www.worldgratitudelist.com Leave a list. Read a list. Be happy.
j
if they had an education that would make them East Coast/Left Coast elitist snobs.
ReplyDeleteHigher education doesn't necessarily make one qualified to be a patriot or to have passion about their country. How many of our founding fathers and men who laid their lives on the line to fight for freedom during the war of Independence had a degree? Our Universities are filled with liberal "progressives" who fill our young impressionable college students with anti-American garbage. Sorry my friend, love you but on this we just don't agree.
ReplyDeleteMy point is not that an education makes one a patriot or even a better person.
ReplyDeleteHowever, before one tried to teach calculus, you may want to take a class in it. If you want to teach economics, at least read a book. If you want to plan strategic war plans, at least own an XBox.
If you want to have an opinion, like me, then no education is needed.
How do you make a judgement that their patriotism is not real? Why do you judge that they are entertainers, out for a buck, can't they be both? Are people with an education more patriotic?
ReplyDeleteI checked out the competition, MSNBC. Keith Olbermann graduated from Cornell. Rachael Meadows has degrees from Stanford and Oxford. From CNN, Wolf Blitzer has degrees from University of Buffalo and Johns Hopkins and Sanjay Gupta is a nuerosurgeon.
ReplyDeleteI think that a patriot would put country ahead of the buck.
ReplyDeleteHmmm ..... not everything political needs to labeled leftist or right - labels only serve to separate us as a nation. And labeling something invites us into the realm of oversimplification and denegration. We need to look at the merits of the situation. Your thoughts on this subject have some interesting merit.
ReplyDeleteJim, The first comment was from me (Jim Hill). The fact that all the talking heads abuse facts is hard to refute. Beck, Hannity and the hot air balloon also known as Rush Limbaugh abuse facts/history to the extreme.
ReplyDeleteAn education/degree does, at the least, mean the person has been exposed a to a depth and breadth of ideas and had to do at least some work to pass.
Trying to equate the Founders education with today is really apples/oranges. There weren't that many universities and these men studied a lot on their own...but they studied the great philosophers and works and were not afraid to read things that didn't agree with their own views. Think about how differently Madison and Hamilton viewed government yet they collaborated to write the Federalist papers
Lots of comments on this one. Thanks for playing!
ReplyDeleteJ