Matt Yglesias

Beck: People ‘Pushed To The Wall’ By ‘Political Correctness’ Launch Spree Killings

There was a remarkable segment on Glen Beck’s show yesterday, thankfully captured by Matt Corley in which Beck was basically outlining his view that the reason you see spree killings like the one in Alabama is that conservatives are so deranged, and so racist, that when people point out that they’re being racist they can’t help but fly into a psychotic rage and commit multiple murders. Really:

BECK: But as I’m listening to him. I’m thinking about the American people that feel disenfranchised right now. That feel like nobody’s hearing their voice. The government isn’t hearing their voice. Even if you call, they don’t listen to you on both sides. If you’re a conservative, you’re called a racist. You want to starve children.

O’REILLY: Sure.

BECK: Yada yada yada. And every time they do speak out, they’re shut down by political correctness. How do you not have those people turn into that guy?

O’REILLY: Well, look, nobody, even if they’re frustrated, is going to hurt another human being unless they’re mentally ill. I think.

BECK: I think pushed to the wall, you don’t think people get pushed to the wall?

Thankfully Bill O’Reilly (!) was around to act as the voice of reason (!) and observe that spree killing seem more related to mental illness than to political disagreement.

One also wonders how stifled conservative voices really are in a world where I watched Bill O’Reilly and Glen Beck discuss this on Beck’s show on Fox News. It seems as if there’s an entire TV network—fairly successful and high rated—to catered to conservative views, along with numerous radio shows, tons of guest spots on CNN, Morning Joe on MSNBC, etc. There are magazines, newspaper columnists, blogs. Lots of stuff. I dunno.

Sweden is Neutral, O’Reilly is Stupid

Here’s a funny story. It seems that Jessica Alba observed in an interview that Bill O’Reilly is “kind of an a-hole.” O’Reilly retaliated, noting that Alba had also referred to Sweden as a neutral country. He mocked her, viciously, and described her as a “pinhead” for confusing Sweden with Switzerland. And I can tell you from first hand experience that there’s nothing the Swiss like less about Americans than our habit of confusing Sweden with Switzerland. But of course Sweden is also neutral—like Switzerland, they stayed out of the two World Wars, didn’t join NATO, etc.