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Rachel Maddow Tears Apart Glenn Beck’s Egypt Fear Mongering

By: Guest ContributorFeb. 2nd, 2011more from Guest Contributor

Recently, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow finally took on the claim by the right wing, as personified by Glenn Beck, that the protests in Egypt represent a future uprising in the United States. Maddow said, “It went from protests on the streets of Egypt to Barack Obama supports the secret annihilation of Israel and so do you.”

Here is the video from MSNBC:

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After giving examples of how some Republicans are using the situation in Egypt to push their favorite policy, Maddow turned her attention to Beck and his drumbeat of fear, “For some folks, opportunity is always knocking when it comes to their chosen policies. But for some folks, opportunism is not about pushing for a specific policy. It’s about choosing every occasion as the right occasion to push for their favorite idea, for their favorite story. Like, for example, the idea, the story that it’s the end of the world.”

She then played a clip of Beck saying, “This is the coming insurrection. It is. And it is imperative that you get up to speed. Do your own homework. This is not about Egypt. This is about your hometown and your lifestyle. It is important to see what is really going on and what this leads to. I believe, again, the coming insurrection. ”

Maddow replied, “As opposed to the other times that coming insurrection was upon us. Now, the people protesting against Hosni Mubarak in Egypt – now, that means that the coming insurrection is upon us because China is going to take over New Zealand. Also, the Muslim world is all one country now.”

She followed this up by playing Beck’s prediction of gloom and doom, “There are three powers that you will see really emerge. One, a Muslim caliphate that controls the Mid East and parts of Europe. Two, China that will control Asia, the southern part of Africa, part of the Middle East, Australia, maybe New Zealand and God only knows only what else. And Russia which will control all of the old former Soviet Union bloc, plus maybe the Netherlands? Not really sure. But their strong arm is coming.”

The MSNBC host added, “Oh, poor Amsterdam. I forgot. Also at stake, Russia is back. Russia is going to be like the Soviet Union, but worse. For Mr. Beck and for others who see a direct ratio between their own success how afraid they can make their audiences, it turns out that an uprising in Egypt is even better evidence of this being the end of the world than, say, the last evidence we had, which was President Obama passing Wall Street reform last July.”

After playing a clip of Beck proclaiming Wall Street reform was the end of the republic, Maddow said, “Wall Street reform. Your republic is – the mainstream right and Republican congressional leaders are generally sort of supporting what the Obama administration is doing right now in regards to Egypt and diplomacy. They are being relatively cautious and diplomatic. But to the right of them, woohoo! Within a span of one week, it went from protests on the streets of Egypt to China is going to take over New Zealand. It went from protests on the streets of Egypt to Barack Obama supports the secret annihilation of Israel and so do you. It went from protests on the streets of Egypt to this was all some secret plot hatched by unions. And if you are wondering, yes, this is all an elaborate excuse/explanation for us believing that “ChristWire.org” was something other than satire yesterday.”

Rachel Maddow has a point. The right wing has gone so far off the deep end that it is easy to believe a piece that Christwire satire that Maddow fell for, because the real stuff coming from the right can so be so out of touch with reality right now that anything is possible. As far as Beck is concerned, both he and Fox News make their money by keeping the audience terrified,Glenn Beck has a gift for making up fantastic conspiracy theories and selling them like they are the gospel truth.

I am glad that Maddow took the time to debunk the pasty Mormon Chicken Little. Beck has been twisting the events in Egypt to scare his audience almost since the moment that the protests started. He has gone as far as to draw comparisons between Mubarak and Obama. For Glenn Beck, and the right, every bit of change and move towards progress represents a terrifying threat to the old order. Change is something to be resisted not embraced.

It doesn’t matter if the change is safer food and water at home, or the people of Egypt crying out for freedom. The battle again must be fought so that America can remain in the status quo, with the goal of returning to the “Good Old Days” never far out of sight. However, Beck’s ratings show that there is a limited shelf life for crying wolf every day. With each passing scare Glenn Beck’s ratings are falling victim to the law of diminishing returns.

His fantastic fear fest has started to fall on some deaf ears, but this doesn’t mean that people like Rachel Maddow should not use their substantial platform to call out Beck’s campaigns of terror. As Glenn Beck continues to inflame with baseless fear, it becomes imperative that the Rachel Maddow’s of the world speak out and calm things down, otherwise we risk losing what little rational perspective we have left.

Rachel Maddow Tears Apart Glenn Beck’s Egypt Fear Mongering was written by Guest Contributor for PoliticusUSA.
© PoliticusUSA, Feb. 2nd, 2011. All Rights Reserved

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