RELIGIOUS right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck is in a class of his own when it comes to idiotic observations – but the moronic Mormon’s latest outburst regarding the young victims of the weekend shooting by Anders Behring Breivik at a Norwegian summer camp plumbed new depths of offensiveness.
Glenn Beck
On his US radio show on Monday Beck described the brutal incident as:
A shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth. I mean who sends their kids to a political camp? Disturbing.
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organisation of the Nazi Party comprised of teens and preteens that existed from 1922 to 1945, and had among its ranks Pope Ratzinger.
Torbjørn Eriksen, a former press secretary to Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s Prime Minister, branded Beck’s comments “a new low” for the broadcaster.
Young political activists have gathered at Utoya for over 60 years to learn about and be part of democracy, the very opposite of what the Hitler Youth was about. Glenn Beck’s comments are ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful.
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, a Washington-based campaign group, called the remarks “absolutely disgusting”.
Hat tip: Canada Dave
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
July 27th, 2011 at 8:31 am
So a summer camp where the next generation of Norway’s leaders can learn about democracy and social values is disturbing?
Perhaps Beck should turn his attention to the religious summer camps in the US where the kids are fed bullshit and taught intolerance.
July 27th, 2011 at 9:29 am
“I mean who sends their kids to a political camp?”
Maybe parents who want their kids to learn how to think for themselves. Unlike the “I know what’s best for you so shut up” politics that Beck no doubt advocates.
July 27th, 2011 at 9:47 am
I’ve just been reading thereligionofpeace.com and it has found http://sultanknish.blogspot.co.....eivik.html which said that the killer is not a xtian fundie at all in fact he is pro islamist, in his own way. No wonder the hearing was held in camera. By the way, the article doesn’t make him less of a nutter.
July 27th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Is this the kind of thing that you had in mind, Remigius?
http://ambassador-camp.org/about/
Being a christian teacher I was very much involved in camp work, but when I ended my participation due to what I saw as the application of unnecessary and counter-productive emotional pressure upon the kids to “accept Christ” before the camp ended, that caused some ill feeling, even though my criticisms were fairly muted. They don’t like people who rock the boat!
July 27th, 2011 at 10:05 am
And of course, we mustn’t forget this!
http://youtu.be/LACyLTsH4ac
July 27th, 2011 at 10:17 am
What a self-righteous dick!
The Daily Mash gives its take on the subject in its usual way.
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/.....107264119/
July 27th, 2011 at 10:27 am
Hmm, guess Beck hasn’t looked at the Boy Scouts of America pledge in a while then.
Incidentally, I’d have said Baden Powell created the Scouts because he thought all that fresh air outdoor activity would concentrate young minds on healthy stuff like God and Empire, and stop them being drawn into trade unions or other instruments of social change. And it’s on record he once considered a hook-up between the Scouts and the Hitler Youth.
July 27th, 2011 at 10:29 am
barriejohn
Holy shit! That video you linked to is appalling. They are literally brainwashing the poor little buggers. It is child abuse, plain and simple.
July 27th, 2011 at 10:35 am
To be fair to Mr Beck, in his mind, in comparing the Norwegian summer camp to the hilter youth, he probably did not think he was being uncomplimentary.
July 27th, 2011 at 10:59 am
There was a big kerfuffle over that documentary, AgentCormac, which led to it being closed down, but I’m damned sure that there are many others that are similar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Camp
July 27th, 2011 at 11:06 am
Evidently, that obese witch Becky Fischer is still active in similar endeavours:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Becky_Fischer
‘Fischer complains the average Sunday School is content to merely give children a roll-over of Bible stories for the first twelve years of their lives, causing them to lose interest in God and the church by their teen years, and opting out of the church culture as a result. Fischer declares, “As a result, we have a crisis in Christianity resulting in as many as 70% of our own children leaving the Church and never returning.” Her ministry explores ways to keep them engaged in their faith through adulthood.
Kids in Ministry International under the direction of Becky Fischer promotes supporting the nation of Israel and Christian Zionism, a common practice within Evangelical churches in the United States. The most notable ministry promotion of Zionism are events by Kids in Ministry International titled Kids Blessing Abraham Family Conference.’
She doesn’t appear to see the real reason why masses of kids leave the church when they are old enough to make up their own minds about things!
July 27th, 2011 at 11:13 am
http://kidsinministry.org/
Read especially What Prophets Are Saying About Kids. It will take your breath away!
July 27th, 2011 at 11:14 am
Pdodo: Very funny!
July 27th, 2011 at 11:48 am
Every time a fundie like Beck opens their mouth, they show a staggering lack of global knowledge. If this idiot knew anything about the Norwegians he would have know that, even to this day, any comparrison to the Nazi’s is deeply offensive.
To qoute from PIL – ‘A spew without a view’.
July 27th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Something I would expect from Beck and his magical angels who brought Joseph Smith gold tablets with the new rules that were immediately taken back because gaud doesn’t like to leave evidence that he exist, Mormon belief.
The reason this religion took off back when it did was because of the new rule that a man can have several wifes…And the ones who fell in line were the already religious males who wanted a little extra ass and not go to hell for it.
I spent about a week in Nauvoo Illinois while on a bicycle trip, the place where Joseph Smith started all this bullshit. Even went to his secret waterfall where he talked to the angels…nothing there but a waterfall. I thought it interesting how Mr Smith created the new law of many wifes soon after a young housemaid started employment at his household…and his friggen wife ate it up.
The local fanatics from surrounding towns who didn’t like him fu*king with the bible eventually blew his brains out, so Brigham Young took them to Missouri…and then Utah.
July 27th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
barriejohn
You sure know how to find some disturbing shit (if that isn’t precisely what the Hitler Youth was all about I don’t know what is).
I just skimmed the ‘What Prophets Are Saying’ section you mentioned and was amused to find this line from one bloke called Chuck Pearce (who looks like a particularly promising candidate for Paedophile of the Year).
“We need to train our children in the release of the anointing, discerning of evil spirits, and how to operate in receiving divine revelation from the Throne Room.”
Comforting to know the cloud fairy has a loo just like the rest of us.
July 27th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Why, members of the American Tea Party send their kids to a political camp. Oh, look, and it’s staffed by members of the 912 project. Gee, wasn’t the 912 project started by Glenn Beck?
I look forward to his denunciation of the Tampa Liberty School, which I’m sure will be forthcoming any day now.
July 27th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Too bad he was calling the concept of indoctrination of children into specific political viewpoints reminiscent of the Hitler youth movement, and not that the children, the camp, the parents, etc. shared ideals of Nazis.
Granted, what he said sounded absolutely stupid, but when we can create headlines and demonize people that we don’t like with an intentional miss-interpretation, why let anything stop you?
July 27th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
barriejohn. What these fundies are doing to the kids in America is truly nauseating. Whether they are trying to brainwash them at school or terrify them into believing during the holidays. Just what do they think they are doing to the future generations?
However this from the Wall Street Journal really surprised me.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....84980.html
July 27th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
IF it were you or me making this horrible assumptions that this meany little man Gleen Beck comes out with we would be in trouble but he seems to get away with it faR too ofter you only just have to watch him to know he is a lunatic.Perhaps maybe the one good thing to come out of these will be the scruitiny of religious camps indocrinating little children, although I dont give it much hope..
July 27th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
I see Pat Buchanan, right-wing US pundit, homophobe, bigot and one of god’s best friends, has also come out and said he thinks Breivik “…may be right”.
July 27th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Speaking of Mormons, can I recommend ‘Leaving the Saints’ Martha Beck. I have mentioned it before but it is in the excellent tradition of books about a believer who starts thinking for themselves and then the difficulties they experience when the ‘loving church’ gets wind of it…
July 27th, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Re Pat Buchanan and others:
http://kaystreet.wordpress.com.....%e2%80%99/
July 27th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
As far as I can ascertain, Mr Beck is an employee of Mr R Murdoch. Is anyone else as surprised as I am?
July 27th, 2011 at 4:53 pm
The lunatics really are coming out of the woodwork on this one.
Mario Borghezio, a far-right Italian MEP, has apparently described Breivik’s ideas as “good” and in some cases “excellent”. Feckin moron.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14315108
July 27th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Glenn Beck; “… A tear-stained, semi-literate shock jock…”
Who else but Christopher Hitchens.
July 27th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Wow this really is a new low, even for a prick like Glenn Beck.
Also I camps and groups like this are not uncommon in norway and in other countries in europe, to me it shows that young people in Norway and other countries are more politicaly active and that the system there takes on board what they have to say unlike this country were young people have practically no say and are demonised unfairly by the media so they end up becoming apathetic.
Besides it wouldn’t surprise me if this anders breivik was a fan of Glenn Beck’s just like the nutter who gunned down those people in Arizona.
July 27th, 2011 at 5:55 pm
John Small Berries,
Thanks for making that link. When it comes to breathtaking hypocrisy you cannot beat the fundies.
July 27th, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Pdodo: And who owns The Wall Street Journal as well?
http://thinkprogress.org/secur.....d-a-point/
Whatever you think about multiculturalism, these are crassly insensitive remarks at this present time, but then what else would one expect of the Christian Right and their Zionist chums?
July 27th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
What Glenn Beck said was incredibly stupid – he obviously wasn’t thinking at the time.
The great irony on this page here – and some of the comments – is it reveals some of the same hate mongering that created Hitler’s youth.
Why link Mormon and Moron? If Beck was Jewish, would the author had written “Jewish Jerk?”
Dehumanizing is dehumanizing is dehumanizing.
If you’re on a moral pedestal handing out judgments, take a look at the mirror first.
July 27th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
I’ve just finished reading Breivik’s 1518 page manifesto. It is essentially The Anarchist’s Cookbook meets The Turner Diaries, with an in depth description of sugar beet production!
Pretty weird reading. I would be very surprised if he had accomplices and indeed doubt that the reformed Templar movement he writes of even exists, except in his own warped imagination. He comes across as an intelligent, motivated, but ultimately very unbalanced individual.
Probably not insane, as his lawyer wants us to believe, but a vain narcissist with a (his own) political agenda to promote.
July 28th, 2011 at 12:11 am
I heard from people that have read both that the manifesto is mostly stolen from Warhammer 40K
July 28th, 2011 at 7:57 am
The man is self-righteous filth: if you’re not 100% with him, you’re against him and his ilk, and you deserve to die. This reminds me of fatwa-slinging mad mullahs!
July 28th, 2011 at 8:38 am
@Jack Madman. Using the phrase Mormon Moron is probably unnecessary. Not because it is dehumanizing(?), but because it is tautologous. Has there ever been a Mormon who wasn’t a moron? No. Not ever.
And yes the author would refer to a Jewish Jerk. Religious people, ie anyone who believes in batshit crazy superstiious nonsense, are crying out to be ridiculed. Barry doesn’t like to disappoint.
July 28th, 2011 at 9:13 am
@Harry. I hadn’t come across Warhammer 40K before, but my good friend Mr Google informs me it is a fantasy, dice rolling, table-top battle enactment game from the 80′s.
Apparently people dress up as wizards and dungeon slayers and randomly move little soldier figures across a home-made Tolkeinesque landscape. Sounds great.
I don’t recall coming across Orcs and Elves in Breivik’s ramble, I must have skipped that part, so I’ll have to take your word for it.
July 28th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Muslims believe that an “angel” appeared to the founder of their religion and dictated their “holy book” to him word for word. Mormons believe…
I rest my case!
July 28th, 2011 at 10:49 am
Here is one of the whack-jobs who harass me and others at youtube…anyone want a crack at them?
http://www.youtube.com/user/royalclass23548
July 28th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Aye, you’re not wrong there barriejohn. The Mormon’s faerie fella was even called Moroni. They had originally intended to call their cult The Morons in his honour, until someone pointed out the obvious. Pity, I think the name really suited them.
Marky Mark. I would love a crack at your tormentors but unfortunately I am using a kindle, on a very slow whispernet connection, so I can’t get youtube. Might pop into town later so will see what damage I can do then.
July 28th, 2011 at 4:39 pm
@remigius
And I suppose Atheists are the only people with IQ’s above 12 year olds?
Either you are trying to be funny or you are truly a scary individual.
July 28th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
@Jack Madsen
FYI, IQs are independent of age, a 12 year old can have an IQ less/same/greater than a 35 year old or any other age.
The average 12 year old has an IQ of 100, the average 35 year old as an IQ of 100 also.
July 28th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
Remigius: I stopped the Morons calling at my door by asking them, about twenty years ago now, what the names in their stupid book actually mean. (If you’ve ever read it you’ll know what I’m talking about!). After all, I said, all the names in the Old Testament have meanings, as that lovely man in Marky Mark’s (I thought he was hot at one time, but don’t tell him!) video tells us. Joel means JAH is God, and Elijah, conversely, means (Our)God is JAH. So, I went on, what do the names Moroni, Nephi, Lehi, etc, actually mean in the Hebrew tongue, and what spiritual lessons do Mormons learn from them, as Christians and Jews do from the Biblical names? “We’ll go and ask about that”, they replied. I’m still waiting for the answer!
July 29th, 2011 at 5:28 am
Jack Madnes. Twat.barriejohn. I have actually read The Book of Moron, but it wasn’t easy going. I could literally feel my brain dying a little with every passing page.
By the time I reached the end I was no longer able to distinguish between stupidity and age, I had lost my sense of humour, and clever people scared me.
But I got better.
July 29th, 2011 at 11:48 am
Yes, Remigius, and behold, verily, as I do say unto you, it doth be so obvious that that imbecile Joseph Smith did heretofore and thereafter truly cause himself to writeth a book which indeed did mimic the style of the Bible!
Some good stuff here:
http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/
July 29th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
http://dwindlinginunbelief.blo.....ieves.html
July 29th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
The book of mormon is truly a terrifying piece of literature…i’d rather read the bible! So are we really surprised, given his rather colourful beliefs, that Beck has come out with such unintelligible dribble?
July 30th, 2011 at 8:16 am
Understandably, whenever something of this appalling nature happens – incomprehensible to the vast majority of us – people attempt to gain a purchase on the motives and meanings behind it, as well as vent their sorrow and anger. Others, like the moronic Mormon, Glenn Beck, use it to advance their own morally dubious agendas, which can end up sounding unduly sympathetic to the killer, based on some ideological disapproval of the victims (we see this routinely with Muslims who make excuses for Jew-murdering extremists, or lefties who make excuses for Marxist or Irish nationalist terrorism). Their humanity is wilted by their ugly ideology.
An interesting point was made this week on the Letters page of the Independent, by a reader, who, describing himself as “the tolerant and Liberal-voting son of a well-integrated immigrant”, went on to question why Christian monsters like Anders Breivik are always referred to as “far right” by the media, whereas their Muslim counterparts – much more prevalent – very rarely get labelled as such.
” … Muslims who believe in the neo-fascist idology of Islamism are never referred to as such, despite their anti-semitic, anti-democracy, anti-pluralism, anti-freedom of speech, anti-gender equality, anti-atheist, and anti-gay views which would be called “far right” if held by white, non-religious native Europeans.”
He went on to say that if we want to stop more Breivik-style atrocities in the future, ” … we in Europe [need to] stop tolerating the extremism of religious and ethnic minorities in the name of diversity and multiculturalism … ” and be ” … less tolerant towards intolerant and bigoted immigrant communities who will not accept our values.”
There is, it seems, a consensus building, from the centre-left through to the centre-right, that multiculturalism has failed and that in order to uphold genuinely liberal European values, we must roll back the damage that the liberal-left establishment has done by imposing multiculturalism and abandoning effective immigration controls. It is this recklessness that has created the conditions in which far-right Muslim monsters like the 7-7 bombers, as well as far-right Christian monsters like Anders Breivik, become, almost, an inevitability.
This consensus has passed by the likes of the British Humanist Association and National Secular Society, both of which shy away from tackling these pressing issues (they are part of the liberal-left establishment, hence part of the problem). The failure of the BHA and NSS to take the initiative on these issues and connect with the emerging political consensus in Britain, effectively means that Stephen Lennon of the English Defence League is fast becoming the most effective media spokesperson for secularism, by default.
Whatever we may think of the EDL, there’s no denying that Lennon’s recent TV appearances, criticising both the actions of Breivik and the conditions that warped him, have been a tour de force of reasoned and robust, secular populism.
July 31st, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Although I think there are parallels between “Islamist” politics and “cultural Christian” politics – both share a revanchist style for a start – I’m not sure the old left-wing/ring-wing division does justice to what are new political poles. I wouldn’t describe either Anders Breivik or bin Laden as “neo-fascist”, although I think there are similarities.
Certainly anti-liberal democratic politics is anti-liberal democratic politics regardless of the race or religion of the anti-liberal democrat.
Multiculturalism has its critics beyond the centrists. On the far left, Marxists have criticised it for dividing the working class on racial, religious, communalist lines. Feminists have criticised it. Secularists have criticised it.
I say “multiculturalism”, but the word means different things to different people. To some it means the particular policy of encouraging parallel representative political structures – originally on racial lines but now on religious ones too. To others it means simply a racially or religiously diverse society. The fault lines on these issues cut across simple left/right divisions.
So let’s be clear what is being criticised and why.
Balaam refers to “imposing multiculturalism and abandoning effective immigration controls.” Bearing in mind the observations above, it’s not clear what he means. Well, so he thinks immigration controls should be “effective”, which is open to interpretation. And he thinks multiculturalism (meaning what?) has been “imposed” (on who, and how?).
This is vague and confusing rhetoric.
So that when we reach the point about a “consensus” that “multiculturalism has failed”, it’s not remotely obvious what that means. What is the consensus, if there is one, really about? And what has “multiculturalism” failed to do? Is the real problem that it “failed” (what was it supposed to achieve, then?), or that it was “imposed”? Is Balaam still talking about the same thing, even?
Apparently the BHA and NSS are “part of the liberal left establishment”, which must come as a surprise to them given their inability to win much establishment support for their agendas.
And finally, the notion that Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) has become a “spokesperson for secularism” is bullshit, as is Balaam’s description of his TV appearances as “a tour de force of reasoned and robust, secular populism”.
Populist possibly (though we don’t have much of a populist political tradition in the UK).
i’ll give you “robust”. Lennon has written of his days as a football hooligan, and was convicted this month of “using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour” while leading a mob of Luton thugs in a fight with an opposing mob of Newport County-supporting thugs. He’s a former BNP member who was convicted in 2005 of “assault occasioning actual bodily harm” on an off-duty police officer. He was sentenced to 12 months for that.
Hardly someone to look to for a “reasoned” approach.
The only reason he might have looked remotely “effective” on Newsnight is that Paxman seldom bothers doing any proper research on topics like this, presumably assuming they are stupid and beneath him. And so he drops the ball and doesn’t ask the hard questions.
The EDL claims only to want to confront Islamic extremism, but since bona fide Islamic extremists don’t appear to spend their time engaging in physical street politics, it spends its time terrifying ordinary Muslims. Their only tactic is that of provocation, to try to create tension and violence. The was Al-Muhajiroun’s thing, too. They succeeded, of course, witness EDL.
What the EDL is, I think, is a peculiar manifestation of a secularised (as distinct from secularist) form of loyalism. I don’t consider it fascist, though some fascists have been attracted to it (I don’t claim that Lennon’s BNP background makes him a fascist either). They’re about defending the “Christian heritage” of the country, “god save the queen” and all.
August 9th, 2011 at 7:25 am
Oh dear. Poor old Dan Bye is still desperately papering over the cracks in his increasingly disjointed left-wing rhetoric. Methinks he is aware, deep down, that the multiculturalist agenda he feels obliged to subscribe to, or at least support, isn’t working. Witness the ethnic-led riots all over Britain August 6th,7th,8th …
Like Dan, I too have reservations about the EDL. I’m aware of Stephen Lennon’s thuggish and BNP-supporting past, but he has renounced this publicly (grown up, in other words) – just like several Labour Government ministers grew up and renounced their former Communist pasts. Lennon’s wiping the floor with the liberal grandee, Jeremy Paxman, on BBC2′s “Newsnight” was a joy to watch. An essay in cutting through mealy-mouthed liberal crap.
As for defending our “Christian heritage” and “God save the queen” any sensible secularist knows that these are the foundations out of which secular humanism grew and evolved in this country – read up on the “Putney Debates” and the history of the South Place Ethical Society, if you don’t believe me (this is why our “Christian heritage”, flawed though it is, must still take precedence over alien heritage, like Islam).
If liberal-left NSS types spent less time indulging in semantics and more time articulating the concerns of ordinary working people, they might actually become relevant. “What does Balaam mean by effective immigration controls?” Dan asks, plaintively. “What does he mean when he says multiculturalism has failed?” Just look around the shattered, riot-torn inner cities of your own country, Dan. Q.E.D.