Glenn Beck, still not king:

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?

Obligatory disclaimer: I don’t know and frankly don’t care what was going through the head of the Alabama shooter or any one of a dozen people who’ve gone on shooting sprees in the past decade. I don’t know if he did it because he was liberal or conservative or nuts or what, and I don’t think it matters in terms of the dead being dead.

What does matter is what’s inside Glenn Beck’s head, because people keep having him on their shows to speak to the American news audience about this crap and I am becoming concerned that Beck is moving from unhinged to really unhinged. The distinction might not seem that great to other people but there is in fact a line with our media; only problem is nobody knows where it is and it’s different for everybody, but let’s call it The Glenn Beck Nutbag Threshold and keep an eye on it, mmmkay?

Because really, pushed to the wall? By “political correctness?” And what are his examples of the onerous burden he and his like are obligated to shoulder? Being called a racist. Most likely for avowing support for a party that built its electoral gains for years on institutionalized and overt racism in varying amounts of each until they found what worked. That’s the kind of mental strain that would drive you to start blasting away with a gun? Being told you want to starve children? Who exactly said this to Glenn Beck? What imaginary tie-dyed dreadlocked hippie said this to him in his darkest nightmares? And why, again, is that the thing that would cause you to go over the edge?

I really wish conservative pundits could decide once and for all if they are, in fact, the most powerful and manliest defenders of masculinity in the world, the last American cowboys, the upholders of all that is tough and resolute on earth. Most of them seem to think they are, slapping Strike Force badges on themselves and bragging about how many liberals they’d off if only it was legal. Most of them seem to like pointing out how steeped they are in badassery, yelling that “We Surround Them” crap (Here’s a hint, if “you” surround “them?” You’re no longer an oppressed minority, you’re a majority too stupid to figure out how to leverage your numbers, capable only of whining about the breathing space you occupy.) for all and sundry. They’re the last examples of John Wayne, ready to teach us all a lesson.

Unless they’re delicate flowers whose sensibilities are so easily offended that telling them you can’t throw racial or sexist epithets around anymore in public is akin to destroying the very essences of their beings. I’m as steeped in white straight middle class privilege as anybody else and it’s uncomfortable, sure, to be told you hold some view that is outdated or prejudiced, but I’ll never understand why updating someone’s outlook on life to the 20th century is equal to an oppression due resistance with armed violence. It’sthat bad, not being able to tell racist jokes in public anymore? It’s that bad, not being able to call somebody this or that name, and reduce them to something less than you solely on the basis of something they can’t do anything about? Really? Your life is that empty, that if they take away your ability to call somebody the N word or say maybe you should think twice before bashing that gay guy, you’ve got no choice but to start popping fools?

And you’ll notice it’s always someone else forcing them to grow the fuck up, too. For a party that likes to crow about personal responsibility, they seem to take a lot of leading around. Left to their own devices they’d be happy to be racist, sexist, homophobic fucknuts jawing on all day about how if it wasn’t for affirmative action they’d be king right now, and they’re happy to trumpet that to the heavens by talking about being pushed to the wall.

Pushed. As if left to their own devices, you’d be able to get a sheet of plastic wrap between them and the wall. As if they wouldn’t be smashed right up against it, entirely on their own.

A.