Is Glenn Beck responsible for the eventual paranoid listener who decides to carry out his or her stoked fears to a twisted conclusion?
Morally, likely. But not legally -- not anymore than he is responsible for the vast majority of his listeners who believe everything he says while NOT carrying out violent responses. That which takes someone from being horribly misinformed and paranoid to actual violence is a far more complicated chain of causality than can be linked to that person's viewing habits.
What *IS* Beck responsible for? Helping to make his listeners stupid, misinformed, myopic, unbalanced, and obsessed with things that are not true. He has influence as a "teacher" of sorts, and he leads those who have given him undeserved trust to places that are inane, stupid and degrading to our body politic just as anti-vax advocates lead people to conclusions that are medically inept and not in the best interest of society as a whole.
And for THAT Mr. Beck deserves to be pilloried and treated as the snake oil salesman that he is.
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Date: 9/11/12 14:45 (UTC)Morally, likely. But not legally -- not anymore than he is responsible for the vast majority of his listeners who believe everything he says while NOT carrying out violent responses. That which takes someone from being horribly misinformed and paranoid to actual violence is a far more complicated chain of causality than can be linked to that person's viewing habits.
What *IS* Beck responsible for? Helping to make his listeners stupid, misinformed, myopic, unbalanced, and obsessed with things that are not true. He has influence as a "teacher" of sorts, and he leads those who have given him undeserved trust to places that are inane, stupid and degrading to our body politic just as anti-vax advocates lead people to conclusions that are medically inept and not in the best interest of society as a whole.
And for THAT Mr. Beck deserves to be pilloried and treated as the snake oil salesman that he is.