Glen Beck, Historian

It's funny, I remember clearly learning the difference between fascism and communism, within the broad definition of totalitarianism in eighth grade in Mrs. Griffith's history class. We studied the continuum of political beliefs and systems (oligarchy, aristocracy, monarchy, democracy, etc) and discussed how no pure system would really work, including a pure democracy, which would dissolve into mob rule or anarchy.

And when Jonah Goldberg published "Liberal Fascism" last year, it was easy to shrug it off as the meanderings of a third rate conservative slob, because any sentient eighth grader would immediately recognize that liberalism and fascism were and are in diametric opposition.

Interesting to note, then, that one of the highest rated cable news shows, Glen Beck's, continues to promote the notion that the Obama administration is somehow leading us down the road to fascism, and that the policies that we are pursuing to pull ourselves out of the mire that eight years of the Bush administration left us in are somehow akin to those of the Nazi party in Germany. Of course, when I was in Mrs. Griffith's history class, we'd also have recognized Beck as nothing more than a madman screaming at people on the street corner, so perhaps this is all part of a general rise in the stupidity level of Americans.

Anyway, Beck's particular thesis, if it can be dignified with that term, is shredded to pieces by Orcinus, here.

It makes for great reading.