Conservative Character Actors and the Co-Optation of Martin Luther King Jr.
Exclusive to AOL News
It has been said that even the Devil can quote scripture for his purposes. So too, apparently, can conservatives quote Martin Luther King Jr. for theirs. To wit, Glenn Beck, who has perfected the craft of cribbing from Dr. King, thereby debasing the majestic prose of the latter, and distorting King’s intentions to a point that would have been unrecognizable to him.
And so, after his weekend rally, which coincided with the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, Beck explained that while he disagrees with the part of the civil rights movement that was about social justice and economic equity — which is to say, he disagrees with pretty much all of it — he agrees with the other part. You know that one line, literally, one line from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech: the one about how we should judge people on the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.
Read the rest of this op-ed on AOL News.
Special thanks to Gina Misiroglu of Red Room, who connected me with the folks at AOL: one of the great ways she’s connecting avid readers with Red Room authors, including myself.
Read the article on AOL.com. Judging by the comments there, I imagine you’ll be getting a few e-mails, but I also imagine you’re well accustomed to that sort of thing. It still astonishes me that people can be so willfully blind, so undereducated about documents that are in the public record. In the same way I boggle that Sarah Palin honestly believes this country was founded on Judeo-Christian premise despite the pesky reality of the Constitution, I boggle that people exist who seriously believe that:
“Liberals believe that minorities are inferior, and need to be treated like helpless, little pets. That’s the most deceitful kind of racism there is.”
Do these people actually do any research on the subject or do they simply believe what they’re spoonfed by strawmen on television, half of whom don’t even believe (if a friend of mind inside the entertainment/news industry is to be believed) the drivel they’re spouting? In an age when John Stewart was named the most trusted newscaster in America after the death of Walter Cronkite (and I have no problems with this), I think even people who WANT to believe the ludicrous stylings of men like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly sometimes encounter bits of rhetoric that disturb their sense of equilibrium, that seem just a little too far-fetched and severe. But rather than actually think about them, they shake it off.
You can see them doing it too, in this video clip: http://videogum.com/217892/fun-conversations-with-some-cool-pals-at-glenn-becks-restoring-honor-rally/news/
There are some lovely incidents in there during which the interviewer punches holes in the ultra-conservative party line and you can literally see people pause, then DECIDE, willfully, not to think about it. How are we supposed to fix anything that’s wrong with our society when so many of our countrymen are willfully ignorant? Innocent ignorance can be addressed by education. Willful ignorance is pathogenic.
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