Glenn Beck Nails the Ladies of The View. (Metaphorically, Anyway)

So there I was, this morning, driving to the teeming metropolis of Washington PA, having left one of my IT clients whose computers I had sorted out, and I turned on the car radio, only to hear Glenn Beck launch into what I’m calling the Quote of the Day for February 2, 2022.  (Hm.  2/2/22.  A palindrome date (one of ten in February this year, as the Farmer’s Almanac informs me.  This one is particularly good because it works whether one follows the D/M/Y, or the M/D/Y formula. Sweet.)

So I was driving.  And what I’m recounting here is my best recollection of what he said.  I may not have all the words in all the right order, but my heart’s in the right place, and I’m pretty sure I’ve got the spirit, if not the letter, exactly right.

Beck was talking about Whoopi Goldberg. (Birth name, Caryn Johnson.  Talk about cultural appropriation. (The “Goldberg.”  Not the “Whoopi.”  God knows where that came from.)) And about her recent ill-informed outburst on The View, in which she claimed that the Holocaust, and Hitler’s genocide against the Jews, had nothing to do with race.  And, as usual, Beck was beating the drum for free speech, speaking against the idea that Whoopi should be fired for her idiocy, and using the situation as what Barack Obama was fond of calling “a teachable moment.”

(TBPC, I’ve never watched a moment of The View.  I became vaguely aware of its existence a couple of years ago, when Denise McAllister–a former Ricochet member and “New York Times bestselling author” ran afoul of Meghan McCain, who was on the show at the time.  The resulting fallout was quite controversial, and several Ricochet conversations picked it apart.  I ran across the conversations, participated in them and subsequent McAllister issues, and was roundly excoriated for my own POV.)

And yet, here (and there) I still am, while others are not.

Beck made no secret of his general distaste for Whoopi, but said that he thought she shouldn’t be censured, cancelled, or fired because free speech.  I agree.  Then he moved on to his opinion of The View.  As I recollect (remember, I was driving), what he said was something to the effect that:

I can’t believe that The View has been on television for 25 years.  And for that entire time, it’s consisted of nothing but conversations among the dumbest people you’ve ever seen, talking about things they’ve never, ever, thought about before now.

Glory be.  Is that right on point, or what?

And then, I thought: Hey! Wait a minute!  Isn’t that the most insightful comment ever WRT social media (Twatter, Fakebook, Instagrim, most vanity blogs and so on) that I’ve ever heard?

Yes.  Yes it is.

Post after post, and comment after comment along the lines of “Wow.  I didn’t know this, but I just read it on Wikipedia, and I think it’s brilliant.”  Or “Look!  I never heard of this before, but it’s all over the Internet!! (So it must be true…).”  Or one pontificating post after another about matters of which the poster is utterly ignorant, and of which–even if he or she might be able to say something illuminating on the basis that  “even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then,”–there’s no there there other than the desire to impress the illuminati and the inevitable reach too far.  (One of the recent most hilarious had to do with something the poster described as “A Monstrous Regimen of Women.”  (Yes.  As your physician, I prescribe such a regimen for you because you seem to be missing out on the girly front.) LOL.)  I should think John Knox** is spinning in his grave.  Glory be. Am I the only person who takes care to source and reference allusions carefully so I don’t look like a moron?  Am I the only person who presents well-thought out (and not of the instant) perspective?  Surely not.

Well-wishing tip:  If you want to use allusions like this effectively, it’s best to get them right. You don’t have to be a polymath to do so.  You do need to know how to do a bit of research on the Internet before you shoot off your mouth. (Or maybe you’re too dumb to know they’re allusions.  Maybe that’s the problem.  One for which, perhaps, there isn’t a cure.  Bless.)

It’s quite liberating, not to be tangled up in such juvenile nonsense.  And to feel pretty secure that the opinions I present here are well-researched and bulletproof.

Just sayen.

**John Knox.  What a joyless, unpleasant man. Those who wish to associate themselves with his ideas and ideals–whether consciously or not–are welcome to.