I have posted
here a couple of times on the perverse
pre-occupation that conservatives have fostered in the writings of political scientist Francis Fox
Piven. Well, the inimitable
Glenn Beck has kept the focus on
Piven with the result that some of his wacko listeners are issuing threats against
Piven's life. You can read about the situation
here in
The New York Times and find a report
here on
DemocracyNow!.
I disagree with
Piven about many things. But this state of affairs is both intolerable and directly attributable to Beck's behavior. Is it a reach to draw a connection between Beck's repeated "remarks" about
Piven and her putatively dangerous ideas and the threats she now is receiving? Well, the paper that gets Beck especially exercised is a decades old essay that appeared in
The Nation. Before this recent set of events, I (a political scientist
and subscriber to
The Nation) had never heard of the paper. How would regular Americans have come across the essay? So, 2 + 2 = ... Beck speaks and wackos do his dirty work.
Beck is a blustering, ignorant, bully. It is that simple. And there is simply no "civil" way to put that.
