Glenn Beck: “Revolutionary Holocaust”

There’s plenty to criticize in Glenn Beck’s documentary “Revolutionary Holocaust,” starting with Beck himself, whose Obama=Stalin schtick is only the polar opposite of Michael Moore’s reductio ad Hitlerum against Bush. Notwithstanding some of the disturbing associations in Obama’s not-so-distant past, Beck’s comparisons are overwrought and mostly groundless — I’d go as far as entirely groundless but for the fact that Anita Dunn wasn’t canned immediately (or ever) after making this contemptible statement (just imagine the reaction if Karl Rove had called Goebbels one of his favorite philosophers).

Beck certainly seems to want his viewers to believe that Obama is secretly plotting to impose statism or totalitarianism. This isn’t just ordinary nonsense, it’s the kind of nonsense that poisons reasoned discourse about his actual policies, including those I happen to disagree with. Do yourself a favor and skip Beck’s opening rant. Try to overlook the creepy background music, sinister lighting, and Dutch angles. Beyond that, “Revolutionary Holocaust” contains much useful correction of a historical record that isn’t particularly forthright or balanced when it comes to the crimes of communism, or its genetic similarities to fascism — a point that I tried to make here.

One thing is certain about this: you’ll never think of George Bernard Shaw the same way again. My old view of Shaw: harmless intellectual crank whose writings spawned several annoying musicals. New view: Eichmann without the uniform — a ghastly mind filled with hatred for his fellow man.