Consulting by RPM || Free Advice Blog

Angus vs. Glenn Beck

I heard this “live” (i.e. I’m not sure if there is a tape delay but I heard it on the radio the day of) and I found it hilarious, but not for the obvious reasons. (HT2LRC) Pay close attention starting around 1:45. After Angus points out Beck’s hypocrisy vis-a-vis the bailout, Beck says something like, “OK Angus, if you have all the answers, then tell me why I was for the bailout.” Angus has no answer for Beck’s absurd flip flop, and Beck & Crew take this as evidence of Angus’ stupidity. What’s really funny is that we don’t even know if Angus was speechless–“Uh, I don’t know how you could have supported the bailout, Glenn, given your rhetoric of the last 12 months, that’s my whole point”–or if they just cut him off. I.e. we never hear from Angus after this point, so for all we know they hung up and then Beck said, “OK Angus, if you have all the answers, why was I for the bailout?”

(BTW don’t be confused: The people making this YouTube cut away as Beck gives his explanation, and show the TV clip from when he supported the bailout. Then they come back to the radio show right after he dukes it out with Angus.)

In case you’re curious, what Beck actually said on the radio was that he initially was for the bailout when he thought it was necessary to stave off disaster, in order to buy time for the politicians and corporate leaders to get their act together. But then (withink two or three days I think) Beck had smelled a rat and realized they weren’t going to change our sinful ways, and that’s why he was opposed to the bailout from that point forward. Beck also worked in the fact that he had been predicting the financial crisis for a long time when everyone thought he was crazy.

By the way, of course people can make mistakes and we don’t need to jump up and down on them for changing their mind. (I am still embarrassed about this article, for example.) But the point is, I was absolutely shocked when Glenn Greenwald sent me this video and I learned that Beck had supported the bailout when it mattered, i.e. when it was first being debated. I had been listening to Beck for only a few months, and I actually bought into his Fight the Power schtick. I couldn’t believe that someone who had declared on national TV that Paulson didn’t ask for enough money, was so clearly painting himself as a Cassandra and diehard opponent of the bailout just a few months later.

Last point: Angus hails from New Braunfels, TX. I wonder if he saw me give a talk there last summer?! (A church in New Braunfels is a hotbed of subversive libertarianism; I think Tom Woods was their speaker the previous July 4.)