Glenn Beck 2008 vs. Glenn Beck 2009

According to the 2009'er, it's "crazy" to blame anyone but the Pittsburgh cop killer for doing what he did. (And it's especially crazy to blame Beck!) Yes, Beck goes on the TV and radio and claims the Second Amendment is “under fire,” and that Obama will “take away your gun away, one way or another.”

But it's loony to think there's a cause and effect between the crazy things he says and the crazy things people who listen to him do. Nobody pays any attention to him or to what's on TV. That seems to be Beck's defense. (i.e. He's just a flight attendant.)

Except, as blogger Bob Cesca (as well as Keith Olbermann last night) points out, that's not what Beck the 2008'er claimed about the cause and effect of pop culture and the crazies. Notes Cesca:

Here's the problem. The Glenn Beck who said this on Monday is clearly at odds with the Glenn Beck of Spring 2008 who blamed the video game Grand Theft Auto for “training our kids to be killers” and “our sons to treat women like whores.”

That's right: In 2008, Beck was quite clear that video games, as well as “television” (all of “pop culture,” really) were responsible for the rise in violent crime. (They were “training our kids to be killers.”) Even doctors think so!

But today, when Beck goes on and on and a possible totalitarian state unfolding in America, and how Obama wants to take your guns away and how Democrats are “bloodsuckers” and the only way to make them stop is to drive a stake through their hearts, when Beck unfurls that kind of crazy talk, guess what? No effect on society.