# Glenn Beck is Robert Fucking Langdon **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 4, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829 "2009-09-04T04:57:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/1 "2009-09-04T04:57:55Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szlLM5lCNJg) If you watch that entire video without dying, you win a prize: insanity. I pit anybody who can defend that video as anything but utter, complete, raving horse shit. ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/2 "2009-09-04T05:05:49Z")
No one tell him what used to be on the back of the dime. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/3 "2009-09-04T05:16:37Z")
Maybe Beck needs to pull his head out of his ass and read some Ayn Rand. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/4 "2009-09-04T05:27:30Z")
Saw it on Olberman, he kept trying to make fun of it, but fell flat because the thing itself is impervious to snark. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/5 "2009-09-04T05:35:04Z")
I’m really sort of excited to see where Beck’s ravings are going to go over the next couple years of Obama’s Presidency. He started pretty out there and has been getting nuttier and nuttier, we’re still only a couple months in and he’s already trying to connect the President to some sort of conspiracy handed down from Communist, Facist-worshipping turn of the century industrialists by interpreting cryptic signals they left for him public architecture. If he keeps up this pace until 2012 or 1016, he’s really going to be hitting the outer bounds of crazy pretty soon. In fact, I’ll just come out now and predict that at some point in the next 7 years, Beck will explicitly claim that Obama is somehow connected to space aliens. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/6 "2009-09-04T06:37:10Z")
Beck raves on about “[Man at the Crossroads](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_at_the_Crossroads),” the insidious propagandist mural by Diego Rivera in the lobby of 30 Rock, headquarters of NBC, and points out the images of Lenin and Marx it contains. He implies that the presence of this painting (and other New Deal art from the 1930s that adorns the building) betrays the communist sympathies of its owners, including, presumably, that well-known bastion of Bolshevism, General Electric. Beck asks his sound man how long he worked in that building, and is told 29 years. The man is amazed that he never noticed all the dread symbolism in the Rivera painting. Beck doesn’t mention the simple reason for this. The painting was destroyed 75 years ago, before it was even finished. Although John D. Rockefeller commissioned the work by Rivera, they disagreed about it – including the presence of Lenin, specifically – and Rockefeller order work stopped and the painting covered. It was [destroyed in February 1934](http://www.diego-rivera.org/rockefellercontroversy.html). (It’s a very weird painting. [Here](http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Morett/Various.images/man%20at%20the%20crossroads%20rivera.jpg)’s a big copy of it.) What a maroon Beck is. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/7 "2009-09-04T06:40:16Z")
The funniest thing about that clip is how wrong Beck’s was about Nelson Rockefeller’s support for Diego Rivera’s mural. Although Rockefeller did indeed commission a mural from Rivera, he didn’t anticipate that Rivera would include the portraits of Marx and Lenin. He was particularly upset with the inclusion of the latter’s portrait, and insisted that Rivera alter it–and when Rivera refused to do so, the entire mural was destroyed. But I have to give Beck some points for enthusiasm, as ill-informed as he is! ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/8 "2009-09-04T06:47:00Z")
**Commasense** , thanks for the background. That’s a particularly funny example of Glenn Beck being hysterical for no good reason. Has this been mocked on John Stewart yet? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/9 "2009-09-04T06:58:36Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Beck raves on about “[Man at the Crossroads](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_at_the_Crossroads),” the insidious propagandist mural by Diego Rivera in the lobby of 30 Rock, headquarters of NBC, and points out the images of Lenin and Marx it contains. He implies that the presence of this painting (and other New Deal art from the 1930s that adorns the building) betrays the communist sympathies of its owners, including, presumably, that well-known bastion of Bolshevism, General Electric. > > Beck asks his sound man how long he worked in that building, and is told 29 years. The man is amazed that he never noticed all the dread symbolism in the Rivera painting. > > Beck doesn’t mention the simple reason for this. The painting was destroyed 75 years ago, before it was even finished. Although John D. Rockefeller commissioned the work by Rivera, they disagreed about it – including the presence of Lenin, specifically – and Rockefeller order work stopped and the painting covered. It was [destroyed in February 1934](http://www.diego-rivera.org/rockefellercontroversy.html). > > (It’s a very weird painting. [Here](http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Morett/Various.images/man%20at%20the%20crossroads%20rivera.jpg)’s a big copy of it.) > > What a maroon Beck is. I knew he’d talk about that as soon as I saw the first few seconds of the clip, but I couldn’t make it that far into the video. Can anyone sum up his babblings? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/10 "2009-09-04T12:15:38Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Has this been mocked on John Stewart yet? He’s still on vacation. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/11 "2009-09-04T12:18:47Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I knew he’d talk about that as soon as I saw the first few seconds of the clip, but I couldn’t make it that far into the video. > > Can anyone sum up his babblings? Beck is convinced there is a sculpture of a hammer and a sickle on Rockefeller Center. No matter that they are not together, or that the “hammer” is actually a shovel, that is good enough to brand NBC as a tool of the Communist Conspiracy. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/12 "2009-09-04T13:09:40Z")
I like how he kept being surprised, nay, _astonished_ by the realisations his observations forced him to come to. 'Cause that’s how you know he didn’t have any preconceived notions going into it. But oh, the poor sod, what dire revelations yet await! The three Ks on a packet of Marlboros, and the black man being hung. The blackbirder on the Snapple label. The one-dollar bill (I trust I won’t have to tell you about this one). Or even EAN-13 barcodes – no one could buy or sell unless he had this mark, indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/13 "2009-09-04T13:15:56Z")
I can’t believe I’m the first person to transpose words reading the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/14 "2009-09-04T13:19:18Z")
I think Beck is Kent Brockman from the Simpsons. Would you be surprised if you saw Beck welcoming our new ant overlords, saying “democracy simply doesn’t work,” suggesting we crack each other’s head open and feast on the goo inside, or shouting about the Book of Relevation? I wouldn’t. I know I’m flip-flopping on this topic, but at the moment I think Beck is Brockman and Lou Dobbs is Howard Beale. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/15 "2009-09-04T13:23:57Z")
This guy is a fucking idiot. What’s truly scary is that millions of people take him seriously. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/16 "2009-09-04T13:37:17Z")
Stunning, simply stunning. Wow. His idiocy knows no bounds. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/17 "2009-09-04T13:43:29Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > (It’s a very weird painting. [Here](http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Morett/Various.images/man%20at%20the%20crossroads%20rivera.jpg)’s a big copy of it.) I think _every_ office building should be adorned with a painting of a science fiction dragonfly-man with a huge hand for a penis. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/18 "2009-09-04T13:56:18Z")
I am starting to wonder whether Beck really has gone off the deep end–not in the casual way people say, “That dude’s crazy” when they disagree with them, but in the DRM-IV sense. In addition to the segment linked in the OP, there’s [this recent bizarre rant](http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=4609216). Now normally I’d be inclined to chalk these up to being “crazy like a fox” (all pun intended) but in combination with Beck’s frequent public crying jags, his screaming fits at callers (“Get off my phone!”)… I fear that within a couple of months we will see Beck have a public meltdown. It’s sad really. ---
**Author:** ![h.sapiens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e0b2c6/32.png) [@h.sapiens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/h.sapiens)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/19 "2009-09-04T13:58:59Z")
I’m supposed to be outraged that Diego Rivera was a communist? Okay, consider me outraged. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829/20 "2009-09-04T14:11:56Z")
It is utterly frightening to me that millions of people get their “news” and information from this man, who clearly has either developed some sort of delusional disorder, or is live-action trolling. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glenn-beck-is-robert-fucking-langdon/508829.md?page=2)