Beck Lies about Slavery, Claims It Was Created by Court Orders, Government Regulation

There’s a complete transcript of the “Countdown” segment below, but here is Beck’s money quote about slavery:

BECK: It also took a long time to start slavery. It started small. And it started with seemingly innocent ideas. And then a little court order here and a court order there and a little more regulation here and a little more regulation there, and before we knew it, America had slavery. It didn’t come over in a ship to begin with, as an evil slave trade. The government began to regulate things because the people needed answers. They needed solutions. It started in a courtroom. And then it went to the legislatures. That’s how slavery began. And it took a long time to enslave an entire race of people, and convince another race of people that they were somehow or another less than them.

History? Get me rewrite! Forget the facts. If you thought slavery was caused by greed and a penchant among the powerful to oppress the powerless that predates recorded history, you’re wrong.

No, according to Beck, slavery came about as a predictable byproduct of government regulation. It started with “seemingly innocent ideas” — in this case, the “seemingly innocent” idea of forcing people to work for free — and then, after “a little court order here and a court order there and a little more regulation here and a little more regulation there,” eventually the regulations led to the enslavement of millions of people.

This only sounds bizarre if you are not a follower of Glenn Beck. He has taught his low-info, low-intelligence viewers that government regulation leads irrevocably to “socialism,” which Beck and his fellow right-wing propagandists — Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly and the rest — have redefined in the Obama era as Soviet-style jackboot communist statism, which is, of course, a form of enslavement.

But there’s more going on with this fanciful parable than Beck propping up his “free market” corporatist propaganda. By placing the blame for slavery on the government, Pastor Beck is also absolving white Southerners — in other words, his low-info, low-intel viewers — of guilt for the sins of their slave-holding ancestors. After all, how can slavery be the fault of the slave owners when the government had its foot on their necks and forced them to use slave labor?

In the real world, of course, socialism is a part of the American tradition. Public schools, libraries, roads and emergency response systems are as red, white and blue as baseball and turkey on Thanksgiving. And in the real history of America, Beck’s version of the establishment and growth of slavery is precisely the opposite of what actually happened. The rise of slavery was dictated, first and foremost, by supply and demand, the fundamental precept of capitalism. As the market value of slaves increased, laws were written to codify the property rights of the slave owners. Eventually the slave owners’ rights were even written into the U.S. Constitution.

Transcript:

OLBERMANN: Time for tonight’s worst persons in the world.

…The runner up, televangelist Glenn Beck. Did you know slavery was caused by big government? It’s true.

GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: It also took a long time to start slavery. It started small. And it started with seemingly innocent ideas. And then a little court order here and a court order there and a little more regulation here and a little more regulation there, and before we knew it, America had slavery. It didn’t come over in a ship to begin with, as an evil slave trade. The government began to regulate things because the people needed answers. They needed solutions. It started in a courtroom. And then it went to the legislatures. That’s how slavery began. And it took a long time to enslave an entire race of people, and convince another race of people that they were somehow or another less than them.

OLBERMANN: Oh. In fact, America was born with slavery and the lack of government regulation is what allowed each state to decide for itself whether or not to let it continue. And heavens forbid, but the Fugitive Slave Act, which required the return of any escaped slave, and made it a crime to help an escaped slave — that was signed into law by the foundingest father of them all, George Washington. Any claim that it “didn’t come over in a ship to begin with as an evil slave trade” would be a silly statement even if it came from a nine-year-old child.

My heroes Bob and Ray once conducted an interview with an imaginary author named Alfred E. Nelson, whose history of the United States book included such details as Abraham Lincoln driving to his inauguration in an automobile, and that the first capital of the country was at Bailey’s Mistake, Maine. Mr. Nelson admitted that as he wrote the book, he had relied on his memory of his schooling, which had ended in the eighth grade. But he kept pointing out that its merits were its 1, 1100 pages and exquisite leather binding. Glenn Beck is Alfred E. Nelson.

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