Conservative Fans Pissed at Beck for Praising Martin Luther King … and Lincoln

This Saturday, on the anniversary of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Glenn Beck will reclaim the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement for racist, old white people with a teabagger rally at the Lincoln Memorial.

The shock jock’s grotesque PR stunt has predictably enraged most sane people. Beck’s job is to stir up racial resentment so the Kochs and Rupert Murdoch can get more tax breaks — a goal that could, perhaps, be seen as divergent from King’s dream. As it turns out, insane people also don’t like Beck’s co-option of King’s legacy. The rally’s Facebook page features a discussion thread slamming MLK (and Lincoln). Here are a few telling comments:

Glenn Beck is usually awesome, but when it comes to the subject of Martin Luther King he cowers before political correctness and refuses to tell the hard truth. King attended a Communist training school, had Communist Party members working by his side, bashed capitlism, and gave a speech which both praised a brutal Communist dictator and bashed the U.S.! Instead of exposing King on this, Beck ignores these facts and kisses King’s legacy’s feet. Demand that Glenn drop the PC narrative of King and tell the truth about him!

Another one:

I like Glenn Beck, but I agree with you Ted on the King issue. King was not the man of peace Beck claims he was, and I’m not sure why he panders to him so much. King was a troublemaker…where King went – racial riots followed.

One more:

Ted..you are right. King was a marxist who believed more in socialism and communism and was not a fan of capitalism. Glenn does not kiss his feet and try to hide MLK’s views though. You can look anywhere online and like Glenn says “do your own research” and find that that is true. Glenn simply respects him for preaching equality through peace and faith. MLK was also more of a religous man and always stated in speeches that the only way to gain his dream was through unity and non-violent movements. Glenn simply respects that…not his views.

On Lincoln:

I’m a Beck fan as well but another thing that drives me crazy is his constant praising of Lincoln. Lincoln was a tyrant and a dictator. He invaded and destroyed the South all in the name of freeing slaves while his Union soldiers had money jingling in their pockets from selling the slaves to the South. It is amazing to me so many people accept slavery as the cause of that war. 80% of the Confederate army were neither slave holders nor did they have any interest in the institution. So one must ask themselves, why would anyone give their lives and fight so long and hard for just a few rich men to keep their slaves? The war was fought over money, plain and simple. Lincoln raised the Morrill Tarriff to almost 50% when he took office, which destroyed the South and their agriculture production. Even if slavery was the cause of that war secession IS a Constitutional right and by no way in hell did Lincoln have any authority to invade and destroy the South. I will be attending this event and as a proud man from the south I have a really hard time gathering at the feet of a man who brought nothing but terror to my home, all in the name of freeing slaves that he sold to us.

And another one:

I’ll also add that state sovereignty came to an end after the South lost the war. To quote Supreme Court Justice Salmon P Chase “State sovereignty died at Appomattox”.

Now, obviously, anyone can post on Facebook pages (although they are usually moderated), and these are just a few comments (also, it should be said that one commenter responds by questioning the ‘research’ behind these claims – though none come to King’s defense).

At the same time, they do reflect a pretty hilarious glitch in the otherwise smoothly running universe of right-wing propaganda: how can progressives be commies bent on America’s destruction and heroes to exploit for publicity? We’re supposed to like someone who helped black people? What???

Update: Looks like the comment thread was erased. Screenshot: