Quote :

"In the audio clip (available by clicking on the video to the left), Beck says that slavery "started with seemingly innocent ideas." Beck goes as far as to say that the evil of slavery did not start with the Atlantic slave trade, but instead it "started in a court room, and then it went to the legislatures." Beck then warns his audience that health care reform might be "creating slaves" just like slaves were supposedly created in the past."

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/glenn-beck-claims-slavery-was-not-really-bad-until-government-got-involved

10/4/2010 5:25:53 AM

Well I.. think Glenn Beck is pretty much against slavery.

His point is that many horrid gov't programs usually started out as fairly benign, with good intentioned ideas.

Slavery evolved through gov't regulation. It began as indentured servants yearning for a better life. People paid for their travel to the new English colonies with their labor. It was the colonial courts and colonial legislatures that turned it into racial slavery.

Obamacare, if allowed to entangle our country, will end up a nightmare.

10/4/2010 10:51:27 AM

OMG FAUX NEWS WANTS TO BRING BACK SLAVERY, STARTING WITH OBAMA'S KIDS!!!

10/4/2010 10:58:16 AM

Sometimes a man can hate so much it gets him to where he doesn't belong.

10/4/2010 11:26:40 AM

well slavery didn't start with the atlantic slave trade.... it started long before the Europeans even thought about coming west.

10/4/2010 11:50:01 AM

^^Happens to me on occasion.




And all these points about slavery/captivity/servitude are useless since none of them could be reasonably applied to the recent debate surrounding healthcare policy. It's a ludicrous analogy from the outset.


But I guess it would be interesting to argue about the nature of slavery in all its different contexts. When and where was/is it the "most wrong" and why?

[Edited on October 4, 2010 at 12:07 PM. Reason : Not funny.]

10/4/2010 12:01:24 PM

I think Obamacare is like the Spanish Inquisition. Much like heretics were burned at the stake for their refusal to repent, our money is being burned at stake of liberalism to satisfy our liberal overlords!

Obama could be creating ROAMING DEATH SQUADS to take your loved ones and BURN THEM AT THE STAKE!

10/4/2010 12:21:48 PM

Quote :

"Slavery evolved through gov't regulation. It began as indentured servants yearning for a better life. People paid for their travel to the new English colonies with their labor. It was the colonial courts and colonial legislatures that turned it into racial slavery."

Are you serious?

Indentured servants came over through contracts. Black "servants" first arrived in Virginia at roughly the same time, and though they weren't technically called slaves yet they were for all intents and purposes (lifetime servitude, could be treated much worse than white servants, you owned their kids, etc.)

"Government regulation" didn't have shit to do with it. The blacks just didn't have that much-vaunted "contract," and they were in a strange place where escape was difficult, and they often didn't share a common language, and the white people had all the guns. Government codification came after market demand for uncompensated labor had already brought racial slavery into existence. Hell, we'd already tried grabbing Indians, but they were too good at escaping and dying of smallpox to be much use.

Slavery didn't start with innocent ideas, it started with the idea that we could get one group of black people to sell us other black people, and that slave labor works best when it's imported.

10/5/2010 1:11:12 PM

^That sounds about right.

And I have no clue what Beck could mean by "seemingly innocent ideas."

Anybody got something on that? Is he talking about indentured servitude? And which kind? The indentured servitude people chose or the kind where they just got tossed on a ship for stealing a ham?

10/5/2010 1:25:05 PM

Why don't we just ignore Glenn Beck and let him have his crazy beliefs? It's not like he's affecting anyone anyway, right?

10/5/2010 1:31:03 PM

hmmm...beck doesn't actually have a clue...surprise!

10/5/2010 1:31:16 PM

This is what you get when you shoot from the hip

10/5/2010 1:41:10 PM

I wish. When Rick Sanchez shot from the hip he got fired. When Glenn Beck shoots from the hip, subliterate morons across the country put what he says on cardboard signs.

10/5/2010 3:15:07 PM

He is right that slavery didn't start with the atlantic slave trade. Everything else he's wrong about though.

10/6/2010 6:24:17 PM

For Entertainment Purposes Only

10/6/2010 6:53:27 PM

The holocaust started out innocently as German troops having a pillow fight with Jews.

10/6/2010 8:20:43 PM

Actually Beck's argument applies better to the holocaust. While racism against jews and others certainly existed in some German citizens, it took government intervention to really wipe them out.

10/6/2010 9:49:59 PM

So this doesnt make us feel any better about potential tea party candidates entering Govt.

10/7/2010 12:14:44 AM

Quote :

"Actually Beck's argument applies better to the holocaust. While racism against jews and others certainly existed in some German citizens, it took government intervention to really wipe them out."

Governments are more efficient at killing people than individuals or small mobs of individuals. Shocking.

[Edited on October 7, 2010 at 8:57 AM. Reason : .]

10/7/2010 8:57:30 AM

I thought slavery originated from indentured servants. And indentured servants were created from people who didn't pay their debts.

10/7/2010 5:34:02 PM

^ That makes no sense. How the hell can one be an indentured servant and NOT pay your debt? If you're forced to work to pay your debt, then how can you suddenly become a slave?

Not to mention children born into slavery became property of the slave owner. What debt did they fail to pay? The delivery fee at infinity dollars!?

Fuck, if you're an indentured servant and you don't pay your debt, then you're not really a servant, are you, as that implies you're doing something?

10/7/2010 6:02:21 PM

lol

10/7/2010 6:38:01 PM

10/8/2010 6:04:07 AM

10/8/2010 10:42:17 AM

Sadly, that's probably how some of you partisans justify your support for an awful president.

10/8/2010 11:07:25 AM