I cannot understand people who are my age or are of my generation that support Glenn Beck. I think my expectations of older generations are more lenient in terms of open-mindedness given that they did grow up in a different time and different world.

I was reading through the Wikipedia page on Glenn Beck after seeing a slightly disturbing article addressed to him, and found it to be quite a lengthy page. Instead of trying to get into any analysis of his history or views, I'll provide a few quotes which I found interesting.

"Glenn Lee Beck was born in Everett, Washington, on February 10, 1964, to William and Mary Beck."

"In 1977, William Beck filed for divorce against Mary due to her increasing alcoholism."

"Beck has described his mother's death as a suicide in interviews during television and radio broadcasts."

"In 1999, Beck married his second wife, Tania. They joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in October 1999, partly at the urging of his daughter Mary."

"Radio historian Marc Fisher has posited that Beck is "first and foremost an entertainer, who happens to have stumbled into a position of political prominence.""

"Beck, then 23, was partnered with a 26-year-old Arizona native Tim Hattrick to co-host a local "morning zoo" program. During his time at Y-95, Beck cultivated a rivalry with local pop radio station KZZP and that station's morning host Bruce Kelly. Through practical jokes and publicity stunts, Beck drew criticism from the staff at Y-95 when the rivalry culminated in Beck telephoning Kelly's wife on-the-air, mocking her recent miscarriage"

"After leaving Houston, Beck moved on to Baltimore, Maryland and the city's leading Top-40 station, WBSB, known as B104. There, he partnered with Pat Gray, a 27-year-old morning DJ. During his tenure at B104, Beck was arrested for speeding in his DeLorean with one of the car's gull-wing doors wide open. According to a former colleague, Beck was "completely out of it" when a B104 manager went down to the station to bail him out."

"At WKCI, Beck and Gray co-hosted the local four-hour morning show, billed as the Glenn and Pat Show. On a 1995 broadcast of the show, Alf Papineau pretended to speak Chinese during a taped comedy skit. When an Asian-American listener called to complain, Gray and Beck made fun of the caller and played gongs in the background while Papineau spoke in a mock-Chinese accent."

"Chris Balfe, president of Beck's company, Mercury Radio Arts, said that the reason Beck came to Fox was because of president Roger Ailes, remarking that they "have a fantastic relationship"."

"As of September 2009 Beck's program drew more viewers than all three of the competing time-slot shows on CNN, MSNBC and HLN combined."

"In late August 2009, the mayor of Mount Vernon, Washington, Beck's hometown, announced that he would award Beck the Key to the City, designating September 26, 2009 as "Glenn Beck Day". Due to some local opposition, the city council voted unanimously to disassociate itself from the award. The key presentation ceremony sold-out the 850-seat McIntyre Hall and an estimated 800 people, both supporting and opposing the event, demonstrated outside the building."

"In 2006, Beck remarked to Muslim congressman-elect Keith Ellison, a guest on his show, "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel." Ellison replied that his constituents, "know that I have a deep love and affection for my country. There's no one who's more patriotic than I am, and so you know, I don't need to — need to prove my patriotic stripes." Beck's question, which he himself suggested was "quite possibly the poorest-worded question of all time," resulted in protests from several Arab-American organizations."

Huh?