Politics: 28 August 2010

I will have more to say tomorrow (or even tonight). For now, nothing more need be said.

Update

There were 87,000 people at Glenn Beck’s rally. This compares rather poorly with MLK’s 1963 rally that drew over 200,000 without the months of cable advertising. When the readers of NewsOpi read this number, they went crazy. These people really believe that their movement is much bigger than it is. I posted the following:

The number comes from CBS and is based upon aircraft photographs at the peak of the event. The error is +/- 9,000. It is easy to over-estimate crowds from inside. Compare the pictures of today with those of 1963. You will see that there were more people then. There were over 200,000 people at that rally. Thus, today’s rally must be somewhat less. 87,000 sounds about right.” They will, of course, flame me skinless.

Update 2

A number of people at the 47th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech yelled to the teabaggers, “Don’t drink the tea!” I’m afraid it’s too late.

Update 3

Back to my battle on NewsOpi:

I notice that my very reasonable and factual post was hidden because I received a 6/32 rating. I take this to mean that no one had any problem with what I wrote, but simply with the fact that I [was] relating information that the readers of this page did not want to hear. If people wish to live in an echo chamber where facts are the enemy, nothing can be done.

People do not vote on the quality of comments; they vote on whether they agree with what is said. This is madness and is why I do not allow “ratings” on my site (franklycurious.com or Frankly Curious). Unpopular comments add to the discussion. On this page, we see the same idea over and over: the rally was HUGE. Well it _was_ huge; 87,000 is a large number of people. Why is it necessary to claim more?

I find almost all of the posts here fall into one of two categories. First: there were hundreds of thousands of people at the rally. (Wrong.) Second: Glenn Beck rocks. (Opinion, but I’m willing to listen.) How many times do these ideas have to be repeated. We know (1) Glenn Beck was probably wrong when he claimed that there would be over 100,000 at the rally, and (2) that Glenn Beck has millions of fans.

Could we please discuss something interesting? Here’s an idea: how is it that Beck managed to attract less than 100,000 people to an event that was nightly advertised on cable TV over the course of months, while MLK attracted well over twice that number without the ad campaign when the US population was half what it is today?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

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About Frank Moraes

Frank Moraes is a freelance writer and editor online and in print. He is educated as a scientist with a PhD in Atmospheric Physics. He has worked in climate science, remote sensing, throughout the computer industry, and as a college physics instructor. Find out more at About Frank Moraes.

0 thoughts on “Politics: 28 August 2010

  1. The people who follow Beck are naive. They trust him despite his obvious insincerity. Also, he supports all of the misguided beliefs they already have.

  2. I tend to disagree. I think Beck is the real-life Howard Beale (The "I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!" guy from Network). In fact, I think that he has even said so himself. It is worth watching the film again. If an Arthur Jensen came around and got Beck to believe something new, he would turn on a dime. I think he believes what he says. It is just sad the people he listens to.

    It is also notable that all of his recent heroes were people who HATED MLK. If MLK were around today, Beck would be calling him a communist and a Nazi–just like, oh what’s his name: the President of the United States. You know the United States: that country Beck loves _so_ much. [weep.]

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