Angry

I am not much of a fan of the New Yorker, but this article does a good job of looking at the Angry citizen and what can sometimes happen. I really liked this paragraph which speaks about a Beck supporter named Pam Stout:

There’s nothing new about Mrs. Stout. She’s a familiar figure in American life, always latent, but coming to the surface in national emergencies. Richard Hofstadter described her mental world in detail. In the seventeen-eighties she lived in Sheffield, Massachusetts, during a period of tight credit and land foreclosures and was sympathetic to the farmers’ uprising known as Shay’s Rebellion that began there. In the eighteen-fifties she was a non-voting constituent of Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. In the eighteen-nineties she was the wife of a Nebraska farmer who joined the People’s Party and voted for William Jennings Bryan and free silver. In the nineteen-thirties desperate poverty drove her to fall for the simple solutions of Huey Long’s left-wing demagoguery, or Father Coughlin’s right-wing demagoguery, which often sounded similar. In the nineteen-fifties she listened avidly to radio personalities like Fulton Lewis, Jr., and Walter Winchell, thought President Eisenhower was a knowing agent of the Communist Party, and was a passionate supporter of Senator Joe McCarthy. In 2001 she knew that the Bush Administration orchestrated 9/11. In 2008 she showed up at Sarah Palin rallies.

Pet peeve alert. From the article:

Glenn Beck delivered the keynote speech at the CPAC conference over the weekend. He spoke for almost an hour, and I watched so you don’t have to.

There are many reviews and critiques that contain the "I watched (or read) it so you don't have to." I am not really interested in watching or reading Beck, but if I would if I wanted to discuss him or lambaste him. I am perfectly capable of formulating my own opinions and conclusions and don't need someone else doing that for me. Other that that, it was a good article.

(h/t to Streak for posting this earlier)