It turns out Glenn isn’t immune from left wing dopes even in the great state of Texas. Instead of having an honest conversation about differences, these students thought lying about who they are and being sarcastic was the more productive way to go. Glenn recounts his run in with a couple of Jon Stewart loving losers on radio today.
Glenn said:
I was at a Barnes and Noble this weekend and just minding my own business and I come around a corner and there's this young ‑‑ two young kids, probably high school, maybe college. And I come around the corner and the guy goes, "Oh, my gosh. Glenn Beck." Now, they look like total losers and ‑‑ but, you know, who am I to judge. Maybe you're not a loser. It turns out I was right. But anyway, I come around the corner and he says, "Glenn Beck." And I'm thinking to myself, "Not a fan. Not a fan. This is not a good thing." And ‑‑ but I don't judge and I'm like, "Hi, how are you?" "Great. Oh, I was so happy to hear that you moved here." And I said, "Were you?" Yes. "Well, that's great. It's really nice to meet you. What's your name?" I'm so‑and‑so. Is this your girlfriend? Hi. Nice to meet you. Have a good night, guys.So I walk away. I'm looking for a specific book. I happen to be waiting for a friend of mine. I come over to where an Isaac Asimov book is, and I pick it up and I'm thinking about getting it for Raphe because he writes great stories. And here comes that guy again. And he says, "Oh, it's ‑‑ he's great. He writes a lot of great science fiction." And I'm thinking, I'm sure there's a message in there somehow or another. And I said, "Yes, he does." And he said, "You know, could I talk to you about something?" I said, "Uh‑huh." And he said, he said, "You know, Jon Stewart really made fun of you last ‑‑ this week." And I said, "Did he?" "Yeah, because, you know, you talk about building this some sort of a, you know, American utopia thing?" And I'm thinking, well, now I've got my answer because anybody who's a big fan would ‑‑ it's an American utopia? And I said it's ‑‑ I don't know if it will ever be built and it's an experiment in how to live a better life and try to find new ways to live together. "Well, but he was saying that, you know, you want to have all kinds of regulations on how people would live and, you know, monitor their backyards and stuff. I thought you weren't for any of that." And I said, "Yeah, well, Jon Stewart likes to take things out of ‑‑ out of context because he's a comedian. That's what he does. So I wouldn't get my news from Jon Stewart. But that's not..." and I explained to him, you know ‑‑ I talked and I knew he was not a fan and he was just trying to be, you know, a jerk. But I was really cool.
His girlfriend, I'm sad to say, kind of participated and I thought, you know, when a society, when the women are not better than the men, when the women just don't go, "Come on. Let's go," when they don't do that, you're a society in real trouble. So she follows along. They go downstairs and they're laughing and stuff and they're on the phone. I go into the little, you know, place where there's cookies and I'm sitting there with my wife and we're talking, and pretty soon ‑‑ and my security is like all of a sudden getting their hair up and I see my security guy and he just kind of looks at me and I'm like, "Let's go." And I turn around. He had already approached these guys and said, "I don't know what you're planning but you better be very careful." Because they had called their friends. We were there for about 20 minutes. They had called their friends and now there was a group of them and they were behind me kind of surrounding the table. Don't know ‑‑ have any idea what they were doing. And so I got up and I turn around and that's when I saw them. And security guys right next to me. And this is in Texas. And I just looked at him and he's like, "So Glenn Beck." And I just looked at him and I said, "You know, it's really okay that we disagree. It's really okay. It's totally cool. Could have had a really good and interesting conversation as two people who disagree with each other. You really shouldn't lie on who you are and misrepresent yourself because that's not cool. That stops us from learning from each other." And his friend says, "You know, he says that you lie about everything you say, but that sounded like truth. So I guess he's wrong." Said, good night, guys. Walked away.
What is that? When did we think that's cool? I wouldn't do that to anybody. I wouldn't do that to the president. I wouldn't do that to Michael Moore. I wouldn't do that to anybody. When did we become the society where we can't have an honest exchange? When did ‑‑ when did ‑‑ when did somebody who's college age get to be such a jerk and such an incredibly uninformed cretin that they actually think that Jon Stewart is the news? And so they get all of their opinions formed by a comedian.
They get their opinions from comedians and they don't even take the time. And when you have the opportunity to say, "Hey, man, you know, I heard this. I don't get this. And I'm not a fan of yours, but I'd really like to understand. I don't understand this. What are you doing?" To be able to have a great conversation. And I thought to myself, my daughter said to me as we were talking about this, she said, "Dad, that's their time." And I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "People like that, they're on their time. They are not on your time. Let them have their time. They are not even worth your time. Don't even think about it. Don't think about it during it. Don't think about it after. That's their time. They're choosing to waste their time. Don't waste yours." And I said, "You know, honey, you are wise beyond your years."
I said but here's why I did take the time. I knew this guy was a jerk. But here's why I took the time and it actually was more for his girlfriend. I thought, if I can be who I am and there's a second that he reflects later and says, gosh, maybe I'm wrong. I mean, remember Penn Jillette was like this to me the first time. He was a real religious bigot. He's not anymore. And I think I've changed because of him and he's changed because of me. It's good to have those die logs and those conversations with each other. And that's the only reason ‑‑ because if we stop talking to each other, we're done.