Glenn Beck: The 1970s Were Golden Era

The latest tear-jerker from Glenn Beck will remind some readers of that drunken idiot who cornered you at the last reunion and wasted ten minutes of your life describing, with malodorous inaccuracy, how fucking awesome everything was when you were in high school together.

In any event, the entire clip is standard gauge Beck — chalkboard, photos of administration officials hastily slapped up next to portraits of dictators, silences by turns reverential and mournful, the fake tears and the rest of it — but by far the weirdest part comes about three and a half minutes in, as he uses Coke’s old Mean Joe Greene spot along with one of Kodak’s “Times of Your Life” ads to remind his (apparently middle-aged) viewers of a “simpler time” in the nation’s history. Which is obviously a multiple tiers of bat-shit, given (a) the implied assumption that television advertising’s generic nostalgia was somehow more sociologically accurate way back when, and (b) the fact that, in this case, “way back when” happened to be 1979 and 1975, respectively. I realize that Beck spends most of his time dreaming about kissing George Washington on the mouth, so more recent historical reference points might have veered away from true North, but seriously — 1979? The annus horribilis of the Carter era? And 1975? The year that witnessed the collapse of South Vietnam and the beginnings of the Cambodian genocide? The year the Weather Underground bombed the State Department?

Has Beck forgotten Wingnut 101? The truly Simpler Times happened in the 1950s, when everyone enjoyed racist Jell-O ads: