Glenn Beck's new novel features the sort of plot liberal critics might expect from a man, who, as Media Matters notes, likes to "scrawl wild conspiracy theories on a chalkboard." In The Overton Window, socialist forces are plotting to overthrow America, and a band of plucky patriots must rise up to defend their nation. Many observers predict brisk sales for the poorly reviewed book — which the FOX News host describes as a work of "faction," or fiction "with plot rooted in fact" — but Steven Levingston at The Washington Post, for one, worries that it could inspire disgruntled radicals to commit real-life violence. Are such fears ungrounded? (Listen to Beck respond to the harsh reviews)
The Overton Window is recklessly provocative: It's easy to imagine this book "tucked into the ammo boxes of self-proclaimed patriots," says Levingston. Beck encourages radical readers to view the book's plot "as a reflection of a reality that they must fend off by any means necessary," and its "insistence on nonviolence" is "disingenuous." It risks becoming the type of "handbook of extremists" that inspired Timothy McVeigh.
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