We Should Protect Kids From Partisan Politics, Including Glenn Beck’s New Children’s Show

No matter what the political affiliation is, I’m pretty sure we can all agree that Glenn Beck’s personal style of activism is a little bombastic. He’s fond of conspiracy theories, inflammatory comments and general fear-mongering. Now for grown adults that can listen to his beliefs and then form their own opinion, that’s fine. But to direct Beck’s type of program to children is a bit of a problem for me.

Beck’s internet television station, GBTV, is launching a new show called Liberty Treehouse, hosted by Raj Nair and dealing with history, news coverage and of course, politics.

I suppose that we shouldn’t be too surprised at Beck’s new program. When he left Fox News, part of his stated reasons was that he wanted to reach out to America’s youth. He was afraid that Elmo and Sesame Street were promoting redistribution of wealth to the kids. I’m not sure that I believe that Big Bird has an agenda, but I do think it’s a safe bet that Beck does. Whether the politics are conservative or liberal, I think that targeting children to receive a partisan message is wrong. The time to teach young people about politics is when they are old enough to have coherant discussions and critically analyze the information they’re given.

Why am I so against Beck’s new show? Because political indoctorination pits one side against another.  It create two separate teams, one that’s right and one that’s wrong.  Especially for children, who see almost everything as black and white, good vs. evil, with no middle ground at all, setting up political beliefs at an early age teaches kids that the other party are the bad guys. 

It may not always be easy to admit, but most people who work in politics really are trying to do what’s best for the country. There are just a lot of different beliefs on what this country needs and how to get there. Both sides of the political aisle has dedicated politicians who want to help our country and it’s people. Instead of telling them that only one way holds the answer, instead of introducing them to conspiracy and anger so early on, maybe we should be giving them the tools to see the positives in every philosophy. Then, as young adults, they can decide which path works best for them.

Glenn Beck’s style has always been to accuse first and fact-check later. Whether he’s teaching history, current events or politics, that’s not the type of instruction I wany my daughter getting from anyone.

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