Anti-capitalism gets a boost from Beck

The power of Glenn Beck.

This month, Mr. Beck proclaimed it “the most evil book I’ve read in a long, long time.”

The next day, “The Coming Insurrection,” whose authors call themselves the Invisible Committee, rose to No. 54 on Amazon’s best-seller list. In July, the book briefly reached No. 1. And even this weekend the book remained around No. 240.

Sylvère Lotringer, a professor emeritus of French language and philosophy at Columbia and the general editor of Semiotext(e), which translated and published the book, said there was no doubt that Mr. Beck was feeding what had been “in a short duration, the most books we have ever sold.”

He did not provide a sales number.

As for trying to play to Mr. Beck or the book’s other critics on the right, Mr. Lotringer said he was torn.

“I would be willing to come on the show if he had read the book, but he has never read it,” he said. “Nothing that he has said shows that he read it. He is incapable of reading it.”

Kind of like Oprah's book club, only for conspiracy-loons.

But I love the denial by the carny's spokesman that his boss hasn't read the book.

Christopher Balfe, president and chief operating officer of Mercury Radio Arts, Mr. Beck's production company, said, “Glenn read this book because he believes it is important for people to read everything, especially the titles they disagree with, so they can clearly understand all points of view and have open and honest debates.”

Beck reads "everything." Like his sister in con artistry, Sarah Palin.