Glenn Beck has decided to attack the Institute for Policy Studies.

I’m proud to confess that I’d never watched his Fox News show until Beck named IPS during one of his rants about George Soros’ funding of progressive organizations. Using second-grade teaching tools like connect-the-dots and talking puppets in his faux classroom, Beck attempted to show how Soros uses his fortune to take over the world.

As evidence, he cites the IPS “Inside-Outside” strategy for social change we describe in our annual report as sinister, bizarrely reminiscent of 1940s Czechoslovakia. (In her recent post “OMG! Beck Could Be Right,” IPS Fellow Karen Dolan delves more deeply into just how commonplace and effective such a strategy has become for all political stripes).

As we watched Beck spin his simplistic web of hatred and misinformation, it was hard to know how to react. Should we ignore this nonsense and get back to work? Or pay attention to this class clown? The situation felt like a scene out of elementary school: a loud-mouth bully spreading rumors, and taunting us and our friends.

The standard advice about bullies is to deprive them of the attention they crave and shift our collective gaze. But this bully and his media machine are wreaking too much havoc to ignore. With his canards and distortions, he convinces otherwise level-headed people to act against their self-interest and work to destroy the very things that sustain so many of them: from unemployment benefits and food stamps to clean air and safe schools.

So we decided not to get mad but to get even. Help us counter the growing influence of Beck and his ilk by making a gift today to IPS.

With your help, we can strengthen our Inside-Outside strategy to link enlightened Washington decision makers with today’s vital social movements and stand up to the bullies.

It’s time to for Beck’s class to be dismissed.