Tucker Carlson is, of course, a jackass. But he’s not just any jackass. Carlson is an authoritarian propagandist who is just a quarter-inch of upper lip hair away from going full Führer at any given moment.
When it comes to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Republican leadership in Congress might have had 15 minutes in which they were concerned that an attempted overthrow of democracy was a bad thing. Carlson never suffered any such qualms. He’s been right there all along, defending the horned and the handcuff-carrying and explaining how it’s the people who tried to protect Congress and preserve the outcome of the election who are the real villains of the piece.
But just in case his viewers haven’t gotten the message—the very, very loud, screamy, sneery message—that the people smashing through windows and smearing their poo in the halls of the Capitol are the good guys, dammit, Carlson intends to drive it home with (duh, duh, dah) a very special presentation. Those who want to see Tucker’s new series are going to have to keep their Orville von Richthofen popcorn warm until Nov. 1.
However, an equally special preview of that series is out now, in which Carlson devotes almost all of his time to defending America’s most sacred institution: white supremacy. Oh, and Joe Biden pulled out of Afghanistan so he could use the helicopters to attack Republicans. You have been warned.
Though including a link to a Tucker Tweet violates all rules of good taste, and certainly good journalism, I’m posting it here because this has to be seen to be believed.
In just a few seconds of trailer footage, Carlson informs his views that:
- “Half the nation” is now the target of a “patriot purge” being conducted using helicopters pulled from Afghanistan.
- The left is “hunting the right,” sticking American citizens in Guantanamo Bay and “leaving them there to rot.”
- And most of all, that Jan. 6 is a “false flag” operation designed to give the left an excuse to can all those poor, peaceful patriots.
But the peachiest, most patrioty part of the video may be the way that Carlson scorns the idea of considering white supremacy as a threat. Because that section includes a nice video of KKK members marching in Washington. No big deal, y’all.
There are also lots of helicopters and … is that a drone? It looks like a drone popping out of the Capitol to pursue Republicans. Whether the drone can transport them straight to Guantanamo isn’t made clear.
All of this seems ridiculous, because it is ridiculous. But as we’ve seen over and over again in the last five years, ridiculous doesn’t mean harmless. It has never meant harmless. Just because everything Carlson is saying is a lie, doesn’t matter when Fox will do nothing but deliver the information without correction. That what he is doing is lifting up poor picked-on white supremacists is even worse, Because, just as they quickly determined that whatever Trump supporters did on Jan. 6 was just fine, Republicans have quickly determined that whether they’re called Proud Boys or the KKK, white supremacists are more than just okay. They’re the good guys in the fight with that monster Antifa and all his Black friends.
Carlson is far from alone in his embrace of white supremacists. On Wednesday night, right-wing propagandists Judicial Watch sent out their latest missive, bragging that they had obtained a collection of documents from the Park Service Police. Documents that just happened to already be in the public domain, but in any case, what the folks at Watch learned from looking through letters back few months before events of Jan. 6 was that the park police were concerned about Proud Boys and other groups planning violence at pro-Trump events. From this, Judicial Watch concludes that the police were “closely monitoring the First Amendment-protected activities of Americans.”
Judicial Watch also goes out of the way to insist that the email warning:
“Pantifa/bLM Balt/DC branches are already bussing in people to disturb Jan. 6. Orders given to dress like ‘MAGA’ blend in cause trouble especially around cameras. At night arson has been ordered. All to be blamed on Trump supporters attending.”
This “warning” was actually just police noting a tweet from some guy’s Twitter account that claimed the user is “a Senate candidate for MD in 2022. He retweets a lot from Lin Wood.” So a false claim goes out from Lin Wood, pick it up when it’s retweeted by a GOP “Senate candidate in 2022,” and then Judicial Watch recycles it to keep the mythology of “false flag” waving.
What Carlson and Judicial Watch are feeding their eager right-wing consumers is a stream of not just justification for Jan. 6, but fear. Heaping helpings of fear, delivered with claims that make Q Anon seem like Snopes.
And to do it, they’re championing not just white people, but white supremacists as a put-upon minority. Whether that’s the most dangerous portion of what these people are selling is debatable. But it’s certainly the most disgusting.
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