I don’t have a lot of energy today. Tegan came down with the same stomach bug as me, one day after, so while we both seem to be better, neither of us has gotten enough sleep. That means, of course, that today’s “content” is a video. In this case, it’s from David Doel at The Rational National:
Carlson has been increasingly blatant in pushing fascist propaganda, both the white supremacist “great replacement” bile mentioned in the video, and also the old-school tactic of making psuedo-leftist criticisms of capitalism, and then instead of real solutions, offering nationalism and bigotry as the answer. We know what follows from rhetoric like this, and I’m willing to bet Carlson knows it too. Just as I think his fascist content is made very deliberately, I also think he knows that his content will result in attacks like this, just as Bill O’Reilly knew the consequences of constantly calling George Tiller “the baby killer”. At this point, I think Occam’s Razor cuts in favor of malice as the explanation, rather than ignorance or incompetence.
Everything I’ve seen makes me think that this is the kind of result Carlson is looking for.
Edit: Just wanted to add this:
1. In a lengthy defense of @TuckerCarlson, @ggreenwald says "there is no racial hierarchy in Carlson's view of American citizenship and to claim that there is is nothing short of a defamatory lie."
Here is exactly why this is wrong.
🧵
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 15, 2022
3. What was the "Immigration Act of 1965"? It repealed the racially discriminatory National Origin Formula, that ensured almost all immigrants were white people from Northern and Western Europe.
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 15, 2022
5. Greenwald says there is "no racial hierarchy" in Carlson's view of immigration.
Carlson says the elimination of a racial hierarchy in our immigration system was the worst attack on the country in 160 years.
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) May 15, 2022
JM says
It isn’t an exclusive situation, some mix of all three is likely. Plus chasing ratings without considering consequences, narcissism, and the belief that his propaganda defines reality.
He doesn’t seem like the sort that really buys into this stuff but if you talk about it every day it soaks into your perception of reality.
lochaber says
Did you maybe mean Hanlon’s razor? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor
I can’t stand that asshole. Once a few years back, I was on a work trip that unexpectedly got extended, so I found myself in a hotel room without my computer and more free time than I expected, so I went to the nearby gas station and got a 6 pack, and then turned on the TV… to find that racist asshole at max volume. frantically hitting the power, mute, and channel change buttons on the remote seemed to do nothing, so after maybe 2.5 seconds, I just panicked and pulled the power cord to the tv. couldn’t get it back on/working the rest of the night, but so long as I didn’t have to see his perpetually confused/outraged face, I’ll consider that a win.
Abe Drayton says
I guess I meant Occam’s razor applied to Hanlon’s razor. But among the available options, I think the simplest one is malice. Sam Seder always tells a story of when he talked to Carlson back during the Bush years, and off camera he was open about not believing in the pro-war shit he was saying. The dude has always been a performer, and his shift to open fascist rhetoric has been too clear to be an accident.
I don’t think Carlson is deluded, I think he knows exactly what he’s doing and where it leads. Maybe he cares more about the money than the cause, but when he’s the single most effective tool for that cause in the English-speaking world, I think that’s a distinction without a difference.
John Morales says
Didn’t he not lose a court case because the Judge judged that his claims would not be credible to a normal person? Something like that, anyway.
Anyway. Since he officially has no credibility, how how could he be inciting anything?
</sarcasm>
StevoR says
Truth.Tucker is a hatemonger and violence monger who has incited murder and corroded and damged the country he claism tosupprot and lievs in. Much like most of the rest of his Murdoch TV channels people and the even more extreme propaganda spewers liek OAN & whatsit that has its spawned over in the USA.
Shared. Thanks.
***
I think you might be thinking of Alex Jones but yeah, could be Tucker Carlson too?
Abe Drayton says
@StevoR – if your last question was aimed at John Morales, he’s right about Carlson, and I think Carlson’s legal efforts have been far more successful than Jones’