It’s not hyperbolic to suggest that Tucker Carlson‘s seemingly abrupt departure from Fox News and his top-rated “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show caused shock waves; not only throughout the cable news industry but across America’s political landscape as well, as opinions remain sharp and varied over his “firing.”
We’ll get to the latter, later.
In Carlson’s first in-person, roughly hour-long speech since leaving Fox, the former top-rated host came out swinging against a myriad of issues plaguing America, as he sees them — but not including his departure from Fox and “the rest of the story” behind the departure.
Carlson spoke in Oxford, Alabama, before a full house at the 1,215-seat Oxford Performing Arts Centre on Thursday at a private fundraiser, which was organized by Rainbow Omega, a faith-based nonprofit that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Carlson said he agreed to speak at the event six months ago.
“When I accepted this speech,” he joked, I didn’t realize how much free time I would have.”
Throughout the long speech, the former Fox host warned about “manufactured” political and social issues he believes can lead to the “end of democracy” and the “enslavement” of the American people.
American politics is supposed to be designed to improve people’s lives, but what is the point of it actually? As we’re worried about these big abstract problems in faraway places, or claiming we can control the weather or whatever we’re claiming, there are kids with developmental disabilities who have aging parents, and the parents are legit terrified about what happens when they pass.
I’m starting to really believe that the divisions that we see in our society are pretty much manufactured.
Manufactured Racism
Carlson pointed to the differences between the first and second terms of former President Barack Obama and his handling of race in America.
Obama’s first term was how we were going to get past race. I didn’t vote for the guy, but everybody I knew was excited, and so was I. We elect some guy I disagree with, but we get to the point where we stop picking at the scab and move forward as one country. Why wouldn’t I be for that? As a Christian, I was totally for that.
But that changed in Obama’s second term, Carlson correctly said:
Oh no, we’re not post-racial. All we’re going to talk about is race and make each other hate each other on the basis of race. I don’t think most Americans hate each other on the basis of their ethnic differences. I think a lot of that is just a lie, actually, designed to distract people.
[…]
I just think that at some point, you have to call it what it is—which is lying. And lying with a very specific purpose, which is to avert your gaze, to pull your attention away from the things that matter. That’s not news coverage. That’s just classic propaganda.
It should be noted that Carlson’s show wasn’t news coverage, either, but his observations of “manufactured racism” were correct: the Democrat Party has been manufacturing racism for six decades. Obama lied his ass off as his first term began, only to intentionally divide America along racial lines throughout his presidency.
And Joe Biden? Hell, serial-lying Biden makes even Obama look like a piker, as he incessantly mumbles about “white supremacy” and “systemic racism” — for the express purpose of racially-divisive elections. Prove me wrong (a phrase I detest), yet in this case, decades of election demographic data prove me right.
And, incidentally, Democrats have perfected the deceitful art of convincing people of color that — while the Democrat Party might not have delivered on its multitudinous hollow promises — just think how much worse off they’d be without the Democrats to protect them from the “racist” Republican Party.
The End of Democracy
Carlson offered a truism that anyone who pays attention to the politics in 21st-century America should clearly understand: A democratic society cannot properly function when public discourse — and the so-called “news media” — deals in half-truths, disingenuousness, deceit, and bald-faces lies.
The first effect is to, kind of, end democracy. The whole idea of democracy is based on the understanding that the people who vote will have some knowledge of what they’re voting on—what the real issues are–they’ll be informed citizens.
But when the media industry is collectively excluding issues that matter, such as crime, immigration, and the economy, the population becomes uninformed, which undermines a fundamental part of democracy.
The harm brought by the media industry is compounded by a lack of authenticity from the entire federal government, including politicians from both political parties.
If they can’t even tell you the truth about a communicable disease that’s killing people, they’re actually lying to you about that. You can’t believe anything. Well, that’s very bewildering. That’s actually a form of chaos, which is the one condition people can’t handle.
Bingo. To paraphrase two quotes — from George Carlin and Rush Limbaugh — and merge them into one: Never underestimate the power of low-information people in large groups. (Carlin referenced “stupid people,” but in this case, Rush’s “low-information” people, many of them intentionally so, is more applicable.)
Seeking Truth
This one’s easier said than done, particularly when a majority of media viewers tune in to various media outlets, shows, and specific hosts they know will tell them what they already believe and as a result, want to be told. When a particular political commentator believes what they believe, what they’re told by the commentator becomes — in their politically predisposed minds — proof.
The problem is, the wise among us saw quite the opposite in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, but I digress. Here’s Tucker, suggesting the “truth will prevail.”
Seek truth in your human relationships—always with humility—mindful that it’s pretty hard to get to the core truth of anything in this life. And while we may never get to what is the deepest level of truth, we can move in that direction.
We can begin by telling the truth ourselves. What we can control is what we do. And they can impose lies on us—it doesn’t mean we have to live them. Because it robs you of the only thing that matters, which is your humanity, your God-given humanity, and it makes you something less than human.
Again, easier said than done.
The paramount problem is a majority of people want to be told what they want to hear vs. engaging in intelligent discussions or debates with those with different views.
We’ve now reached a point where the coin of the realm lies somewhere between “I’m not arguing with you, I’m telling you why I’m right!” and some of us reducing ourselves to sophomoric name-calling and other ad hominem attacks against anyone and everyone who dares to disagree with us.
Final Thoughts
Tucker Carlson’s observations were mostly dead on; he’s a very smart guy. There’s also a valid argument to be made that he often dealt in propaganda himself, which is, in part, the often perverse job of a politically predisposed political commentator, is it not?
There’s also a circle that cannot be squared related to Carlson’s departure from Fox News.
Subpoenaed documents submitted in court filings as part of the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News showed Carlson bashing Donald Trump and the notion of a rigged and stolen 2020 election to smithereens. That is proof — not opinion. So I ask the following questions, rhetorically:
Will Tucker Carlson or his legion of loyal followers ever address his off-air communications with former colleagues Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, as well as various producers that ran contrary to his nightly monologues and on-air observations? Why have Carlson and millions of his fans ignored those messages, or dismissed them out of hand with the parroted “fake news” shtick?
Questions abound; answers will not likely be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, Greg Gutfeld remains my “Fox guy,” while “Special Report” anchor and journalist Bret Baier remains the best in the business.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member