Tucker Carlson has introduced mild to taboo and neglected essential points like systemic racism towards Whites and has helped increase the Overton Window. Tucker has additionally helped push the conservative motion in a extra populist and isolationist path to the ire of neocons like Ben Shapiro. He’s a Paleocon of the Buchananite custom, which was a precursor to the dissident proper.
Tucker Carlson has lately gone in a Christian nationalist adjoining path and engages in kooky conspiracy theories, like a lot of the populist proper. Tucker additionally covers tabloid-like matters like speculating whether or not Obama is homosexual, in addition to shilling for Andrew Tate, who’s a complete grifter and is simply gross.
Whereas I’ve no points with him interviewing Putin, it was a softball interview and he ought to have requested some powerful questions. Additionally, his Russian grocery store video was cringe, even from a Russia sympathetic standpoint, and simply made him look silly and patronizing.
Tucker has gone outright creationist, denying Evolution, which I can’t take critically. He additionally did a present in regards to the assault on Christian values the place he scapegoated paganism, with Reagan-era Satanic panic-type tropes. I don’t have an issue with Christians per se and am removed from being an atheist, however I’m not too keen on the impression that Christian nationalist affect is having on the Proper. Typically, the extra mental and clever proper lean secular politically. To not point out that creationism is the muse for the clean slatism of the Proper and is a barrier to normalizing HBD. Nonetheless, Tucker usually jokes that he was raised Episcopalian and thus not that spiritual in his private life.
Whereas Tucker flirts with White identification politics he reverts to the “Dems are the actual racist” trope or says patronizing issues like I’ve this immigrant good friend who’s essentially the most patriotic particular person I’ve ever met. He promotes American Nationalism whereas refusing to confess that America is simply an financial zone at this level. He opposes anti-Whiteness as a violation of colorblindness whereas gatekeeping Whites from contemplating identification politics and tribalism for themselves, although he acknowledges that it’s inevitable the best way issues are going. Tucker, as a GenXer, exists on this house between boomer Reagan conservatism and the millennial and zoomer dissident proper, thus he type of will get it but remains to be caught prior to now and previous methods of considering.
Tucker may even fluctuate between speaking in regards to the corrupt Uni-party to preserving his viewers on the GOP plantation in the same means that Invoice Maher does with the Democrats. Principally, Tucker makes it a difficulty about electing patriots to take again America and voting out the Rhinos and Neocons slightly than forming counter-elites and different establishments. Whereas stating liberal elite hypocrisy is okay, he spends means an excessive amount of time complaining about it and hedging upon the trope as a political technique.
Tucker’s power is when he leans into his elite WASP persona, is sincere about his privilege, and places forth a noblesse oblige message, however is cringe when he tries too onerous to be folksy. He’s far more cosmopolitan, rising up rich in coastal California, than he lets on. Maybe he’s ashamed of his previous when he was a smug establishmentarian conservative, thus overcompensates.
I was extra of a fan of Tucker’s however I’m not loopy in regards to the path he has gone in currently and discover it onerous to shill for him. The difficulty just isn’t that he ought to keep away from discussing sure points however what he prioritizes and his total message and branding. He has far more freedom now than he did on Fox Information however is squandering a possibility to do one thing radically new, completely different, and distinctive.
Tucker, at occasions, comes very near the reality, and remains to be probably the greatest and handiest in comparison with different main rightwing populist figures, which exhibits the elemental flaws with that motion. American rightwing populism quantities to protests and ethical outrage porn whereas providing no clear program for change or insurance policies to reign within the oligarchy. The populist proper can be higher off specializing in a handful of vital points, reminiscent of decreasing immigration, freedom of affiliation, defending free speech, and non-interventionism whereas not getting too distracted by hyperbolic conspiracy theories and tradition battle points.
It’s simple to say that it’s simply conservative elites which might be the issue, however it is usually the demographic that the rightwing populist motion caters to. Whereas I was a populist, I not am as a result of I don’t suppose the common schlub’s opinions ought to dictate the tradition and coverage choices. Whereas Tucker may be very clever, he appears to dumb down his message and espouses low-status opinions for his viewers. Tucker can be an entertainer and a number of rightwing politics quantities to leisure.
