Fox News’ resident white supremacist Tucker Carlson is outraged that anyone cares about white supremacy.
On Tuesday night, he issued the inflammatory declaration that white supremacy is not a problem in the United States and is, he claimed, “a hoax.” He was, of course, maliciously lying.
But on Wednesday he dug in his heels, spinning a delusional conspiracy theory about why people are lobbing around accusations of white supremacy — including at him.
“Ever wonder why rich people seem most hysterical on this subject?” Carlson pondered, offering no evidence for this baseless claim. “Ever notice that it’s the highest-paid people on television who are the most determined to convince you that white supremacy is America’s biggest problem?” Again, he provided no evidence for this implied assertion and absurdly suggested that viewers know who is most highly paid on television.
He then argued that these rich people talk about white supremacy so that Americans “aren’t thinking about class, which, of course, is the real divide in this country.”
He continued: “They whip you into a frenzy of racial fear so that it never enters your mind. It’s a diversion. Everyone else hates each other, they get to keep their money. Pretty tricky. Unfortunately, it’s also destroying the country. This is the path to civil war. Obviously.”
It was actually a Marxist argument, a rather simplistic one that has been made repeatedly on the far left. But that simple fact exposes the obvious falsity of Carlson’s version of the claim. Carlson, of course, hates the left. It’s the Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warrens, Kamala Harrises, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes of the world who talk about the problem of racism in politics, and they also argue for greatly redistributive policies in the United States. These policies would, in fact, address class disparities — and thus also reduce race inequality.
It’s Carlson, Trump, and their allies who actively oppose redistributive policies. They call a higher minimum wage, universal health care, and higher taxes “socialist” and “communist” and “class warfare.” And, indeed, they drum up fears about immigrants taking jobs and “welfare queens” on the government dole to scare voters out of supporting policies that would actually make the poor and middle class better off. While screaming about immigrants and the supposed horrors of Obamacare, Trump and his defenders worked to pass a massive tax cut for the rich and ensure that more low-income Americans go without health coverage.
And, for what it’s worth, even as he attacks other news anchors for being rich, it’s Carlson who called himself a “trust fund baby.”
“I’m like extraordinarily loaded, just like from money I inherited from my number of trust funds… I go out and beat some servants, I’ll wrap my Lamborghini around a tree, go pick up a kilo,” he said in 2008. “I never needed to work, the whole cable news thing was just a total pose, it was just like a phase I was going through.”
Indeed, the history of the conservative movement is wealthy, powerful people exploiting racism in the United States to prevent the federal government from adopting more left-wing policies. Tucker Carlson wants you to think the exact opposite — but his version of the theory makes no sense.
Watch the clip below:
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