Let’s Get Retarded; or, Tucker Carlson and the Illusion of Independence
Masa tortilla chip spokesman Tucker Carlson, like Syria’s President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani), is a man of many appearances. Whereas Sharaa transitioned from turbaned ISIS fanatic to Zelensky-style military-garbed rebel leader and finally suit-and-tie statesman with White House access, the protean Carlson has gone from bow-tie-clad free-trade neoconservative nerd to polished prime-time dissenting Trumpian populist and now a rustic YouTube conspiracy-peddling cabin dweller whose Bass Pro Shops aesthetic and twangy banjo intro music herald him as the folksy millionaire voice of the American people who also happens to have White House access. “Since the early days of his [2016-2023] tenure as a Fox prime-time host, Tucker Carlson’s unabashed championing of white grievances earned him the accolades of neo-Nazis, who praised him as a ‘one man gas chamber’ and complimented the way he ‘lampshad[ed] Jews on national television,’” writes Madeline Peltz at ...