Tucker Carlson’s Perverse Enigma

Tucker Carlson sounds like a populist of the right, with some Trumpist undertones, but his true political track remains fluid. That said, whatever his true inner political compass, he is at present the only major figure on US/Western TV saying the things that badly need saying. Furthermore, his audience—being Fox News—comprises a hefty chunk of the working class, many lower middle-class entrepreneurs, Trumpists, and so on, a segment of the population by definition mostly unreachable —as far as political news and commentary go—by the phonies working for CNN, MSNBC or the legacy TV networks. Not to mention the New York Times and its more high-brow ilk.

The preceding does not mean we extend Tucker a clean bill of political health. The man is often toxic, and even more concerning, contextually contradictory. He often defends things that are odious, for example, more oil drilling in virginal lands, in the name of "national energy self-sufficiency", something the malignant oil lobby loves to hear. This could be because Tucker has not done his homework, his due diligence on this issue, enjoys playing the job defender card, or simply because he's sold out to some key players in the US oligarchy. Either way, the message is one of obtuse anti-environmentalism, catastrophic in 2022 in a nation of libertarian locusts that just yesterday risked killing by pollution (remember the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?) not just the precious Gulf of Mexico but the entire Caribbean and beyond. Some oceanographers and ecologists warned that the rig's explosion and its uncontrolled leakages —which have never entirely stopped—could eventually pollute the Atlantic Ocean itself. (The permits for drilling in the Gulf, far from being drastically reduced or canceled have since increased dramatically under both Democrats and Repug administrations.).

And there's more than this, of course. As a conservative, and supposedly a patriot, he's also never too shy to cast all sorts of curses and aspersions on China, one of his favorite bete noires. And he would have us believe that he, too, thinks Russia (or China) is an untrustworthy country that always lies and never honors its word or its agreements. (Even a cursory look at the historical record shows that that applies to the US and many of its allies, and rarely or never to the Soviet Union or Russia).  In this he is at one with the Republican establishment's and Trump's own nefarious position, for reasons that largely remain obscure given Tucker's demonstrated intelligence and the research capabilities of his staff, but perfectly in line with the standing posture of US imperialism. (While the Dems sound more Russophobic than Sinophobic, the distinction within the duopoly is, as usual, inconsequential. Probably Kabuki. BOTH parties are equally committed to making war on Moscow and Beijing, as well as any other nations the imperial managers decide to go after). For good measure, Tucker also routinely calls socialist leaders like Venezuela's Pres. Maduro, China's Xi Jinping, et al, dictators, all the name-calling smoothly packaged in an unbeatably ironic delivery. Which of course makes it doubly incisive.

So, yeah, Tucker is a flawed vector for genuinely progressive messages. And yet—this is the big YET—when he puts his considerable oratory skills to good use, like when he questions and denounces the warmongering or the hypocrisy, chicanery, and cynicism permeating so many layers of the US political and media establishment, he can act like an avenging angel, battling the devious forces of evil. Noteworthy, too, is Tucker's willingness to offer his huge platform (the largest on cable TV) to genuine left voices, like Jimmy Dore, people who otherwise would never have such access, certainly not in what passes—at least in the US— for leftwing television.

This brings us to Tucker Carlson's Janusian public persona as a growing threat to the established imperialist order, a major, almost self-inflicted headache precisely at a juncture when, openly clashing with Beijing, Moscow and Tehran, and busily putting a huge wedge in Western Europe to separate the peninsula from the rest of Eurasia, it is demanding more steadfast fealty than ever. Narrative control must be secured at any cost, and, well, damn the First Amendment. The laws—including the highest law of the land—is for chumps, not for the masters of the universe.

Given this environment, I think Tucker better be extra careful.  Anyone with a big megaphone like Carlson, going after some prominent members of the ruling mafia, exposing with obvious glee the system's dirty laundry, is in risky business. The Deep State is unforgiving and unrelenting. The examples, from Assange on down, are numerous. Forget the hysterics and insults of the Democrat zombies, the social media attacks: that's just par for the course. Much worse things can happen. Car accidents, for example. Strange heart attacks. Hell, even murder by simulated mugging, a la Seth Rich, and, of course, the weapon of choice, the real Goliath killer, the bloodless but equally effective silencer: some sexual harassment charges. This is scarcely paranoia.

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Fox is not exactly a fortress of Woke hypocrisy, but one never knows. Roger Ailes himself—a truly odious rightwing operative, legendary political consultant to biggies like Ronald Reagan, the Bush dynasty, and Big Shot at Fox News (the network's first CEO)—was kicked out on a #metoo charge in 2016, so anything is possible. Tucker better watch out.