Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, or as he prefers to be called when performing working class solidarity, Tucker Carlson, has been caught lying to his audience about more than just his roots.
Recent reports exposed Carlson as secretly despising former President Trump. Despite publicly proclaiming himself as a superfan of the president and championing the insurrection, behind the scenes, Carlson feels differently.
The recent reports are no surprise, given how frequently Carlson lies on his TV shows. He hides his background as heir to the Swanson Meats fortune to make him more appealing to his audience.
Revealing his inherited wealth would detract from Carlson’s “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality that he sells to the working class. It’s not much of a stretch for someone willing to hide their name to lie to continue their political legacy.
Fox News appeals to the downtrodden and disenchanted, but also the purposeful or unknowingly ignorant. Carlson preys on these factors by fear-mongering in his majority white-male, working class audience. Whether or not Carlson believes in his message is irrelevant when it has tangible effects on the millions of people it reaches every single day.
By spreading a hateful and dangerous ideology to masses of people, Carlson contributes to the increase in political polarization of our nation. He has especially played a role in the radicalization of the white men who listen to every word he says.
To deny that Fox News, Tucker Carlson, and the entire conservative blogosphere are unknowingly complicit in the growth of the far-right ignores the swath of misinformation they spread on the daily. Carlson particularly has been instrumental in spreading white replacement theory that furthers resentment in his audience against people of color, particularly Black Americans.
Even the seemingly unserious culture-war nonsense that Carlson engages in has consequences. When Carlson talks about M&Ms, he reinforces strict gender essentialism that plays a role in violent misogyny and transphobia. It’s not a coincidence that Carlson espouses these beliefs at the same time as bills attacking transgender Americans, not to mention distracting from the Hershey’s Company’s use of slave labor to produce the chocolate in M&Ms.
Carlson’s delegitimization within the conservative sphere presents an opportunity for more informative political conversations. The brand of political commentary and ideology that Carlson and the whole Fox News represents is an inauthentic attempt at controlling our cultural understanding of the important political topics of the time. Showing the faultiness of Carolson’s specific political beliefs reveals the cracks in the culture wars. The specifics only serve a greater agenda.
I hope exposing Tucker Carlson leads to a greater understanding of the dangers of a political environment that encourages focusing on the shadows of serious issues. May his downfall allow his audience to find the real sources of their festering resentment and lead to greater freedom of all the marginalized hurt by misdirected anger. We can only aspire to redirect that towards those who withhold power from them.
Caroline Geer is from Northville, Mich.
Her majors are race & ethnic studies and sociology/anthropology.
