Tucker Carlson: Jan 6 was a "False Flag"

[K Graham]

Don't believe your lying eyes.

Tucker Carlson Takes Jan. 6 Denial To Chilling Level With ‘Patriot Purge’ Trailer

Critics likened the Fox News personality's latest project to Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory-spewing InfoWars.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Wednesday teased his upcoming series about the U.S. Capitol riot that includes a suggestion that the pro-Donald Trump mob’s violence was a “false flag.”

The trailer for “Patriot Purge” takes Carlson’s previous reality-denying spin on the Trump-incited Jan. 6 insurrection to a chilling level.

The promo spot shows people warning that “the domestic war on terror is here” and “it’s coming after half of the country,” “the left is hunting the right,” and “false flags have happened in this country” and “one of which may have been Jan. 6th.”

The series will air on the Fox Nation streaming service starting Monday.

Carlson, like many right-wing media personalities and GOP politicians, has repeatedly downplayed the riot, once claiming it was just “a mob of older people from unfashionable zip codes.”

Hundreds of Trump fans have been charged in the violence, which led to the deaths of several rioters and police officers.

Carlson said Wednesday he was “proud” of the series, calling it “the best thing we’ve ever done.”

But please, tell me again how it is CNN that is an enemy to truth and accuracy. FOX is now an active participant in the next attempted coup.


"We kept telling you they were going to become a radicalized, weaponized, death cult. Here it is. In defense of a coup and a violent insurrection. Republicans will only get worse. This is Fox News, not OAN or Newsmax. We've lost a third of this country for my lifetime. Gone." - Wajahat Ali

[Moksha]

Fox News knows that it needs to step up both its denial of reality and its lying if it hopes to compete with Trump's new social media and other Trump-friendly media outlets.

Fox News wants to come out on top once it helps topple the US and Trump takes over.

[canpakes]

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Trump was neck-deep in with Truth Social and then elected President. Talk about State Media … we’d be living with it then, for certain.

[Manetho]

Fox News knows that it needs to step up both its denial of reality and its lying if it hopes to compete with Trump's new social media and other Trump-friendly media outlets.

This is true. Early this year, Fox News shied away somewhat from endorsing the "stolen election" lie, and some of its viewers threatened to turn to Newsmax or OAN instead. If Fox News reports the truth, it will lose money and influence. Can't have that.

But the problem isn't Trump per se. Take COVID. Trump set the tone early on: he didn't want COVID to be a big deal for fear it would hurt his reelection chances, so he downplayed it as long as he could. Therefore, COVID denialism took root among his supporters. But he also wanted a vaccine to be developed, because he simply wanted the disease to go away. By the time it had been developed, the denialism had gone far beyond anything Trump intended to create and metamorphosed into anti-vaccination paranoia. When Trump told his own rallygoers to get vaccinated a couple of months back, he was booed.

But the conservative base aren't the sole culprits either! White rural America has always been conservative, and even in the 1950s, nonsensical conspiracy theories circulated there, exemplified by the John Birch Society. But the John Birch Society never dominated rural America the way Bircher-style paranoia dominates it today.

I think the best metaphor for today's American right is a feedback loop. The conservative media echo chamber and the people who watch and listen to it amplify each other, gradually growing more extreme and more detached from reality. Republican politicians are mostly playing catch-up with their increasingly fanatical base. The best example is Eric Cantor, who virtually commandeered the 2013 government shutdown negotiations away from John Boehner because Boehner wasn't conservative enough — and then was ejected from his House seat because he wasn't conservative enough for the voters in his own district. Trump got way out ahead for a while, but his attitude is now mainstream within the party. For the moment he's still their standard-bearer, but even he might end up being replaced if the Republican base finds an even better avatar for their worst instincts.

[Alphus and Omegus]

Fox News knows that it needs to step up both its denial of reality and its lying if it hopes to compete with Trump's new social media and other Trump-friendly media outlets.

This is true. Early this year, Fox News shied away somewhat from endorsing the "stolen election" lie, and some of its viewers threatened to turn to Newsmax or OAN instead. If Fox News reports the truth, it will lose money and influence. Can't have that.

But the problem isn't Trump per se. Take COVID. Trump set the tone early on: he didn't want COVID to be a big deal for fear it would hurt his reelection chances, so he downplayed it as long as he could. Therefore, COVID denialism took root among his supporters. But he also wanted a vaccine to be developed, because he simply wanted the disease to go away. By the time it had been developed, the denialism had gone far beyond anything Trump had intended to create and metamorphosed into anti-vaccination paranoia. When Trump told his own rallygoers to get vaccinated a couple of months back, he was booed.

But the conservative base aren't the sole culprits either! White rural America has always been conservative, and even in the 1950s, nonsensical conspiracy theories circulated there, exemplified by the John Birch Society. But the John Birch Society never dominated rural America the way Bircher-style paranoia dominates it today.

I think the best metaphor for today's American right is a feedback loop. The conservative media echo chamber and the people who watch and listen to it amplify each other, gradually growing more extreme and more detached from reality. Republican politicians are mostly playing catch-up with their increasingly fanatical base. The best example is Eric Cantor, who virtually commandeered the 2013 government shutdown negotiations away from John Boehner because Boehner wasn't conservative enough — and then was ejected from his House seat because he wasn't conservative enough for the voters in his own district. Trump got way out ahead for a while, but his attitude is now mainstream within the party. For the moment he's still their standard-bearer, but even he might end up being replaced if the Republican base finds an ever better avatar for their worst instincts.

This loop has been in existence since the 1960s in the United States. And unquestionably, it was created by the ethos of the original "conservatives." The idea of being further to the right is the only way to be righteous within Republican politics. The value of moderation or of public service has not been acknowledged for decades. Here's a 2019 article that discusses the phenomenon in more detail:

Long before Trump came along, conservatives have had a complicated relationship with extremism, both encouraging and shunning it. William F. Buckley, founder of National Review and the most prominent early conservative figure, began his political career denouncing Dwight Eisenhower and atheist professors at Yale. His magazine published several pieces defending Jim Crow and South African apartheid.

Over the years, he often told supporters that they should always support the “furthest right” candidate that they believed to be electable, setting up a perpetual cycle of GOP candidates who constantly assert that they, alone, are the “true conservatives” out to save the nation from Republicans in Name Only (RINOs). ...

The ascension of Donald Trump from wrestling sideshow to the heights of Republicanism has greatly increased the prominence and power of racists within the party. The 2015 launch of his presidential campaign with portrayals of most Mexicans as rapists and murderers electrified the white nationalists who had formerly supported Ron Paul’s quixotic efforts and they began flocking to the billionaire, producing hundreds of thousands of memes and trolling comments in his favor.

“White nationalists have always sought to inject their ideas into conservative politics, Fuentes is just the latest person to be doing it,” Howard Graves, a researcher at the Southern Poverty Law Center told me. “What’s different now is that is that they feel emboldened by our commander-in-chief.”

Steve Bannon, who eventually became Trump’s campaign chairman, very carefully nurtured the online fascists. Referring to them as his “killing machine,” he threatened to use them as a force against any faction hoping to deny Trump the presidential nomination at a brokered convention.

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/11/2 ... beginning/

[Gunnar]

Yes. Good old Fox News, the same organization that ". . won a court case by 'persuasively' arguing that no 'reasonable viewer' takes Tucker Carlson seriously." Thus, in effect, admitting that they and their most popular commentator, Tucker Carlson, are openly dishonest and/or delusional. Yet they still expect their viewers to enthusiastically and unquestioningly swallow their disinformation whole. It is tragic, disheartening and dangerous that so many conservative Americans are so easily and willingly deluded. It is both remarkable and sad that Fox viewers seem oblivious to the fact that their favorite network has so blatantly insulted their intelligence.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Fox News knows that it needs to step up both its denial of reality and its lying if it hopes to compete with Trump's new social media and other Trump-friendly media outlets.

This is true. Early this year, Fox News shied away somewhat from endorsing the "stolen election" lie, and some of its viewers threatened to turn to Newsmax or OAN instead. If Fox News reports the truth, it will lose money and influence. Can't have that.

But the problem isn't Trump per se. Take COVID. Trump set the tone early on: he didn't want COVID to be a big deal for fear it would hurt his reelection chances, so he downplayed it as long as he could. Therefore, COVID denialism took root among his supporters. But he also wanted a vaccine to be developed, because he simply wanted the disease to go away. By the time it had been developed, the denialism had gone far beyond anything Trump had intended to create and metamorphosed into anti-vaccination paranoia. When Trump told his own rallygoers to get vaccinated a couple of months back, he was booed.

But the conservative base aren't the sole culprits either! White rural America has always been conservative, and even in the 1950s, nonsensical conspiracy theories circulated there, exemplified by the John Birch Society. But the John Birch Society never dominated rural America the way Bircher-style paranoia dominates it today.

I think the best metaphor for today's American right is a feedback loop. The conservative media echo chamber and the people who watch and listen to it amplify each other, gradually growing more extreme and more detached from reality. Republican politicians are mostly playing catch-up with their increasingly fanatical base. The best example is Eric Cantor, who virtually commandeered the 2013 government shutdown negotiations away from John Boehner because Boehner wasn't conservative enough — and then was ejected from his House seat because he wasn't conservative enough for the voters in his own district. Trump got way out ahead for a while, but his attitude is now mainstream within the party. For the moment he's still their standard-bearer, but even he might end up being replaced if the Republican base finds an ever better avatar for their worst instincts.

That’s a very insightful post. I think if I had to give it a term I’d call it ‘manufacturing ignorance’. And as Chap said in the other thread, the moderator one, it’s more likely than not another more polished Trump will arise. The only pushback I’d offer to that notion is an ignorant base doesn’t like to be reminded of their inadequacies, so I’m not sure they’re ready to embrace a smooth talking liar over a pugilist. 2022 will basically let us know how 2024 is going to go, I think.

- Doc

[Gadianton]

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Trump was neck-deep in with Truth Social and then elected President. Talk about State Media … we’d be living with it then, for certain.

Initially they would think that's cool. A lot of these right-wingers only talk about "freedom" because they aren't in power in their own lives, or they're big into Soldier of Fortune. They're obsessed with power and military control, which is why they have all the militias. Remember in A Gray State, the guy making the documentary was really just like the futuristic authorities he imagined would rule the world one day.

They will enjoy every moment of a dictatorship that has a right-wing state media that pays Trump directly and that slashes the sacred cows of liberals. That will be worth more than money, for a while. But, supply and demand don't care who is president or the dictator, as Majorie Taylor Greene just found out after buying into Trump's SPAC at the top, lol. So give it some time, from there.

[canpakes]

… as Majorie Taylor Greene just found out after buying into Trump's SPAC at the top, lol.

If there’s one consistent thing about Trumpworld, it’s that it is teeming with grifters.

I don’t think that I’ll ever not be amazed that a populist voting cohort in this country sees as its savior the epitome of East Coast Elite, and believe that they’re going to be saved by a man who continually laughs at them and takes their money, giving back nothing but bombastic rhetoric and false promises.

[Alphus and Omegus]

… as Majorie Taylor Greene just found out after buying into Trump's SPAC at the top, lol.

If there’s one consistent thing about Trumpworld, it’s that it is teeming with grifters.

I don’t think that I’ll ever not be amazed that a populist voting cohort in this country sees as its savior the epitome of East Coast Elite, and believe that they’re going to be saved by a man who continually laughs at them and takes their money, giving back nothing but bombastic rhetoric and false promises.

They know Trump's background. What makes them like him is that he marketed himself as a sort of "class traitor." The way it works, he is an "elite" who fights for them.