Tucker Carlson and The Deep Lie
No, conservatives are not being "muzzled."
The Trump era has introduced us to the concepts of the āDeep State,ā and āFake News.ā
But perhaps itās time to introduce something new: The Deep Lie.
The Deep Lie needs to be distinguished from the cascade of other lies ā about everything from inauguration crowd sizes to the state of the pandemic ā that flowed from the White House and numbed our sensibilities.
The Deep Lie is also subtly different from the usual understanding of the Big Lie, which was so brazen and ācolossal" ā as Hitler explained ā that the public wouldnāt believe that anyone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".
The Deep Lie is also ācolossal,ā but it does not merely mislead ā it is a lie so deeply embedded in the media and political ecosystem that it distorts reality and shapes our political world. It is immune to evidence, to logic, or new information, and it is endlessly recycled until its shatters our sense of sanity.
It works this way. The lie (any lie) begins in the fever swampā>social media ā> Fox News/talkradio ā> goes viral ā> achieves critical mass ā> politicians begin to āask questionsā because āpeople are sayingā ā> dominates political debateā¦.and the loop continues until the lie shatters our polity.
Weāve seen the consequences. Dead cops, a Capitol under siege, and millions of Americans locked into a false narrative about the election.
But Trumpās lie about the election is only one aspect of the larger and deeper pattern that Hannah Arendt described as the āannihilation of truth.ā
For Deep Lies to spread, it is not necessary to advance the Deep Lie oneself; all thatās necessary is to attack its critics.
And Tucker Carlson is there for it.
The other night, the highly rated Fox News host complained that āstupid peopleā want to eliminate Fox News.
āTheyāre not arguing that Fox News is inaccurate and dishonest and you shouldnāt watch it,ā he insisted, āthey are arguing that you shouldnāt be able to watch Fox News because Fox should be eliminated by force.ā
Actually, thatās not true. The critics are, in fact, arguing that Fox News is often both āinaccurate and dishonestāāa vector of lies both Big and Deep.
But Carlson wonāt let such details get in the way of his dominant narrative that conservatives are being silenced, muzzled, censored, and āeliminated.ā
Tuckerās whine has been taken up by the snowflakes of the right.
As Axiosās Mike Allen observes: "āSilencingā will be to the modern Republican Party what big government was in the '90sāan all-purpose target designed to inflame feelings of victimhood.ā
So we get this bit of victimist cosplay from Josh Hawley.
Which brings us back to Tucker, who could have used his platform to try to cut out the cancerous growths on the right. Instead, he has gone all-in to defend the dissemination of falsehoods, including QAnon.
The acolytes of the conspiracy theory believe many things, including that Trump is at war with a vast ring of Deep State satanic pedophiles who occasionally kidnap, torture, and kill babies, cannibalize them, and drink their blood. Some (including a sitting member of Congress) believe that āHillary Clinton and former Clinton aide Huma Abedin were filmed ripping off a childās face and wearing it as a mask before drinking the childās blood in a Satanic ritual sacrifice.ā
You can find more background about Q here. The FBI has declared the group a domestic terrorism threat.
āThe FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.ā
One Democratic congresswoman has proposed legislation to bar QAnonists from holding federal security clearances. This seems . . . reasonable?
Othersāincluding Republicansāhave warned about the dangers of spreading deadly falsehoods. Because truth, facts, reality, and basic decency.
But Tucker isnāt having it. Here he is his monologue from earlier this week:
Listen as the geniuses explain how the single biggest threat to this country isn't Chinese hegemony or even the coming hyperinflation, pretty much a certainty now, which was 100 percent caused by elite mismanagement of our economy. But no let's not talk about that. The real threat is a forbidden idea. It's something called QAnon.
Tucker then played clips of folks talking about the dangers of the conspiracy theories, including a brief soundbite from columnist Tom Friedman, who called the cultās bizarre notions, āfrightening.ā This triggered Tuckerās mockery:
Ooh, Mr. Tom Friedman thinks this is all pretty frightening. And heās right, but not, as usual, for the reason he thinks. Weāre watching a profound change taking place in American society and itās happening very fast. The stakes could not be higher. Thereās a clear line between democracy and tyranny, between self-government and dictatorship. And hereās what that line is. That line is your conscience. They cannot cross that. Government has every right to tell you what to do.
No democratic government can ever tell you what to think. Your mind belongs to you. It is yours and yours alone.
Here we begin to plumb the depths of the dishonesty that Tucker Carlson is marshaling to defend the Deep Lie.
Once politicians attempt to control what you believe, they are no longer politicians. They are by definition dictators. And if they succeed in controlling what you believe you are no longer a citizen, you are not a free man, you are a slave.
But this is rank bullshit. None of the clips Carlson plays here say anything about the government coming to tell you what to believe. He is conflating questions about what is true or not true with accusations of government censorship.
At some level, Carlson knows this is transparent demagoguery. He knows there is no push to have government tell people what to think. He knows there are no jack-booted woke thugs coming to force you to stop believing in Pizzagate.
Conservatives used to understand the distinction between government action and private choice. Private companies have the absolute right to decide what they will and will not publish.
Company X (Twitter, Facebook, Fox) should no more be compelled to carry deceptive content than any other business should be required to bake certain kinds of cakes or take certain kinds of pictures.
Here is why this matters: Carlson is creating a climate on the right where any attempt to question the truth or falsity of these batshit claims is now somehow an act of āsilencing.ā
In Tuckerās disingenuous new world, fact-checking, exposing fraud, calling out dishonesty, conspiracy theories, or overt racism are all forms of āsilencing.ā If you try to block deadly misinformation you are attacking freedom of thought. If you refuse to carry bigots, or try to hold trolls accountable, he cries censorship and slavery.
Tucker also knows that āconservativesā are not being muzzled. You can tell, because they are still . . . everywhere. They are on network television, host cable shows, have vast networks of radio shows, and remain ubiquitous on social media.
Tucker Carlson has his own Deep Lie: The ācancel culture,ā wants to destroy you all. You are all victims. The fight over truth is just a cover for the move to exterminate everyone like you.
In other words:
The enemy is not The Lie. The enemy is the person telling you that it is a Lie.
It will probably be good for ratings.
Former President Donald Trump will never admit that he lost a fair election, but every elected Republican ought to be telling voters that as a step toward bringing the country together, Sen. Mitt Romney said Tuesday.
In addition to social media perpetuating the ābig lieā that Trump is somehow still president and President Joe Biden stole the election, GOP officials, too, are contributing to that notion, the Utah Republican said.
āYou have many of the Trump supporters in elected office, senators, congresspeople, governors, continuing to say the same thing, that the election was stolen,ā Romney said.
But, he said, what they should tell people is that the Trump campaign āhad a chance to take their message to the courts, the courts laughed them out of court. Iāve seen no evidence that suggests that there was widespread voter fraud.ā
What do you do with a problem like Marjorie?
Republicans knew they had a Marjorie Taylor Greene problem back in the summer of 2020 when she was running for Congress. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) called the QAnon supporterās comments about Black people and Muslims ādisgusting,ā while a spokesman for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called them āappalling.ā Scalise backed her primary opponent.
Then she won, and Republicans tried to put a good face on it ā even falsely claiming she had disavowed QAnon and suggesting the country should move on.
That posture is looking increasingly untenable.
Well, maybe.
Bonus: Who is more likely to be purged: Liz Cheney or MTG?
Profile in courage. ICYMI: great profile of GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger.
One thing to understand about Adam Kinzinger is that he knows how this will end.
āThe only hope you have is to accept the fact that youāre already dead,ā the Republican congressman from Illinois says. He is quoting a scene from the World War II series āBand of Brothersā in which an officer dresses down a soldier who hid from battle. The officer continues: āAnd the sooner you accept that, the sooner youāll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function.ā
Kinzinger, who is also a pilot with the Air National Guard, took those words as an order.
His embrace of this fatalistic credo made it easier for him to fly planes into enemy territory during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. It made it easier for him to object late last year as President Donald Trump and some of his congressional colleagues amplified the myth of a āriggedā election, stoking violent revenge fantasies among the partyās politically valuable give-me-MAGA-or-give-me-death contingent. And it made it easier for Kinzinger, a young, square-jawed Republican with his whole political life ahead of him, to vote to impeach Trump in the aftermath of the failed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Join us for a livestream conversation tonight, exclusively for members of Bulwark+.
Cheap Shots
Swamp drained.
Jeffrey Toobin has some thoughts about this.
Deep Thoughts
GOP senators need to repudiate Trump.
Yet 45 Republican senators voted against taking up the impeachment trial Tuesday. Some want to spend as little time thinking and talking about Trump as possible, but many are still in thrall to his base. Twenty Republican-held Senate seats will be contested in two years, and the current occupants no doubt fear primary challengers from the MAGA right if they show any sign of breaking with Trump. What's less clear is why, given their rhetoric and behavior over the last four years, they think the country would be any worse off with Trump sycophants in their seats.
Thanks to the impeachment process they've been gifted by the Democrats, Senate Republicans have one last chance to break with Trump and the conspiracist authoritarianism he represents. Their opening move Tuesday was a weak one, but they still have time for a course correction when the vote on conviction takes place next month. If they won't do it for the country, they should at least do it to save their place in the party.
