Tucker Derangement Syndrome

The "Never Trumpers" in the GOP are at it again, displaying clear signs of TDS. Not "Trump Derangement Syndrome" but "Tucker Derangement Syndrome" as they dog pile on Tucker Carlson for interviewing Nick Fuentes. 

    Lately the sources I go to for news and conservative thought have been inundated with op-eds, comments, and articles telling me that Carlson is a bad man or delivering up some absurd non sequitur. Some examples:

• "MAGA turns on Tucker Carlson as ex-Fox News anchor hosts his most controversial guest ever"--Daily Mail. 
• "The sane right draws the line on Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes’ bile"--New Post Editorial Board. 
• "Tucker Carlson aims to poison us with hatred — but Donald Trump stands in the way"--New York Post.  
• "Mark Levin Slams Tucker Carlson: 'If You're a Jew Hater, You're a Christian Hater'"--Newsmax.
• "Ben Shapiro blasts ‘intellectual coward’ Tucker Carlson amid staff shakeup at Heritage"--Politico. 
• "Ben Shapiro blasts ‘dishonest’ Tucker Carlson for ‘normalizing Nazism’ by hosting white nationalist Nick Fuentes"--New York Post. 
• "Conspiracy kook Tucker Carlson is no conservative and no friend to Charlie Kirk and JD Vance" by Douglas Murray.

The message is clear: if you watch Tucker Carlson, you are insane, hateful, antisemitic, a National Socialist, and a kook, but definitely not a conservative or a Christian. 

    First up, the idea that merely by interviewing Fuentes, Carlson is endorsing Fuentes or Fuentes' views is a ridiculous argument that only an idiot would make. 60 Minutes recently ran an interview of President Trump, but no one would believe that by doing so 60 Minutes or CBS News was endorsing Trump or the MAGA movement or trying to give Trump a platform. Carlson interviews people--people he likes, people he doesn't like--because they are newsworthy in some way or another. Does he seem friendly, open, or even offer some praise to people he interviews? Probably since that is a classic technique to get people to open up. 

    Second, at least in my case, this Tucker Carlson issue has become an example of the Streisand Effect--by attacking Carlson the Never Trumpers have merely drawn more attention to Carlson and his interview of Fuentes. In my case, while I used to watch Carlson's opening monologues when he was on Fox, after he was fired--I think it was because of his introducing the J6 fraud to a wider audience--I just didn't bother trying to track down his videos and hadn't really paid much attention to him for years. But the attention paid to Carlson over this interview convinced me to watch the interview to see what all the hubbub was about. 

    And as for Fuentes, I had come across his name but really didn't know anything about him or his political views. In fact, I thought he was one of a kind with Ben Shapiro, although it appears that my information was woefully out of date. 

    So I sat down this last weekend and watched all two hours and nineteen minutes of Carlson's interview with Fuentes (you can find the video here but I've also embedded it below). My impression is that most of the people criticizing Carlson had not watched the interview and/or had other motives for criticizing Carlson. If you don't want to take time to watch the video, let me summarize it quickly for you: it is an interview of Fuentes focusing on how he got started in conservative media, how things went sideways and certain conservative leaders and pundits started singling him out and attacking him, and how he has reacted and changed as a result. Some of the main points:

•  Fuentes' introduction to conservatism and the basic belief that led him to the conservative movement was "America First" and it showed in his strong support for Trump even before Trump looked to be a serious contender for President.
• At one time, Fuentes was identified and mentored as a rising star among the conservative media, including being given a little show on some small platform. 
• His rising star among the main stream conservative outlets started going sideways because (a) his conservatism was premised on "America First" rather than on economic theories and (b) he started voicing his belief that it was impossible to conserve American culture without conserving America's demographics. 
• This began his being labeled as a "white supremacist" and as the labels were applied--as his livelihood was attacked from certain quarters--he appears to have become the type of person his attackers were saying he was.

     While there were a few points they agreed upon, I did not believe that Carlson agreed with Fuentes on most things. Carlson certainly had sympathy with Fuentes's being attacked by former friends and supporters as that had happened to Carlson in his career, but Carlson also tried various tacks of suggesting that Fuentes should moderate his positions and not be so aggressive in attacking his critics.

    And the points they seemed to agree on were very limited. Basically, they agreed on an "America First" stance on politics, trade, etc. Second, they were both opposed to the idea and practice of many politicians to unquestionably leap to Israel's defense and follow Israel's lead even when it did not advance American interests. And, third, they both seemed opposed to those that maintained duel loyalties to the U.S. and another country. There is nothing I saw in the interview that suggested to me that Carlson was a socialist, and he is very open about his Christianity, so to suggest that he is a "Nazi" is stupid and ignorant. 

    I see that there is some criticism that Carlson did not more aggressively question Fuentes on a few issues--for instance, Fuentes at one point said he admired Stalin but Carlson didn't follow up on it immediately and didn't circle back to it later. Fuentes comes across as somewhat of a "shock jock" that makes comments intended to shock or outrage someone and I suspect that Carlson saw that and decided against taking the bait.  

    In any event, the video of the interview is below if you want to watch it. And farther below is a short video where Carlson explains why he decided to interview Fuentes. 

VIDEO: "Tucker Carlson Interviews Nick Fuentes"
Tucker Carlson (2 hours 19 min.)

 VIDEO: "Why Tucker Interviewed Nick Fuentes"
Tucker Carlson Network (9 min.)