Tucker Carlson’s Great Replacement Theory
Tucker Carlson knows what he鈥檚 doing.
He thinks people are stupid.
He frequently speaks in ways that racists can make use of his frequent rants for their purposes.
Then he expresses surprise that anybody would blame him for actions those racists took.
He now cleverly claims that he doesn鈥檛 even know what the term 鈥淕reat Replacement Theory鈥� is.
He鈥檚 lying.
He knows exactly what it is.
Last September, Matt Gaetz, that flame-throwing congressman from Florida once tweeted, 鈥淍TuckerCarlson is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening in America.鈥�
For Carlson and white supremacists, there are just too many non-white people attempting to grab a share of this Democracy.
And if they do, they theorize, those people will most certainly replace them.
That means immigrants, as well as Black and brown Americans 鈥� with the assistance of Jewish Americans 鈥撀� are crowding out white Americans.
I鈥檓 Black.
In case you didn鈥檛 know it, that means I鈥檓 supposedly 鈥渞eplacing鈥� some 73-year-old white guy, who would make this country a lot better if I wasn鈥檛 here.
I鈥檝e left before. (Vietnam)
I am not leaving again.
This 鈥淕reat Replacement Theory鈥� stuff is a sick philosophy that first surfaced in the media in August of 2017, during that deadly 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally in Charlottesville, Va. That鈥檚 when white supremacists proudly walked through the streets carrying burning tiki torches, chanting, 鈥淛ews will not replace us.鈥�
Of course, it didn鈥檛 stop there.
Americans awakened a little over a week ago and learned that an 18-year-old avowed racist had taken his cowardice to Buffalo, N.Y. 鈥� where he acted on it.
Not surprisingly, it was later revealed that he, too, knew all about the 鈥淕reat Replacement Theory.鈥�
That he鈥檇 used part of it as the basis for killing as many Black people as he could.
America never seems to run out of these kinds of people.
Thanks, in part, to them taking their cues from the Tucker Carlsons of the world.
Carlson should be ashamed of himself.
He鈥檚 not.
These days, his goal is to make more money 鈥� and to gather as many devotees as possible.
Fox News鈥� most popular host (3陆 million viewers or so a night) has fanned the flames of racial hatred on his show for years.
He鈥檚 skillful enough to cloak his message in the familiar codes that white supremacists use to communicate with each other.
鈥淭his is a voting rights question. I have less political power because they鈥檙e importing a brand-new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that?鈥� he asked during one of his famous Fox News diatribes.
It didn鈥檛 take long for many people in the media to point their fingers directly at Carlson, because of his apparent hate speech, cloaked in code words, for helping to provide a platform for white supremacy.
The day after the tragedy, Carlson appeared on Fox News, ready to throw the focus off of himself, and onto anybody but him.
He ran a series of video clips with people decrying hate speech.
Then, he went on the attack.
鈥淪o, what is hate speech? Well, it鈥檚 speech that our leaders hate,鈥� he surmised.
He left out the most important part. The one about how hate speech inspires racist vigilantes to slaughter innocent people.
He may disregard the fingers being pointed at him. And he foolishly denies his role in advancing the 鈥淕reat Replacement Theory.鈥�
So much so, that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer devoted a floor speech to Carlson鈥檚 antics the day following the Buffalo mass murders.
鈥淭ucker Carlson has spewed rhetoric that echoes replacement theory 400 times on his show since 2016,鈥� Schumer said.
And he went further. He sent a letter to the chairman of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, asking him to 鈥渋mmediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called 鈥楪reat Replacement theory'鈥� on his network鈥檚 shows.
It鈥檚 worth noting that when Carlson and those other Fox News hosts imply that immigrants are 鈥渞eplacing鈥� Americans, they could be talking about their boss 鈥� Murdoch 鈥� who鈥檚 an immigrant himself.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.